Austrian MotoGP *** SPOILER ALERT ***

[the Ferret]

Here we go......

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Everyone had clear ones except Lorenzo that. Saw, and his was gray and much bigger than everyone elses and actually looked part of a larger shell.

Winglets for the bikes are banned for next year. Announcers claimed somehow the winglets were making the Ducatis faster but in qualifying the top five riders were separated by a span of only .333 second, two Yamahas and two Ducatis and a Honda all crossing the line within 1/3 second.

So clearly the winglets, which add drag, were not a factor overall and have rightly been eliminated. Worth a try but chassis and ECU tuning are obviously working and are more in the spirit of a motorcycle race.

[the Ferret]

Wow those Ducatis are so fast down the straights. That goofy Lorenzo doing the head pound as he crosses the finish like like he won the race lol. I was hoping Val would get past him. Marquez did well considering....

Poor Dani ... I think he's lost it

Congrats to Ducati.

[DAC]

Good for Ducati. Wonder if they'll pull all the handicap rules off Honda and Yamaha now.

Otherwise, pretty boring race after the first few laps. Bad when there's more tension in the Moto3 race than MotoGP.

Edit: I see that Ducati lost its concessions at the start of this season. Good show Ducati.

[emptysea]

Everyone had clear ones except Lorenzo that. Saw, and his was gray and much bigger than everyone elses and actually looked part of a larger shell.

Winglets for the bikes are banned for next year. Announcers claimed somehow the winglets were making the Ducatis faster but in qualifying the top five riders were separated by a span of only .333 second, two Yamahas and two Ducatis and a Honda all crossing the line within 1/3 second.

So clearly the winglets, which add drag, were not a factor overall and have rightly been eliminated. Worth a try but chassis and ECU tuning are obviously working and are more in the spirit of a motorcycle race.

Winglets for the bikes are banned for next year. Announcers claimed somehow the winglets were making the Ducatis faster but in qualifying the top five riders were separated by a span of only .333 second, two Yamahas and two Ducatis and a Honda all crossing the line within 1/3 second.

So clearly the winglets, which add drag, were not a factor overall and have rightly been eliminated. Worth a try but chassis and ECU tuning are obviously working and are more in the spirit of a motorcycle race.
So this is truly a MotoGP **Spoiler Alert**

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Everyone had clear ones except Lorenzo that. Saw, and his was gray and much bigger than everyone elses and actually looked part of a larger shell.

Winglets for the bikes are banned for next year. Announcers claimed somehow the winglets were making the Ducatis faster but in qualifying the top five riders were separated by a span of only .333 second, two Yamahas and two Ducatis and a Honda all crossing the line within 1/3 second.

So clearly the winglets, which add drag, were not a factor overall and have rightly been eliminated. Worth a try but chassis and ECU tuning are obviously working and are more in the spirit of a motorcycle race.

Winglets for the bikes are banned for next year. Announcers claimed somehow the winglets were making the Ducatis faster but in qualifying the top five riders were separated by a span of only .333 second, two Yamahas and two Ducatis and a Honda all crossing the line within 1/3 second.

So clearly the winglets, which add drag, were not a factor overall and have rightly been eliminated. Worth a try but chassis and ECU tuning are obviously working and are more in the spirit of a motorcycle race.
So this is truly a MotoGP **Spoiler Alert**

Winglets for the bikes are banned for next year. Announcers claimed somehow the winglets were making the Ducatis faster but in qualifying the top five riders were separated by a span of only .333 second, two Yamahas and two Ducatis and a Honda all crossing the line within 1/3 second.

So clearly the winglets, which add drag, were not a factor overall and have rightly been eliminated. Worth a try but chassis and ECU tuning are obviously working and are more in the spirit of a motorcycle race.
So this is truly a MotoGP **Spoiler Alert** well done, sir
Another bit of interesting information was the disclosure that the bikes' ECUs' would automatically begin to cut power if the fuel level dropped below a certain value, in order to assure the bikes would finish the race.

That is something to ponder because the ECU program is certainly possible to change 'on the fly' or could be programmed to shift gradually based on a whole variety of parameters, such as miles/kms raced, tire temperature, position on the track per the GPS data, and so on.

It was very, very odd that the Ducatis began to pull away slowly in the last few laps. That is exactly the opposite of what one would expect, especially with Iannone running soft/medium. Normally the harder compounds run a bit slower early on, then as they heat up and wear, the grip is maintained better for the duration of the race.

Since the Yamahas qualified just as fast as the Ducatis, practically speaking, there's not a real power deficit, and in fact all four bikes were running nearly equal lap times for many laps. As the fuel burns off one would expect lap times to stabilize or even decrease but this didn't seem to happen on this particular track.

I really do have to wonder just what kind of progams are being used, and how this may have affected the performance of the Yamaha bikes. It was BOTH Lorenzo and Rossi that dropped back at an equal rate. Both bikes had an identical drop-off in performance at exactly the same point in the race?

There are some, I am sure, that would agree that in the past, this would look like team orders.

These days, team orders can be given wirelessly by a computer geek and the riders may have no idea why their bikes just got a smidgen slower...or perhaps the low fuel power reduction was not programmed accurately.

[redbirds_imp]

As usual the Moto3 race was a cracker, very exciting, aggressive passing and no certain winner until the finish line. Moto2 was a good one also. Zarco did a fine job working his way to the front. The other podium finishers put on a show at turn 10.

The Motogp race at least was not ridden in rain this time.

[Capo]

I have to give props to BeIn Sports. How cool is it that we finally get, in the US, 7+ hours over 2 days of motorbike qualifying and racing, with commentary, 'halftime' shows, great coverage and bonus rounds of Moto America and WSB throughout the season. Plus a dedicated stream on their site.

At one point on Saturday I was listening to the Ulster GP on BBC Northern Ireland, watching GP qualifying, and reading motorcycle magazines simultaneously. I think my wife left me midway through the day, I best check....

[the Ferret]

I have to give props to BeIn Sports. How cool is it that we finally get, in the US, 7+ hours over 2 days of motorbike qualifying and racing, with commentary, 'halftime' shows, great coverage and bonus rounds of Moto America and WSB throughout the season. Plus a dedicated stream on their site.

At one point on Saturday I was listening to the Ulster GP on BBC Northern Ireland, watching GP qualifying, and reading motorcycle magazines simultaneously. I think my wife left me midway through the day, I best check....