Sepang - Moto Matters

Thats a great piece of writing. I even managed to read it, big words and all.....

 

Present day MotoGP, like other professional sports, has got blandified by excessive managing. Everything gets handled by anxious agents, press officers, team managers, bureaucratic governing bodies, terrified sponsors, by rules and threats and bans and fines. The environment is dehumanised, stifling, and judgmental. Participants are reduced to gagged characterless robots and aliens.

Last weekend is therefore immensely cheering. Several riders, officials, journalists, and sponsors have said what they wanted to say, and done what they wanted to do. Their characters have become more exposed now than they have done for years. Unpredictability has increased. Guys are going wildly off-message. MotoGP has suddenly - and rather unexpectedly - got interesting. Everybody's talking, everybody has sharply different opinions.

Isn't it great? Just what the doctor ordered.

 

a pitiful end to a great season and a very hollow title for Lorenzo

 

its not over yet and can still be a classic year,,, cmon Rossi

 

its been exciting/interesting all season from where ive been sat

this is just the icing on the cake

 

I can't help thinking how much more fun it would be with Simoncelli involved. There'd be Spaniards being skittled everywhere

 

i would think Rossi knew very well that there was not a gaggle of riders on their tail,,,not a comparable situation at all

 

VR did not skittle MM. He pushed him wide, which was actionable, for sure. But as VR then turned to go, point being made, forks unloading, MM accelerated into the side of VR to make his own reciprocal point; his helmet knocks VR's leg off the pegs; they tangle, and being on the outside, MM goes down. I'm not condoning VR, but the notion that he took MM down is not right. An awful lot of people who jumped to that conclusion (certainly not helped by BT Sport's abysmal analysis in the immediate aftermath) have changed their view on closer inspection.

Veteran MotoGP analyst Michael Scott:

'In the aftermath, opinion was turned against Rossi with all the usual eagerness that prevails when somebody exalted is being knocked off their pedestal – all egged on when rival riders had their gleefully condemnatory say, without having really examined the evidence. The halo had slipped. The hero was an unsportsmanlike villain.

Trouble is, of the two stories, the more you analyse them, and the more you look at the footage, it is actually Rossi’s version that is more plausible. He did wrong, yes … but not that wrong.

I have a feeling that in the fullness of time, not only will he be forgiven, but Marquez’s reputation will suffer from more detailed scrutiny.'

Did he dive, or was he kicked? | MCN

 

good post

 

Hang on hang on. You're using this to tell us Rossi stepped over the line. I'm not suggesting I'd want anyone hurt here but if you've got spaniards ganging up on an Italian (as has been suggested) wouldn't it be fun to have to odds evened up a little? Who wouldn't want to see Rossi and Simoncelli riding hard against Lorenzo and Marquez in the last GP on the season for the championship?

 

Pretty good and balanced article.

Doesnt matter what anyone thinks, marquez has always been a dirty racer happy to knock people off, and doesnt restrict that to when it counts (last turn, last lap). Nothing new to see

Not saying he aims to do it, just doesn't consider it and its not a concern

Thats not hard passing, its dangerous riding. Simo had his moments, Rossi had his moments, reckon Marquez alone has more than all combined

 

Are you suggesting that MM who stepped over the line and was playing rather than outright racing should have been punished ??