Round 3: Instabul Park Circuit - Turkey

“What a show (Che spettacolo)". This is the sentence printed on a shirt that Rossi had on right after a victory some time ago. Well, last Sunday we had to thank other riders for the show they put together in the gorgeous Turkish circuit. Melandri was the first one to pass under the checker flag but with him other people have won my heart and my mind. Let’s start from Melandri: his race was just perfect, saving the tires for a final where majestically out braked Stoner on the inside going into the final chicane . I am tempted to think that given the type of circuit he preferred to let Stoner to lead the last lap taking advantage of the draft and the objective difficulty in protecting the entrance of that critical turn .
The 21 year old Stoner, second at the end of the race, has won the helm of new star of the circuit. The Australian proved that the incredible performance was not accidental. The accident was instead losing this race after riding like a veteran. He knew the track and Melandri’s strategy so he pushed as much as he could to gain a couple of bikes on him going to the final hill, but his plan failed short with the complicity of a lack of extra speed versus Melandri. At this point everybody is betting on him being able to take Freddie Spencer’s record of youngest rider ever in winning a GP race.
Hayden’s third place has given him the lead of the MotoGP World Championship. A position built on 3 consecutives podium. His consistency will probably give him a new contract with Honda at the end of the year, but … with Pedrosa as first rider. His fans are going to hate me for this but I believe that Nicky has not built yet the skills to out bit consistently his competitors. Yes he is fast, but Sunday race, as others in the past, proved that when the bike starts sliding he goes back to his AMA days by backing out the bike and sliding in sideway to the entrance of the turn: technique spectacular to see but not efficient on GP because it seems to reduces too much the mid/exit turn speed. Also I notice his tendency to make out the gap accumulated at the exit of the turn with late-deep braking at the following turn with a compounding effect of the original problem. This is my modest opinion, but the time will tell if I was wrong.
4th place: Rossi. Valentino Sunday won the odds against him. Starting in 11th place he arrived very close to Hayden after overshooting a turn in lap 2 and wasting almost 3 seconds. With great focus and skills he was able to go back toward the front of the race and with a couple of other laps maybe he could have taken a podium position. Regardless he is only 12 points away from Hayden and still in position to win the championship. His ability to ride above the problems gives him the authority to criticize the chattering without becoming a whiner.
A round of applause to Elias, Vermuelen, Hopkins, Gibernau, Pedrosa, Capirossi and Nakano. Their final classification is not representative of their race performance but everything makes to think that they will be among the protagonists of this competitive championship.

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