Round 4: Polini Grand Prix of China

Sunday, starting from the pole position Danny Pedrosa had a clear goal: destroy the competition. Who knows what he thought after the poor start that relegated him in 5th position at the end of the first lap while the Americans, Edwards and Hopkins were already trying to establish a gap from the rest of the group. My impression is that he didn’t want to take any chance of waiting too long and then being forced to recover at an unsustainable risky pace like in Turkey where in ended up crashing. Different race, different strategy: take the lead of the race and transform it in a competition against the time. If it worked in 250, it can work even in GP! Once Pedrosa passed Gibernau, he took him another 6 laps, or the first half of the race, to reach Hokpkins and Edwards. From that point on it was a matter of keeping an eye on the board displayed by his team at the finish line to maintain Hayden at a safe distance. The Kentuky kid spent the whole race chasing the Spaniard and when in the last few laps he tried to escalate the pace, Pedrosa went even faster in the following lap, to the point to set his best time right at the end of the race. Hayden was unuasually smooth going into the turns, but not enough to match Pedrosa’s corner speed.



The petit ex 250 world champion is definetely experiencing an advantage on the brakes, but size doesn’t matter when is compensated by skills. My claim is proved by Rossi’s performance.


A faulty bike and a lousy qualifying session put him in 13th place at the start of the race. A lot of credit to the Reigning Champion: his perfomance was absolutely astonishing. When he had to abandon the race because of a huge hole on his front Michelin tire he was in 5th position ready to attack Hopkins and Edwards for a podium finish. Now the situation with the M1 and the Michelin is at least embarassing. The Tavullia Champion has been doing miracles with the “package” offered to him, but for how long can he sustain this situation before cracking mentally?
A clap to Stoner! Not only crashed during the practice and the warm up: he run off in the grass during the race and he was still able at the end of the day he conquer a solid 5th place.
A boo to Melandri! That fight on the brakes with Valentino at the beginning of the race was unnecessary UNLESS he was obeying like a soldier to the “HONDA’s orders”.

Picture #1: source
Picture #2: source