Grand Prix of Qatar: Australian "canguru" wins on Italian red missile

In the first race of the season we could have had a final classification with riders stretched in longer time span if it wasn't for Rossi slowing down, somehow, the Australian rider on his new Italian missile. The Ducati was much faster than any other bike: in practice Stoner reached 324.7 km/h, much faster than Rossi’s 309.9 km/h and Pedrosa 317.9km/h. The red bike from Borgo Panicale has always been fast over the years, but the extra speed was seldom matched by appropriate stability and grip. Last year, after winning his first race with a bike sliding sideway in every turn of the circuit,Capirossi was compared to a red crab by his fans.
Last Saturday, instead, Casey Stoner looked outstanding on a bike that seemed solid, precise, reasonably quick in changing direction and … fast, very fast. On every lap he stormed Rossi on the front straight: it didn’t matter how many bikes of distance the Tavullia champion had on him at the exit of the last turn, because regardless, Stoner was able to pass his opponent in half straight and gain, maybe, another 70-90 ft by the end of the fornt stretch. Only because of Rossi’s immense talent and his desire to re-conquest the lost World Champion title, we were able to actually see some dicing in the infield. Indeed Rossi, strong of an impeccable Fiat-Yamaha was able to carry much more speed at the entrance of turn 1 so that at the exit of the same turn he was already back on the tail of the young Ducati rider. From there, during the race Rossi has launched his assalts passing the Australian youngster several times: on the brakes or on the outside of a turn leading to an opposite twist. Well, anytime Rossi has been able to pull in front the Ducati, his lead was then wiped out on the front long straight as if Stoner was still riding last year bike.

On the other end Pedrosa’s extra speed was not enough to challenge either Stoner or Rossi, but good enough to put him on the third step of the podium. In a few occasion it seemed that he had passed Rossi toward the end of the front straight but once on the brakes he could not match Valentino's higher entrance speed. As we have already noticed last year, it seems that Pedrosa is still not used to “Rossi’s confidence” when it comes to tight passing. Someone has claimed that Danny is still paying his easy years in 125cc and 250cc when he often won after passing his opponents and taking off to lead the race until the end. Conversely last Saturday he ended up suffering even Hopkin's pressure who, fighting the pain of the recent injuries and a poor performance in his last winter test, pulled out an incredible race for which he almost won a final third place.
There is not much to say about the rest of the riders, including the World Champion Nicky Hayden for his meager 8th place that looks even worse if we consider that two riders have crashed in front of him: Ceca and … Capirossi. Last year, Bayliss stole a secure victory from Capirossi and last Saturday his new teammate was doing it again. Maybe this situation was really bothering him, anyhow after a bad start due to a contact with another rider, Capirossi had unleashed the extra power of his bike to try to catch the front riders but unfortunately he low-sided when in 5th position. Was he pushing too much? Did he trail brake to much? Or was he exploring faster lines? In any case he wasted a secure podium and 16 points that could have been useful for the Championship especially now that the even the young Aussie is in the list of potential winners. As matter of the fact, Stoner has already displayed a cocky attitude: after being asked "... how does it feel to have a 7 time World Champion attached on your tail for the whole race?"... he said something very similar to “ …It was like to have anybody else behind”.


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