Will Valentino Rossi beat the Spaniards in 2016 Motogp?

Originally posted by JoNeo:
Heard on the radio Lorenzo won on the weekend

Originally posted by jrg:
what?

Originally posted by Goatie:
Lorenzo won convincingly but Rossi matched his lap times. The problem is for Lorenzo is he has signed to Ducati for next year so I doubt he will be getting development bits for his bike as the season rolls on. Rossi will get all the good development bits,

Marquez crashed out and lost his championship lead. There are 12 points between the top 3 now

Originally posted by 220s:

Originally posted by Goatie:
Lorenzo won convincingly but Rossi matched his lap times. The problem is for Lorenzo is he has signed to Ducati for next year so I doubt he will be getting development bits for his bike as the season rolls on. Rossi will get all the good development bits,

Marquez crashed out and lost his championship lead. There are 12 points between the top 3 now

Might get to see how good a ridder Lorenzo is next year.
A move to Ducati, has stalled just about everyone careers apart from Stoner, some very big names have gone before him and produced next to nothing in the way of results.

Originally posted by Goatie:
True but the Ducati does seem to be going much better this year aside from a few notable rider errors

Originally posted by 220s:

Originally posted by Goatie:
True but the Ducati does seem to be going much better this year aside from a few notable rider errors

Might be a bit to do with the bloke they signed as a test rider, from memory he won 23 races and put it on the podium another 17 times over 4 seasons while sitting on a ducati.
To put that into perspective Checa, Gibernau, Malandri, Hayden & Rossi in a combined 10 seasons managed 8 podiums without a single win

Originally posted by Goatie:
No doubt Stoner would have helped. Strange boy quitting in the middle of his career but I get the fact he has a child and would probably want to minimise the risk of not being around while she grew up.

I also think Audi taking over Ducati would have helped significantly as the box heads are a little bit more practical then the Italians who dream on a bit and don't want to let go of their sacred cow ideas, that aren't working.

Add Bayliss to the list of riders who had a crack on the Ducati as well.

Originally posted by 220s:

Originally posted by Goatie:
No doubt Stoner would have helped. Strange boy quitting in the middle of his career but I get the fact he has a child and would probably want to minimise the risk of not being around while she grew up.

I also think Audi taking over Ducati would have helped significantly as the box heads are a little bit more practical then the Italians who dream on a bit and don't want to let go of their sacred cow ideas, that aren't working.

Add Bayliss to the list of riders who had a crack on the Ducati as well.

I left Bayliss and Capirossi of the list deliberately, both won MotoGP races for Ducati (the only riders apart from Stoner) The Bayliss win is one of my all time favourites, a cameo ride after being out of MotoGP for 2 years and giving them another WSBK tittle. Rossi and Hayden fighting for the championship in the last race of the year and Bayliss just blows them all away and rides off into the distance, still have a recording of it here somewhere.