2017 MotoGP Discussion Thread *SPOILERS*

Some good races last night, MIr dominated again in Moto 3 and Morbidelli again in Moto 2. I was hoping Luthi and Oli could get past Marquez, but it wasn't to be, still, some exciting racing there.

Moto GP last corner WOW! Dovi did well to beat Marquez to the line there! A fantastic duel between those two.

As for Aprilia, it seems they were talking to everyone well before they announced their dumping of Sam. It has left a few riders not respecting the brand which is surprising, Cal didn't hold back in what he thought! If Redding can't deliver, he will be out pretty quick you'd imagine......
 
While very exciting, and last corner on last lap, blah blah blah.... shouldn't Marq be penalized for unnecessary aggressive riding or something? That move of his was reckless and inches away from disaster for both of them....

That was the Marq we saw a few years ago who did anything for a win..... totally not needed, Dovi beat him and that was just a last ditch attempt to try and crash dovi out.

That said I am super happy Dovi pulled off the win.
 
While very exciting, and last corner on last lap, blah blah blah.... shouldn't Marq be penalized for unnecessary aggressive riding or something? That move of his was reckless and inches away from disaster for both of them....

That was the Marq we saw a few years ago who did anything for a win..... totally not needed, Dovi beat him and that was just a last ditch attempt to try and crash dovi out.

That said I am super happy Dovi pulled off the win.

If it was any other lap (or corner) than the last, it would have been investigated. Mike Web (Race Direction) has said the last corner is expected to have last ditch passing efforts and that is why Valentino was/is never pinged for his outlandish manouvres (punting other riders into the gravel more than once). If they start now it will make the racing boring and fans will turn off. As Dovi said, he expected it and left the door open for him to dive in and run wide so he could get a better run to the line - it worked!
 
If it was any other lap (or corner) than the last, it would have been investigated. Mike Web (Race Direction) has said the last corner is expected to have last ditch passing efforts and that is why Valentino was/is never pinged for his outlandish manouvres (punting other riders into the gravel more than once). If they start now it will make the racing boring and fans will turn off. As Dovi said, he expected it and left the door open for him to dive in and run wide so he could get a better run to the line - it worked!

yeah, but there is a difference between a last ditch passing effort and what mark did IMO..... but I am not race direction....
 
The bar has been set, and Marc's pass was below some previous attempts (Dovi - Iannone). Heck the Rossi pass on Stoner down the corkscrew should have been an illegal pass as he went outside the racing line, but that was let go and then when Marc did it on Rossi they couldn't ping him for it. Now if you run slightly off the line on any part of the track your time is cancelled. If they ever go back to Laguna what will they do if someone straight lines the corkscrew again??? They will either get their time cancelled (if pre-race) or have to yield a position for getting an unfair advantage.

The guys in race direction have it tough, they're damned if they do or don't these days.

I see Marc's pass as a racing incident. It was aggressive, but they are both experienced riders and race to win. If it was any other corner you could possibly penalise him if Dovi went down, but not the last corner.
 
Fighting for 5 points against his closest championship rival in the last half of the season in the closest championship in history seems like a time to be reckless!
 
Fighting for 5 points against his closest championship rival in the last half of the season in the closest championship in history seems like a time to be reckless!

At that point Dovi was not yet the closest championship rival, Vinales was.

I am having this discussion on another site i frequent and thought this was a good response to my question of if MM deserves a penalty for his move:

Not that you asked me, but race direction has penalized people worse for less in the past, IMO.

Rossi starting from the back of the grid 2 years ago for the last race was pretty heavy handed, sure, he was riding "in a non racing manner" which caused MM to crash into him, but MM was looking right at him, don't ride into the thing that is directly in your way you dipshit!

In that instance MM clearly turned his motorcycle into Rossi's, block passing is totally legal, and defending "your line" is legal, Rossi wasn't quite doing either of those, but he wasn't being reckless either, which brings up the point that recklessness is seemingly ok? It's not me that will get broken off due to any of these on track actions, but I don't want to see anyone get hurt either.

MM and Dovi, MM was seeing the red mist, it wasn't a terrible move, but he was absolutely *this close* to clipping Dovi's front tire and taking him out, seems that "more than nothing" should happen to him for that...
 
At that point Dovi was not yet the closest championship rival, Vinales was.

But Vinales was in 6th place and not at all a threat. Dovi was in front of him. I really struggle to see what other people are seeing but I understand how people like Rossi or Marquez can be so polarising for the fans.
 
But Vinales was in 6th place and not at all a threat. Dovi was in front of him. I really struggle to see what other people are seeing but I understand how people like Rossi or Marquez can be so polarising for the fans.

Marquez did not know where Vinales was besides him being way behind him and not a threat to take the lead in the points. Mark is also not so naive as to believe that finishing second was going to take him off the top spot in the points. It would of been much worse for him in the championship if he was to take out himself and Dovi....

My speculation on the matter is he was hoping to take the off-line in an attempt to force Dovi off the track, it was very very aggressive. Mark has shown time and time again he is not a mature rider, for the first half of this season I had mistakenly thought he had grown out of that phase.....
 
The riders look at the screens and the timing tower so it's very likely that Marc knew where all his rivals were.

I think we'll agree to disagree on this particular pass attempt. If he torpedoes his rival at Silverstone, I'll be the first to call for a penalty but I'm inclined to agree with race direction on this one.
 
The riders look at the screens and the timing tower so it's very likely that Marc knew where all his rivals were.

I think we'll agree to disagree on this particular pass attempt. If he torpedoes his rival at Silverstone, I'll be the first to call for a penalty but I'm inclined to agree with race direction on this one.

I agree with Dustin, it was the last corner of the race. No-one crashed and the guy leading into the corner still finished first. Move along, nothing to see here.
 
Sounds like Nakagami has signed on with LCR Honda for 2018. Great news! I hope he does well -- it'll be great to see a Japanese rider on the grid again. Abraham rumoured to have signed another year deal with Aspar, too. I like Abraham so I'm happy to see him getting another shot at it.
 
Abraham is confirmed, also a rumor that KTM are tired of Smith and will swap his and Kalio's roles around - Smith to be a test rider and Kalio to be the racer.

Sam Lowes or Bradl are rumored to be heading to Marc VDS - announcement due this weekend.

Tito Rabat and Xavier Simeon are rumored to be close to a deal at Avintia to ride a GP16.
 
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