On lap 7 Lorenzo got beside Pedrosa and passed him on the front straight. He drafted him and passed him. So... now what?
Absolutely. There were laps where Lorenzo was about a second behind Pedrosa at the beginning of the straight and didn't lose any ground whatsoever. That was not drafting, that was motor. Credit to Yamaha, they got their shit down in the off-season. And with the new 33 Bridgestones giving front chatter to the Honda's rear chatter, Stoner and Pedrosa are going to be fighting more with the Tech 3 riders than with Lorenzo.
Really? Which team? Here's Ben's comments on the race, on the record. http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/180436/1/ben_spies_blew_it_while_trying_to_take_the_lead.html Roll on Silverstone!!
Just watched the first few laps again and despite the draft, couldn't see the Yamaha gain a foot running up behind the Honda on the straight. It looked like there were more than a few times that the Yamaha was going to ram the Honda from behind based on corner speed both at entry and mid corner, but I'll go back and check out lap 7 again! Like I said before, the facts really surprised me when I saw that the Hondas were at the bottom of the list...
http://superbikeplanet.com/2012/Jun/120604-99.htm Yamaha riders looking for more power to catch up with HRC and Ducati. Who would have thunk it.
No question about the mistake and Ben was clearly pushing. He was clearly being held up by Dani and I'm sure Ben knew Lorenzo would be coming forward. If he were to ahve a shot at winning the race, he had to get around Pedrosa and try to put some distance between he and his teammate. So he crashed trying to win the race. Cant blame him for his intentions. But another thought is what someone has previously said, maybe he should have been riding for a podium and focus on taking some points away from the Honduhs. That's the team stance and one to which Lorenzo paid lip service earlier. Based on that, i'll give him an out on this one albeit that this mistake had THE WORST timing given the season thus far. The reaction from his garage was unmistakable and reminded me of Nicky's garage following a series of mistakes at the end of his Honda tenure. We all know how that turned out for Nicky.