Valencia, Spain | MotoGP 2009 (Spoilers!)

So they run a lap to warm tires, pull the tires off that bike and...
Stand the bike on the grid, pull tires off, replace with warmed tires and then throw warmers on them.
Got it.
WTF did he run out of gas in a bunch of races or something?

 

Seems like there have been quite a few times this year after a race that I think,damn, Spies plan worked to perfection. Awesome racecraft is another thing he has deep in his pocket. I wonder if Mladin gets any satisfaction out of seeing him do so well or at least sent a congratulations his way after winning the title.

 

What was really impressive as well is that once again Rossi's team was able to come up with some tweaks Saturday night that brought his bike back around for him on Sunday. He was NOT happy after qualifying and during qualifying the commentators were saying that they had never before seen so many changes being made to Rossi's bike during the session.

 

I'm amazed there wasn't more crashes that weekend. It was cold as shit (by Spanish standards) and the wind was blowing dirt all over the place. Cross winds must have been a pain as well. Cold, dirty tracks are not happy places for tires.

I'm sure this is why it took Spies so long to get up to pace. Did see a little article highlight in the Spanish paper about Spies. I gotta translate it someday, interested to see what it says. I'm sure he earned some respect that day.

 

Go Spies

 

Go Spies! And I also want to thank -jim for all the motogp coverage he's provided all year long!

 

Stoner spoke about the crash, he said he had no idea what happened, telemetry showed nothing, and he said he barely opened the throttle. He said he opened it like 2 percent

 

Doesn't seem possible.
When watching the Eurosport coverage (i.e. no commercials), there never seems to be enough time to swap tires (or even bikes) after the sighting lap. They finish their lap, and pull right up to their starting position. Within maybe 20 seconds, the lights go out.

 

They are talking about the sighting or 'parade' lap that is done when they first leave the garage. There is then about 20 min of them sitting on the grid before the warm-up lap and the race.