China's pole for Edwards was meaningless, he never had the race pace and freely admitted it. So far no one has been able to consistently match his pace on race tires at Le Mans.

his other poles were meaningless as well...

the only practice session he has led was FP3 where he turned 2 laps in the low 34's and then 4 laps in the high 33's... then went to a 38... 37... 48... 35

Rossi turned 4 laps in a row in the low-mid 34's... low 35... 4 more laps in the low 34's...

i would take Rossi's run... it tells me that Rossi can turn low 34's all day long (within reason) and the Life-Like-Colin-Doll can pull some laps out of his hat but can not maitain it without making big mistakes for any length of time... as per usual...

as much as it would be meaningless towards the season, i'd love to see him get the one win for his gp career.

garyb425 - 17 May 2008 10:50 AM

China's pole for Edwards was meaningless, he never had the race pace and freely admitted it. So far no one has been able to consistently match his pace on race tires at Le Mans.

I don't know. I just don't see him at the top spot. He's just too much of a choke artist if you ask me.

edwards had a nice 5 lap run in the qualifying session, which would indicate that he could actually compete for a win. however his history indicates that he lacks the something extra to actually close the deal.

hi-zoot - 17 May 2008 11:29 AM

as much as it would be meaningless towards the season, i'd love to see him get the one win for his gp career.

it would be nice-ish to see, but, only if he could do it without the "this is to all the haters" speech afterwards... other than that, it would be just fine... for whatever he has failed to do on race day, he has provided a valuable contribution to MotoGP...

Apologies to another forum where I stole this. FP3:

LJB-OSB - 17 May 2008 11:27 AM

the only practice session he has led was FP3 where he turned 2 laps in the low 34's and then 4 laps in the high 33's... then went to a 38... 37... 48... 35

Rossi turned 4 laps in a row in the low-mid 34's... low 35... 4 more laps in the low 34's...

i would take Rossi's run...

You missed after that 34.0, 33.9. What, to be competitive you have to lead FP1 and 2?

In no way am I saying he will win, but if you are saying a guy who's running half a second slower appears faster...I don't know where to go from there.

I looked at the results for the past few seasons and didn't realize that Melandri was at the top so much. As I feared and posted earlier this week, whatever it was that Melandri found, well he lost again. I don't see him doing anythign of note with the DUC. Seems to me if he werte gonna find something, it would have happened at more than one track so far.

Stoner has done well at that track so far in the big class too, and based on what I saw this morning, I wouldn't rule out a podium for him. If Dani gets away clean at the front, he may very well take it though.


SO from the numbers it looks like these guys have a chance for a podium: Pedro, Stoner, Rossi, Edwards (If he doesn't pull the same ole LLCD crap) Lorenzo & Hayden.

As good as Rossi has looked it is going to be hard to count him out of it, and just as hard to figure Lorenzo for a top three. I see him at 4th or 5th at race end (although I would love to see Stoner 1st Lorenzo 2nd.

I would expect Pedro, Stoner and Rossi to top the sheets at race end.

garyb425 - 17 May 2008 12:02 PM

You missed after that 34.0, 33.9. What, to be competitive you have to lead FP1 and 2?

In no way am I saying he will win, but if you are saying a guy who's running half a second slower appears faster...I don't know where to go from there.

what i am saying is that the laps in the middle that were 3-4 seconds off the pace (not even going to mention the one that was 14 seconds) are very indicative of the Life-Like-Colin-Dolls typical race... a few good laps, several crappy laps to put out of touch with whoever is close to the podium... a few more laps at the end that may or may not be close to the leaders lap times... next day discover some new riding style that will surely result in better race finish... wash rinse and repeat for as long as necessary...

hi-zoot - 17 May 2008 11:29 AM

as much as it would be meaningless towards the season, i'd love to see him get the one win for his gp career.

+1

As much as I'd like to see VR win again, it'd be nice to see Colin go out and win one. Just one and I think he could rest in peace. Let's hope for a dry race and see what happens.