MotoGP - Assen

Four days and another new round for the MotoGP circus.

I know its the cynic in me coming out, and probably my personal biases, but the comments following the Donnington round were funny, but mostly around Ducati talking up Stoner.

"I think that this victory proves once and for all that top speed isn't Casey's advantage, because top speed means nothing at this track, especially in these conditions," said Suppo.

While it is true that maximal top speed is not absolutely important, it still plays a part, especially when the track is damp enough to make maximal corner speeds limited. Stoners Ducati was the fastest in a staight line, as it has been in multiple tracks this year. To deny this is somewhat disingenuous to the performance of the bike. Edwards, and Rossi, both make up their performances on corners, where the wet weather limits their speed more than it does in a straight line.

The Ducati is a fantastic bike, and Stoner is a fantastic rider, but at this level, when there are tiny margins separating the top 10 laptimes, 10kmh makes all of the difference, and not just to the top end speed, but the way the Ducati gets there. If you have two equal quality riders, and one has a faster bike, it's pretty easy to guess who will win.

This is the same criticism given to Doohan on the NSR500, and then to Rossi when he hopped on the Honda NSR500, and RC211, but then Rossi sat on a Yamaha and still won. Would Casey do the same?

There was a quote from Colin that I was trying to find to finish this post off, but I cant, so I will find it later and finish with a shot of the Fiat 500 colourscheme used by Edwards and Rossi.