Kropotkin’s 2008 MotoGP Shanghai Race Report
[by Kropotkin]May 4th, 2008Resurrection
Throughout the first three races of the 2008 MotoGP season, all the talk has been of the newcomers to the class. And rightly so, as Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso, James Toseland and Alex de Angelis have all made an impact on MotoGP, to a greater or lesser extent. Lorenzo taking three poles in his first three races, and his first win at just the third attempt; Dovizioso punching way above the weight of his underpowered satellite Honda RC212V; Toseland proving that World Superbikes is still a viable entry route into MotoGP by finishing in the top 7 in the first three races of the year; even de Angelis has impressed the public, by pushing his Honda right to the limit, and rather too often, well over it, and into the gravel.
As exciting as this development has been for the fans, it has meant that the attention the established names in MotoGP are getting is a good deal less than they are either accustomed to or care for, and what attention they do get has been of entirely the wrong kind. Nothing flatters the ego more than to be asked your opinion by journalists, but nothing deflates it more than to be asked your opinion of why other riders are doing better than you by those same pressmen. For MotoGP stars used to being the main attraction, this is a bitter pill to swallow.
The trouble is, those same stars have no one to blame but themselves. Valentino Rossi forced a switch from Michelin to Bridgestone tires at the end of 2007, and since then, has struggled to learn his way round the new tires. After being dumped unceremoniously from his ride at Ducati, Loris Capirossi swore revenge aboard the Rizla Suzuki, but finds himself finishing in much the same position as he did on the Ducati GP7. Far from challenging the world champion on equal machinery, Marco Melandri, the man who replaced Capirex at Ducati, has been almost entirely faceless. And only relative newcomer Dani Pedrosa seems able to make the Honda competitive.
Move On
MotoGP’s Old Guard is suddenly looking very jaded indeed. There is talk of a wholesale shakeup, with suggestions that Valentino Rossi may be past his prime, that Honda has lost its way, that riders like Toni Elias and John Hopkins, who have shown such promise in the past, are only as good as their results, and no more. And there are widespread rumors that Marco Melandri could be heading for an early split with Ducati, perhaps even to retire.
Such talk eventually begins to grate on MotoGP veterans, and as practice progressed for the Shanghai round of MotoGP, they showed signs of reasserting their authority. The names at the top of the timesheets during practice had a much more familiar ring, and the revenge of the veterans was made complete when the old stalwart Colin Edwards put in a scorching lap in the dying seconds of qualifying to take pole, shattering Valentino Rossi’s previous pole record by 3/10ths of a second. Less prominent, but just as remarkable, was the return to form of Marco Melandri and Toni Elias. No longer loitering at the very bottom of the timesheets, the two Ducati men had suddenly made a huge step forward, and moved much further up the field.
The Old Guard’s resurgence was not all of their own making. On Friday, Jorge Lorenzo had suffered probably the biggest highside seen at a racetrack since the demise of the 500cc two strokes, chipping a bone in his ankle and fracturing bones in both feet. It was a testament to Lorenzo’s courage that he rode at all on Saturday, but the measure of Lorenzo was managing to grab 4th on the grid, despite nearly falling in another spectacular incident, his Yamaha M1 bucking and weaving wildly, throwing the Spaniard up into the air before the bike regained its composure. The way he slammed down onto the tank brought tears to the eye of every man in the paddock, and quite a few of the women too.


