Brno qual spoiler

A few surprises, mainly the 2 Hondas of Hayden and Pedrosa, they
obviously benefitted from a good Q tyre, it will be interesting to see
if that translates to race pace. But the fastest man all weekend
continues his form and Stoner gets the pole from Hayden and Pedrosa,
Hopkins 4th and Rossi finally making a last minute gasp and saved some
face by getting 6th.

As far as the race tomorrow, assumming the Stones have the endurance
it's Stoners to lose, Capex must be a prime podium contender too, very
hard to predict who else will be there at the end, Hoppers has been on
it all weekend but will the Suz have the endurance? If the Michelins
work then Pedrosa and Hayden and possibly Rossi could be on for 3rd
spot.

My call

Stoner
Capex
Hoppers

another Stones whitewash.

Paul

Paul B wrote:
> A few surprises, mainly the 2 Hondas of Hayden and Pedrosa, they
> obviously benefitted from a good Q tyre, it will be interesting to see
> if that translates to race pace. But the fastest man all weekend
> continues his form and Stoner gets the pole from Hayden and Pedrosa,
> Hopkins 4th and Rossi finally making a last minute gasp and saved some
> face by getting 6th.

It's interesting how Hayden and Pedrosa have seemed to be glued together
this weekend, 6th and 7th in P1, 7th and 8th in P2, 8th and 9th in P3,
then 2nd and 3rd in QP. In terms of race pace, both riders were able to
nip into the high 58s on race tires, Nick's best a 58.85 and Dani a
58.73. That's slower than Stoner, who only did three race tire laps on
it in QP, 58.60-58.81, and Casey was down to mid-high 58s in P3, and
then at the end had a 58-flat on what looks like some sort of race tire,
followed two laps later by a 58.3 - scary stuff. Meanwhile Dani only
broke into the 59s twice, and Hayden's late run of 59s only got down to
a 59.52.

Hopkins managed a 58.65 in P3 and his two short runs both ended with a
fastest lap in the mid-high 58s. In QP he didn't get faster, a best of
58.77. As usual, de Puniet really hasn't shown all that much race tire
pace, his best being mid-59s in QP and down to low 59s in P3 with a
solitary high 58. Rossi only went under 2 minutes once in P3 (59.95) and
then steady very high 58s (best of 58.93) and low 59s in an extended
run in QP (9 laps at speed).

Capirossi did a solitary 58.07 in QP, which looks like a very early Q
run, and was otherwise in the low 59s, and in P3 he managed to work down
to a 59.35 by the end. Vermeulen did a 58.90 in the QP before trying
three qualifiers, and was besting out at mid-59s in P3. Edwards did a
Michelin-best 59.23 and several other low-mid 59s in P3, but didn't do
much better in QP, a best of 59.11 in an extended run early on (same 9
laps as Rossi). Guintoli's race tire pace hasn't gotten better than
mid-59s, his best a 59.55 in QP and never under 2 minutes in P3.

> As far as the race tomorrow, assumming the Stones have the endurance
> it's Stoners to lose, Capex must be a prime podium contender too, very
> hard to predict who else will be there at the end, Hoppers has been on
> it all weekend but will the Suz have the endurance? If the Michelins
> work then Pedrosa and Hayden and possibly Rossi could be on for 3rd
> spot.
>
> My call
>
> Stoner
> Capex
> Hoppers
>
> another Stones whitewash.

Quite possibly. I'd say it should be Stoner winning, and I doubt he'll
be challenged. Bridgestone certainly has the edge again, but their
problem is they don't have much more than the one good bike/rider
combination right now. My bet is that Hopkins will be on the box,
looking 2nd only to Stoner so far. The 3rd guy is very hard to call,
with the Michelin crew of Pedrosa, Hayden, Rossi and Edwards looking
very steady but simply off the best Bridgestone pace. Capirossi and
Vermeulen just doesn't look like they're quite there, and I can't
imagine De Puniet getting it done. So there will be a Michelin on the
box, and I would guess it's almost a coin flip between Rossi and
Pedrosa, with Hayden only just slightly less likely and Edwards tailing
that group.