Remember what Michelin said when Vale chosed to use bridgestone? That they would 'punish' Vale.

letz see who punishes who...but i'm pretty paranoid abt Michellins doin well this year...

Michelin started well last year though . . .and deteriorated towards the end.
Maybe it's too early to tell? Isn't Jerez a 'michelin' track anyway?


On anther note, I feel really sorry for Marco! He's 18th - last!

well..

jerez and estoril (next race) have always been bad tracks for brigestone

then we had the nightrace.. that was just a gamble


so still
15 other races!

KC is not a man to joke about. That bike has electronics like hell.
Yeah maybe they can do a good laps and go into pits.
But when it comes to saving tryres for the last 10 laps, just enough fuel to end the race and be lighter then other there is no mistake KC is a man to beat.
I'm not concerd about Vales 5th place.
Really he can do almost anything he want in WarmUp and finaly do good job on the race.
Yes Jerez is not good track for Bridgestone but it's not that bad.
Don't put everything on the tires....Believe in our rider!

now that is how I like it... vale and me sharing the same opinion


Rossi: Could have been front row

By Michele Lostia & Matt Beer Saturday, March 29th 2008, 16:06 GMT

Valentino Rossi reckons an electronic problem cost him a front row start in Spain - but said he would have been happy with his fifth place when struggling in practice yesterday.

The Italian was the fastest Bridgestone user in Spain, but was 0.875 seconds slower than his factory Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who runs on Michelins.


"If yesterday they'd told me I'd start from the second row I would have signed for it, I would have been happy with fifth spot," Rossi told Italia1 television.


"Instead our potential was bigger. I could have done a 1:38 too, so I could have started second or third I think, but in the last run with the good tyre I had an electronics problem with the bike and I had to pit, unfortunately. I was a bit unlucky.

"As for race pace, I'd say it's not bad at all. We still have to sort out a couple of things and decide what tyre to use tomorrow, it will depend by the temperature.

"Let's hope we can have a good race. It would have been better to start from the first row, for us and for all the boys, but we are close with fifth spot."


When asked if he thought he could have performed better had he still been on Michelins, Rossi said it was impossible to compare because the electronic issue had compromised his session.


"We wanted to try one more thing, we got there a bit late and we weren't able to take advantage of the fourth (set of qualifying tyres)," he said. "So I did a 1:39.0 with just two qualifying tyres, and if I had two more maybe I would have done a low 1:38."


But he believes Lorenzo will be the man to beat in tomorrow's race, and conceded that Jerez is a bad track for Bridgestone.


"For tomorrow I think the best sorted guy is Lorenzo,"said Rossi.
"(Casey) Stoner has some difficulties. With Bridgestone we aren't exceptional here, but we knew that. We'll see what happens in the next races."

Yeah, right, Valentino, just cause he's world champion.... I guess VR hasn't had time to hate Jorge yet, what with that wall between them and everything...

Oh, people, it's called chain smoking!!! And when you're eyes are sore from sitting in a cloud of smoke, you can pretend it's from motorbike fumes!

Certainly shaping up for a beauty of a race... it's just so bloody hard Valentino being on the b'stones. Any track he did brilliantly at last year... can we count on that this year? Also, the whole thing of, where he has dominated in the past, was it down to him or were some of those tracks michelin tracks? (Like Qatar proved to still be, despite the night time.)

Or do we have faith in the Yamaha's cornering ability... and that last year Valentino kicked KC's ass on the tracks that were windy and demanding on the brakes?

But now we have the spanish upstart also on Valentino's wonderfully improved yamaha... but on the michelins, on a possible michelin track.

Dani gonna flog it so hard just to beat Jorge... have Honda done enough to catch up with everyone else? Nicky's result would suggest so.

SOmeone said something about not being great if you knew VR would win. Mmmmmm, dunno. This is goddamn pergatory, and gotta submit my choices for the team challenge on the motogp website... did all right... they accepted the choices made, even though it still said 2007. I got 0 points because of bloody Chris Vermeulen and bloody Alex De Angelis... muthas! If not for them, I might have made the top 100!

I'm on 113 points... which puts me at 327th out of 1386... might start a thread, those who play it, we can compare scores.

We all know michelin qualifiers are the best, so again, I don't think qualifying is representative of the race ahead.

I know I'm gonna put Colin in top ten, but not top 5. Just gota feeling, there.

what ever it is...it's gonna be a festival tomorrow....what a place to race....Spanish crowd...remember what happened last year after the Jerez race... Hope Vale does somethin like that again...

Jorge with engine problems and doing 1'38??????? Imagine if his bike was perfect...

It WILL be!

I hope Vale gets it!

I don't wanna worry today... Vale's 5th, that's not so bad! Hope he can do a good race tomorrow and get his 100th podium... if he's not 1st there are 16 races left what means 400 points! He can be WC with 400 points, can't he? Tomorrow will be a big fight... Lorenzo will do what he can and what he cannot to win Jerez... homeground... and if he does and put that stupid flag on land again I'll go crazy... but I'll try to remember that 16 races left... Vale has 4 things to fight this season: Dani, Jorge, Casey and master on 'stones tyres... if he'll do it? Forrrrrrrr surrrrrrrrre!!!!!!!!
But I won't expect 1st place for tomorrow... if that happens I'll love it... but seeing Jorge's QP today I'd better consider that he can win this race or I'll feel worse than Qatar!



Gi

Totally agree with you on that Gi
I really don`t expect 1st place tomorrow - podium - yes, but not 1st place (I mean my healthy sense is telling me that it`s not very likely under those circumstances, but I always expect some kind of miracle from Vale ). And about the 400 points - yeah I think they will be enough to win the championship, of course you can always seek second opinion from a better mathematician

I also agree with the people above - KC can`t be ruled out so easily - he will be fighting for podium on any cost.

All in all the race will be gooooooooood and intense, can`t wait