Oh bollocks, enough of that fatalism. We've got that Angel Orte guy to reel in, no time for passivity!! If anyone could do with tickets to a motogp of their choice, it's us Australians... how is the airfare to europe? No popping into Assen for us, no little weekender to Mugello, either. If we go, we have to take in a bloody european tour just to justify the cost of the trip and 24 hours on a plane each way. There's a reason the boys get three weeks between their southern hemisphere races and northern ones... because Australia is SO FAR AWAY. So we need freebies like this.

Crap.........this is going to sound pretty dumb, but I didn't know that was the prize.......bugger I should really pay more attention!

Maybe I will complain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's funny! I'm there has to be a heap of people in the same position... take up the cause, Mel, take up the cause!

Now I guess with what happened to Lorenzo I will have to change my selection for the weekend!!!!

Yeah, it's a toughie... that he kept getting the fastest time in the first split... but then kept nearly wrecking himself all over again... I don't think he'll have the longevity to see out the race.
It's hard on a bridgestone track... those michelin qualifiers muddy the water...

KC looking very good... but I'm putting Valentino first... I think he can do it, he's looking great, and loyalty alone insists I put him first. Couldn't quite live with myself if I put KC first, Valentino second and Valentino won. Awful! So I'm willing to possibly sacrifice five points because, that's right, I love Rossi!
Pedro third is where I'm putting him. After that...
Hicky Nayden has turned into the new Randy. His Honda you know is good for fourth, but is he going to crash out? Will he see out the race?
Colin... mmm, I think he's turning into the qualifying king, but just don't think it's going to translate into a podium at the moment.
Marco was starting to look pretty good there for a while... he only dropped down the timesheet once the qualifying tyres came on... but his race pace was pretty good. Seems like someone is starting to make some inroads.

I'll have to wait until close to the start of the race to make my final decisions... I like to leave it late... you know, wait to see if any hunches or sixth sense come to me at the last moment. Got to rely on something...

Yeah, I wasn't even sure is Lorenzo would qualify in the top ten...............he proved me wrong on that. I also agree he might struggle for race distance, and if it's wet it's gonna be tougher for him again........

I always put Vale first - cause he is KING!!!!!

Sorry but poor Marco, I had to put him in 15th!

Well, I've already cleaned my selections twice... can't decide who to put in 3rd. Got Dani 4th.... just not sure in these conditions he's got 3rd in him, but I really can't decide who to put in front of him...

I've put Marco, for the moment, 6th... bit higher than he will probably get, but these conditions, his growing confidence...

God, this round is a killer...
Drying track, will it rain again? Before race, during race?
I'm favouring bridgestone riders, though. I think Toni Elias might have a good one... Nicky can't be trusted... I think he'll push too hard, and might crash out. I've got him about 7th, I think.
I can't decide after Valentino 1st, KC second... shite shite shite. I've got Jorge at 10th at the moment... running out of time!

OKAY.

I've gone out on a limb and put Loris 3rd. On the suzuki, it's a risk, but the wily old dog might have something up his sleeve for these conditions...
Dani 4th...
The rest, I've changed them so much I can't remember anymore...

Randy 15th, I know that.

Colin 5th, Toni 6th, Marco 7th. Hopkins... I wavered tonnes on him, ended up putting him 13th. Shinya, he was another dark horse, though i went with 14th I think.
Too hard. I can just see my points all falling away with this bloody round. THat angel guy is probably a white collar dude for a manufacturer and has inside information. If he gets tonnes of points for this round, I will be very very suspicious!

Two minutes later....

I WANT TO CHANGE THEM ALL AGAIN! What was I thinking putting Loris 3rd? Was I mad? And Dani, he'll be lucky if he's 5th... dammit it all to hell! This is really annoying.

And Jorge had better crack up. I'll be really bitter and twisted if he like, gets on the podium...

Mel, I'm gonna take a hammering this round. I got it generally right, but in a very hit and miss, slapshod fashion. Not accurate enough. Only two spots I got right was Rossi first and Chris nowhere... (though as I had such trouble in the past picking who'd crash or be a DNF... I guess I fixed that this time around!)

Bloody Loris, what was it, lap 4, 5, 6, and I'm thinking, Oh shit, Loris, are you gonna prove me right! Then the silly bugger went and ran off the track and lost oodles of positions... damn him!

ANd Dani... little twerp... he's like, getting better or something. I tend ot be down on him, unjustifiably so, it seems these days... the michelins hung in there for him... would have been interesting how he would have gone if someone had been up his ass battling him for second... as it was, he could jsut concentrate on staying with Rossi...

Marco, I had him 7th, he came 5th. Nicky the redneck came in 6th, I had him 9th. Andrea I had 8th, he came 11th. Closest was James, who I had at 11th and he came in 12th. Toni I had 6th, he came 8th, Colin I had 5th, he came in 7th... GAWD. See what i mean? Close, but still so very very far... I lose full points for second and fourth... that's two big chunks... what killer.

But niiiice race, wasn't it?

Definitely a nice race!!! And the winner was pretty good too :-)

I did great with the podium

Vale 1st - tick
Pedrosa 2nd - tick
Stoner 3rd - tick

then

Nicky 6th - tick
Loris 9th - tick

But after that I was way out. Dovi buggered me..........also Hopper - I thought he would do ok here in the damp-ish-ness. Third last year and I was thinking the bridgestones would help. Fat lot of good that thought did!!!!!!

And Marco......now i'm sorry I put him 15th........actually no, i'm quite glad he proved me wrong..........such a nice guy.......he deserves a good result!!!!!

Hopefully we've made up some ground on that Angel dude!

Actually, some bugger called USer7 has totally come out of nowhere with 533 points... nigh on impossible score if you ask me.
Total score you can get in a round is... 140, if my pen and paper and laborious efforts can be relied on:
25 + 20 + 16+13+11+10 through to 1. That's if you get every single position correct.
Actually, I think I'm onto something.
Angel Orte was in the lead before China on 352. No one was near him. He's now on 462.
The person coming second is on 456. No one is even close to the new guy...

533 - 140 = 393
393 my ass!
USer7 no way had that score prior to this round. Otherwise they would have been in the first position. Someone is rorting Team Manager. I'm writing an email! This is an outrage!
Just wrote the email. REALLY!

Anyway, at least it shows that Angel Orte doesn't have insider info. I think I scored more points than he did this round.

How did you go with your points, Mel? I actually, despite my moaning and groaning, ended up with my highest tally for a round with 114. (Qatar was 113). Go figure! Only person I got zero for was DeAngelis... and I had him at 13th or something... but I scored evenly and well it turned out! Ha! Imagine if Loris had come third!

Well, you just a smarty pants sticking to safe bets! You're the points whore it seems, not I!

Good thing about new site... more thorough with tracking your position.

For this round I was 232/1368, and my global position... sounds good, doesn't it? - is 54/2263. Hanging in there. But obviously a tonne of people aren't playing the rounds... so be it!

So I'm on 440, just on the heels of the top 15. Equal 12th is 446. Fun stuff!

Anyone who feels like joining in with predictions, even if they aren't playing the game, please do! It's fun trying to nail down the first 15 riders... hard, annoying, but fun!

Well, I just got my results in the email - 113 - which totally surprised me.

And to think before Lorenzo's crash, I had him in 4th!!!!!! So pissed now that I put him back to 13th!!!!!

Oh well, hope you get some sense from your email.........something suss is going on...........