Qatar Thread *SPOILERS*

[DavidStHubbins]

Provisional Final Results of Qatar GP 2006


1. Rossi
2. Hayden
3. Capirossi
4. Gibernau
5. Stoner!

Now to wait 3 hours for the race to come on telly - a nice wait

[Knowlesy]

Very good ride from Rossi, very impressive.

Hayden as well, was superb, but didn't quite have enough.

And Loris up there, quiet, businesslike performance.

[BootsOntheSide]

Another fantastic display from Valé, he always seemed to have an edge on eprformance, on what may not have been the beest bike out there. It's a shame Casey slipped back towards the end, but 5th is still a solid result for a rookie. Both Ducatis were solid but unspectacular, neither spent that much time on screen.

[SALEEN S7R]

All in all a good race but you just felt that Rossi would edge it at the end. Nice to see Hayden giving him a close run for his money though, all too often last year it was a case of Rossi getting into the lead and then slowly edging away from the chasing pack.

[chunder]

Apparently the chatter only really affects the bike on qualifiers and when the tyres are really worn which seems strange as he was monster quick at the end.

Think the Dukes were happy after their awful year there last time, Loris was getting closer, and Hayden apparently buggered up the lat turn on the last but one lap and lost the tow a bit, but still dont see him quite yet getting there.

Stoner was superb though, comfortably beating Pedrosa,Elias and Melandri who has really disappointed me so far, looks like he did on the M1 again.

Did anyone see Hopkions kicking hell out of his bike after it packed in, brilliant!!

Also great ride from Dovi in 250, nearly beating Lorenzo on a dog slow Honda, and Loca making them all look very silly on allegedly a prddy Aprilia, proddy my bum, you wanna ride Westys or Chaz'a mate!!

[Knowlesy]

I heard the Eurosport guys saying that the chatter was more pronounced when the tyres were giving most grip/qualifiers and when they were at the end of their life...

I thought chatter went away as grip went down?

[mac]

Thoroughly impressive race from Stoner. He is maturing - two years ago he would have thrown himself off in those circumstances.

[DavidStHubbins]

Agree, Stoner is the real deal - I think we saw that on his first MotoGP test. Will be a great battle of rookies between Casey and Pedrosa. I'd say 1-1 so far. Casey is at a disadvantage because of little testing and flu but then again Pedrosa is so small he is weak and puny! Sorry, but true.

[Dani Filth]

there is also the full factory bike .. and a privateer one ..

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

It's not much fun being a Colin Edwards fan these days.

[chunder]

Think you'll find that Colin was very happy pre season but maybe all the teams work has gone into getting Rossi sorted really, Colin I imagine has not had much of a look in.

But then he has never really set the world alight in GP, had the odd good ride and podium but usually on tracks he knows real well like Laguna or Donington, seems he is a bit of a Luca or Max, blindin when thee front is good but no front feel no Colin!!

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

Yup, pretty much sums it up. For whatever reason Colin isn't consistently happy with the Yamaha (the infamous chatter problem?), which is a shame considering how it was looking like this was going be to his 'break out' year in GP.

Still, it's a long season and I live in hope Edwards bags at least one win in his GP career.

[chunder]

Think the only real chance Colin has is if Vale falls off or he can get in front of Hayden at Laguna!! Then he might nick a win, think his best chance really was on the Honda a few years back.

Is weird for Colin really, he pushes the front like Rossi, practically invented the 16.5in front Michelin but can't seem to get on with the bike all the time. Wonder if it would be any different if he was a team leader and Vale was still riding for Honda!!

[elephino]

Great ride, poor tyre, for Stoner. Might have even held on to 4th without the big lose.

Rossi's chatter problem comes and goes. Thursday he was really quick, Friday was slower and fast again Saturday. Could be the changing grip level of the circuit, too. It was very windy for the race, which would have blown a lot of sand over the track, reducing the grip levels, taking away the chatter with it.

[asha]

The only reason that Rossi managed to win is because the lap times where 2+ seconds slower then practce. High winds kept the times down, and its only when really pushing that the chatter happens

[djb]

yeah, that wind was positively scarey looking, I sure wouldnt want to be racing with gusts like that, hopefully the amount and direction were consistent (and thats not taking into consideration the sand aspect of it)

chunder wrote 'blindin when thee front is good but no front feel no Colin!!'

blimey, who of us would want to be racing with a vague front end, thats got to be the worst feeling when you dont have confidence in the front, and thats coming from someone with really little race experience. makes me think of those years when Biaggi seemed constantly to be losing the front when trying to keep up to or in front of Rossi. Sure he wasnt as fast as Rossi in general, but i felt bad for him just imagining how distrustful of his bike he must have been, washing out the front time after time...