Portugal Thread

[fatman]

Casey needs 15 points on Rossi to win the championship and loose no more that 4 to Pedrosa. Possible at Portugal ? Only if Rossi has bad luck or a major error.

Portugal always seems to provide decent drama. At least in recent years.

[Ranger]

Speaking of which, last year's race was the best motorsport race I've ever seen. EVER. I hope this time it's mostly as good.

Stoner will be on the podium. Rossi maybe. Hayden should be on the podium and could win it - that'd be good.

[The Phantom]

Another Stoner steamrolling of the opposition, and the title wrapped up. A Suzuki in second, a Repsol Honda in third (sorry, can't separate the performance of the riders in each team!), Rossi to finish 5th or lower.

I'd love to offer a more optimistic outcome for The Doctor, but I'd be ignoring the outcomes of the last 13 races if I did so...

[osg]

Speaking of which, last year's race was the best motorsport race I've ever seen. EVER. I hope this time it's mostly as good.

Stoner will be on the podium. Rossi maybe. Hayden should be on the podium and could win it - that'd be good.

I've got $$$ riding on Hayden not winning a round this year. I hope he doesn't.

Casey will Podium...... i'm tipping a shock victory by Chris V.... that would be sweet.

[jim mcglinchey]

Its going to be interesting to see if Rossis bike holds together. He's the only one riding the pneumatic valve machine, from what I gather, and the attitude at Yam is that he now has nothing left to loose. Well, he has second or third position to loose actually!

[fatman]

If you're Rossi/Yamaha if you can't win the championship at this point do you really care if you finish 2nd or 3rd ?? I don't think you would worry about 2nd place. If you're giving up on the championship then you immediately start working at winning it next year.

Hoppers to Win is my hope.

[fatman]

How is Tamada 2nd fastest ?!?

Must be contract time. Give it up Tamada, nothing can save your career now.

[ChrisS]

How is Tamada 2nd fastest ?!?

Must be contract time. Give it up Tamada, nothing can save your career now.

Tamada does well at Estoril, he got a 2nd place there in 2004, and Dunlop did well at Estoril last year.

and both are looking for a team next season so maybe they can help each other convince a team that they are good enough

[tha_jackal]

Its called a qualifying tyre ffs.. Calm down..

[osg]

Its called a qualifying tyre ffs.. Calm down..

+1

[ChrisS]

Its called a qualifying tyre ffs.. Calm down..

Tech3 guys use qualifyiers every friday, have you seen Tamada 2nd before?

[Ranger]

The fact that 3 out of the 4 Ducati's in FP3 are in 14th, 16th and 17th must say something about the dude that's riding the other one. :\

[osg]

Tech3 guys use qualifyiers every friday, have you seen Tamada 2nd before?

well......... says something for their other friday times during the year doesn't it?

It's Guintoli's turn for FP3.... ending up P3, half a second behind Stoner who was probably running 3 meet old hards :D

[NinjaMaster]

The fact that 3 out of the 4 Ducati's in FP3 are in 14th, 16th and 17th must say something about the dude that's riding the other one. :\
Spot on. The guy is a genius. Really hard to see anyone beating him anytime this year in his current form. Don't want to put the mockers on him but the rest of the field look like they're racing for second.

[Ranger]

Hayden on pole! :s hock:

Ahead of Stoner and Rossi. Tamada was 4th, all 4 Yamaha's in the top 8. Suzuki in 10th and 12th, Kawasaki 16th and 18th! :\ And Ducati's in 14th, 15th and 17th.

Looks like a Michelin race to me, though I DID say Nicky Hayden would be up there. :D

[AndyRAC]

Hayden, pole?? Well it would've been nice to see it, for some reason it wasn't live on BBCi live, they 're now showing it, a bit late. ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL!!!

[fatman]

Both Dunlops in the top 10 !! Shocking.

Some odd results for QP. Nice to see Hayden on pole. Hopefully the race will be a battle between him , stoner and rossi.

[jim mcglinchey]

Hayden on pole!....return of the pole man doesnt win phenomenon?

[RaikkonenRules]

Tamada 4th and guess where the next race is :D

[velo]

Newbie (to this forum) here. For those of us who can't see qualifying, what is going on over there? Everyone talks about finding a good setup or qualifying tire; Stoner talks about putting race distance on one or more sets of race tires. Does everyone put race distance on different race tires, or is Stoner really so far ahead of the game? Estoril seems like a Michelin track so they ought to hang tough for 5-10 laps, hopefully Rossi or Nicky will make a real race of it. That brings up another question: Does the Ducati sandbag a little in the early part of the race to ensure they can crank out fast laps late in the race (save fuel and tires)? Most races are pretty good for a few laps until Stoner runs off. Stoner has the capacity to set fast laps very late in the race, more so than anyone else, and one wonders about fuelling strategies.

[osg]

I can't see Hayden's total package having the ability to hold off Stoner and Rossi for the entire race.

A race between 2 with Hayden rounding out the Podium.

Tamada...... what a tool you are. Race the entire season, not just when you're getting pushed out the door at contract time.

[leopard]

Finally we have opportunity to watch the race represents the real map of power from the teams and riders, great race.

[ChrisS]

125 was the best race, crazy people on bikes, 250 was also good and MotoGP had all the action it was missing for the last 4 races.

I would have been better if Stoner could get into the mix the last few laps, Elias was crazy as usual and Tamada was doing very good at 8th until he crashed.

Back of the field in MotoGP was disappointing though, it seemed a lot of riders weren't into the race.

I really enjoyed all three races and still get a goofy grin on my face when I think of Tony Elias's move on Barros. :D :crazy: