MotoGP: 2009 Le Mans Preview

MotoGP gets egg on their face and restores 60 minute practice sessions

As predicted here several weeks ago, The Powers That Be reversed the ill-considered cost-saving decision made just prior to the season. The 45-minute sessions in force since Stage One have hindered several teams, and have served as a convenient excuse for all of the poor performers. The Ducatis, especially, seem terribly difficult to dial in, especially on weekends where there has been a lot of variation in weather and temperature conditions, namely EVERY weekend.

Randy de Puniet heads home with Mo Mentum. Yeah, right

The good people of the LCR Honda team are doing their level best to jack up our expectations for monsieur de Puniet this week. I’m not buying. Randy was 42 seconds off the pace in Qatar, and 45 seconds off in Motegi, finishing in 10th and 11th places, respectively. He did out-duel Marco Melandri, Loris Capirossi, Colin Edwards and Andrea Dovizioso in the battle for fifth place in Jerez, and finished fourth when Lorenzo laid his bike down trying to catch Stoner. But de Puniet was not competitive with Rossi, Pedrosa, Stoner or Lorenzo in Spain. The idea that he will suddenly leap into the top tier of riders because the fans are yelling in his language doesn’t hold water.

At Le Mans in 2007 he completed eight laps. Last year he finished 9th, roughly 30 seconds off the pace set by Rossi. Ten bucks says he doesn’t finish in the top five on Sunday. As my old boss used to say, “Slow as a freshman – slow as a senior.”

Riders under pressure – Nicky Hayden, James Toseland and Dani Pedrosa

Repsol’s new corporate director of sponsorship, the ultra faboo Begona Elices, gave an interview this week in which she stressed her company’s commitment to winning a MotoGP championship like, now, and in which she fell short of giving Dani Pedrosa the kind of unconditional endorsement he deserves. She also refused to rule out taking a run at signing Jorge Lorenzo at season’s end, though she said that such was “not a scenario they were currently examining.” Ahem … Pedrosa, who is still healing from injuries suffered in March, seems to be getting everything there is out of his factory Honda, giving the Yamahas and Ducatis all they can handle in every race. He surely doesn’t need this kind of lukewarm support, at all of 23 years old.

The rain is likely to return

Finally, a little idle pre-race chatter

After the 2007 MotoGP season, six riders failed to return for 2008. They included Alex Hofmann, Makato Tamada, Fonsi Nieto, Alex Barros, Kenny Roberts, Jr., and Carlos Checa. Four riders from last season went the way of the dodo, including Shinya Nakano, Sylvain Guintoli, Anthony West and John Hopkins. As much as we might like to think otherwise, this works out to about five riders per season who fail to make the grade. At this point, if I was a betting man, and I am, I’d guess that five riders in jeopardy of not being invited to next year’s prom are Niccolo Canepa, Yuki Takahashi, James Toseland, Sete Gibernau and Toni Elias. If you disagree, let’s hear from you.

Enjoy the race.