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MotoGP
MOTOGP: Noyes’ Notebook - Pedrosa’s Perfect Storm
Dennis Noyes reconstructs the 11 minutes and 41 seconds that likely cost Dani Pedrosa a realistic shot at the 2012 MotoGP title.
Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa (Photo: Dorna Communications)
PROGRAMMING NOTE: The GP of Aragon from Alcaniz, Spain will air LIVE on SPEED on Sunday, September 30 at 8:00am ET. MotoGP QP will air LIVE on SPEED2 all season long. #MotoGPonSPEED
When Dani Pedrosa brought his Honda RC13V to the start of the Grand Prix of San Marino, he was on a roll. Not only had he qualified on pole, he was coming off two consecutive wins and had cut the gap separating him from fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo from 39 points after Round 6 in Silverstone to a mere 13 points as the bikes lined up for Round 13.
Maybe there were too many 13s.
Dani has never been an especially lucky rider. On previous occasions when he seemed to be in the hunt for the MotoGP title, bad things happened. His crash in the rain at Sachsenring in 2008, when he was in a tight battle with Valentino Rossi and Lorenzo, caused him to go pointless in two vital races and knocked him out of the title chase. Then in Motegi in 2010, after taking 21 points from Lorenzo’s lead in the previous three races, the combination fly-by-wire and cable mechanism failed in the opening free practice and Dani, with what in layman’s terms would be called a “stuck throttle” crashed at Turn 9 and suffered a double break to his collarbone, causing him to miss three races in a row.
Only Friday afternoon before the mysterious and confusing events on the MotoGP grid at Misano, Dani told Spanish journalists that his plan this year had been to avoid injury and, above all, score in every race.
That he had done. In twelve GP starts in 2012, Dani had earned points in all, winning three and going on the podium at every race except France where he was fourth in the rain.
With Honda having won five of the last six going into Misano (three by Dani and the other two by the convalescing Casey Stoner) the feeling in the Pedrosa camp was of cautious confidence. Since Stoner’s crash at Indianapolis in Round 10, MotoGP has been a two-horse race with American Ben Spies off the pace and the podium through a combination of bad luck, crashes, and disappointing results.
In Lorenzo’s camp there were concerns. All season long he has complained of a disadvantage in acceleration and top speed on the works Yamaha when compared with the factory Repsol Hondas but, in spite of being down on sheer power, the Yamaha rider had done everything right, scoring in every race except Assen when he was T-boned by Alvaro Bautista on the first corner of the first lap.
Jorge, after a dominant first six races, had only a single win in the next six. The Assen crash cost more than just the points; he also lost a fresh engine that day, just one of the precious six that riders of factory-supplied bikes are allowed. Each subsequent engine is penalized by requiring the rider to start from pit lane ten seconds after the starting lights go out.
In Misano, however, the starting lights did not go out at all. The field of 21 riders engaged first gear and launch control when the ten red lights, five to a row, came on. That began a sequence of events, some routine and some unique, that in all probability, decided the 2012 World Championship in favor of Lorenzo.
We will start our clock at 0:00 at the moment the lights came on as we follow an “event pathway” to the conclusion of Pedrosa’s brief race. As Dani came over the grid, slowing to take up his slot on the pole he did something that he usually does. He hit the brakes hard twice, nearly bottoming the forks. In looking over TV footage of all previous races this season, every time that the cameras have followed Dani to his starting position he has been seen to slam on his front brakes two or three times…a sort of ritual, but also a way of testing the feel of the front stoppers just prior to the start. No question the brakes were not an issue at that point.
This is what happened at the start of the MotoGP warm-up lap in Misano:
11 minutes and 41 seconds of nightmare for Dani Pedrosa:
0:00 Starting lights came one (the start takes place between 2 and 5 seconds of lights-on)
0:01 Karel Abraham on the Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati stalled his engine on the fourth row and raised his hand.
0:03 The flagmen positioned along pit lane at rows four and five both waved yellow flags.
0:05 Race Director Mike Webb turned the starting switch to the abort mode, causing two lines of three horizontal orange lights to begin flashing, a line of three on both sides of the two five-light rows of red lights.
Some riders, reacting to first motion, jumped. Spies was off like a shot from the second row, pulling up beside Lorenzo. Off the third row, Jonathon Rea, replacing Stoner on the Repsol Honda, was already slowing as he crossed the start line before stopping. Stefan Bradl, from Row 2 and Hector Barberá coming from Row 5 stopped after their lunges took them to the front row.
Crutchlow and Lorenzo moved a few feet. Pedrosa moved only a few inches before backing his Honda back behind the line.
0:15 Blue-shirts from IRTA (International Roadracing Teams Association) hurry onto the grid to restore order and deal with Abraham’s stalled Ducati.
0:19 Team members are now coming onto the grid, some pulling starter motors rigs and portable (rolling) generators.
0:33 All riders are quickly attended by mechanics. Crutchlow angrily gesturing at his fuel tank…obviously worried that the delay will upset the programmers’ calculations for fuel consumption for the scheduled 28-laps race.
0:40 Pedrosa’s bike is now back in the pole position slot. It has been rolled a few inches backwards and clearly does not have a locked brake at this time.
0:40-1:00 Crews in excess of the number allowed by the regulations (three plus “one person with umbrella”) are on the grid now in most cases. As the feed camera is looking only at the front row, I can only observe that both Yamaha riders, Crutchlow and Lorenzo, are attended by three mechanics, none with umbrella, and Pedrosa's Honda is surrounded by six mechanics plus a seventh uniformed team member carrying the umbrella.
This seems to indicate that Team Yamaha was aware that an aborted start is resumed at the 1 minute board and that this means that, in theory, the grid must already be in three-minute board mode…with only three mechanics and an person holding an umbrella allowed on the grid.
When Dani Pedrosa brought his Honda RC13V to the start of the Grand Prix of San Marino, he was on a roll. Not only had he qualified on pole, he was coming off two consecutive wins and had cut the gap separating him from fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo from 39 points after Round 6 in Silverstone to a mere 13 points as the bikes lined up for Round 13.
Maybe there were too many 13s.
Dani has never been an especially lucky rider. On previous occasions when he seemed to be in the hunt for the MotoGP title, bad things happened. His crash in the rain at Sachsenring in 2008, when he was in a tight battle with Valentino Rossi and Lorenzo, caused him to go pointless in two vital races and knocked him out of the title chase. Then in Motegi in 2010, after taking 21 points from Lorenzo’s lead in the previous three races, the combination fly-by-wire and cable mechanism failed in the opening free practice and Dani, with what in layman’s terms would be called a “stuck throttle” crashed at Turn 9 and suffered a double break to his collarbone, causing him to miss three races in a row.
Only Friday afternoon before the mysterious and confusing events on the MotoGP grid at Misano, Dani told Spanish journalists that his plan this year had been to avoid injury and, above all, score in every race.
That he had done. In twelve GP starts in 2012, Dani had earned points in all, winning three and going on the podium at every race except France where he was fourth in the rain.
With Honda having won five of the last six going into Misano (three by Dani and the other two by the convalescing Casey Stoner) the feeling in the Pedrosa camp was of cautious confidence. Since Stoner’s crash at Indianapolis in Round 10, MotoGP has been a two-horse race with American Ben Spies off the pace and the podium through a combination of bad luck, crashes, and disappointing results.
In Lorenzo’s camp there were concerns. All season long he has complained of a disadvantage in acceleration and top speed on the works Yamaha when compared with the factory Repsol Hondas but, in spite of being down on sheer power, the Yamaha rider had done everything right, scoring in every race except Assen when he was T-boned by Alvaro Bautista on the first corner of the first lap.
Jorge, after a dominant first six races, had only a single win in the next six. The Assen crash cost more than just the points; he also lost a fresh engine that day, just one of the precious six that riders of factory-supplied bikes are allowed. Each subsequent engine is penalized by requiring the rider to start from pit lane ten seconds after the starting lights go out.
In Misano, however, the starting lights did not go out at all. The field of 21 riders engaged first gear and launch control when the ten red lights, five to a row, came on. That began a sequence of events, some routine and some unique, that in all probability, decided the 2012 World Championship in favor of Lorenzo.
We will start our clock at 0:00 at the moment the lights came on as we follow an “event pathway” to the conclusion of Pedrosa’s brief race. As Dani came over the grid, slowing to take up his slot on the pole he did something that he usually does. He hit the brakes hard twice, nearly bottoming the forks. In looking over TV footage of all previous races this season, every time that the cameras have followed Dani to his starting position he has been seen to slam on his front brakes two or three times…a sort of ritual, but also a way of testing the feel of the front stoppers just prior to the start. No question the brakes were not an issue at that point.
This is what happened at the start of the MotoGP warm-up lap in Misano:
11 minutes and 41 seconds of nightmare for Dani Pedrosa:
0:00 Starting lights came one (the start takes place between 2 and 5 seconds of lights-on)
0:01 Karel Abraham on the Cardion AB Motoracing Ducati stalled his engine on the fourth row and raised his hand.
0:03 The flagmen positioned along pit lane at rows four and five both waved yellow flags.
0:05 Race Director Mike Webb turned the starting switch to the abort mode, causing two lines of three horizontal orange lights to begin flashing, a line of three on both sides of the two five-light rows of red lights.
Some riders, reacting to first motion, jumped. Spies was off like a shot from the second row, pulling up beside Lorenzo. Off the third row, Jonathon Rea, replacing Stoner on the Repsol Honda, was already slowing as he crossed the start line before stopping. Stefan Bradl, from Row 2 and Hector Barberá coming from Row 5 stopped after their lunges took them to the front row.
Crutchlow and Lorenzo moved a few feet. Pedrosa moved only a few inches before backing his Honda back behind the line.
0:15 Blue-shirts from IRTA (International Roadracing Teams Association) hurry onto the grid to restore order and deal with Abraham’s stalled Ducati.
0:19 Team members are now coming onto the grid, some pulling starter motors rigs and portable (rolling) generators.
0:33 All riders are quickly attended by mechanics. Crutchlow angrily gesturing at his fuel tank…obviously worried that the delay will upset the programmers’ calculations for fuel consumption for the scheduled 28-laps race.
0:40 Pedrosa’s bike is now back in the pole position slot. It has been rolled a few inches backwards and clearly does not have a locked brake at this time.
0:40-1:00 Crews in excess of the number allowed by the regulations (three plus “one person with umbrella”) are on the grid now in most cases. As the feed camera is looking only at the front row, I can only observe that both Yamaha riders, Crutchlow and Lorenzo, are attended by three mechanics, none with umbrella, and Pedrosa's Honda is surrounded by six mechanics plus a seventh uniformed team member carrying the umbrella.
This seems to indicate that Team Yamaha was aware that an aborted start is resumed at the 1 minute board and that this means that, in theory, the grid must already be in three-minute board mode…with only three mechanics and an person holding an umbrella allowed on the grid.
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