[Spoiler] San Marino Race: Does It Get Any Stranger?

[khp]

After Silverstone, I didn't expect we would have a stranger and dramatic race. Boy, was I wrong.

 

On the Sunny Adriatic coast, after sunshine all Friday, Saturday and even Warm-up on Sunday, it starts raining. Hello, did they move the unstable British weather from England to San Marino?

 

I can't recall ever before seeing the riders having to change bikes from dry to wet and back to dry again in the race.

 

Clearly, Rossi has the advantage over Lorenzo and Marquez in the rain, so that definitely played his way. It was pretty clear that Lorenzo and Rossi played a mind-game about when to pit for the 2nd time to change back to the dry bike.

Rossi probably counts himself very very lucky for Lorenzo crashing out with the cold rear tire.

Lorenzo, on his side, probably is relieved to find that Rossi didn't end up on the podium so he only took 11 points on him.

 

Marquez, on his side, did a great tactical job on selecting when to change bike the 2nd time, to go on and take the win.

[rchase]

The rain vs dry tire thing seems to be a common issue that causes lots of interesting problems during races. I have always wondered why they don't have a middle of the road tire that can do wet and dry based on a wet tire that won't burn up quickly in the dry. Running that tire you would likely be slower than the front runners riding on the tire most appropriate for conditions but when conditions changed not having to pit in could be an advantage.

[XPyrion]

Interesting topic since in another forum they were talking about it for local races also. Pirelli makes a Diablo Wet for such conditions.

[khp]

XPyrion, I was going to mention exactly the Pirelli Wet which are an intermediate tyre. However, if I got the commentators right, it was a real rain - at least at some point. I have no inside information, but I would assume that Bridgestone (together with Dorna) at some point decided that offering Intermediates at the GP level didn't make sense.

[rchase]

It may be a "business decision" as well on the part of Dorna and Bridgestone. An intermediate tire could potentially obsolete an entire line of rain tires due to their flexibility to changing conditions. Rain is really unpredictable.

[Kevin Kane]

Clearly, Rossi has the advantage over Lorenzo and Marquez in the rain, so that definitely played his way. It was pretty clear that Lorenzo and Rossi played a mind-game about when to pit for the 2nd time to change back to the dry bike.

Rossi probably counts himself very very lucky for Lorenzo crashing out with the cold rear tire.

Lorenzo, on his side, probably is relieved to find that Rossi didn't end up on the podium so he only took 11 points on him.

Kai;

I was wondering why he waited so long to change over as well. Maybe it was the positions he lost on the first switch where Lorenzo exited the pits in front but even Nick Harris seemed confused by the delay. IIRC, he said that those who had switched and were up to speed were running 9 full seconds faster then Rossi and Lorenzo were by the time he finally pitted. Without a doubt, 2015 has been the most interesting season in MotoGP for a long time. I also don't think that Lorenzo is conceding 2015 to Rossi either.