Interesting stats on Valencia
 

According to this article based on laptimes when Rossi crashed and their relative positions in the race order it predicts that Hayden would have still won the championship by a solitary point!

Interesting also when you view it in the context that Rossi was only 11th fastest in the morning warm-up.

Did Rossi really throw it away? Or was he going to lose regardless?

Rossi might well have lost the championship even without the lowside, but I cannot go along with the idea that Rossi gave away his strong chance of winning the world championship deliberately. What could he have gained compared with what he stood to lose?
I believe that this speculation is absolute nonsense. It probably comes about on the back of hero worship for Rossi.
Let us put things into perspective, Hayden won fair and square and the young man should be congratulated rather than being described the way some of the hateful postings to a club called The Ducati SPORTING club.
have appeared recently.

Fair enough, but maybe you've taken my 'thrown away' comment a little too literally.

I'm not suggesting he did, in the other thread I said he made two mistakes and I meant mistakes. This thread isn't debating that, it's about whether or not Rossi would have clung on to his championship lead if he fell off or not.

But hey, fill your boots. :)

Did that assume Hayden would have finished higher than third? Would have been tough trying to pass Capirossi and Bayliss

I think people are just disappointed that the title was won by someone who is well down the list of best wheel to wheel racers. People also like to support the underdog, which in some ways Rossi is, given his machine is arguably less capable than the Hondas and the Ducati, and that he had to fight his way from so many points back.

At Donington I saw Rossi race from 12th on the grid to second,with broken bones in his wrist and ankle. Heroic!

Yeah it did, Nicky was in 2nd at the time Rossi binned it so they've kept him there based on the fact that Nicky slowed after receiving the pit board telling him that Rossi was in P20.

They obviously feel that he could have maintained that spot.

The other factor not included in the equation is Rossi's ability to race. We've seen him so many times come from a poor qualifying position to carve his way through the pack and bugger off at the front - but, was there a setup issue with the M1? Why was Rossi only 11th in the warmup and why wasn't he already making his way through the pack by the 5th lap? We've seen him go from 7th to 1st on the 1st lap before because he goes even better when there are people around him to race.

Hrmmm ... all just interesting supposition I suppose :lol:

TP I didn't think that your remarks about Hayden were in any way spiteful. I should have made it clearer that I was referring to one or two other postings that have been made since Valencia.

It's hard to say in view of the way the race was going whether or not Rossi would have won the championship had he not lost the front end.
Had Rossi been near Hayden perhaps Hayden would have upped the pace as required to maximise his points total. Who knows but it's sad that Rossi went down but that's racing

I think Rossi blew it at the start. He needed a top two finish to be sure of winning the championship, and I have no doubt that Hayden could have easily finished second, and if it had come to it, probably even won the race - he got the pit board saying Rossi P20 and just cruised, no point taken any chances whatsoever.

Actually I have to disagree on one point-there was no-one going to overtake Bayliss at Valencia-he loves the place, he had absolutely nothing to lose-Nicky had to finish otherwise Rossi would still have been champion. Nicky wouldn't have risked trying to overtake Bayliss even if he could have caught him which frankly I don't think he could.

John

I think you are right here. Factor in how well Rossi and Capirossi get on and you start to wonder how far Capirossi would have gone to stop him getting by him. And then if he did, there was Bayliss......and every time Capirossi or Hayden took time out of Bayliss, he took it straight back