Top 10 Reasons Why MotoGP is Awesome: #8 — Anything Can Happen

Sometimes traveling at top speed of 200 mph on just two wheels can have its consequences. In this day and age, where the competition is at its highest and the machines are at their best, MotoGP riders are pushing the limit of what they can ride at. Inevitably then, riders are going to go down.

Most of them crash, whether it is in practice or qualifying or even during the race. It just depends on who it is and when it happens.

That is why reason number eight in this series of the Top 10 Reasons Why MotoGP is Awesome is Anything Can Happen.

In most sports, commentators and analysts make predictions on who is going to win. MotoGP is no exception. It is just ten times harder and you do not just have a winner and a loser. There are 17 riders who could take victory or crash out. So you are not just trying to figure out the winner, but the placement of all the other riders.

Sometimes though things are so sure that no one is second guessing what is going to happen. The victory is clear-cut. Most of the time this is right, but this is MotoGP where anything can happen.

At the last race of the 2009 season in Valencia, Spain, everyone thought that Casey Stoner on his bright-red Ducati would be the victor. After leading all the practice session, including taking pole position on the grid. It was looking like he would take victory. Sticking with his tradition of being the last rider to circle the track on the warm-up, Stoner high-sided and was out of the race before it even began. [See this]

Dani Pedrosa who was in second place on the grid seemed to be the only rider where Stoner was and why he was not lining back up on the grid. Pedrosa went on to win the race.

This seemed to be the start of Stoner's problems for 2010.

Something similar happened to Stoner in the opening round of the 2010 season in Qatar, as everyone thought that he would win there. He had won the past three years in dominate fashion, topping the time sheet in all practice and qualifying sessions. Once the lights went out, no one was surprised when Stoner charged ahead and built up a sizable gap to the rest of the field. However, on lap six of the race, the front end folded and Stoner crashed out of the race, ending his streak of dominance at that track.

Valentino "The Doctor" Rossi (who is probably the greatest racer of all time...) did not even expect Stoner to crash out. Rossi won that race, but did it with a transmission that was geared to follow Stoner on the track and take advantage of his slip stream.

Stoner had a series of front-end related crashes in 2010, with several of those in races. Even towards the end of the season when Ducati thought they had figured everything out, Stoner seemed to either win or crash. This was just one of the reasons that 2010 did not go according to plan.

The other one is related to the great Valentino Rossi. Everyone thought that Stoner and Rossi would be fighting for the championship in 2010. Rossi crashed one weekend practicing his skills on a dirt-bike and injured his shoulder, but the worst was to come.

At the Mugello GP in Italy during the second free practice, Rossi had a high-side that broke his right leg. He went to the hospital and missed the next four races, ending his streak of starting 230 consecutive GPs. [See this]

With Stoner and Rossi having problems, Jorge Lorenzo was able to cleanly take the title in 2010. Lorenzo was the person most people figured would finish the season in third.

So things were not as they seemed for the 2010 season, but anything can happen and that is the eighth reason why MotoGP is awesome.