IRTA
- Jerez
1. Losail
2.
Jerez
3.
Estoril
4.
Shanghai
5. Le
Mans
6. Mugello
7.
Catalunya
8.
Donington
9. Assen
10. Sachsenring
11.
Laguna Seca
12. Brno
13. Misano
14. Indianapolis
15. Motegi
16. Phillip Island
17. Sepang
18. Valencia
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News 26/10/2008
Round 17. Malaysia : Sepang
Seby takes the victory while SFW
takes the title by finishing second at 0.010s.
It was the second smallest gap ever between the winner and 2nd placed
rider.
Interviews:
Seby Lords Of
Shadow (winner, 17:08.077):
"Huge Congratulations SFW for the Title.
The hard practice has finally payed off. The first half of the season
was very hard because i could put some pressure on you.
This has been a disappointing season for me. Last year i was very close
to the title so i felt much stronger when this year started. Last year
the start of the season was hard, after 6 races i was 31 points behind
Skider and 3rd in the standings. After 6 more races i was leading the
standings with 5 victories. I made some mistakes but per total i was
very happy because i was finally able to fight for the title. This year
i had a good start, 4 wins from the first 8 races and i was leading the
standings. The problems came after that, with some bad luck and some
mistakes from myself. Laguna Seca was decisive, i fell while leading
the race and with a win there i could have been up there again. Then
Indianapolis, different race, same country, same story. I fell while
leading the race and these 2 bad results made me lose the touch with
SFW in the standings. Without these 2 bad results i could have fought
for the title until the last round. Besides those 2 mistakes, I've also
had a bunch of slow races, I've been 2nd to SFW in 8 races this season.
In some of them i was slow, in some of them the pc was running slow or
i had lag etc. This year i felt that i lost too many points because of
my slow pc. I'll have to buy a new pc for next year if i want to have
100% control of my results. Last year i was very scared when i was
leading, very stressed. This year i had good confidence but SFW was
just faster than me in more races. Now that i have good confidence and
motivation, I'm still pretty consistent and I'll be a bit faster with a
better pc, i might have a better chance to fight for the title next
season.
SFW, you were too fast and too consistent for me this year, 10 wins and
17 podiums from 17 races. That's something i couldn't do this season,
even without pc problems. So you really deserve this title, no matter
what others "could" have done. Congratulations again for the title and
for this long run of good races. The Sepang race was cool, with a very
interesting finish. It was decided by the replay because there were
some bugs in the lap times/total times.
It was the 2nd closest finish ever (after Shanghai 2007).
In practice i had soft-med and i could do consistent low 53s with a pb
of 52.9. Just before the race i changed to soft-soft and i could do
consistent 52.5 - 52.7 for about 5 laps and then few 53s and 54 in the
last lap. The total time was around 2 seconds faster with soft-soft
than with soft-med. Just before the official race i hosted some other
riders and i did very good lap times.
Once the official race started, i was slow right from the start. 15
minutes qualifying and my best was 53.1, that's 0.6 slower from what i
just did 30 minutes before official. When i hosted those riders and did
those good laps, we were 3 in the room. In the official race we were 5,
i didn't expect this HUGE difference in lap times. And it's not about
stress n shit, i rode exactly the same, same braking points, same
acceleration points, corner speed, setup etc. The game was just slower
and all the riders noticed this after the official race. This kind of
things make me very upset. I can deal with losing a race or going slow
because of my own mistakes but not when it happens from pc or
connection.
The official race started and i had a decent first lap, did 56.9 (that
was my only good lap of the race). Starting from 2nd lap, i was behind
SFW and i was trying to catch up to him, i was trying to push hard
because the soft tyres are good only in the first half of the race. The
thing is that i never could push to the limit, the game felt heavy,
slow all race long (and i also messed up the 2nd corner in almost all
laps lol). By mid-race i could pass SFW a couple of times but he always
passed me back. At that time i didn't know he had soft-med, i thought
he had soft-soft, like me. In the penultimate lap he escaped at around
1 second in front and i was sure i wasn't going to catch them so i
focused on keeping my 2nd place because Luke was coming fast from
behind. In the last lap tho, SFW made a mistake and went wide in a
corner so i passed him, i still knew i had small chances of winning
because he was right behind me. I couldn't even keep the lead for more
than 2 corners, he just flew by me. I couldn't accelerate because my
soft tyre was completely red. Then i started wondering what tyres he
had. In the last corner i braked very late hoping to have a better
chance with slipstream coming out of the corner. I knew it was almost
impossible since he was over 0.5 in front. But i was a bit lucky, he
made a small mistake and went wide in that corner so i could exit from
the corner right behind him so i just stayed behind him and the bike
slipstreamed past him right before the finish line. I was very happy at
that moment. Then in the game lobby there were some problems and we had
to watch the replay and decide the results. He accepted that i was the
winner, he also saw it on track so there was no problem in the end. I
feel good to win again but the disappointment of a bad season (from my
point of view it's bad) and also about this slow race didn't made me
feel so good about this victory. It felt like just another race was
over, that's all.
I have less victories than last year, also less podiums, poles and
points so for now I'll just try to focus on the next race and then on
the pre-season tests. If i look back i only get more upset, so I'll
look only forward.
The team standings is 95% in our bag but we've lost the constructors
title this year. Kawasaki has been good so far but behind Yamaha on few
tracks. I remember I've tested last winter both bikes and Kawa was a
bit faster on some tracks but i didn't test it on all tracks (and yes,
the bike model matters a bit in the lap times). Most probably next year
we'll go back to Yamaha because with them i had more success.
Good luck to all at Valencia."
SFW Team
Yamaha UK-NL (2nd, 17:08.087):
"Thank you all, it took me some time to get used to it but now I can
say I'm the 2008 MotoGP500online world Champion.
In the beginning of the season I never thought that I could win so many
races and fight for the title, but somehow it felt good from the start
and the epic battle with Seby was amazing. With every good result my
confidence got bigger and that gave me the energy to practice again
hard for the next race.
GG to Seby for the great ride and sneaky last corner win. GG to LuKe
with another strong race and podium finish. Too bad Guishermo went off
track on first corner otherwise he would have won the race.
My race went good, I didn't have too much time to practice but
eventually on the race day I was ready......... there was lots of
things on my mind before the race. First of all the championship... yes
I only needed one point but still very exiting. Then there was the
race...... Seby, Guish, Vouks, Skider, Luke ...they all looked very
strong and I knew it wasn't going to be as easy as Motegi and Philip
Island. Another thing on my mind was that I've been on the podium every
race so far and I really would have liked to finish on podium all races
and with other riders looking very strong I didn't want to spoil it by
trying to win the race and crashing instead.
The start went good and I took the lead.... the game felt a bit slow to
me but I was in front and I was fine with it. Seby made few attempts to
get passed me but I had always the better line and could stay in front.
On the last lap I've made some little gap to Seby but then I've made a
little mistake and went off track and Seby was just in front of me.
Then I got passed Seby again and just before the last corner I looked
back and saw Seby maybe 0.4 sec behind me so I decided to take it easy
and bring the bike home. My mistake was that had the same braking point
but was not so hard with braking so went a little wide and Seby got the
better line and as I was looking behind to see him he was already in
front of me, then I've tried to slipstream but the long straight wasn't
long enough.
My team did again good, Dolz did a good race and was almost the best of
the rest and Bradders had some trouble in the opening laps but
eventually found the rhythm and did a solid race."
LuKe Dark
Racing Corporation (3rd, 17:09.404):
"Congrats to Seby and SFW for this great winning and good fight which i
had seen.
My Race started not very good after some laps i made to many mistakes
and lost the fight against Seby and SFW, one little run off costs me to
much time to fight for the victory. The race was not the fastest one,
in practice before the race i did some better overall times, the
problem in this room was like Seby said the connection, which makes us
a little bit slower and also we had a bit worse feeling for our bikes.
Anyway, overall I'm happy with that 3rd podium this year, only 1,3 sec
behind the winners, was good
The next and last race will be in Valencia, a hard and tricky track
where i dont have a good feeling :-| but there is much time to practice
for it. hehe
See ya all!"
SPIDEY VJ
Racing (19th, 17:49.213):
"Congratulations to the New World champion SFW, gr8 going m8, Congrats
to Seby on win! And gg to every1 else.
This race has been something that brings a smile to my face thanks to
the some what weird race that i had. I was slow of the start, saw other
riders vanish away and yet towards the end everything became so
complicated. Atman i can smell the burning rubber from ur bikes tire.
hehe, i am getting closer and closer, perhaps had i more laps i might
have made a move, But nonetheless very interesting race, lots of
shuffling and very tight. Congrats to holy on his wonderful
performance(win in class C!), and also gr8 gr8 performance from Blejz
who i feel had such an amazing start. He battled it out for the lead
for at least 3 laps! Again a consistent and strong performance from
catutza despite fall keeps pressure on me as always.
So i guess the season is coming to an end, and its time for new signing
etc etc, just wondered about the new teams for next season? Well all i
have at the moment is an offer form Ducati which offers me a lot of
stash to finish about 2nd last every race hehe.
Keep smiling everyone!
Happy Racing,
Have a gr8 week,
And hope to see a big big crowd at the last race, hehe, and also
sponsors."
rezist rezist
racing (DNS):
"Whoa, that's even more reason for me to make sure i do the next race.
Also, I've gone from 35th to 37th in the championship, so I'll try to
creep up that ladder in the last round (probably only possible if there
are less than 30 finishers lol, which probably won't happen now that
I've said it...), i think i was 35th last year, even after i was
present at every race!!!
Now that says a lot about the inconsistency of this
championship.....also my smallest margin to the race winner in my whole
career (it was about 20sec) gave me 25th in that race! then a couple of
rounds later i was 55sec behind, and got in the points in 18th!!!"
Statistics:
SFW took the title in Sepang after finishing 2nd to Seby. SFW leads the
Rider Standings with 54 points over Seby with one race to go. Guishermo
is 3rd, 175 points behind SFW. Vouks is 4th, 19 points behind Guishermo
with Gabi46 further 19 points behind Vouks.
Lords Of Shadow are first in the Team Standings, they have extended the
lead to 36 points in front of Team Yamaha UK-NL. Dark Racing
Corporation are 3rd, only 22 points in front of Oasics NoGrip Racing
but 201 points behind the leading team. Arkos Connection completes the
top 5.
Yamaha took the Constructors Title thanks to a 43 point advantage over
Kawasaki with one race to go. Suzuki is 3rd, 187 points behind Yamaha
while Honda and Ducati complete the top 5.
In the Qualifying Award, Seby leads but SFW has reduced the gap to
0.841s after he took his 7th pole of the season. LuKe is 3rd at 12.431s
behind the Romanian, while Thunder and Gabi46 complete the top 5.
In the Hot Lap Award SFW leads with a gap of 0.835s in front of Seby.
Guishermo is 3rd at 5.592s while Gabi46 and Thunder complete the top 5.
SFW is leader in the Total Time Award thanks to a gap of 41.791s over
Seby. Guishermo is 3rd, over 2 minutes and a half behind SFW. Gabi46
and Thunder complete the top 5.
Join us in one weeks time for the 18th (last) race of the season at
Ricardo Tormo,
in Valencia.
Report by Seby
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