MotoGP heads to the world famous Indianapolis circuit for the first ever time on Sunday.  | INDIANAPOLIS MOTOGP Sunday 14 September: 125cc & 250cc races 1650-1905, BBC Red Button and BBC Sport website Race live: 1945-2100, Red Button and BBC Sport website
Race repeat: 2245-0000, BBC TWO
Coverage on the BBC Sport website is available for UK users only |
It's a great boost for the sport as MotoGP is quite small in America. It's fantastic that American audiences will get to see a race at such an iconic motorsport venue. The crowds are expected to be huge as a lot of people that have watched MotoGP before at California's Laguna Seca circuit have decided that they are going to come over to the east side of America to watch it. The track seems to have jumped through the hoops that MotoGP wanted it to and they are going to use some of the banking on the circuit and part of the track that's used for Formula One. It's new for everyone and all the teams are working with very limited data. Only test riders have been round the circuit and they don't go as fast as proper riders so it could be an interesting weekend. Dani Pedrosa has stunned the MotoGP world by changing his tyre manufacturer mid-season from Michelin to Bridgestone. It is an unprecedented move and I was astonished when I heard it was going to happen with five races left to go this season. He lost his confidence with Michelin after the silly mistakes they had made.  Pedrosa has stunned MotoGP by changing tyre manufacturers |
There were some pretty bad managerial errors made when they took the wrong compounds to America when the temperature was lower than they expected. That helped form his decision and he tested the Bridgestones on the Monday after Misano, said he liked them and now he's going for it. All eyes will be on him following this move and it will be like having a knife on his throat to perform. I think it's now 90% certain that MotoGP will go to a one make tyre rule next year which is sad in some ways, but if it closes the teams up and we get less disparity amongst tyre manufacturers then it's the best option. The last thing we want to see is a two-tyre race with Bridgestone's at the front and Michelin's at the back and a one-tyre rule should curb that. I know that the powers that be are trying to slow MotoGP down and the best way of doing that is to have less grip. |  The championship looks to be a done deal for Rossi and Yamaha |
If you have one make of tyre you end up with less grip as you don't get the cutting edge developments required to compete with other tyre manufacturers. The tyre they choose won't necessarily be Bridgestone as it will go to tender and it could be Michelin, Dunlop or Pirelli - it doesn't really make a lot of difference. The teams would want Bridgestone, but it would depend if it fits in with their marketing strategy. Back to this season, and the championship looks to be a done deal for Rossi and Yamaha. That is of course as long as something silly doesn't happen like the Italian falling off and breaking an ankle or wrist. It might look easy for us sat on the sidelines, but he still has to ride a motorcycle very fast and there's every chance he could hurt himself. There's 125 points still at stake and we are at a new track so it could be a peculiar one this weekend.
Indianapolis prediction 1. Stoner 2. Rossi 3. Pedrosa Steve Parrish was talking to Paul Birch Live coverage of the Indianapolis MotoGP on BBC via the red button and this website 1945-2100, "as live" re-run on BBC2 2245-2400.
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