Moody Blues: Catalunya.

In the latest of his exclusive columns for Crash.net, Eurosport MotoGP commentator Toby Moody reviews Sunday's incident packed Catalan Grand Prix - including the Team Roberts podium, Ilmor's MotoGP project, Red Bull, Ducati's 2007 line-up and much more...

Good day, bad day

Sunday was a fantastic day for the Yamaha/Rossi camp as they closed in on Nicky Hayden's championship lead, but not a good day for the championship as a whole.

Rossi was the bookie's favourite coming into Catalunya, starting off with his first pole for as good as a year. And with no testing in between a run of five races over six weekends, Rossi has got the jump on them and the rest are going to have to work very hard indeed. Some of them are going to be lucky to race, let alone score.

But sitting here after a long day's racing, we can only reflect upon better ambiances over MotoGP races, especially after one of the best ever races just a fortnight ago at Mugello.

After mentioning, during the warm-up lap, the 1998 race here at Catalunya (when Criville, Bayle and Fujiwara all skittled) the nightmare returned just a minute later with six riders in the gravel at the same corner. It was a racing incident triggered by Gibernau just clipping his front brake lever on the side of Capirossi's leg, causing the front to lock on the white line, and then flip the bike over once the rubber regained contact with the tarmac.

The resultant carnage you know.

Fair play to Pedrosa who when initially knocked off actually got the bike righted before falling once on the gravel. Ditto Hopkins who did so well to get his best bike through the gravel without dropping it... but having to go horizontal before the fence.

Less lucky were an unconscious Capirossi and Melandri. MM was tangled up in the rear of Pedrosa's Honda. Gibernau was well enough to hold his arms in, but had a whack on the head in the process of slamming hard onto the tarmac. de Puniet said that when he went to help Sete, he was talking gobbledegook. There is reportedly a photo of Capirossi's front tyre completely squashed into the ground after his brake lever had been forced against Melandri. Talk about dominoes.

The luckiest man in the first corner crash may well have been Roberts who was inches ahead of the sliding bikes on the tarmac. Every time you look at the replay the stricken bikes seem to get closer and closer to KRJR's KR Honda.

But in essence, one has to remember what Rossi said after qualifying, that those in the mid pack are always in danger - he knows just as well as anyone about that this year.

In one swoop championship challengers were eliminated in a round about way. For example, even though Pedrosa was uninjured, he had to restart on his second bike - a bike that had never been used all weekend. This was something that was probably instrumental in causing his race ending crash later in the afternoon. He was a race challenger even from 11th on the grid. Remember he got to 3rd from 14th on the Istanbul grid before dropping it. We were robbed of a showdown between he and Rossi.

"By the time the third start came about," he said, "...I had lost a little bit of concentration - and I was nervous too by now." One can hardly blame him at just 20 years old and an expectant 107,000 people watching...

Where can he get his teeth into Rossi? A new Assen that none have seen before? A real racer's circuit of Donington? The tight Sachsenring? The even tighter and daunting for a rookie Laguna? Or of course, the 250 specialist's Brno? Remember how well Biaggi and Kato would go there.

Hayden leads again

So Hayden again leads the championship. But it seems to be that he leads with a different 'feeling' to when he lead after Turkey, China, Le Mans and Mugello (although jointly).

With he being the only Honda in championship contention at the moment to score any relevant points in Catalunya, what do Honda do to try and keep ahead of 'The Yellow Thing', as Alberto Puig amusingly calls Rossi?

In my eyes Pedrosa was going to battle with Hayden, Rossi and maybe Melandri for the podium in Catalunya, but it never happened for the reasons we now know. Which Honda is the one to run ahead as the hare for Rossi?

Hopping towards the podium

Oh for what could have been for Hopper, were it not for the first corner mess. His time is not far away now. Fourth place on a number two bike that had never been ridden out of the garage all weekend.

How the public flogging and kicking of a fine Japanese Suzuki on International Television in Qatar suddenly ceased the blow ups and poor results. Team manager Paul Denning may well have told him not to do it again but, behind closed doors, he may well have bought him many a beer for his outburst...

Red Bull gives you speed

Mario Illien was on the BA flight from Birmingham to Barcelona on Thursday with his colleague Steve Miller for meetings at the track on Friday. Illien, who recently sold his share in Ilmor Engineering completely to Mercedes Benz, has remained in his original works in Northamptonshire with a workforce of 60, and a workforce in the USA of 52, whilst Mercedes have set up over the road. Other share holders were (Roger) Penske and Paul Morgan's widow.

Illien's employees are busy tending to Honda's IRL effort (sole engine supplier), Team Penske's NASCAR engines, Formula Nippon in Japan (Japan's GP2) and of course a V4 800cc MotoGP engine that has been on the bench since Spring.

Illien has been a regular visitor to the grand prix paddock, going back to 500cc days, but the Swiss is increasingly looking like he will appear with this engine in some shape or form next year. But which teams is he talking to?

"I'm not talking to any teams."

So you are just talking to Team Eskil?

He smiled extremely widely...

What about some wild-card rides later in the season? The smile just got wider.

Suter, from his Swiss base, already builds the frame for Kawasaki so knows what is needed. If the engine is good, and reports of course say that it is, then sure Illien may want to plough some of the many millions in the coffers towards kick starting his own team? Maybe Dorna may need him on the grid next year if some teams struggle to appear?

Whatever may happen, the other possibility after 2007, once his team is running, is that he may hook up with Red Bull. Dietrich Mateschitz is looking to get back into MotoGP after leaving WCM Yamaha at the end of the 2002 season. Hushed rumours circulate that something is in the offing with the mutli $billion energy drinks operation sniffing around MotoGP, although truth told, could it not be with KTM as their road bike production lines get more and more busy.

With KTM winning in 125 and 250, surely the next step is to go back into the big class. Just look at the cool image the Red Bull brand has in the stiff world of F1 now they have a couple of teams there. The one big link is that Red Bull has built a massive factory in Switzerland in order to be outside EU exporting restrictions, releasing them into doubling their sales in the USA. A tenuous link to Team Illien/Suter?

With Team Roberts injecting new blood from cars and bikes onto the podium in Catalunya, and with a potential engine development freeze in F1 in forthcoming seasons, it could mean many very talented engineers around street corners. And that can only be good for MotoGP.

Team KR trophy

Team Roberts clinched their first podium since 1996, but importantly enough, the first trophy with totally their own bike that kicked into action at Shah Alam in 1997.

"I've had some hard days, and some bloody hard years since then," said Kenny Snr.

No team in the paddock deserves more than the squad from Banbury. Regularly I have gone on and on about them on commentary and in this column, and finally it came at Catalunya. Nay slayers may well say it was a podium because others were in the hedge; well bollocks to them.

Roberts was quick enough to get on the front row to be the fastest Honda (do you have any idea of what that actually meant at a track where Honda have done hundreds of thousands of laps?) and then battle with a wise head not for the podium at all costs, but the best result possible; that just happened to be a podium.

The balance has been found at Roberts with not too many F1 people, but enough to have some fresh thinking, and an idea of packaging. Tom Jojic came from BAR Honda into Team Roberts to prove that it is in fact Banbury that has a winning formula.

Roberts Jr sped past Hayden on Friday morning, but did not go faster than his Friday morning time until qualifying, maybe so not to annoy Honda. In the end, he actually took no points away from any Honda that mattered, leaving Hayden ahead. Bingo.

Tick tock

Obviously the race this year was a lap shorter than last year's race, due to the restart, but if you add 1min 44secs to Rossi's 2006 race time, you get 43min 16secs. Exactly what his race winning time was in 2005.

Hayden was right. Rossi had a great deal in hand...

MSMA meeting

An MSMA meeting took place on the Thursday at Catalunya with no real decision forthcoming from a three hour meeting, according to sources. For all Max Moseley's odd comments in F1 from an FIA standpoint, at least he shakes the manufacturers into making decisions by giving them ultimatums to ideas, or short time scales for them to think up their own rules.

Just as an aside, it is a stunning speed that a MotoGP circulates Barcelona, but an even more mind bending sight is an F1 car circulating 29 seconds a lap faster. Twenty nine seconds. And in a car with 200bhp less in 2006 than 2005.

Whatever decisions the MSMA make, I hope it will be for the good of the racing rather than some lame excuse for safety. If people are going to fall off, they can still hurt themselves. Go and have a look at the injury list in the 55bhp 125cc class this past weekend. Webb; broken wrist. Simon; broken leg. Koyama; broken arm in two places.

2007

Crazy as it sounds, but talks have already started as to who may be the other Ducati rider in 2007. Capirossi's deal is up, as is Gibernau's, but in reality you cannot see Capirossi going anywhere else. That leaves Gibernau, who has a results related option at the end of the year. But could the squad tame Stoner? Elias?

They may do well to nick Hayden from under Honda's nose if Big Red keep him slogging his guts out at the front of the championship on a bike that gets no development parts all year? The chippy American would fit into the true Marlboro man image well... Now where's that Stetson?!

Bulging at the seams

Solo Moto magazine in Spain put together a bumper issue following the Catalan GP with an edition full of 97 pages of motorcycle sport alone. Published on Tuesday for the glut of Spanish fans, it is a brilliant example to the rest of the world. If only I could read Spanish!

Interestingly, the figures for the Sunday attendance at Barcelona was just less than 2,000 more than 2005 (105,698). Quite surprising really seeing as though Dani Pedrosa was a favourite for the race win.

Motorcycle racing in Spain is still big even with the onslaught of Fernando Alonso in F1. The circuit has signed a deal for the next five years to host MotoGP much to the relief of many. Why should we ever wish to leave a perfect venue!

Sweden in Spain

Top bloke Johan Stigefelt was a visitor in the Barcelona paddock, happy to be looking around, but not racing: "I stayed maybe a couple of years too long here before going over to world Supersport. There are maybe some others in 250 that really need to see what I did rather than being frustrated."