Miguel Oliveira topped the timesheets in the final session of free practice for the Moto3 class, just holding off Friday's fastest man Maverick Vinales. Romano Fenati, now with some time at the track under his belt, came up just short of Vinales, ending the session less than a tenth behind the Spaniard, while Alex Rins ended in 4th.
Miguel Oliveira topped the timesheets in the final session of free practice for the Moto3 class, just holding off Friday's fastest man Maverick Vinales. Romano Fenati, now with some time at the track under his belt, came up just short of Vinales, ending the session less than a tenth behind the Spaniard, while Alex Rins ended in 4th.
In a shocking turn of events, Casey Stoner announced at the Thursday press conference for the French GP that he would be retiring at the end of the 2012 MotoGP season. The news is a turn of events, as the Australian denied such rumors at Estoril, saying he would quit motorcycle racing when he no longer enjoyed it, though not any time soon. Citing his disappointed with the direction MotoGP is currently headed, Stoner main …
Casey Stoner's domination of the MotoGP class continues. The Australian took a clean sweep of free practice on Saturday morning, ending FP3 nearly half a second faster than the chasing pack. Stoner's time came despite crashing midway through the session, the Repsol Honda man running over the inside of the kerbs at the Chemin aux Boeufs esses and losing the front. Once back in the pits, he climbed aboard his second bike and immediately seized the fastest time.
The Monster Tech 3 Yamaha riders took 2nd and 3rd, Cal Crutchlow taking 2nd with a few minutes to go, Andrea Dovizioso coming just four thousandths short of his teammate and rival, but both satellite riders ending ahead of Jorge Lorenzo, though only just. The Factory Yamaha rider ended the session in 4th, but with Alvaro Bautista once again hot on his heels, just 15 thousandths behind him. Stoner's Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa struggled a little in 6th, while Valentino Rossi saw significant improvement from his Ducati to end in 7th, 0.8 behind Stoner, but three tenths behind the group running for 2nd. Rossi led a fleet of Ducatis, with Pramac's Hector Barbera in 8th, ahead of Nicky Hayden in 9th, and Karel Abraham rounding out the top 10.
After two days out on track, the excitement of the Stoner retirement is starting to die down, and people are starting to concentrate on the racing again, rather than the politics and everything else surrounding Stoner's announcement. Qualifying helps focus minds, of course, because something serious is at stake again, a spot on the grid.
And focus was exactly what was needed, in all three classes. After three dry – if rather cold – sessions of free practice for Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP, the rain started to fall around lunchtime, letting up towards the end of Moto3 qualifying, before sprinkling on and off for MotoGP and Moto2 (though it returned once again with a vengeance once qualifying was over).
The Hypermotard series is growing long in the tooth, and while everyone expects the Ducati’s smaller Superbike to get revamped in 2013, here is some evidence to suggest that the big news at EICMA this year will be an all-new Hypermotard model. Expected to have a water-cooled motor, best guesses would have the new Hypermotard using the 849cc Testastretta power plant, which would dovetail nicely with the supersport-sized Superbike getting an ~800cc variant of the …
In a shocking turn of events, Casey Stoner announced at the Thursday press conference for the French GP that he would be retiring at the end of the 2012 MotoGP season. The news is a turn of events, as the Australian denied such rumors at Estoril, saying he would quit motorcycle racing when he no longer enjoyed it, though not any time soon. Citing his disappointed with the direction MotoGP is currently headed, Stoner main …
The first three races in the history of the new Moto3 class have given three different winners and, with round four just around the corner at Le Mans, any one of Sandro Cortese, Maverick Viñales or Romano Fenati could get their second win of the season. Or perhaps Spaniard Luis Salom will find that tiny thing he still needs to become part of the exclusive club of new “quarter litre” category winners.
With an intelligent victory at the first race in Qatar, Viñales started 2012 season as he finished 2011, winning in a very consistent way and becoming the favourite among the fastest contenders for the first Moto3 world championship season. But just as life was not easy in the 125 class, neither is it in Moto3, so Viñales’s sixth place finish in round two at Jerez proved once more the old saying that a winner one week can be mid-pack the next. Back in the front again fighting for victory one week later in Portugal, Viñales and his FTR Honda suffered clear problems of top speed against Sandro Cortese’s KTM on Estoril's main straight. At the end, victory was decided when both riders touched each other while accelerating at the start of the third sector of the track, with advantage for Cortese on the inside line. Viñales was far from happy with the episode, and he even tapped Cortese’s arm after the checkered flag. Maybe Cortese’s move was not such fair play, but Viñales’ action should not have gone unnoticed by Race Direction, but it did. Back on the track Viñales got his first ever win last year at Le Mans, a track with such strong braking points that top speed does not seem to be a crucial issue.
Miguel Oliveira topped the timesheets in the final session of free practice for the Moto3 class, just holding off Friday's fastest man Maverick Vinales. Romano Fenati, now with some time at the track under his belt, came up just short of Vinales, ending the session less than a tenth behind the Spaniard, while Alex Rins ended in 4th.
Michael Schumacher admits Monaco does not match the safety standards set by other tracks, but says the satisfaction of driving there is worth the risk.
At the press conference at Le Mans, where Casey Stoner made the shock announcement of his retirement, Stoner answered questions from journalists present about his decision to retire at the end of the 2012 season. You can find his original statement in this story, but below is a transcript of what Stoner told journalists when they were given a chance to question the Australian about his retirement. Q: You said you are disappointed in things, would you …
It is hard to upstage Valentino Rossi. It takes something large, significant, to take the limelight away from the nine-time World Champion, and the man who has been the charismatic heart of MotoGP for the best part of 15 years. To do that, you have to "Go big or go home," as British road racer Guy Martin likes to put it.
At Le Mans, Casey Stoner upstaged Rossi. The press conference – usually a rather staid affair, with the usual niceties about the track, each rider's chances at the circuit and a couple of witticisms – started unusually, with Nick Harris, the veteran commentator who leads the official press conferences, saying that Stoner would like to make a statement to the press. Stoner then proceeded to press the big red button that set Twitter, the internet and newswires ablaze. In the process, he did not so much ignite the 2013 MotoGP Silly Season, as douse it in liquid oxygen and set a flame thrower to it.
Stoner's announcement that he will retire at the end of this season has been covered in depth just about everywhere – see transcripts of his statement to the press here, and his detailed responses to questions here – but the question is, what happened to the Australian's denials exactly two weeks ago at Estoril of the stories that emerged in the Spanish press? Was the report in Solo Moto correct, and had Stoner already decided to retire at Jerez, or was Stoner being truthful when he denied any decision had been made. Piecing together the puzzle of what happened over the past few weeks, the following picture emerges.
After breaking his right foot at the Monza World Superbike round, Fixi Crescent Suzuki rider John Hopkins will make his return to WSBK racing at his home round of Miller Motorsports Park. Hopper broke his right foot and damaged his left hip in a highside crash at Monza, and had to miss the last WSBK round at Donington Park because of the injury, though there was initially hope that Hopkins would be fit in time …
At the start of the pre-event press conference at Le Mans, Casey Stoner made the following statement:
"Afternoon everyone.
"Basically, this has come after a long time of thinking, a lot of time talking with my family and my wife. This has been coming for a couple of years now, but at the end of this 2012 season, I will be not racing in the 2013 championship. I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP and go forward with something different with my life.
"After so many years of doing the sport which I love, and which myself and my family made so many sacrifices for, after so many years of trying to get to where we have gotten to and this point. This sport has changed a lot, and it's changed to the point that I'm not enjoying it, I don't have the passion for it. So at this time, it's better if I retire now. There's a lot of things that have disappointed me and also a lot of things that I have loved about this sport, but unfortunately, the balance has gone in the wrong direction, and so basically I won't be continuing any more. It would be nice if I can stay that I will stay for just one more year, but then when does it stop? So we decided to finish everything as we are now."
The Hypermotard series is growing long in the tooth, and while everyone expects the Ducati’s smaller Superbike to get revamped in 2013, here is some evidence to suggest that the big news at EICMA this year will be an all-new Hypermotard model. Expected to have a water-cooled motor, best guesses would have the new Hypermotard using the 849cc Testastretta power plant, which would dovetail nicely with the supersport-sized Superbike getting an ~800cc variant of the …
In a shock announcement, Casey Stoner has told the pre-event press conference at Le Mans that he has decided to retire at the end of 2012. Citing "disappointment with the direction MotoGP is going," according to MCN's Matt Birt, Stoner told a shocked press conference that he will not be racing in MotoGP beyond 2012. The Repsol Honda rider said the decision had nothing to do with the birth of his daughter, and everything to do with losing his passion for racing.
The announcement comes just two weeks after he denied reports in Spanish magazines that he would be retiring at the end of the season. At Estoril, Stoner said that he had not made any decisions about retiring, and was still in talks about a new one-year contract with HRC. He even rubbished the reports, claiming that people "should not read what you [the Spanish journalist in question - DE] publish." However, sources close to Stoner intimated that he had not made up his mind at all, and that what had troubled him most about the publication was that by being forced to deny it, it would make it difficult for him to make a calm decision on his own. In the end, it appears, Stoner decided that the direction racing was going was not one he was prepared to follow.
It is hard to upstage Valentino Rossi. It takes something large, significant, to take the limelight away from the nine-time World Champion, and the man who has been the charismatic heart of MotoGP for the best part of 15 years. To do that, you have to "Go big or go home," as British road racer Guy Martin likes to put it.
At Le Mans, Casey Stoner upstaged Rossi. The press conference – usually a rather staid affair, with the usual niceties about the track, each rider's chances at the circuit and a couple of witticisms – started unusually, with Nick Harris, the veteran commentator who leads the official press conferences, saying that Stoner would like to make a statement to the press. Stoner then proceeded to press the big red button that set Twitter, the internet and newswires ablaze. In the process, he did not so much ignite the 2013 MotoGP Silly Season, as douse it in liquid oxygen and set a flame thrower to it.
Stoner's announcement that he will retire at the end of this season has been covered in depth just about everywhere – see transcripts of his statement to the press here, and his detailed responses to questions here – but the question is, what happened to the Australian's denials exactly two weeks ago at Estoril of the stories that emerged in the Spanish press? Was the report in Solo Moto correct, and had Stoner already decided to retire at Jerez, or was Stoner being truthful when he denied any decision had been made. Piecing together the puzzle of what happened over the past few weeks, the following picture emerges.
At the press conference at Le Mans, where Casey Stoner made the shock announcement of his retirement, Stoner answered questions from journalists present about his decision to retire at the end of the 2012 season. You can find his original statement in this story, but below is a transcript of what Stoner told journalists when they were given a chance to question the Australian about his retirement.
Q: You said you are disappointed in things, would you mind elaborating a bit. Are you talking about the CRT, or the control tires? The things that have annoyed you a bit recently?
It's not just annoying me. I've been watching this championship for a long time, and it's very easy to see what works and what doesn't. This championship and everything that I've worked towards to get here, it's been a huge dream of mine, and then you get here, you race for a few years, and you realize a lot of things, whether it's people having no faith in you, whether it's people not believing in your talent, or the changes that have happened to the championship.
After breaking his right foot at the Monza World Superbike round, Fixi Crescent Suzuki rider John Hopkins will make his return to WSBK racing at his home round of Miller Motorsports Park. Hopper broke his right foot and damaged his left hip in a highside crash at Monza, and had to miss the last WSBK round at Donington Park because of the injury, though there was initially hope that Hopkins would be fit in time …
Michael Schumacher admits Monaco does not match the safety standards set by other tracks, but says the satisfaction of driving there is worth the risk.
Cheating in motorsports is as old as the sport itself. Whenever powered vehicles gather together to race each other, then someone, somewhere, will try to gain an advantage, either within the rules or, if that is not successful, outside of the rules. In all classes, and at all times, teams, engineers and riders have all tried to cheat in one way or another. Even the imposition of a spec engine in the Moto2 class hasn't prevented teams trying to cheat, and the paddock is awash with rumors regarding which teams are cheating and which teams are not.
The finger of blame is inevitably pointed at the most successful riders, and in recent months, it has been pointed mainly at Catalunya CX rider Marc Marquez. Marquez has a number of strikes against him, making him a popular target for rumors of cheating; firstly, Marquez is Spanish, and as Moto2 is a Spanish-run series, the non-Spanish teams are all fervently convinced that Spanish teams are not monitored as closely as they are. Secondly, Marquez has the backing of Repsol, one of the more powerful sponsors in the paddock, exerting influence not just over Marquez' Monlau Competicion team, but also over the much more important factory Repsol Honda team; the power of Repsol, the gossips suggest, exerts undue influence on the policing process. Thirdly, and most obviously, Marquez is fast, almost suspiciously so. The Spaniard's bike is always one of the fastest through the speed traps, and accelerates hardest off the corners. His team put it down to hard work at finding exactly the right set up for Marquez to excel. One of the lighter Moto2 riders on a well-prepared bike, ridden by a fast and talented rider? That, Marquez' supporters argue, is reason enough for him to be fastest.
To find out more about the situation, and what Dorna and the scrutineers are doing to address these concerns, I spoke to Race Director – and formerly Technical Director – Mike Webb at Estoril. I passed on the concerns that others had expressed to me about cheating in Moto2, and he explained to me exactly what Dorna are doing to monitor the bikes and ensure that cheating is kept to an absolute minimum, and that if it is happening, it does not pay. Here is what Webb had to say:
It is hard to upstage Valentino Rossi. It takes something large, significant, to take the limelight away from the nine-time World Champion, and the man who has been the charismatic heart of MotoGP for the best part of 15 years. To do that, you have to "Go big or go home," as British road racer Guy Martin likes to put it.
At Le Mans, Casey Stoner upstaged Rossi. The press conference – usually a rather staid affair, with the usual niceties about the track, each rider's chances at the circuit and a couple of witticisms – started unusually, with Nick Harris, the veteran commentator who leads the official press conferences, saying that Stoner would like to make a statement to the press. Stoner then proceeded to press the big red button that set Twitter, the internet and newswires ablaze. In the process, he did not so much ignite the 2013 MotoGP Silly Season, as douse it in liquid oxygen and set a flame thrower to it.
Stoner's announcement that he will retire at the end of this season has been covered in depth just about everywhere – see transcripts of his statement to the press here, and his detailed responses to questions here – but the question is, what happened to the Australian's denials exactly two weeks ago at Estoril of the stories that emerged in the Spanish press? Was the report in Solo Moto correct, and had Stoner already decided to retire at Jerez, or was Stoner being truthful when he denied any decision had been made. Piecing together the puzzle of what happened over the past few weeks, the following picture emerges.
At the press conference at Le Mans, where Casey Stoner made the shock announcement of his retirement, Stoner answered questions from journalists present about his decision to retire at the end of the 2012 season. You can find his original statement in this story, but below is a transcript of what Stoner told journalists when they were given a chance to question the Australian about his retirement. Q: You said you are disappointed in things, would you …
Below are the press releases from the Moto2 and Moto3 teams, as well as official tire supplier Dunlop, ahead of this weekend's Le Mans round of MotoGP:
On the morning after announcing his retirement from the sport, Casey Stoner is back to business. In the first session of free practice at Le Mans, the Australian set the fastest time early, then led for the remainder of the session, ending nearly six tenths ahead of his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa. Andrea Dovizioso put in a strong final few minutes to end FP1 in 3rd on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, while Ben Spies picked up the pace towards the end as well, finishing the first session of free practice in 4th. Pramac's Hector Barbera set the 5th fastest time, though he gained some speed by following Stoner around, but Barbera sneaked ahead of Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo. Cal Crutchlow finished the session in 7th, and was the last man to get within a second of Stoner.
The folks at GP Tech are no strangers to running wild card entries at Indy, as the American motorcycle parts seller fielded one-off wild card rides in the Moto2 Championship at both the 2010 and 2011 Indianapolis GP’s. Using FTR-built bikes, GP Tech raced with Jason DiSalvo in 2010, were the American rider finished a very respectable 9th place, while in 2011 Jake Gagne rode to a forgettable 31st spot. Stepping up to the big-boy …
For some, the KTM 125 Duke is just not quite enough machine to get their two-wheeled juices flowing, and thus the KTM 200 Duke & soon-to-be-expected KTM 350 Duke were born. With the Austrian motorcycle maker KTM partnering with India’s largest motorcycle brand Bajaj to make the baby Duke, it should come as no surprise then that many of these models are ending up outside of Europe, and in Asian markets…namely India itself. While us …