MOTO GP

Grim.

awe simon sliding everywhere looks awesome

Grim.

:eek: @ DeAngelis crash

h3000

Grim. wrote: »

:eek: @ DeAngelis crash

Unreal, he is lucky to not be on a stretcher

SlabMurphy

Disaster again for Casey Stoner. His team mate Nicky Hayden is 5th on 39 pts, Casey is 13th on 11 Whatever he had, he hasn't got it anymore it seems.

EvilMonkey

SlabMurphy wrote: »

Disaster again for Casey Stoner. His team mate Nicky Hayden is 5th on 39 pts, Casey is 13th on 11 Whatever he had, he hasn't got it anymore it seems.

He has gone back to his Honda days where he drops it every race.

Grim.

EvilMonkey wrote: »

He has gone back to his Honda days where he drops it every race.

yup exactly what i was thinking same type of crash aswell always off the front same as 06 when he was on the lcr honda

Fabio

The 125 race and the Moto2 races were superb! De Angelis was very very lucky to walk away from that one though.

The MotoGP race wasn't great I thought but then I did watch it at 2am on the Sky+...

frostie500

This weekend sees the Italian MotoGP round and the Tuscan circuit will look to continue its long run of producing classic racing.

Each year races at this venue leave fan awe struck as races invariably produce exteptionally close races. An example of this would be the 2006 125cc Grand Prix which was the closest race in GP history with a 0.001 second victory margin and only 0.050 separating the podium places.

Indeed the small classes has traditionally been the race that is most closely contested with riders unable to break away from each other due to the slipstreaming battles on the long home straight.

Italian fans are always incredibly passionate at their races and the atmosphere they create at Mugello is just what anyone would expect. Fan clubs line the circuit to lend support to their chosen rider and on the formation laps of races the air around the circuit is filled with the coloured smoke from flares and one can only imagine how distracting this must be for the riders!

The Circuit

Originally Mugello was home to one of Italy’s largest road races through local towns. The road race circuit was 66 km long but in 1974 the shortened current circuit was first conceived and then updated by Ferrari in the late 80s after they purchased it to use for testing of road and race cars.
The current configuration of Mugello measures just over 5 km and with a 1141 metre home straight each year we see tremendous slipstreaming battles as riders exit the final corner and battle with one another all the way to San Donato, a downhill second gear corner where riders can choose from numerous lines.
The circuit is characterised by the lie of the land with the track following the natural contours of the Tuscany countryside. This sees riders flow from one apex to another and also sees a lack of slow chicanes with riders instead tackling fast left than right sequences that require a bike that can easily change direction. One of the prime overtaking places is at turn six and seven, Casanova and Savelli. One of the most atmospheric areas on any race track in the world, this sequence sees many fan clubs camping out in the hope of getting as close to their heroes as possible. With downhill braking the riders face a challenge in getting the bike stopped for the apex and keeping their pursuers at bay.
The final corner is one of the most difficult on the circuit because riders know any mistake will be punished heavily on the home straight. Bucine is a long left hander that leads all the way downhill to the start finish line.

Who will be the contenders at Mugello for MotoGP victory?

Mugello is an exceptionally fast and flowing circuit and favours a rider with exceptional feel for the front end of their bike. Certain riders consistently are at the front of the field at this track but no one has anything like the record of Valentino Rossi. A nine time winner of this race, Rossi consistently has saved his very best for the display of his compatriots. Last year saw the end of Rossi’s unbeaten run at Mugello when he followed home Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo.

Lorenzo leads the world championship after a stellar start to the year with two wins and a podium placing the Majorcan ahead of his teammate Rossi. Lorenzo has had mixed results here in the past but won in 2006 from pole in the 250cc race. Indeed qualifying has not been an issue for the Spaniard as he has started from the head of the field three times including last year. This year though Lorenzo has shown that he has added a lot of maturity to his already formidable speed and he will relish taking the fight to Rossi in Italy.

Stoner loves this circuit with an enviable qualifying record clearly displaying the speed that the 2007 world champion has consistently displayed here. In seven years he has only started outside the front row twice and in 2003’s 125cc Grand Prix marking the first pole position of his career but the race ended in disappointment for the Australian as he finished the race in 18th after being taken out from behind on the last lap after running in fifth. In recent years though Stoner's star has shined underneath the Tuscan sun with top four positions the last three years including a win and a runner up spot. After the disappointment of the start to the year Stoner will be keen to show the world that he has put his recent crashes behind him.
Last year was the first time that Honda’s Dani Pedrosa failed to finish in Italy and with the exception of his first race in 2001 the Spanaird has consistently finished inside the top four including five podiums. Qualifying though has been a struggle for Pedrosa with only three front row starts, but with such a long straight Pedrosa has consistently been able to use his small frame to his advantage by hiding behind the fairing and rocketing past his rivals over the start finish line.

Who will be the challengers in the support class

Outside of the top class the battle for victory is difficult to predict. The Moto2 class has consistently seen some of the closest fields ever with Toni Elias leading the title chase and expecting to challenge for a third victory in a row but the Spanish rider has never finished on the podium at Mugello in the past.

Aspar’s Julian Simon showed at Le Mans that the change to Suter chassis was successful and the reigning 125 champion will be expecting to add to his podium finish last year. Former 125 title winner Thomas Luthi has finished on the podium twice but has consistently finished inside the top five and will look to regain his form from the opening two races.
The main challenge to Elias is expected to come from former MotoGP teammate Alex Deangelis who finished in the top three for three consecutive years from 2005 in the 250cc class. The San Marinese rider has struggled this year and will look to rebound from his frightening crash last time out when he was struck by a crashing motorcycle.

In the 125cc class Bradley Smith knows that if he is to challenge for a world title this year but the Britain won this Grand Prix last year so should be full of confidence ahead of this weekend’s race. This race will be telling in how the internal dynamics of the Aspar team with Nico Terol battling for the title chase and challenging for race wins this year. It will be interesting to see how the team deals with Smith if he cannot get on a par with his Spanish teammate.

Pol Espagaro showed at Le Mans that he has a new found maturity to go with his undoubted speed and the Derbi showed in Qatar that it was the fastest bike down the long front straight so their riders will expect to challenge for the victory. Marc Marquez and Efran Vasquez are both searching for their first ever win in Grand Prix and the Derbi should be able to allow them to showcase their obvious talents.

Grim.

rossi saying his shoulder could take 3 to 4 months to heal and might require surgery

no idea if this is a rossi mind game or what we shall see soon enough


in other news the 125 championship is to be replaced by moto 3 in 2012 the bikes will be 250cc 4 stroke single cylinder bikes . I haven't heard anything else yet about rules/regs

frostie500

Grim. wrote: »

rossi saying his shoulder could take 3 to 4 months to heal and might require surgery

no idea if this is a rossi mind game or what we shall see soon enough


in other news the 125 championship is to be replaced by moto 3 in 2012 the bikes will be 250cc 4 stroke single cylinder bikes . I haven't heard anything else yet about rules/regs

Has that been confirmed? A change to 250cc 4 strokes doesnt make the same economic sense that the change to Moto2 made. 125s are still built by all the major manufacturers and every national championship continues to use the class. I know that there has been a dearth of true talent in 125s for a while-the domination of Aspar has looked bad on the class but I dont see why making this change makes sense to Dorna other than to make the entire paddock 4 stroke

Grim.

aye i forgot to add its all rumors atm but i have a feeling it may come to pass myself but not as a 250 single. 250/300 twins make more sense imo

personaly i would rather the 125s stay amazing machines and sound brilliant aswell


the article in question from motomaters.com

It took only a few hours after the announcement of the introduction of the Moto2 class for speculation to begin about the future of the 125s. With the demise of the 250s, the MotoGP paddock had at a stroke become an overwhelmingly four-stroke paddock, and it seemed only logical that the 125s would quickly follow. Whenever either Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta or FIM president Vito Ippolito was asked about this, however, they denied there were any plans to change. Their arguments were that the 125s were cheap to run, they had plenty of national series to support fresh young talent, and bikes and parts were in plentiful supply. There was no need to change, in their view.

And yet change is coming. According to MCN's Matthew Birt, the 125s are to be replaced by a new four stroke class beginning in 2012, at the same time as the new rules in MotoGP come into effect. The class will be composed of 250cc four-stroke single cylinder machines, MCN reports, replacing the 125cc two-strokes currently being used. The decision has been made in response to the thinning out of the 125cc grid this year, which has come about in part due to the arrival of the new Moto2 class, which has attracted large amounts of sponsorship, talent and public interest from the 125cc class.

Rumors of a switch had first emerged at Jerez, with one team telling MotoMatters.com that they had been informed by Ezpeleta himself that a new class would be replacing the 125s from 2012. All efforts at trying to corroborate this story failed, with members of several long-serving 125 teams denying they knew anything about it, saying that their plans revolved entirely around the continuation of the 125cc class in its current form. Various paddock insiders were sceptical about the story, believing that there would not be enough time to develop bikes and engines in time for the 2012 season. Despite having his doubts about the question, veteran journalist Dennis Noyes did point out that the last time that Carmelo Ezpeleta spoke on the issue, the Dorna CEO said the 125s were safe through 2011, a date seemingly chosen with great care.

The one difference between the Jerez rumor and MCN's report is the size of the engines, with rumors at Jerez speaking of 300cc four-stroke singles to be introduced, rather than a 250. The smaller capacity would make mroe sense, however, as there is already an abundance of 250cc four-stroke motocross bikes currently being raced, and already being tested in roadrace chassis, such as Moriwaki's MD250H. But the cost of uprating 250 MX bikes to ensuring they hold together under roadracing conditions is probably large. The Roadracingworld website ran an interesting story last year about one team manager's experience of running 450cc MX singles in roadracing and dirt track chassis, and that team had run into a lot of mechanical problems with the engines, the singles requiring more work than expected to keep them running.

The change is almost certainly triggered by the drastic thinning out of the 125cc field. Although the grid is still relatively well-stocked, the quality of the entries has dropped off significantly. Once past the top 5 or 6 riders, the gap back to the rest is worryingly large, 10th position often being over 2 seconds behind the polesitter during qualifying. When we spoke to Tech 3 team boss Herve Poncharal about the possible demise of the 125cc class, Poncharal was not surprised at all. "If you look at the top 15 in each class, by far the biggest gap is in the 125s," the Tech 3 boss pointed out.

Despite professing not to know about a change to the 125 class, Poncharal admitted that the temptation to add a Moto3 (as the class is probably going to be called) team to the Tech 3 family was very great. "My first reaction is I would be very interested, very excited, I would love it," the Frenchman confided. "But then five seconds later, when I think what I've been going through with the Moto2 team in the winter, I'm not so sure!"

frostie500

Rossi highsided this morning and it seems that he has been pretty badly injured. He's in the medical centre with Dr Costa but no update on his condition has been announched

EDIT: Toby Moody has tweeted that it is a broken tibia Rossi suffered. This weekend will be the first time Vale has missed a Grand Prix in his career

Grim.

gah its gona be weird watching a race witout him in it who will repace him? not this weekend i mean but itll be brno before his back

get well soon vale

Monkeybonkers

It's a shame that Rossi is going to be missing. Any word on how long he'll be out for?


edit: just seen above that he'll be out until Brno

Grim.

from crash.net

Reigning seven time MotoGP world champion, Valentino Rossi, has emerged from surgery on his right tibia, which he fractured in this morning's free practice session at Mugello.

Rossi was flung from his Fiat Yamaha at highspeed on entry to Turn 13 and was clearly in considerable pain as he lay in the gravel trap. Initially taken to the circuit medical centre, Rossi was then transferred by helicopter to hospital in Florence where he underwent immediate surgery.

Rossi was operated on by Dr. Roberto Buzzi and assisted by Dr. Claudio Costa of the Clinica Mobile. Dr. Buzzi made the following statement following the 2.5 hour operation:

"We received Valentino Rossi at the Careggi Hospital, where we made detailed checks in order to rule out any other injuries, and the results were satisfactory. We therefore decided to proceed with the surgery for the exposed fracture of the right leg. We performed a spinal block (epidural) and cleaned and washed the fracture, which was then aligned and stabilised with a pin.

“The surgery had good results; the alignment was good and the bone is now stable. The wound remains open, as is usual in these cases, and it will be stitched in the next few days with another short surgery. We are confident that Valentino will be able to leave the hospital in a week to ten days, able to put weight on the leg with the aid of crutches.

"It is difficult to say how long the post surgery rehabilitation will take, we need to evaluate the progress of the patient and also what the x-rays will show. But I think that we can reasonably think of six weeks partial weight-bearing with crutches, after which Valentino needs to be re-evaluated, according to his feedback and further x-rays."

Six weeks on crutches surely rules Rossi out of the next six rounds, up to and including Laguna Seca on July 20, after which the summer break begins.

"It was a very sad day today for Yamaha and the Fiat Yamaha Team, seeing Vale in so much pain and seriously injured for the first time in his career,” said Lin Jarvis, managing director of Yamaha Motor Racing.

“It is especially tough for Vale to have this accident at his home Grand Prix and this w ill surely be a huge disappointment for him and for all his fans here at the Mugello circuit and around the world.

“As a team we are very deflated right now because we had our two riders challenging for the championship lead and now that challenge is over - at least for the immediate future. We wish Vale the very best for a speedy recovery and hope to have him back with us as soon as possible."

Rossi is presently second in the 2010 MotoGP World Championship, nine points behind team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who will start Sunday's race from second on the grid. Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa starts on pole with Ducati's Casey Stoner third.

Rossi's injury brings an end to 230 consecutive grand prix appearances since his 125cc debut in 1996.

Grim.

in other news my MCN fantasy road race team is doomed!!!

dceire

Get well soon Vale. Missing him already It just won't be the same without him, especially in Mugello.

I hope that he's back on the bike and to his best in no time. :cool:

frostie500

Grim. wrote: »

who will repace him?

Yamaha are left with very few options with who to take in and still challenge for the manufacturer title.

They might have to do something like what Honda did when Katoh died and they took in Ryuichi Kiyonari in from the Japanese superbike championship
but there hasnt seemed to be the same ultimate high quality of rider in that championship any longer.

They need to bring in a rider that has a future with the company and one that can consistently challenge for podiums....what about moving Colin Edwards(knows the team incredibly well from riding for them for three years) or Ben Spies(coming man of Yamaha and undoubtably a rider who they see as a man who can lead the company forward after Rossi.) They then need to replace one of the Tech 3 riders so how about moving James Toseland back from Superbikes to his old team for until after the Summer break. The R1 is not performing well enough in WSBK so Toseland wont be losing out on challenging for the title and Yamaha have four riders all of whom they already have under contract and all of whom they can trust to score podiums and points.

I know its a long shot but to be honest I don't see what Yam can do and still challenge for overall honours if they only have Lorenzo challenging for wins

Fiskar

I'd put Spies on the bike and move someone up to the Tech 3 Yama for a for awhile, long term that spot has to be Spies goal anyway. Why not now.

Grim.

I'm really not sure how they'll work out a replacement as far as I'm aware Edwards contract is with tech3 not yamaha moving him could be complicated (maybe yamaha promise more factory parts?)

spies has a contract with Yamaha them selves but hasn't ridden in enough races to ride for a factory team

Monkeybonkers

Anyone else think the championship is over? Surely Lorenzo has it in the bag now, especially seeing as Stoner is off form this year. I thought that he might win it anyway this year and with Rossi gone now it seems a formality.

Grim.

from motomaters.com

ROSSI RECOVERING WELL FOLLOWING SURGERY

Following surgery to repair his broken right leg yesterday afternoon, Valentino Rossi is recovering well at the Centro Traumatologico Ortopedico in Florence, Italy.

Dr. Roberto Buzzi of the CTO, who performed the operation, gave the following update this morning: "Valentino is recovering well following yesterday's operation and his morale seems to be high in the circumstances. Tomorrow we will wash and stitch the wound. He has been moved to a more normal room in the hospital and the only requests he has made are for peace and quiet, privacy and a television on which to watch today's race!"

Rossi sustained the injury during a crash yesterday morning, in practice for today's Grand Prix of Italy.

Monkeybonkers

Not a whole lot of noteworthy incident in the race. It was over early once Dani took off. Good move from Stoner on the last lap to nab fourth.

Scotty #

Monkeybonkers wrote: »

Anyone else think the championship is over? Surely Lorenzo has it in the bag now

Yep I agree.

Rossi's first missed race in his career believe it or not. Thought the gesture by the Ducati crew was very sporting.

frostie500

Scotty # wrote: »

Thought the gesture by the Ducati crew was very sporting.

They still think they have a chance of getting Vale for next year!

Grim.

frostie500 wrote: »

They still think they have a chance of getting Vale for next year!

what did they do? missed the intro

frostie500

Grim. wrote: »

what did they do? missed the intro

Each year at Mugello Ducati have their stand for employees and on the sighting lap they always spell out Ducati or Casey or a message for Ducati week etc. This year they spelt out Vale, it was a pretty nice gesture from one Italian icon to another, looked well on telly!

frostie500

The British Grand Prix returns to Silverstone for the first time since 1986 when Australia’s Wayne Gardner won the 500cc race for the Rothmans-Honda team.

This race will see one of the first international races to be held one Silverstone’s new Arena circuit layout. The new track has been praised by all who have sampled it including the Rizla Suzuki riders Loris Capirossi and Alvaro Bautista. The expectation is that this will be one of the fastest and most spectacular races of the season with numerous potential overtaking positions.

The home fans have no one to follow in the top class but with Bradley Smith showing a return to form in recent weeks in the 125cc class the expectation is that the 19 year old from Oxford could compete for a third career victory. It has been a challenging start to the year for the young Briton due to reliability issues as well as a lack of top speed at Mugello but racing before his home crowd has brought out the best in him in the past with pole position last year at Donnington a prime example.

The Circuit

Like most circuits in Britain Silverstone is located on what was during the Second World War an RAF airfield. As a result the land is mostly flat but it is also incredibly fast. The new layout features many of the previous corners that have helped make Silverstone a favourite for racing drivers as well as motorcyclists. Opening the lap with the fearsome Copse corner riders are then pressed into action with Beckets and Maggots before taking a breather down Hanger straight. All this is identical to the old layout of the track but once riders exit the slightly reprofiled Club corner they enter the new section.

Whereas in the past the Abbey chicane was a slow left-right chicane it is now one of the seasons most fearsome challenges with riders facing a very fast right hander that leads into the Arena section that is quite technical and sure to challenge the setup of the bike with the rear wheel constantly losing traction. This section of the track will be a challenge for the MotoGP bikes but the smaller classes should be fantastic through here.

Once the Arena is tackled the riders are then onto the back straight which leads into the ever tightening Brooklands before Luffield and the fabled Woodcote curve take the riders back to the start of the lap.

Who will be the contenders for MotoGP victory on Silverstone’s return to the calendar?

With the injury enforced absence of MotoGP’s biggest star, Valentino Rossi, there is one less front runner to worry championship leader Jorge Lorenzo. The Yamaha rider will start as the clear favourite but Ducati’s Casey Stoner is always strong on fast circuit such as the new Silverstone and the 2007 world champion will be looking to put his miserable start to the year behind him. As a former British Championship racer Stoner feels at home in England and perhaps crucially is the only rider to have raced at Silverstone in the past.

The main challenger to Lorenzo though should come from Mugello winner Dani Pedrosa. Pedrosa clearly has the Honda dialled in more to his liking after struggling with the bike at Qatar. With his slight frame and powerful Pedrosa should dominate the top speed charts and with so many fast corners the triple world champion will be confident of closing the gap to Lorenzo at the top of the title table.

It’s unlikely that anyone else could challenge for victory in the dry against Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner but in the wet of Donnington last season Andrea Dovizioso emerged victorious to take his first premier class win. The Italian has shown good form this season and knows that with the paddock increasingly certain that Stoner will be a Honda rider next season the next five races before the summer break are crucial if the Italian hopes to keep his ride for next year.

Who will be the challengers in the smaller class?

Outside of the top class the battle for victory is difficult to predict. The last Moto2 race featured the first dominant victory in the new class with Andrea Iannone dominating at Mugello. It is difficult to see a repeat performance this weekend. The difference between a lap that gets a rider to the front of the field and one where he is left in the midfield is tiny and the one thing that this year has shown so far is that anyone can challenge for the honours on any given weekend.

Even so it is tough to overlook the form of Toni Elias this year and with reigning world 125cc champion, Julian Simon, gaining increasing confidence in his new bike it would not be unexpected for them to battle it out at the front. The hometown hero will be Scott Redding in this race with the young Englishman performing before an expectant home crowd. The youngest ever winner of a GP has struggled since taking the flag at Donnington in 2008 but he has the ability to challenge at the front once more and the fact that he is at home again makes him impossible to underestimate. It has been a trying start to the year for Redding but he has the ability to turn his season around, starting this weekend.

In the 125cc class Smith will be one of the favourite but the Derbi riders will be very tough to be beaten. Even though the Derbi and Aprilia bike are now all but identical in each race Derbi has been shown to have the fastest bike in terms of top speed. This is due to a different exhaust configuration on the Spanish bikes and Marc Marquez will be confident of adding to his first career win from Mugello with another great result at Silverstone.

His teammate Pol Espargaro has shown that when all things are equal he is the outright fastest rider in the class and with the new found maturity in his riding the tough Spaniard will be looking to take the title lead away from Nico Terol, winner of the opening race in Qatar.

Taken from: http://stevieenglishblog.blogspot.com/

Grim.

very impressed by de puniet today his quali lap was immense hope Pedrosa isn't to affected by his crash today or Lorenzo will run away with the race

frostie500

Grim. wrote: »

very impressed by de puniet today his quali lap was immense hope Pedrosa isn't to affected by his crash today or Lorenzo will run away with the race

Yeah De Puniet has been great all weekend, he really has the bike hooked up. His crash at the end of quali was nothing to worry about as well, I think after putting in his fastest lap he knew he would have to do an even more banzai lap and crashed on it.

Pedrosa has bruising on both knees but he's shown in the past that he's a pretty hard rider so I'd still expect him to ride well tomorrow. I don't understand the crash, I think it shows just how much pressure he is under. A front row start is enough for him to lead into turn 1 so I was surprised to see him pushing so hard over the bumps where the new and old track meets.

Should be a great day of racing tomorrow, the new layout should allow the 125s and Moto2 classes to be really close and hopefully the big class can have Lorenzo, Pedrosa, De Puniet and Stoner challenging at the front.