Marco Simoncelli - Metis Gilera 2009

The Italian rider Marco Simoncelli, took the Metis Gilera across the line yesterday to win the 250cc Grand Prix ahead of Alex Debon on the Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens in second, taking his first podium of the season.

Simoncelli, had qualified in pole position in the wet and on a drying track dominated the 45-minute race .  The race was delayed when rain began as the riders lined-up on the grid but half-an-hour later it was all systems go.

The battle for third place was eventually taken by Alvaro Bautista on the Mapfre Aspar Team bike, setting a circuit lap record as he chased Debon but was unable to catch the Spaniard in the remaining time.

Hiroshi Aoyama on the Scot Racing Team bike, finished in fourth place ahead of Hector Barbera on the Pepe World Team machine in fifth and Hector Faubel on the Thai Honda PTT SAG bike in sixth.

Aleix Espargaro on the Balaton Racing Team 250cc, took seventh followed by Thomas Luthi on the Emmi-CaffeLatte machine in eighth, Raffaele De Rosa on the Scot Racing Team bike in ninth and Roberto Locatelli on the Metis Gilera completing the top ten.

At the start of the interrupted race, Ratthapark Wilairot on the  Thai Honda PTT SAG, was caught up in a crash with Alex Baldonlini on the WTR San Marino Team bike and Imre Toth on the Team Toth Aprilia, he was unable to rejoin for the restart.  Mattia Pasini, crashed the Team Toth Aprilia with only three laps remaining and retired from the race.

Here are the results;

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera   27m11.034s
 2.  Alex Debon        Aprilia  +   0.479s
 3.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia  +   0.528s
 4.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Honda    +   0.866s
 5.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia  +   1.260s
 6.  Hector Faubel     Honda    +   5.972s
 7.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia  +   8.721s
 8.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia  +   8.762s
 9.  Raffaele De Rosa  Honda    +  19.176s
10.  R.Locatelli       Gilera   +  27.950s
11.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  +  29.601s
12.  Lukas Pesek       Aprilia  +  38.299s
13.  Shoya Tomizawa    Honda    +  51.940s
14.  Jules Cluzel      Aprilia  +  52.919s
15.  Bastien Chesaux   Honda    +1m06.786s
16.  Axel Pons         Aprilia  +1m20.573s
17.  Toby Markham      Aprilia  + 1 lap
18.  Imre Toth         Aprilia  + 1 lap
19.  Joakim Stensmo    Honda    + 2 laps
20.  Valentin Debise   Honda    + 4 laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Bike      Laps
     Mattia Pasini     Aprilia    16
     Mike Di Meglio    Aprilia    16
     Karel Abraham     Aprilia     8
     Vladimir Leonov   Aprilia     0
     R.Wilairot        Honda      DNS

FASTEST LAP: Bautista, 1m24.552s on lap 19

Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki 2008

The Rizla Suzuki MotoGP team along with the Kawasaki squad are heading to Australia’s Phillip Island for the final testing session of 2008.

The remainder of the  MotoGP teams are in Jerez, Spain testing but Suzuki chose the Phillip Island circuit due to it having a track that highlights any lack of engine performance or rear grip.

Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen will be joined for the three day’s of testing by Factory test rider Nobuatsu Aoki, which will start on Wednesday of this week.

The team intends to evaluate new parts and components for the next season’s Suzuki GSV-R, with Aoki helping to assess the prototype chassis and engine parts in readiness for the season ahead.

Capirossi said,

“This will be a very important test for us we will be able to see where we are at, for next year.  Suzuki has been working really hard since the last test at Valencia and we will have lots of new parts to try out at Phillip Island.

We have just done some wind tunnel testing in Japan and with the data we got there it will be interesting to see what the new aerodynamics will be like.  We need to make the most of these three days as we don’t have as many tests over the winter.

It will also be good to have Nobu there to give us some extra info and try out all the newest parts to see there durability and performance.”

Vermeulen said,

“It is good to be going to Phillip Island rather than Jerez, because I am sure the weather will be better and we’ll be able to get a lot more work done.

This is only the second test since the single tyre rule was introduced so it will be interesting to see how the new compound we now have to use performs at a circuit that is always tough on tyres.

We have had some problems at Phillip Island, but if we find something that works will there then it will almost certainly work even better at other tracks.

It feels a long while since we last tested the bike and it will be interesting to see all the new parts that the factory has got for us to try – hopefully they will be a big step in the right direction!”

Hector Barbera

After a season filled with accusations of dangerous riding between the two 250cc riders, Marco Simoncelli and Hector Barbera, there seems to be no let up after the last round at Misano.

The two battled it out at the San Marino Grand Prix, bumping bikes and carving each other up on several occasions.

With seventeen laps of the race still to run Barbera forced Simoncelli to run wide letting Mattia Pasini through to take the lead but then a mid corner collision by Barbera sent Pasini flying through the gravel at high speed.

The pair continued their battle with Barbera again forcing Simoncelli wide but he rejoined the track alongside the Spaniard and again contact was made.

With only four laps left to go, Simoncelli felt the pressure and low-sided letting Barbera through to take the final step on the podium.

Simoncelli branded Barbera a criminal rather than a motorcylce rider after the race and said that he is either unaware of what he is doing, or worse, he is aware and he is just a jerk, handbags at dawn again!

It was a wet qualfiying session today for the Moto GP riders at the Donington Park round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

It was World Champion Casey Stoner who dominated most of the qualifying session ahead of tomorrows British Moto GP and set a time of 1:38.232, over six-tenths faster than Valentino Rossi in second place.

Chris Vermeulen, who was leading the lap times at one stage, will start from third on the grid with Nicky Hayden in fourth.

Colin Edwards joins Hayden on the second row of the grid alongside Andrea Dovizioso on the Honda Scot.

On the third row of the grid is the Kawasaki rider Anthony West, with Ben Spies replacing the injured Loris Capirossi, and Dani Pedrosa.

Shinya Nakano rounds off the top ten riders, just edging out John Hopkins in eleventh.

James Toseland crashed on two separate occasions on the same lap and was seen being helped off track by staff and Jorge Lorenzo qualified in seventeenth place still nursing his injuries.

Here are the results:

 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:38.232
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:38.881  + 0.649
 3.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:39.018  + 0.786
 4.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:39.270  + 1.038
 5.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:39.601  + 1.369
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:39.783  + 1.551
 7.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:39.995  + 1.763
 8.  Ben Spies         Suzuki    (B)  1:40.244  + 2.012
 9.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:40.350  + 2.118
10.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:40.417  + 2.185
11.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:40.539  + 2.307
12.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:40.595  + 2.363
13.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:40.667  + 2.435
14.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:41.110  + 2.678
15.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:41.379  + 3.147
16.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:41.751  + 3.519
17.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:41.873  + 3.641
18.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:42.933  + 4.701

Valentino Rossi won his seventh consecutive Italian Moto GP yesterday in front of his home crowd on his home track even after getting off to a bad start.

Rossi got off the line in fourth place but passed Loris Capirossi on the first lap with Casey Stoner being taken by Dani Pedrosa on lap two and then by Rossi, dropping the Spaniard back to third.

The Fiat Yamaha rider then took the lead from Stoner and showing a strange image of his surprised face painted on the top of his helmet as he got his head down and concentrated on the job in hand.

Stoner held on to his second podium place and those much needed points, followed by Dani Pedrosa in third position.

Jorge Lorenzo who had his worse qualifying session so far in seventh place, lost the front end of his machine on lap seven of the race leading to his retirement.

Alex de Angelis took an amazing fourth place from tenth followed by Colin Edwards in fifth just ahead of his team-mate James Toseland.

Capirossi finally finished in seventh place followed by Andrea Dovizioso in eighth, Shinya Nikano in ninth and Chris Vermeulen in tenth.

Here are the results;

250cc

Marco Simoncelli won the 250cc GP for the first time yesterday at his home track, after Hector Barbera crashed heavily on the final lap of the race.

Barbera had been in pole position for the start of the race but ran wide after the first corner handing the lead to Alvaro Bautista. Simoncelli tailed Bautista for the first six laps until Bautista suffered a lowside putting Simoncelli in front.

On lap eleven Barbera got in the slipstream of Simoncelli sailing past and retaking the lead, however, with only five laps to go the lead was constantly changing.

The race ended in a rather dramatic finish as the riders made contact. Simoncelli seemed to move to the left as Barbera pulled alongside to pass him. Barbera appeared to hit the rear wheel of Simoncelli and his front end folded with the impact sending him somersaulting along the main straight followed by his machine.

Simoncelli was fortunately unhurt in the accident and Barbera went on to take his first controversial victory.

Alex Debon took the third place from Luthi on lap fifteen with Mika Kallio in fourth place.

Here are the results;

1. Barbera (Aprilia)

2. Simoncelli (Gilera) +0.499secs

3. Luthi (Aprilia) +0.712secs

4. Kallio (KTM) +7.403secs

5. Pasini (Aprilia) +12.542secs

6. Locatelli (Gilera) +12.790secs

7. Abraham (Aprilia) +16.114secs

8. Aoyama (KTM) +17.316secs

9. Espargaro (Aprilia) +19.642secs

10. Wilairot (Honda) +19.704secs

13. Laverty (Aprilia) +47.422secs

125cc

Simone Corsi won the 125cc GP yesterday, his third so far this season at his home track on the Jack & Jones Aprilia followed by Gabor Talmacsi and Pol Espargaro with only 0.036 seconds between the top three riders.

At one stage during the race there were no less than twelve riders frantically battling it out for that lead spot. Bradley Smith took the lead with a couple of laps to go and with a fractured foot but he could not hold the other riders off.

Here are the results;

1. Corsi (Aprilia)

2. Talmacsi (Aprilia) +0.019secs

3. Espargaro (Derbi) +0.036secs

4. di Meglio (Derbi) ) +0.135secs

5. Smith (Aprilia) +0.178secs

6. Gadea (Aprilia) +0.490secs

7. Terol (Aprilia) +0.832secs

8. Cortese (Aprilia) +3.865secs

9. Olive (Derbi) +3.928secs

10. Bradl (Aprilia) +5.439secs

14. Redding (Aprilia) +23.201secs

Webb (Aprilia) DNF

photograph: Eric Vester 

Valentino Rossi claimed his first pole position of the season today at Mugello ahead of the Italy Moto GP tomorrow and will be striving for his seventh consecutive home win.

Rossi is wearing a special crash helmet for his home race featuring seven of the seven-times world champions face which is shown in it’s full glory when he puts his head down.

With only eight minutes of the session to run, the Fiat Yamaha rider set a time of 1:48.130, replacing Colin Edwards name from the top of the time-sheets.

Dani Pedrosa is in second place on the Repsol Honda after beating Loris Capirossi for Rizla Suzuki from second to third place on the grid. It is Capirossi’s best qualifying session so far this year since joining the Suzuki team.

Casey Stoner is in fourth place a quarter of a second slower than Rossi followed by Colin Edwards on the Yamaha and Nicky Hayden on the Honda.

Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo qualified in seventh followed by James Toseland and Shinya Nakano on the Honda. Alex de Angeles finishes off the top ten qualifying places.

Here are the results;

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:48.130
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:48.297  + 0.167
 3.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:48.313  + 0.183
 4.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:48.375  + 0.245
 5.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:48.383  + 0.253
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:48.666  + 0.536
 7.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:48.905  + 0.775
 8.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:49.025  + 0.895
 9.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:49.095  + 0.965
10.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:49.145  + 1.015
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:49.220  + 1.090
12.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:49.246  + 1.116
13.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:49.435  + 1.435
14.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:49.601  + 1.471
15.  Tadayuki Okada    Honda     (M)  1:49.829  + 1.699
16.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:49.851  + 1.721
17.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:50.275  + 2.145
18.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:50.465  + 2.335
19.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:50.889  + 2.759

250cc

Hector Barbera set a fantastic lap time of 1:52.675 today to qualify on pole position beating Alavaro Bautista by 0.772 seconds at the end of the session.

Following the two Aprilia riders for third spot was Marco Simoncelli on the Gilera, almost a second behind Barbera.

In fourth place was the KTM rider Mika Kallio who had led for most of today’s session followed by Lukas Pesek and Manuel Poggiali who crashed out with only thirteen minutes to go but managed to rejoin.

Three Aprilia’s took the seventh, eighth and ninth places, Alex Debon, Thomas Luthi and Mattia Pasini. Pasini crashed out with only a minute of the session left to run after losing the front end of his machine.

Here are the qualifying times;

125cc

KTM rider, Raffaele de Rosa took his first pole position today at his home track with a time of 1:58.302, followed by Gabor Talmacsi on the Aprilia and Derbi rider Mike di Meglio, both within two-tenths of a second of de Rosa’s time.

The final spot on the front row went to Derbi rider Pol Espargaro with Sergio Gadea in fifth place and Simone Cortese in sixth.

In seventh spot was the British rider Bradley Smith, after crashing out in the final seconds of the session. He had set the fastest sector times at the very end when he lost the rear, high-sided over his bike and landed on his back before sliding into the gravel pit.

Here are the qualifying times;

In today’s first free practice session, Lorenzo was thrown off his bike and was taken to hospital in Shanghai for a scan, he later returned to the track but spent the rest of the day at the MotoGP clinic.

The team have said “His condition will be re-assessed in the morning before any decision it taken about riding”

According to the MotoGP doctor, Claudio Costa, Lorenzo has re-fractured a bone in the middle of his left ankle and also suffered bad bruising to his right foot.  He said “The diagnosis shows the violence of the trauma he suffered to both his feet in the crash and Jorge now faces a very difficult task to participate in tomorrow’s qualifying and Sundays race.”

The doctor added “There is still a chance he might be able to ride.  It will be a race full of suffering, pain and tears, but the riders are heroes and they are capable of doing things like this.”

This is the first time practice Lorenzo has taken part in since his recent operation on his right arm to deal with the pain he had been suffering from.  He was only on lap 10 when he lost control of his bike and crashed heavily.

Here is a video of the accident in practice today;

Garry Taylor, who was the boss of the Suzuki’s factory Moto GP team for nearly thirty years until he retired in 2004, has also been one of the driving forces behind the new team.

Jan Witteveen, the two-stroke engine specialist has designed and built the new motor.  It was Witteveen who was behind the Aprilia team which turned the squad into one of todays major racing forces.

Harris Performance the British experts have built the chassis and they ran their own Moto GP team in the 1990’s.

The new team are hoping to enter the 125cc series full-time from 2009, using the rest of 2008 for extensive testing with an experienced rider, although Taylor refused to reveal his identity.

Taylor said “I don’t want to be drawn on too much, but all will be revealed on Friday.  What I can say is that this is another major boost for Britain in world championship racing.  A lot of time and effort has gone into this project, and all involved are determined to make it a success.  It is a triumph for British know-how in racing.”

John Surtees is the only man in history to win the MotoGP and Formula One World Championship double, and he will be at the launch of the new team in China tomorrow.

The Moto GP Championship, will hold its first race at the new circuit in September. The new configuration is different from the one used by the Formula One cars since 2000 and also the bikes will go in the opposite direction.

Hayden apparently said “When I saw the track map, I looked at the map and some pictures on the Internet, but I didn’t realise how quick the front straightway is. Definitely it’s going to be a long straight there, going to need some ponies. My initial impression was great. I didn’t really see any concerns. You know, Turn 1 is a little bit probably, I would say, the sketchiest place, but the rest looked like more than enough run-off. The first bit of the track is brand new, so it’s really slippery. But in the back where the formula one was going, the surface felt quite a lot of grip. I’ll be excited to get the GP bike out there, and you can feel a lot more on that bike than a street bike, so we’ll see.”

Hayden also rode a Honda CBR1000 production bike around the circuit and was impressed at how fast the 2.620-mile track is and thinks that the MotoGP bikes will reach speeds of 200mph, “It’s fast” he added.

The former Champion Moto GP rider said “There has been a lot of curiosity about this night test and I have to say that I am quite satisfied.” He went on to say “I think they have made a great job with the lights and you can ride quite normally, as if it’s day.  The visibility is quite good so there is no danger for us”,  “It’s really no more difficult than riding in the day.  Maybe it would be better to move this night race to a period when the temperature is a little higher, because at the moment it’s very cold here.”

The first night race will take place on March 9th with a first Formula 1 night race taking place in Singapore in September.

Casey Stoner was the fastest man on the track on the opening day with a time of 1:55.330.  The current World Champion was lapping nearly seven-tenths of a second quicker than the Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo on the Yamaha and said “It’s definitely different to what we’re used to, It’s not better or worse, just different.”  “The most interesting thing is that with lower visibility, at least with regards to the imperfections on the track, you have to have more confidence than your instinct tells you to have, It’s not a bad start though.”

Rossi only managed ninth place due to his bike missing some grip and whilst he accelerated and sliding when he opened the throttle.

Here are the riders and bikes test times : Casey Stoner(Ducati Malboro), Jorge Lorenzo(Fiat Yamaha), Randy de Puniet(LCR Honda), Andrea Dovizioso(JiR Scot), James Toseland(Yamaha Tech3), Alex de Angelis(Honda Gresini), John Hopkins(Kawasaki), Dani Pedrosa(Repsol Honda), Valentino Rossi(Fiat Yamaha), Colin Edwards(Yamaha Tech3), Toni Elias(Alice Team), Nicky Hayden(Repsol Honda), Shinya Nakano(Honda Gresini), Chris Vermeulen(Rizla Suzuki), Loris Capirossi(Rizla Suzuki), Marco Milandri(Ducati Marlboro), Sylvain Guintoli(Alice Team), Anthony West(Kawasaki)