Phillip Island Warm Up Action

 

 

 

 

Lorenzo and Spies ruled out of Australian Grand Prix

Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies will not ride in today’s Grand Prix of Australia following separate on track incidents by both.

Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo has been forced to withdraw from Sunday’s Iveco Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix after sustaining a left hand injury in Sunday morning warm-up at the Phillip Island circuit.

The Yamaha rider crashed at the exit of Turn 12 on his final lap of the 20-minute session, high-siding off the bike and coming to rest on the edge of the circuit.

The Spaniard walked away shaking his left hand, and was declared unfit for the race after a visit to the medical centre following the session.

Lorenzo trails world championship leader Casey Stoner by 40 points with three races remaining, meaning the Australian only needs to finish in the top six in the 27-lap race to secure his second world title. Stoner has topped every on-track session this weekend at the Island, and has won in Australia for the past four years.

Lorenzo’s team mate Spies received a hit to the head yesterday during the qualifying session after a high speed crash. After attempting to ride some laps in this morning’s warm up, the rider reached an agreement with team members that with reduced concentration attempting the race would be considered too dangerous for himself and other competitors.

 

Valentino Rossi’s crash in the Japanese Grand Prix

Valentino Rossi’s crash in the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday aggravated an old injury in his left hand, team mate Hayden will take his place in testing the GP12.

 Although the initial examination suggested otherwise, Rossi’s first lap crash produced a hairline fracture at the site of an injury from a fall at Assen in 1995. The severity of the pain and swelling in the little finger of his left hand has ruled out the Italian’s participation in testing the Ducati Desmosedici GP12, therefore Nicky Hayden will take his place in Thursday’s test of the machine at Jerez.

This will be the last of an extra eight days the team has been allowed to test the 2012 machine, the next testing for Ducati will be at the Official Test following the Valencia GP.

Stoner dominates FP3 in Japan

Casey Stoner led the Repsol Honda trio to the top three spots in the third MotoGP practice session at the Grand Prix of Japan.

 

Casey Stoner posted the fastest lap of the weekend thus far on his third lap in the Saturday morning practice at Motegi, then went on to better that provisional pole setting time with a 1’46.162 despite running off the track shortly beforehand. The Australian’s best time was six-tenths quicker than the leading lap of team mate Dani Pedrosa that put the Spaniard in the top slot on Friday. An impressive penultimate lap by Andrea Dovizioso ranked the Italian second, 0.139s behind Stoner and 0.128s ahead of Pedrosa.


The fourth Factory Honda of Marco Simoncelli ranked fourth in the outing, the Italian taking his San Carlo Honda Gresini machine around to post a best time of 1’46.592, ahead of the Yamaha Factory Racing duo of Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies, both of whom managed to keep within a second of Stoner’s time. The last man to ride within that one second mark however, was Ducati Team’s Valentino Rossi, whose time of 1’47.161 was an improvement of eight-tenths on his previous day’s time to put him seventh in the field.

Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) made significant progress to post the eighth quickest time, ahead of Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) and Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) who completed the top ten.

Wild card entry Shinichi Ito (Honda Racing Team) crashed while entering turn 3, the Japanese rider was unhurt though the incident hindered his progress and left him the only rider in the field that was not able to improve upon his previous day’s time.

 

 

Yamaha heads home with both riders prepared for an exciting race

The MotoGP paddock arrives in Japan this week for round 15 of the 2011 World Championship at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit

 

Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo now has just four races left to close the gap to Championship leader Casey Stoner, currently 44 points ahead. Lorenzo is no stranger to the Motegi podium having taken victory in 2009. He narrowly missed out on a 2010 podium after a fierce battle with then team mate Valentino Rossi, ultimately finishing in fourth.

Ben Spies arrives in Motegi for his second ever MotoGP race in Japan. Last year saw the Texan deliver a master class in overtaking having lost several places after running wide on the second lap to avoid a rider. Spies recovered from 15th place to take eighth at the line, carving his way through the competition to do so.

Designed in 1997 as a test venue, Motegi features a somewhat geometric track layout. The surface offers good levels of grip without being overly abrasive but the number of second gear turns, linked for the most part by mini-drag strips, means braking and acceleration are the main prerequisite to a fast lap time. As part of Yamaha’s 50th anniversary of Grand Prix racing the team will again run the special ‘YZR-M1 WGP50th Anniversary Edition’ livery this weekend.

Jorge Lorenzo:
“Japan is a home race for Yamaha and for us it is always a pleasure to ride here. Motegi is a track where I have won before and last year I had a nice fight for the podium. I would like to win again here, so that is my aim this weekend. After all the confusion with Fukushima we are here, fit and ready to put on a good show for Yamaha in this special year for them. We will begin on Friday and try to do everything really well!”

Ben Spies:
“I really enjoyed the race here last year once I got over the frustration of losing so many places in the opening laps. I managed to overtake quite a few riders on my way back up to eighth which always makes the race more exciting. I hope to be higher this year from the start so won’t have to do so much catching up! We’re racing in the red and white livery again which always seems to bring me luck!”
Yamaha Factory Racing press release

Repsol Honda Team heads home for Japanese Grand Prix

This weekend, the Japanese Grand Prix will mark, as it did in 2010, the beginning of the final chapter of the MotoGP World Championship, which then stops in Australia and Malaysia before the final round in Valencia.

The Motegi circuit will welcome the travelling family of the World Championship with Casey Stoner leading the standings 44 points ahead of Jorge Lorenzo. Repsol Honda team mate Andrea Dovizioso lies in third place with Dani Pedrosa just 15 points behind him in fourth.

Casey Stoner has achieved 8 wins and 13 podiums in 14 races upon his return to the track where he won last season, now wearing Honda colours at their home Grand Prix.

Dani Pedrosa, despite physical problems, has two wins this season and a total of eight podium finishes in eleven races. Pedrosa has visited the podium in Motegi five times in his career.

Motegi is also a venue where Dovizioso will aim to shine again, last year he achieved his first ever MotoGP pole position and took second place on the podium after one of his best races in the premier class.
HRC will present a fantastic line up in Motegi hoping to bring courage and support for the East Japan area. In addition to the riders participating in every Championship round (Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso and Casey Stoner for Repsol Honda Team; Marco Simoncelli and Hiroshi Aoyama for Gresini Team, and Toni Elías for LCR Team), HRC test riders Shinishi Ito and Kousuke Akiyoshi will also race in Motegi. Ito will be a wild card entry in a HRC Team while Akiyoshi will ride alongside Elías for LCR.

Casey Stoner:
"Motegi is quite a different circuit, it's similar in a way to Le Mans and is very stop-start, a little like a go kart track, but in general it's more fun than some of the other circuits we visit. It has a lot of hard breaking, a lot of hard accelerating, it's pretty tough on the body and physically demanding. If you miss your breaking points it's easy to run wide so it will be important to get the set up on the bike just right. As in Aragon, we will be going out there trying to win. We had a fantastic race here last year, probably one of my best and it will be fun to go there on the Honda and see how the bike works around the circuit".

Andrea Dovizioso:
"We go to Japan focused on returning to the podium, this has to be our target. We will arrive at the Japanese GP this year in the same position we were last year - straight from a crash and zero points, but I’m determined to transform this disappointment with extra motivation. Last season we had a great race and we almost won, so I’m confident to repeat a great performance at Motegi, a circuit that I like and where I have been on the podium in all the three classes. Regarding the characteristics of the track, the Twin Ring Motegi has a lot of acceleration zones so it suits the RC212V well, allowing us to use all the strong points of our machine.

Dani Pedrosa:
"Motegi is one of my favourite circuits not only for the layout but also for the atmosphere; I always ride well there and feel a lot of support from the Japanese fans and I think this year will be even more special for them. Obviously, last year I had a hard time there due to my injury, but I want to focus on my riding and enjoy the GP. I go there with the same approach as the last races: trying to do our best in all the sessions. I have won at this track in 125 and 250, but not yet in MotoGP, so that's a big motivation for me. I enjoy racing in Motegi and together with my team will do our best to perform well".
Repsol Honda press release.

Valentino Rossi to test deltabox aluminium frame

Valentino Rossi will test a conventional deltabox aluminium chassis on Ducati’s factory GP12 machine in Jerez later this week after the Italian’s woeful 2011 continued at the Motorland Aragon.

The new frame is similar to the concept used by Ducati’s Japanese rivals and it is the latest in a long line of radical changes introduced to give Rossi a bike he can fight for victories on.

The new twin spar chassis was designed in Bologna and fabricated in the UK by frame experts FTR.

The 32-year-old has tried three major re-designed concepts in 2011 with little success, including a new flexible carbon fibre frame after the Estoril round.

He then rode a GP11.1 Desmosedici featuring new seamless shift gearbox, swingarm and rear suspension system from Assen onwards.

And at the Motorland Aragon race last weekend he rode with an aluminium frame, but not a full delatbox version like the one he will use on Friday.

The nine-times world champion continues to be handicapped by a chronic understeer issue and vague front-end feeling with this year’s Desmosedici.