Valentino Rossi

MotoGP Championship wide open after Lorenzo’s Australian victory

Fiasco Sports, MotoGP

Jorge Lorenzo has kept the 2013 title hunt going, taking a controversial win at Phillip Island in Australia.

Jorge Lorenzo (left) and Marc Marquez (right) battling for the championship in Australia. Image: Darren Staples/ABC News

Jorge Lorenzo (left) and Marc Marquez (right) battling for the championship in Australia. Image: Darren Staples/ABC News

Jorge Lorenzo has kept the title chase alive, taking the win in today’s Australian Grand Prix at the Phillip Island circuit.

The Spaniard started on pole position ahead of his championship rival Marc Marquez, with Marquez unable to wrap-up the title in Australia.

With the Phillip Island circuit recently resurfaced, this caused major tyre degradation, with  Bridgestone ruling a mandatory bike swap in the middle of the race, causing a major change in the outcome of the race.

Lorenzo had a great battle with the Repsol Honda team of Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, holding the pair off going into the mandatory bike swap pit-stop.

Pedrosa pitted first from the winning trio, but later had to drop a position when he was caught exceeding 60km/h in pit-lane.

Lorenzo and Marquez stayed out when Pedrosa was pitting, with the pair set to pit at the same time, but a communication error saw Marquez hold out an extra lap, therefore missing the pit window of Lap 10.

Marquez was then penalised by being black flagged from the grand prix, resulting in a DNF for the 20-year-old.

The battle was then between Lorenzo and Pedrosa, but the Yamaha factory rider was too strong, taking the win and crawling back an 18-points gap for the MotoGP title.

Pedrosa finished second, with Valentino Rossi making the podium in third place.

Only two rounds remain in the MotoGP 2013 season, with the next round held at Suzuka next weekend.

Written by Loren Hazelwood

– See more at: http://fiascosports.com/motogp-championship-wide-open-after-lorenzos-australian-victory/#sthash.U0xeRZ9M.dpuf

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Lorenzo Claims Italian MotoGP Victory

Fiasco Sports, MotoGP

Published on: http://www.fiascosports.com

Jorge Lorenzo - Photo: Dave Contini

Jorge Lorenzo – Photo: Dave Contini

Jorge Lorenzo steered clear in an eventful grand prix at the Mugello circuit, leading every lap of the Italian grand prix, coming home with the win.

Factory Yamaha rider Lorenzo although did not take an easy win, with team Repsol Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez applying the pressure from behind throughout the race.

The Mugello crowd were left shocked in the start of the race, with their hero and multiple world champion Valentino Rossi involved in a huge crash on lap one with Rossi collected by Alvaro Bautista at turn four, forcing both riders into the barriers at high speed. Both riders walked away from the crash.

Pedrosa had the jump on the start, but it was only until turn two that Lorenzo took the lead from the Honda rider. Marc Marquez had a great jump at the start of the race from the second row to take third place, defending his position to Andrea Dovizioso.

The top three riders started to drift away from the rest of the pack, with Marquez and Pedrosa both hungry for the race lead. Crutchlow started to catch the front three after he slipped passed Douvizioso.

Jorge Lorenzo eventually gained a strong lead on the Honda duo, out in front by 5 seconds. The battle was then on for second place, with Marquez making his way to second passing Pedrosa.

Unfortunately for 20-year-old Marquez, he crashed out while in second position with three laps to go. Marquez endured his first DNF for the season and handed podium positions to Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow, with Crutchlow amazingly still racing with a broken leg.

The last lap saw Stefan Bradl make a last-turn move on Dovizioso to take fourth place, ahead of Ducati riders Nicky Hayden and Michele Pirro.

After taking the Italian MotoGP win, Lorenzo has closed his championship gap to Dani Pedrosa to 12 points.

The next MotoGP race will be June 16 at the Circuit de Catalunya for round six of the championship.

 

Race Results

1. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing

2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team

3. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3

4. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP

5. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team

6. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Team

7. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Test Team

8. Aleix Espargaro ESP Power Electronics Aspar

9. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3

10. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Blusens

11. Randy De Puniet FRA Power Electronics Aspar

12. Danilo Petrucci ITA Came IodaRacing Project

13. Andrea Iannone ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing

14. Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing

15. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing

16. Yonny Hernandez COL Paul Bird Motorsport

17. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport

18. Bryan Staring AUS Go&Fun Honda Gresini

19. Lukas Pesek CZE Came IodaRacing Project

DNF:

Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team

Claudio Corti ITA NGM Forward Racing

Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Avintia Blusens

Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha Factory Racing

Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini

Dani Pedrosa on Pole for Italian MotoGP

MotoGP

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Dani Pedrosa has taken his maiden pole position for the MotoGP season this year, recording a record-breaking time in an exhilarating qualifying session at the Mugello circuit.

The current MotoGP series leader wasn’t setting the pace early on in the session as he struggled for a clean lap, but later in Q2 managed to set a record pole time of 1min 47.157secs.

Yamaha Factory rider Jorge Lorenzo set the pace early in Q2, but Pedrosa came from lower in the order to pip Lorenzo later in the session, pushing Lorenzo back to second.

Local rider Andrea Dovizioso impressed his fans by qualifying on the front row in third, despite having an injured neck.

After crashing out at turn 3 earlier in the session, Cal Crutchlow managed to get back on his bike and qualify on the second row in fourth, with Stefan Bradl and Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez rounding out the second row.

Valentino Rossi raised hopes for his home crowd running inside the top-three throughout Q2, but struggled towards the end of the session and qualified seventh.

The Italian MotoGP will begin at 7:00 PM tomorrow night on ONE HD.

Q2:

1. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 47.157s

2. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing 1m 47.226s

3. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team 1m 47.628s

4. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 47.632s

5. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda MotoGP 1m 47.737s

6. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 47.763s

7. Valentino Rossi ITA Yamaha Factory Racing 1m 47.872s

8. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Team 1m 48.006s

9. Alvaro Bautista ESP Go&Fun Honda Gresini 1m 48.355s

10. Michele Pirro ITA Ducati Test Team 1m 48.564s

11. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 48.706s

12. Aleix Espargaro ESP Power Electronics Aspar 1m 48.765s

Q1:

1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team 1m 48.524s

2. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1m 48.860s

3. Andrea Iannone ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 1m 49.265s

4. Randy De Puniet FRA Power Electronics Aspar 1m 49.266s

5. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Blusens 1m 49.847s

6. Danilo Petrucci ITA Came IodaRacing Project 1m 50.518s

7. Colin Edwards USA NGM Forward Racing 1m 50.701s

8. Claudio Corti ITA NGM Forward Racing 1m 50.729s

9. Michael Laverty GBR Paul Bird Motorsport 1m 50.787s

10. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing 1m 51.089s

11. Yonny Hernandez COL Paul Bird Motorsport 1m 51.239s

12. Bryan Staring AUS Go&Fun Honda Gresini 1m 51.981s

13. Hiroshi Aoyama JPN Avintia Blusens 1m 52.148s

14. Lukas Pesek CZE Came IodaRacing Project 1m 52.345s

Stoner in Australia? Bloody Oath

Australian V8 Supercars, MotoGP, Spultured

Published on http://www.spultured.com

Casey Stoner in V8 Supercars

I remember it was about this time last year, when the media was talking about Casey Stoner retiring and how much it was going to hurt the MotoGP category. Everyone had their opinion about why Stoner should stay, how useless he was going to be in a V8 Supercar and how Honda would not be able to find a replacement for the Australian world champion.

Well look who’s laughing now.

If anything, the 27-year-old made his best decision of a lifetime. I mean, he has a family now and with the recent death of Marco Simoncelli, it’s definitely safer to be on four wheels than two.

And not even that, Stoner made way for a true star in the making. Marc Màrquez who is only 20 years old, a few weeks ago became the youngest ever rider to win a MotoGP race. Incredible! Màrquez also finished second at the Spanish Grand Prix to his teammate Dani Pedrosa from Repsol Honda. If anything the team is on better form than what they were this time last year, with the team not even barely damaged with the loss of world champion Stoner. Now whoever said Stoner was “irreplaceable” was clearly not thinking about the future.

Even though Casey Stoner is only racing in the Dunlop Development Series (category below V8 Supercars) he has been working with arguably the best V8 team in the main game (RedBull Racing Australia – Triple 8 Race Engineering) and is now an official representative for Holden Australia. Not only is Casey’s credibility growing, he’s now getting a lot more media attention. The MotoGP champ has only raced two championship rounds this year so it is still early days to determine whether he is good enough for the main game next year, but the team I’m sure will focus on Casey’s early development in the Holden VE Commodore and will see out the rest of the season in the development series.

Unfortunately with MotoGP being apart motorsport, it receives minimal media attention, either in print or broadcast journalism as of course, it isn’t as popular as the AFL, NRL etc. Not only has Casey Stoner grabbed the media, he’s also promoted the Dunlop Development Series, which for years has been underrated, with no coverage what-so-ever. Only problem here is that the only person who gets coverage in the series is Casey and the focus has been stolen from the young kids winning the races in the series.

Stoner I don’t believe has the amount of race craft at the moment on four wheels as some of the younger drivers in the development field, so he will have to test like crazy with his team from Triple 8 Race Engineering. Not only is the MotoGP with the best team, he also can receive some of the best V8 mentoring from current V8 Supercar Champion Jamie Whincup and also newly crowned all-time-best V8 driver Craig Lowndes. I mean Stoner has some of the best help on offer, so by the end of this year’s development series Stoner should be on the money.

I know Casey Stoner has a massive fan base from many Australians – on the other hand there are also many Australians who dislike Stoner and would rather someone like Valentino Rossi win races. It is a massive culture change for Stoner to come back and live in Australia so I believe we should all stop bagging him and support the Aussie who wants to race over here. Yes, he has a long way to go, but he’s only raced at Clipsal and Barbagallo. There is plenty more tracks for Stoner to prove himself to the V8 field and I can tell you, it will be one interesting year with the MotoGP champ in V8s.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t end up like Wayne Gardner…