Motegi MotoGP Insider: Honda

Motegi MotoGP Insider: Honda

Casey Stoner might have one hand on the 2011 MotoGP world title but a 13th consecutive podium in Japan yesterday did little to disguise the Australian's disappointment at failing to win the Twin Ring Motegi clash. When Stoner hit the front from pole position on the opening lap, many expected the 25-year-old to streak away to record a ninth win of the season. But an uncharacteristic mistake on the brakes at the end of the back straight on the fifth lap saw Stoner plough into the gravel trap at high speed.

Stoner managed to keep his factory Honda RC212V machine upright but dropped down to seventh before he recovered superbly to keep his proud record of scoring a podium in each race he has finished in 2011. With Jorge Lorenzo in second, Stoner only surrendered four points in the title hunt and he can still clinch the title on home soil at Phillip Island if he scores ten or more points than his Spanish adversary.

The 2007 world champion said: "It could have been worse, but not a lot worse. Everything felt good all weekend and the bike has been fantastic and it was the same for the race. We got a gap quite easily, so we sort of wanted to manage that. Then I saw Andrea (Dovizioso) pull a few tenths back and I knew he was on the softer tire, so we thought we can go a little bit quicker here because I didn't want to push too much in those early laps to struggle too much with the hard tire. Then I had the issue on the brakes and I couldn't make the corner. I'm disappointed because in some ways we're lucky we still ended up on the podium, but I feel we should have been fighting for that win and it's disappointing."

Casey Stoner: "I'm disappointed because in some ways we're lucky we still ended up on the podium, but I feel we should have been fighting for that win and it's disappointing." Asked what he thought had upset his bike in the braking zone when he ran off he added: "It's not one bump, there's a lot. But I hadn't had any kind of reaction off the bike all weekend and as I came over there I had the slightest movement before the bigger bump, because there's a few small ones before it and as the front came down it just shook. I have no idea why it did that but I'd gone over it a lot of different ways during the weekend. It was just a bit surprising that we had that problem during the race."

Dovizioso's 2012 Plans Still Unclear

Andrea Dovizioso is close to reaching a final decision on whether he will ride for LCR Honda next season or partner Cal Crutchlow in the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad. The Italian says his decision on whether to continue his long association with Honda or move to rivals Yamaha would be taken before the end of this week.

The former 125GP world champion has spent his entire Grand Prix career with Honda and admitted after finishing fifth in an incident-packed Japanese round at the Twin Ring Motegi that leaving would be a big wrench.

He said: "It is difficult because my feeling with Honda now is the best compared to the last nine years because now I am fighting for the victory. It is hard but it depends on a lot of situations and right now I haven't decided anything."

Andrea Dovizioso is still deciding between riding for LCR Honda or Monster Yamaha Tech 3 next year. Dovizioso said there was a big temptation to move to Herve Poncharal's Tech 3 squad to try and build a relationship with a different manufacturer. The Italian would sign a one-year deal with Tech 3 with the hope of impressing in the inaugural 1000cc world championship to secure a move to Yamaha's factory squad in 2013.

He said: "Sure I think about this. When you're fast you have a lot of possibilities and if I am fast with Yamaha next year then sure I will have the chance to be in the factory team and this is the target of every rider."

Dovizioso saw a great chance of claiming victory at the Twin Ring Motegi race ruined by a jump start. He led after a mistake by Casey Stoner but had to complete a pitlane ride through and he eventually finished fifth after failing to hold off compatriot Marco Simoncelli, who was also guilty of a jump start.

HRC Says No Rush for Marquez in MotoGP

Rumors are circulating that Marc Marquez will ride a Honda RC213V in the upcoming season. Marc Marquez has been warned not to rush coming into MotoGP as speculation mounts the emerging Spanish star will ride a new Honda RC213V machine in 2012. The reigning 125GP world champion's Repsol-backed Moto2 squad has asked HRC to reserve a bike in case he defeats Stefan Bradl to the 600cc four-stroke crown. Marquez trails the German by just six points after he won the recent Motorland Aragon race to claim a sixth victory in seven races.

Honda has confirmed it would supply a bike if Marquez's squad had the budget to lease an RC213V.
But HRC boss Livio Suppo said: "It is a question of money. Sooner or later it will be too late to order a bike. We are getting very close to the deadline in which we can supply two bikes. There is a lot of speculation about it because Marquez is doing an unbelievable job but as far as I know everything is in place to have another year in Moto2. I don't see why he should rush. He is doing a great job, he is still young and he has great talent and one more year in Moto2 shouldn't be a big problem."
.

Sent from my BlackBerry®
powered by TwitterFeeds.blogspot.com

Twitter Feeds Update

Read more »

Motegi MotoGP Insider: Ducati

Motegi MotoGP Insider: Ducati

Nicky Hayden says Ducati's factory GP11.1 has already reached the ceiling of its potential, even though he's only raced the updated Desmosedici three times. Ducati first rolled out the GP11.1 back in late June at the Assen round for Valentino Rossi, who was struggling to make any significant progress on the GP11 model.

The GP11.1 features a new seamless shift gearbox, new rear suspension system, swingarm and 1000cc motor modified to comply with current 800cc regulations.

Hayden rode the new bike in practice for his home round at Laguna Seca in late July before deciding to delay his race debut on the bike until he'd got more time to test the bike. He started to use the GP11.1 from the Indianapolis race onwards but in three races he's only scored 11-points. And Hayden said that the GP11.1 had already peaked at its maximum level of performance.

"Yes, it seems this bike is at the top of its potential already. They are certainly testing some stuff and we know we got to make a big change because we're a long way off."

Rossi raced a new aluminum concept to 10th at the Motorland Aragon but it wasn't a full conventional twin spar frame like the one used by Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki. It appears that Rossi has completely lost faith in the carbon fiber project but Hayden said he didn't think it was the material involved that was the crucial factor.

Valentino Rossi believes riding positon is to blame for some of the front-end troubles he's been having on the GP12. He added: "They've tested aluminum and I don't think it is a matter of material I think it is more stiffness and flex. You can make carbon softer or stiffer so I don't think that's the situation. I tested a lot of aluminum swingarms and carbon fiber swingarms and you can get either one to do what you want it to do."

Rossi Thinks Riding Position Critical to Solving GP12

Valentino Rossi believes his riding position on Ducati's 2012 Desmosedici could be pivotal to solving some of the vague front-end problems he's experienced in a nightmare debut season for the Bologna factory – which most recently includes a DNF result at the Twin Ring Motegi courtesy of an opening lap crash. Rossi and Ducati tested the GP12 again in Jerez last week but both denied the latest session had seen the nine-times world champion debut a full deltabox aluminium frame manufactured by British experts FTR.

Rossi said the chassis he tested for one-day in Jerez a week ago was just a further evolution of the aluminum frame he raced to a disappointing 10th place at the Motorland Aragon track earlier back in September.

Valentino Rossi: ""We tried to work on the weight distribution and especially move my position on the bike [at Jerez]. Rossi ditched the carbon fibre concept for the Aragon race having struggled to score just one podium in the opening 13 races. Rossi said at the Twin Ring Motegi that test was primarily to experiment with different weight distribution settings, particularly moving his body around on the GP12 to put more weight on the front tire.

Said Rossi: "We tried to work on the weight distribution and especially move my position on the bike. This was the biggest work we did in Jerez because we think that this is the main problem of this bike. I want to be more forward. I don't like my position on the bike and it is for a long time since I say this to Filippo (Preziosi). We need time to build a new part and I hope that it arrive as soon as possible and we have to understand if it makes the difference. With carbon or aluminum, I don't know if it would make such a big difference. For me it is more important the weight distribution and the position of all the things on our bike. I think we have to work on these things. We started on this in Jerez but the work is long and we have to build some other parts to move all the things."

.

Sent from my BlackBerry®
powered by TwitterFeeds.blogspot.com

Twitter Feeds Update

Read more »

Hayden unsure of Laguna Seca GP11.1 debut

@MotoGPTweetmotogp news update

Hayden unsure of Laguna Seca GP11.1 debut - BSN

Marlboro Ducati's Nicky Hayden is still unsure whether he should race the new GP11.1 at this weekend't Laguna Seca MotoGP round as it may end up costing him a precious engine from his already depleted allocation of six to last to the end of the year.

He had hoped to ride the bike at the Sachsenring but a shortage of parts meant only team-mate Valentino Rossi did that. Hayden beat the nine-time world champion but says Laguna Seca is now getting bumpy and isn't an ideal place to be doing back-to-back tests.

"We're going to send both bikes and we might try one of the new ones because we're not really getting anywhere. At the the end of the day, Vale and I are basically the same, I don't think there is a whole lot of difference but he definitely feels there is more potential with the new one and so do the engineers. The sooner we get going on it the better it will be for the end of the year and the start of next," said the American.

"We will send them but I don't know which one to ride. The only way to be clear is to go with two of each, not one of each so we can do a back-to-back test. Laguna is not an easy track to be testing bikes though but is a track I love. The gap to the front is a lot, I got beat in Germany by 27 seconds and I was riding hard. Pushing hard to get beaten by that much definitely stings."

"We can try both on Friday and for Saturday have two the same but the problem is if I leave the pits on the new one and I don't like it I have used another engine. We have got a lot of stuff going against us and it's not an ideal situation."

Read more »