| MotoGP 2013 – Round 18 – Valencia — Marquez and Lorenzo commence tense Championship decider Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez and Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo are set for the big decider this weekend at the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana, where one of the two will walk away as World Champion. They spoke to the assembled press at the Thursday pre-race press conference joined by Repsol’s Dani Pedrosa, Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi, Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden as well as Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Bradley Smith. In a slight change to the norm, that press conference was preceded by one featuring the Moto3™ title protagonists in the form of Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Luis Salom, Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales and Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins – all of who could also be crowned World Champion on Sunday. Back in the premier-class however it was Marquez who commenced proceedings: “We need to finish in the top four and that is not easy with all of those guys in MotoGP. The mentality is the same as on other weekends: try to do my best Friday, Saturday in the Warm-Up and the race. We will see whether we can fight for the win, fight for the podium or just fight for some points.” Lorenzo, who has a 13-point deficit over Marquez, knows he has a tough task at hand: “I am sure that, if he can, Valentino will help me, just as I would help him if he found himself in the same situation as me. The important thing is to be fast from Friday onwards and of course especially in the race. I think Marc and myself should be very proud as two Spaniards fighting for the MotoGP world title. I think the best strategy is try to win the race. That’s it. That’s the only thing I can do. We are fighting with a lot of Honda riders and that’s the only thing we can do. Let’s see if it rains on Sunday, but in normal circumstances I think it is very difficult.” Pedrosa, who won in Valencia last year, had to respond to journalists on the topic of “Team Orders”: “HRC has no team orders as far as I know and I think he is still 13 points ahead and always on the podium, so I think he’s capable of doing it anyway, but sure I’ll try to do my best in the race. And winning it would be the best way of helping the team.” Rossi, veering off topic slightly, announced the split from his long-term crew chief Jeremy Burgess: “The target is to fight with the top three each weekend. This season it has happened, but not so often. We have had some very good races, with some podiums, and especially one victory. For me, the best way to help Jorge is to try and be in front of Marc. I know it’s very difficult, but for sure I will try. The rumours are true. Not that I am not happy with Jeremy, but I think next year Jeremy will not be my chief mechanic. It was a very difficult decision for me because I have a great history with him. He is not just my chief mechanic but part of my family and my father of racing. But I have decided that next year I need to change something to try and find new motivation to have a new boost to improve my level and my speed.” Hayden, who clinched the title here in 2006, does not see a great similarity between his race here and what the two Spaniards are about to commence: “Not really. Obviously it’s a lot better to be eight points down [as he was in 2006]. He has a bigger margin, so he needs more to happen. You have to think Marc is in a much better spot – I would much rather be in his spot than Jorge…actually, I would rather be in any of their spots! Marc is not exactly your typical rookie and you would think without any problems he should get it done, but you never know until the flag flies on Sunday.” Smith, coming to the end of his rookie season, is pleased with how things have gone, yet also believes that next year’s newbies will maybe have more of an instant impact: “We seem to have been ahead of our own personal targets and also what Yamaha expected of me, so that is really nice. I am pleased with the final outcome and also looking forward to the winter before coming back and having another go next year. I didn’t really have the best end to my Moto2 championship and didn’t come into this season with the highest confidence, so I think my jump was a bit more from what we’ll see from Scott and Pol.” The Moto3™ contenders are tightly bunched at the top of the table, with Salom holding only a two-point lead over Viñales. The Red Bull rider commented: “I want to say thanks to Maverick and Alex for making this championship so nice. I have enjoyed this year a lot and the position on Sunday won’t matter. Of course I want to win if I can, but I won’t mind about the position. But I will remember this season forever and have always remembered fighting with them. We have won seven races this year, which is a lot and we need to continue as we have been doing across the other races.” Viñales, who knows he has to win, will be giving all he can to take the title: “I don’t believe it! Japan was incredible. This is an opportunity and we will try to make the best result and find the best setting for the race. We have worked really hard all season but this weekend we’ll try to work even harder than usual. Winning is the only result we can do to win the championship. We’ll try to do our best and do the best possible in the race.” Rins added: “My team and I will try to work in the same line as we have at other circuits – and that’s it. Maybe in the race we need to do a better strategy, like Salom’s strategy, which with he has won seven races, so maybe I can do that strategy but in the end we will see.” Earlier in the day, Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaro and Mapfre Aspar’s Nico Terol took part in a popular Spanish sport called Padel at the Agora Tennis Court in Valencia. They received the best tuition possible with the stars of the World Padel Tour, Pablo Lima, Juani Mieres, Miguel Lamperti and Maxi Grabiel at hand to show them the ropes. |
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| — MotoGP Teams preview season finale — Yamaha Preview The MotoGP paddock returns to Spain this weekend for the final Grand Prix of the year, the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana. With just 13 points separating defending champion Jorge Lorenzo and current leader Marc Marquez, the scene is set for a dramatic race on Sunday. Lorenzo arrives in his home country having won the last two races in Australia and Japan and determined to keep the pressure on, fully aware that anything could happen in the last race of the season. He can claim one premier class victory at the circuit in 2010 and a podium with third position in 2009. Teammate Valentino Rossi arrives in Spain intent on fighting for a podium spot and doing what he can to help Lorenzo retain the world title. The nine-time world champion has taken two premier class wins at Valencia in 2003 and 2004 and can claim multiple podiums with a second places in 2002 and 2009 and third places in 2005, 2008 and 2010. The Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia is a true stadium track that always attracts a record crowd to witness the final racing spectacle of the MotoGP season. Completed in 1999, the MotoGP circuit is a 4km run with five right hand corners, eight left and a 650metre straight. Jorge Lorenzo – “So we come to the last race in Valencia. It’s going to be exciting, maybe the most exciting of all the season. We are still in the fight and that is the most important thing right now. I’m very stimulated because three races ago we thought the championship was over. Instead we have a chance to fight for the title. Valencia is my home race and it will be very emotional considering our position in the classification. We don’t have anything to lose but everything to win, and this card plays on our side. Maybe our main rival can feel much more pressure in Valencia than us because he is so close to victory. I look forward to riding there and pushing with all my force. If we can continue to ride at our level we can fight for the win and then wait for the circumstances. You never know what can happen, especially if the forecast is uncertain as it was last year. We trust in ourselves and we expect a good race in front of our fans. We will never give up until the end!” Valentino Rossi – “Usually Valencia is not one of my best tracks but I have had some good podiums there and some wins. As always we have to try and do the maximum for the weekend. If I am strong enough I want to try and help Jorge as much as possible on Sunday and also to arrive on the podium.” Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager – “Well, finally we could complete a couple of great races at Phillip Island and Motegi with two stunning victories from Jorge. The championship is almost over but we have to face Valencia, the last race of the season. Hopefully we will fight for the title there. As everybody knows in one race everything can happen. Let’s see how it goes throughout the weekend and what the climate conditions are because it is autumn; rain and cold are there, threatening. We have to be aware of that tricky track if it’s rain because it is so slippery. Jorge has to be calm and focused but he did a great job all season and we are also able to beat here our rivals. He is very strong physically and mentally and riding in perfect form. We don’t have anything to lose and the opportunities are there.” Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director – “We go to Valencia with the goal to make the best race weekend possible. The World Championship will be decided at the last race and we will be key protagonists. We want to complicate as much as possible the weekend of our opponents. Jorge has proven to be in great form and really strong. In Japan he made a really incredible race. The team was just perfect in the last race so in Valencia we will try to do the same thing. It will be important that Valentino is in good shape. We’ll have to make sure that Valentino can be with the other three riders. He wants it, the team also and we are ready to close the season in the best way.” — HRC Preview The season-ending Valencia Grand Prix will be MotoGP’s biggest weekend in more than half a decade – the first time the World Championship has gone down to the wire since 2006. The Repsol Honda team has great memories of that weekend seven years ago, when its American rider Nicky Hayden secured the title ahead of Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in a nerve-jangling finale. This weekend Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) faces a similarly thrilling duel for the title with Rossi’s current Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo. Thus Sunday’s battle for supremacy is an all-Spanish affair which should guarantee a full house and an electric atmosphere at the stadium-style Spanish track. After 17 races, Marquez leads his compatriot by 13 points. If Lorenzo wins at Valencia, Marquez needs to finish at least fourth to secure the crown. If he does take the title, he will make history as the youngest winner of the premier-class championship in the 65-year history of the sport. The 20-year-old Marquez has already rewritten the record books this year – when he won April’s Grand Prix of the Americas he became the youngest rider to win a premier-class race. Since then he has won a further five victories, a record for a rookie. Marquez may be ahead in the title battle but he is still nursing injuries sustained in a morning warm-up crash at Motegi on October 27. Team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) is also looking for a strong finish to the 2013 season, which he will finish in third position, regardless of Sunday’s result. The former 250 and 125 World Champion had also featured in this year’s title battle, until bad luck once again conspired against him. In July he was leading the points chase when he crashed and broke a collarbone at the German Grand Prix. Even then he was still in with an outside chance of the title until an unlucky tumble at September’s Aragon Grand Prix effectively ended his hopes. In the past Valencia has been kind to both Repsol Honda men. Pedrosa has won no less than six GPs at the track: the MotoGP race in 2007, 2009 and 2012 (when he won in complicated wet/dry conditions, despite starting from pit lane), the 250 race in 2004 and 2005 and the 125 race in 2002. Marquez won last year’s Valencia Moto2 race, despite starting from the back row of the grid. Unfazed by tricky track conditions, he charged through the pack to win the race, a perfect ending to his title-winning season. Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V) and Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) will enjoy their own duel on Sunday – to be the next best-placed Honda rider in the final standings. German Bradl had been ahead of his Spanish rival until an unlucky injury sustained during the Malaysian GP. Bradl missed the Malaysian and subsequent Australian races and arrives at Valencia 14 points behind Bautista who has been on excellent form since the middle of the season. In Japan Bautista’s fourth-place finish helped make history by completing the first all-Spanish top four in the premier class. That ride was another great performance from the former 125 World Champion who has only twice finished outside the top five in the last ten races. Bradl had also being showing excellent from until that spill at Sepang. His highlight of the year so far is his first MotoGP podium at Laguna Seca, where he made history as the first German to start a premier-class race from pole position. Australian Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) comes to the end of his rookie MotoGP season hoping for another points-scoring ride on his CBR1000RR-powered CRT machine. The battle for the Honda-powered Moto2 World Championship may already be over, but that won’t take any of the thrills out of the last race of the season. Although Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP40 Pons Kalex) wrapped up the Moto2 crown at the last race in Japan, he will be going all out to take his 11th and last win in the class before he graduates to MotoGP, commencing with his first test ride on a MotoGP bike during the post-Valencia tests. The same goes for Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) who led so much of the championship chase until he crashed and broke his left wrist at last month’s Australian round. After having the injury pinned and plated, Redding returned to action in Japan, only to become an innocent victim of a first-lap pile-up, triggered by Esteve Rabat (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex). Like Espargaro, Redding is moving up to MotoGP and will make his debut on a prototype of the Honda production racer he will race in 2014 during the post-Valencia tests. Rabat has been the other star of the 2013 Moto2 season, taking his first three victories in the class. He will want a fourth success to propel him towards the 2014 season, which he hopes to start as title favourite. Finn Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) has already secured fourth place in the notoriously hard-fought series, but there’s a three-way battle for fifth overall in which Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert Suter), Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Suter) and Takaaki Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex) are separated by six points. Of all the championship contests, the fiercest is unfolding in the Moto3 class, in which three riders have a chance of taking the title. The all-KTM trio of Luis Salom, Maverick Vinales and Alex Rins are covered by just five points, so whoever wins on Sunday will carry off the title. Although there are no Honda riders involved at the very top of the table, all of them will be trying to finish 2013 in style. Stand-out performer of the year on an NSF250R machine has been tough Aussie teenager Jack Miller (Caretta Technology – RTG FTR Honda), who lies seventh overall, just ahead of Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda). Romano Fenati (San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda) will be doing everything in his powers to secure a place in the championship top ten. He is currently tenth overall, equal on points with KTM rider Jakub Kornfiel. Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo (named in honour of the late Ricardo Tormo, who won the 50cc World Championship in 1978) is a tight, technical and very asymmetric racetrack, dominated by left-handers, which places very different demands on the left and right sides of the tyres. Machine priorities are agile handling for the many changes of direction and edge grip – Valencia packs 14 corners into just 4 km (2.5 miles). The circuit is surrounded by grandstands, giving the venue a unique stadium feel. It is usually a hugely popular event with more than 200,000 fans expected over the weekend. Honda has enjoyed considerable success at Valencia, with five different riders winning the elite class on RCV machinery since the venue joined the MotoGP calendar in 1999: Alex Barros (2002), Rossi (2003), Marco Melandri (2005), Casey Stoner (2011) and Pedrosa (2007, 2009 and 2012). Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: “It’s been nice to have a week at home after a long three weeks away, after my accident in Motegi I’ve doing muscular rehabilitation on my neck in anticipation for the race, and it now feels much better. We’ve had good races in Valencia; I’ve always tried to give it my best there. I have fond memories of last year’s race in Moto2 but the weather will also be a factor to consider because it is very changeable. I’m already looking forward to getting back in the pit garage and getting on the bike! Obviously we know what is at stake in this final Grand Prix of the year, but we will – as ever – approach it as we have done every other race, and work hard from the Friday and do our best.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: “I’m looking forward to going to Valencia and racing in front of the home fans! We’ve had a long trip in Asia and it will be nice to race in Valencia again, where the atmosphere is always very special. Even though we are out of the championship now, I’ve had good results here in the past with many victories – including last year when we won after starting from the pits – and I want to end the season on a high.” Alvaro Bautista, Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: “Japan was a good race for us even though it was a difficult weekend because of the weather, which limited track time and made it hard to find a set-up. We didn’t make a perfect start but made up positions well, so it was a shame that we were too far back to fight for the podium. Anyway, it was satisfying for us to finish as the top satellite bike with a factory rider behind us and in a way it is a shame that the season is finishing this weekend with us in such great form. Unfortunately we haven’t managed to finish on the podium this season but I maintain that we have been more competitive than last year and we have one more opportunity to show it this weekend at Valencia. It is a decisive race for the outcome of the championship but I also want to be running at the front and there to take advantage of any situation that could favour us. Valencia is tight and twisty, not one of my favourite circuits because you don’t get chance to make the most of the power of a MotoGP bike. We will need to work hard on the setting to make sure the bike handles well through the tight sections.” Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: “I am heading to Valencia with extra motivation after this tough period. In Japan I felt a little bit of pain during the race, when my right leg was kind of pumping the muscle, so fifth place was an extraordinary result, considering my conditions. The mobility of my ankle is better now but not yet at 100 per cent. I have continued my standard training programme since returning to Germany because I aim to finish the season with another positive result. Missing two races cost me a lot, including sixth position in the points standings. By the way, I think we have done a pretty good season, including my first podium at Laguna Seca.” Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: “Valencia will be an important weekend for me. It is the last race of the season and I want to sign off with my best performance. Unfortunately the season has not met our expectations in terms of results and that is disappointing for myself and for the team. However, overall it has been an incredible experience for me and I would like to end it in the best possible way.” Moto2 rider quotes Pol Espargaro, Tuenti HP40 Pons: “I can’t wait for Valencia – it will be great to be able to race without thinking about the championship. It’s been an amazing year – I made some mistakes at the beginning but finally we got the title because the team and I never gave up. It was wonderful to win the crown in Japan, but before the trip I didn’t expect to win it there so I didn’t prepare any celebrations, so maybe we do something at Valencia!” Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team: “I was pretty banged up in the Motegi crash, so it’s been all about recovery since I got back home. The swelling on my lower back and right elbow means I haven’t been able to do any training since Japan, but both have improved over the last few days, so I should be good by the time I get to Valencia. This weekend will be my final race in Moto2 and my last appearance for the Marc VDS Racing Team, so I’m keen to finish the season with a good result at Valencia.” Esteve Rabat, Tuenti HP 40 Pons: “After what happened on the first lap at Motegi, I hope to have the chance of a good race at Valencia to complete this season. It will be the last race of 2013, but also in another way it will be the start of my work to prepare all the bases to fight for the 2014 championship. I was quite lucky when I crashed at Motegi – just some bruising and a knock on my head – so this will not affect me this weekend.” Honda Moto3 Rider quotes Jack Miller, Caretta Technology – RTG: “I think Valencia will be good. I think the track will be okay for us, even though we never really know until we get to a track. I like the circuit more than I like Motegi, anyway, and I hope to be fighting as close to the front as possible.” Alexis Masbou, Ongetta-Rivacold: “Valencia isn’t among my favorite tracks – I prefer fast, flowing tracks – it’s too slow for me. Anyway, we have an excellent bike, and since Malaysia we have got the settings right and we have been very fast. So the bike is working well and we’re working well, but, to be honest, I’m already working thinking about next season!” Romano Fenati, San Carlo Team Italia: “Valencia is the last race and everyone always wants to do well at the last race to give them good motivation into the winter. I don’t think it will be an easy track for us, but we will do our best and see how it goes.” — Ducati With seven months and seventeen races having passed since the 2013 season-opening round in Qatar, the MotoGP teams and riders are headed to Spain for the finale event of the year, the Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana. The fourth Spanish host circuit of the year, Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo is a stadium-like facility housing a relatively tight track that runs in an anticlockwise direction. The season-finale atmosphere is invariably exciting and party-like, although there’s also plenty of hard work, with the three-day GP to be followed by three additional days of testing as the teams begin preparation for the 2014 season. Past years have seen the Ducati Team post a pair of wins at Valencia with riders Troy Bayliss and Casey Stoner (2006 and ’08, respectively). Andrea Dovizioso scored a MotoGP podium finish at the circuit two years ago and was runner-up in the 125cc class back in 2004. Nicky Hayden has a pair of premier-class podium finishes at Valencia, and although he’s been plagued by bad luck in recent years with crashes having cut his last three Valencian GPs short, he likes the track and has good memories of wrapping up his 2006 World Championship at the circuit. Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – “For us Valencia should be a better track than the latest ones we’ve been to. Of course a lot will depend on the weather, which in this period of the year can be a bit unreliable, but I think that the track will be more suited to our GP13 because there is more grip and the surface is pretty new, so we should go a bit better. Then after the race we’ll see what there is to try out during the three days of testing. In any case I don’t have a particularly great rapport with this circuit… I’ve got good memories of the 2011 race when I beat Dani for third place in the championship, but I don’t like the track very much, and I don’t think I’m the only rider who thinks this way.” Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – “I’ve got some great memories from Valencia. Some people think it’s a bit tight for MotoGP, but I actually like it. I think it’s a fun, scrappy little track, and in the past, it’s been pretty good for Ducati. The new pavement is grippy and doesn’t have a lot of bumps, which is good for us. We’ll see what the weather does. It’s the last one of the year, and although we know it’ll be tough to do something great, we’ll put our heads down, try to have some fun and finish in the best way possible.” Vittoriano Guareschi – Team Manager – “This is the final round of the championship, Nicky’s last race with us after five years, and also my last one with Ducati. Valencia is a circuit where, in view of its characteristics and numerous ‘stop-and-go’ sections, our bike goes pretty well, so it could be a nice opportunity to bring our adventure to an end and sign off with a good race. I’d also like to add that Valencia is the track where my relation with the Desmosedici began in 2002 and it’ll also be where this cycle, full of memories of the last 13 years spent in Ducati, comes to an end.” — PBM The final round of the MotoGP World Championship takes place at Valencia this weekend with the PBM MotoGP Team looking to end the season in style after a run of bad luck has meant a string of disappointing results for the Penrith based squad. Ulsterman Michael Laverty will once again be on board the Rapid Solicitors and Silkolene sponsored Aprilia ART which he has campaigned in recent rounds whereas Australian Damian Cudlin will continue on the Rapid Solicitors and Silkolene sponsored PBM machine once again. Both riders suffered varying degrees of misfortune at the three flyaway races recently and are looking forward to returning to Europe in the hope of ending the season in positive fashion for MotoGP’s only British team. Meanwhile, team owner Paul Bird has recently met with senior personnel from a major manufacturer and is planning further negotiations in Spain this weekend with a view to confirming his team’s MotoGP plans for 2014 imminently. Paul Bird, Team Owner: “We’ve had a disappointing season and our luck in recent rounds has certainly compounded that so I’m hoping we can turn things around for the final race of the season. When we entered MotoGP, we didn’t underestimate the challenge and we are fully aware of what it takes to compete in this series so we are now ready to step up a level. Valencia is still a very important race for us as we are finalising plans for next season and we are hoping to make a very exciting announcement regarding our participation in MotoGP next season shortly.” — Bridgestone Preview Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Extra-soft & Soft. Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric) For the first time since 2006, the MotoGP™ World Championship will be decided at the last race of the year, as Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo prepare for an end-of-season spectacular in front of a vocal Spanish crowd at Valencia. Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo Circuit is a tight and technical track that offers tyres little respite over the course of a lap, so a good bike setup is very important to ensure the most efficient use of the tyres allocated for this Grand Prix. The layout of the circuit means more stress is placed on the left shoulder of the tyres, and an unbalanced bike setup can cause excessive rear tyre temperatures which can lead to a loss of performance and accelerated tyre wear. To manage the unbalanced layout of Valencia, the asymmetric rear slicks feature rubber on the right shoulder that is two grades softer than on the left side. This ensures the lesser-used right shoulder of the rear tyre stays at its ideal operating temperature and that the left shoulder provides the durability and stability needed for the many left hand turns. Additionally, the front slick compounds allocated for this weekend need to provide enhanced warm-up performance and grip in the temperate weather. Rear tyre options for the CRT riders at Valencia are the soft and medium compounds, while the works riders will be able to use the medium and a brand new hard compound rear slick, which received extremely positive feedback from riders when tested at Misano this year. Front options at Valencia are the soft and medium compound slicks, while the main wet tyre for the Valencia Grand Prix is the soft compound wet tyre. Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department | RND 17 – LORENZO WINS MOTEGI |
| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 18 – Valencia — Marquez vs Lorenzo – The Showdown! In Valencia this weekend at the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana, MotoGP™ fans the world over will enjoy a final-race title decider for the first time in seven years, as Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez looks to hold off the charge from Yamaha Factory Racing’s reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. The last time such a showdown occurred was in 2006 when Honda’s Nicky Hayden claimed the ultimate honour as Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi made a rare mistake. Seven years on, more drama is certain as Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo go head-to-head at the climax of what has been a riveting season. Marquez heads to Valencia with a championship-leading advantage of 13 points, meaning a single fourth place would guarantee the title no matter what Lorenzo is capable of. Looking at the rookie’s track record this looks to be a certain, however if Valencia’s rain-hit race of last year is anything to go by, anything can happen. It was Repsol’s Dani Pedrosa who won the race last year, and will this year be out to prove a point, as he saw his title chances go after his third place in Motegi. Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi could prove to be a big factor in the outcome of the race, as he looks to hold off Marquez’s charge and help out his teammate Lorenzo. Another player could be Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, who has not only cemented fifth place in the championship, but also contests his last race on board a Yamaha before his switch to Ducati. GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista has been continually improving throughout the season and will hope to impress his home fans, whilst LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl should be much closer to full fitness after fracturing his right ankle in Malaysia. Nicky Hayden will aim to have a good weekend on his last for the Ducati Team and get one over on his teammate Andrea Dovizioso, whilst the Ignite Pramac and Energy T.I. Pramac machines of Yonny Hernandez and Andrea Dovizioso will hope to hold off Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro. Espargaro has already collected top CRT honours, but will aim to celebrate that with another spot in Parc Ferme in front of local support. The grid will be two riders stronger, as Michele Pirro lines up for the Ducati Test team, and Austrian Martin Bauer makes another appearance with his S&B Suter with the Remus Racing Team. World Championship Standings MotoGP™ — Moto2 Heading to Valencia for the last round of 2013, Moto2™ is the only category in which the title has already been decided, in favour of Pol Espargaro. However, plenty of rivals will be looking for a confidence-boosting victory at the end of another tiring campaign. With just the sole round still to run, Espargaro (Tuenti HP 40) heads the luckless Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) by the unassailable margin of 41 points, with a maximum of 25 still on offer. Compounding a dreadful end to the triple-header, Redding was taken out of the Japanese Grand Prix in a crash triggered by third title contender and Espargaro’s teammate, Tito Rabat. Both men will now be looking to put one over the Champion in Valencia, with Espargaro and Redding then heading to MotoGP™ for 2014, while Rabat remains in Moto2™ with Marc VDS. There will be plenty more to fight for at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, as well. Fourth, eighth and tenth in the championship, Mika Kallio (Marc VDS), and Aspar Team Moto2 pairing Nico Terol and Jordi Torres will all be searching for one more win before the end of the season, whereas no less than four of the riders in the overall top ten are still on the lookout for a victory before moving into the off-season. Regular wildcard Gino Rea will be taking part once more with his Gino Rea Montaze Broz Racing team, as will other familiar, Malaysian Hafiz Syahrin, with the Petronas Raceline Malaysia outfit. — World Championship Standings Moto2™ — Moto3 Any one of three riders could leave Valencia this weekend with a maiden Moto3™ world title. At present, a blanket could be thrown over the trio, with Luis Salom, Maverick Viñales and Alex Rins covered by just five points. In 2012, Germany’s Sandro Cortese clinched the first ever Moto3™ title with a pair of races to spare. A year later, a campaign of mixed results has left Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Luis Salom, Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales and Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins with almost equal opportunities heading into Valencia. Salom leads Viñales by just two points, with Rins only a further three in arrears. It was those three, in that very order, who won the opening three races of the year and, until Rins’ teammate Alex Marquez triumphed for the first time in Japan, no other rider had clinched a lightweight class victory in 2013. At the same time, Marquez will be keen to complete the year with back-to-back wins, while Jonas Folger (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3) and Miguel Oliveira (Mahindra Racing) would certainly be deserving of a victory should they achieve the feat. There will be two wildcards in the line-up with Jorge Navarro racing for MIR Racing, and Venezuelan Michael Ruben Rinaldi taking part on a third Mahindra. As for the Constructors’ fight, KTM has hit its fourth century of points and was the first title winner in any class this year, sealing that particular honour back at Silverstone. World Championship Standings Moto3™ |  |
| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 17 – Motegi — Championship goes down to the wire after impressive Lorenzo victory in Japan Jorge Lorenzo has triumphed for the seventh time in 2013, winning Sunday’s AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan. The Yamaha Factory Racing rider fought off a stiff challenge from Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa to ensure that the MotoGP™ title battle goes down to the wire for the first time since 2006. Providing a truly unpredictable end to the late-season triple-header, the Motegi weekend was very much shaken up by inclement weather conditions; this led to the cancellation of all track action on Friday as well as heavy modifications to the Saturday agenda. Ironically, Sunday’s race took place under clear blue skies in Japan. From his fourth pole position of the year, it would be a lights-to-flag victory for Lorenzo to move one win ahead of Marquez in the 2013 season. Teammate Valentino Rossi looked to be providing a buffer between the current titleholder and the pair of factory Hondas, but suffered braking issues at Turn 11 twice, and fell back down the order. Lorenzo would come under severe pressure from Marquez at the mid-way point of the race, with Pedrosa in hot pursuit. However, the Mallorcan was spared some breathing space as Marquez made mistakes at both Turn 11 and Turn 1. The 20-year-old would never be as close to Lorenzo again, eventually ending the day 3.1 seconds in arrears. Pedrosa’s third place marked his 12th podium finish of the season, but the Sabadell rider was unable to complete a hat trick of Motegi victories, as his chances for the 2013 world title officially evaporated. Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl rounded out the top five, with the GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider having slipstreamed his way past the LCR Honda MotoGP bike at the start of the eighth lap. Rossi fought back to sixth place after running as low as 11th, while Cal Crutchlow, who suffered from overheating brakes, got the better of impressive Monster Yamaha Tech3 teammate Bradley Smith in seventh and eighth spots. Ducati Team completed the top ten with Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, while 11th place was taken by wildcard Katsuyuki Nakasuga for the Yamaha YSP Racing Team. In 12th was lead CRT rider Colin Edwards (NGM Mobile Forward Racing), with Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro having become the third of three retirements courtesy of a high-speed accident due to loss of braking power – he escaped with a left hip contusion. Lukas Pesek (Came IodaRacing Project) was first to retire, while Cardion AB Motoracing’s Luca Scassa pulled into the pit lane with a loose right foot peg. Sunday’s result – marking the 200th premier class race victory for Yamaha – sees Lorenzo move to within 13 points of Marquez with just the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana remaining. This signals the first final-race MotoGP™ title-decider for seven years; in 2006 it was also a duel between the Honda and Yamaha factory teams, with the crown won by Nicky Hayden as the American picked up a maiden title from then reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi. — MotoGP™ Race Classification — Championship standings — Moto2™ Pol Espargaro has become Moto2™ World Champion of 2013, winning Sunday’s AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan in fine style. The Spaniard’s task was aided when chief rivals Scott Redding and Tito Rabat were both removed from the action in a multiple collision on the first lap. Mika Kallio and Tom Luthi completed the podium. Under clear skies and with ambient temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius, it was a clean start to proceedings until a crash occurred on the exit of the second corner; Redding, Rabat (Tuenti HP 40) and Alex Mariñelarena (Blusens Avintia) were involved, and none of the trio would restart. Mariñelarena unfortunately suffered a broken left wrist. At Turn 3, Dominique Aegerter suffered a separate incident but the Technomag carXpert rider was able to re-join the grid following a red flag stoppage. On the first of 15 laps for the restarted race, Espargaro took the lead from Marc VDS’ Kallio and would not be headed for the rest of the afternoon. This left the Finn second from a pole position start, with Interwetten Paddock Moto2’s Tom Luthi on the podium for the third race in a row and the sixth time this season. Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team) and Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team) completed the top five from Aspar Team Moto2’s Nico Terol, NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Alex de Angelis and Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami – the leading Japanese rider in his home event. It was a race of high attrition, with no less than nine riders failing to make the finish, although the aforementioned Aegerter impressively fought back to eighth position after running last at the restart. With the title wrapped up in favour of Espargaro, a single race remains on the 2013 Moto2™ calendar. The Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana will take place at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit on 10 November. Moto2™ Race Classification Pole Position: Mika KALLIO 2’01.248 142.5 Km/h CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TILL DATE: — Moto3™ Alex Marquez has claimed his first ever World Championship race victory in the Moto3™ AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan. In a race full of surprises, title contenders Luis Salom and Alex Rins both suffered crashes before Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Marquez beat Maverick Viñales by just two hundredths of a second. The events of Sunday could not have been scripted at Twin Ring Motegi. Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) started from his seventh pole position of the season, whereas championship leader Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was fourth on the grid and would claim the title if he won with Rins 11th or lower. However, the destiny of the championship would be shaken up on various occasions throughout the race. It was a shocking opening lap for Red Bull KTM Ajo. Just seconds after Zulfahmi Khairuddin was taken out in a Turn 1 incident with Ambrogio Racing’s Brad Binder, Salom was collected in V Corner by Ongetta-Centro Seta’s Isaac Viñales. The Mallorcan re-joined the race and proceeded to post lap records as he began a charge back up the order, only to highside out of contention at Turn 4 on Lap 8. Knowing the championship leader was out, Rins was set to top the points table as he ran third behind Viñales (Team Calvo) and teammate Marquez on the 14th lap, following an entertaining scrap with both of the riders in front of him. Unbelievably, a mistake from Rins saw him lose control to throw the championship fight wide open once again. He re-joined the race but recovered only to 24th position, out of the points. It was Viñales who led into the final tour, but an error at the Turn 10 hairpin was more than the invitation Marquez needed. The younger brother of MotoGP™ World Championship leader Marc would hold on for his first victory by the slim margin of 27 thousandths of a second. Viñales shot back up into title contention with second place, with the podium completed by Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Jonas Folger. A somewhat quiet place for Mahindra Racing’s Miguel Oliveira ended with fourth position, while a dramatic fight for fifth saw San Carlo Team Italia’s Romano Fenati beating Caretta Technology – RTG duo Jack Miller and John McPhee. The top ten was rounded out by Niklas Ajo (Avant Tecno), Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3) and the aforementioned Binder. There was also contentment for Japan’s Hyuga Watanabe, who scored for La Fonte Tascaracing. Nine riders failed to make the finish, including Ongetta-Rivacold’s Alexis Masbou who crashed on the final lap. The remarkable events of Motegi leave Moto3™ with a triangular final round shootout for the title. Salom will head into the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana with a two-point lead over Viñales, with Rins only a further three in arrears. Moto3™ Race Classification Pole Position: Alex RINS 2’09.387 133.5 Km/h CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TILL DATE: 1 SALOM 300, 2 VIÑALES 298, 3 RINS 295, 4 MARQUEZ 200, 5 FOLGER 163, 6 OLIVEIRA 144, 7 MILLER 110, 8 MASBOU 84, 9 VAZQUEZ 71, 10 KORNFEIL 68, 11 FENATI 68, 12 KHAIRUDDIN 65, 13 BINDER 62, 14 AJO 62, 15 SISSIS 59. — Yamaha Report Defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo delivered an incredible performance today to take victory in the Grand Prix of Japan, claiming the Motegi circuit for Yamaha. A dramatic weekend dominated by complicated weather conditions meant the only dry set up time for today’s race was this morning in the final warm up session. Lorenzo rose to the occasion, firing off the start line like a bullet in front of Yamaha’s home crowd to lead the race into the first laps. The Mallorcan was able to build a gap of nearly two seconds in the first three laps then saw it cut as championship rival Marc Marquez closed in. Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were able to get onto the heels of Lorenzo but unable to pass. The defending champion held on to the line to score his 51st Grand Prix victory, crossing the line just over three seconds clear of Marquez. Teammate Valentino Rossi made a great start to the race from the second row and tucked in behind Lorenzo in second position as the Japanese Grand prix got underway. Unfortunately a lack of braking power on turn 11 of the second lap caused him to run wide, allowing Marquez and Pedrosa past. He then got back on track but suffered the same issue the following lap, dropping down to 11th in the process. In typical Rossi fashion he then put his head down and made several passes as he fought back up the field to finish in sixth position. The stunning victory by Lorenzo brings him five points closer to Marquez. 13 points separate them now as they head to the final round in Valencia. Rossi increases his point score to 224 and remains in fourth place in the standings. Jorge Lorenzo – 1st / 42’34.291 / 24 laps Valentino Rossi – 6th / +24.637 / 24 laps Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director Crutchlow prevails in exciting Tech 3 battle in Japan Cal Crutchlow triumphed in an exciting duel with Monster Yamaha Tech 3 teammate Bradley Smith in today’s Japanese Grand Prix to claim a hard fought seventh position that secured the British rider the honour of finishing leading non-factory rider in 2013. With only 45 minutes of dry track time available on a weather-hit weekend at the Twin Ring Motegi ahead of this afternoon’s 24-lap race, Crutchlow and Smith engaged in a thrilling battle in the first half of the race. In easily the best conditions of the weekend, it was Smith who led the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 charge after he made another one of his super fast reactions off the line to rocket from 13th on the grid into the top six. Smith opted to race the extra soft compound Bridgestone rear tyre to boost his speed in the early laps and it was a strategy the paid off handsomely, as he hunted down Stefan Bradl for a place in the top five. A mistake by Valentino Rossi in the hard braking zone for Turn 11 on lap three elevated Smith into the top five and he then rode magnificently to keep hard charging Crutchlow at bay until lap nine. Crutchlow went for a different tyre selection strategy and the harder option rear tyre kept him firmly in contention for the top six until the final stages when he was unable to maintain a challenge to Rossi. Crutchlow’s seventh position moved him to 188-points in the Championship rankings and with just one race remaining, Alvaro Bautista can no longer catch him to claim the accolade of being the top non-factory rider this season. Smith’s brilliant ride to eighth saw him take a giant leap towards securing 10th in the overall World Championship standings, now he is 19-points clear of Aleix Espargaro. Smith’s impressive rookie season is certainly finishing strongly, with the 22-year-old claiming six top 10 finishes in the last seven races and he finished just over three seconds behind Crutchlow this afternoon. After a gruelling three-week world tour to Malaysia, Australia and Japan, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team now heads back to Europe for a well-deserved rest ahead of the final race in Valencia on November 10. Cal Crutchlow – 7th – 188 points Bradley Smith – 8th – 107 points Katsuyuki Nakasuga Yamaha YSP Racing Team – 11th Time: +53.345 sec — HRC Report Repsol Honda RC213V rider Marc Marquez rode to a strategic second place at today’s Japanese Grand Prix, preferring not to risk his world championship lead in pitched battle, with just one round remaining for a tense final decider. Second Repsol Honda RC213V rider Dani Pedrosa was third, making it a double rostrum for Honda – with two more Hondas taking the next two places to make four out of the top five. The double podium secured the Teams Championship for Repsol Honda, with one race to spare. Honda also leads the Constructors Championship by 13 points from Yamaha, with a maximum of 25 available. Today’s race was won by Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) adding momentum to his late-season challenge to regain the title lead at the final race. The Spanish defending champion’s chances were revived last weekend in Australia, where Marquez was disqualified for an error in interpreting special one-race pit-stop rules. It means the World Championship battle will be decided at the final race for the first time since Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden defeated Valentino Rossi at Valencia in 2006. A separate battle for fourth was won by Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Gresini Honda RC213V) from Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda); while CRT-category competitor Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) finished 22nd on his first visit to the Twin Ring Motegi circuit. The penultimate round of the World Championship was dogged by bad weather – the legacy of fading Typhoon Francisco – with no practice possible all Friday and on Saturday morning. Each class ran one extended session to determine qualifying positions, and then extended race-day morning sessions – by when the weather had cleared and the track was dry for the first time. It posed an extra challenge for former 125 and Moto2 World Champion Marquez, whose blazing rookie season in the premier class has brought him tantalisingly close to a maiden MotoGP World Championship. With no previous experience of the class-leading Honda RC213V at the Honda-owned circuit, the severe lack of dry practice cost him vital set-up time. Even so he challenged for the lead mid-race, before deciding that a safe 20 points would be the wiser choice. His lead now stands at 13 points: should Lorenzo win at the final round in two weeks, Marquez must be no lower than third if he is to win the crown at his first attempt. The 20-year-old from Catalunya in Spain has made a blazing impact on the top class. Aside from the Australian mishap, he has been on the rostrum at every race bar one, and amassed a total of six race wins, including four in a row. All year he has been breaking “youngest-ever” records … but even if it all goes wrong at Valencia and he has to wait one more year, he will still be in line to be youngest-ever premier-class world champion, provided he ties it up before the end of October. The previous youngest champion was Honda rider Freddie Spencer, in 1983. Pedrosa has also had a season of consistent strength, but for a mid-year interruption with an injury that ultimately cost him his own championship chances. Aside from that two-race spell, the former 125 and double 250 champion has won three races and stood on the podium 12 times altogether. The experienced 28-year-old’s third victory came three races ago in Malaysia, as his improving physical condition was matched by an important step in finding machine settings more suited to his style. Third in today’s race was a disappointment after winning the previous two events at the circuit in the hills to the north of Tokyo, and meant an end to his hopes of finishing higher than third overall in the final standings. Fourth place for Bautista equalled his best results of the year and continued a strong late-season run for the former 125 World Champion. The Spanish rider has an extra role for Honda: the only rider race-developing Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, made by Japanese associates of Honda. This position further improved his chances of retaining sixth overall. His nearest rival is LCR Honda RC213V rider Stefan Bradl, for him this was a comeback ride after missing the last two races with a fractured ankle. The race was just over two weeks after surgery in Malaysia, and to finish fifth proved the determination of the German former Moto2 champion. While the title stays alive in the premier class, a new champion was crowned in the all-Honda powered Moto2 class, as Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex) gained an unassailable advantage with his sixth victory of the season. His last rival, Englishman Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) was absent from a race cut from 23 to 15 laps – one of the victims of a first-corner crash that brought out the red flags at the first attempt. Redding had led on points from round four until last weekend in Australia, when he broke his wrist and missed the race. His return a week later in Japan was a brave but ultimately unsuccessful last-ditch effort. The organiser supply identical sealed race-tuned Honda CBR600 engines to all competitors to guarantee reliable and usually close racing, but Espargaro’s pace in the second shortened race in a row stretched out the pursuit. First-time pole qualifier Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) was second after a race-long chase, three seconds down at the flag. Swiss former 125 World Champion Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Suter) a slightly lesser distance behind for third. It was Brno winner Kallio’s third visit to the rostrum; and a sixth for Luthi. Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team Kalex) eventually escaped from a race-long battle with Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex) for fifth; double race winner Nico Terol (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter) closed to within a second of his Spanish compatriot by the finish. Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert Suter) was eighth. Takaaki Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex) had a strong ride through from 22nd on the grid to ninth, finally outpacing Mattia Pasini (NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up). Ten seconds away, Anthony West (QMMF Racing Team Speed Up) forced his way to the front of a quartet disputing 11th, taking the place narrowly from Marcel Schrotter (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team Kalex), Axel Pons (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex), Gino Rea (Arginano & Gines Racing Speed Up) and Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex). Eleventh to 15th and last point were covered by just over one second. The costly first-corner crash was triggered when three-race winner Esteve Rabat (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex) fell near the front of the pack. Redding, who had qualified 15th, was unable to avoid his bike, and also fell heavily, while Blusens Avintia Kalex replacement rider Alex Marinelarena also crashed and was stretchered away. None made the restart. Espargaro now the new World Champion with hi unassailable lead on points, but Rabat still has the chance to claim second from Redding, who is 20 points clear. An exciting Moto3 race threw the championship wide open and yielded a best result of the year for the Honda riders, with the top trio in a close fight to the end over fifth place, and a fourth in ninth place. Until the last corner there had been five Hondas in the top ten … but Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda) crashed out of a potential fifth almost within sight of the chequered flag. While Alex Marquez won his first grand prix after title leaders Luis Salom and Alex Rins crashed out (all KTM), four Honda riders were in the big battle not far behind the remaining leading quartet. Masbou, Romano Fenati (San Carlo Team Italian FTR Honda), John McPhee (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda) had caught fast-starting Jack Miller (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda). The quartet changed places repeatedly, then crossed the line Fenati, Miller and McPhee after Masbou went missing, all over the line within 0.12 seconds. Isaac Vinales (Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) had been with the leaders when he crashed on the first lap, taking down points leader Alex Salom. Later in the race fellow KTM rider Alex Rins also crashed, handing a slender points lead to Maverick Vinales (KTM), a narrow second in today’s race. Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda, 2nd – “Second place today is a very good result. After my crash in warm-up, I knew that it would be difficult to be consistent – because in the morning I hadn’t managed that either. This was my first time at this track with a MotoGP bike and in practice I was unable to get any references in the dry, leaving me with only the warm-up and the race in which to find my way. I saw that Jorge was a little stronger than us here and I had a couple of scary moments, making me decide that 20 points and the gap being reduced by only five points would be a decent result. There is only one race remaining – the most important of the year – so we shall try to be more focused than ever at Valencia.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 3rd – “It was a bit of a boring race for me, because I tried to give everything but I had a lot of problems exiting the corners; I was unable to get on the gas fully and I lost a lot of time to Marc and Jorge. I was third for the entire race, trying to hold onto them. However, at the midway point of the race my pace started to become slower than theirs. Now we have to focus on the next race, in Valencia, where we shall try to do as well as possible.” Alvaro Bautista, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, 4th – “After such a strange weekend with everything that has happened and the two crashes – one yesterday and one this morning – the race was more than positive. I felt comfortable with the bike this morning but the crash definitely didn’t help and the start wasn’t perfect either. I hadn’t done a single lap with the front tyre so I wasn’t sure how it would feel or how hard I could push it but I built my rhythm up, made some passes and picked up a solid fourth place that could perhaps have been something more if we’d had a better start. Anyway, it is a good finish to a chaotic weekend and that is the most important thing. We have consolidated sixth place in the championship and now we need to keep working to take the next step with Showa, Nissin and Honda. We owe it to everybody that supports us, but especially GO&FUN.” Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda, 5th – “It has been a crazy weekend for everybody but in the end we had a dry race and I am happy about my result. I was more cautious compared to the other guys but I took a good start from the third row. At some point during the race Bautista caught me but I could feel some pain in my ankle due to the movement of the bike. Actually my ankle is at 85 percent, and for me it was a long and tough race so we must be pleased with this fifth place.” Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, 22nd – “I don’t have much to say today, I think the result says it all. It has been a weekend to forget and we need to turn the page quickly and start thinking about Valencia. At a circuit I know we should have better fortunes than here at Motegi.” Honda Moto2 rider quotes Pol Espargaro, Tuenti HP 40 Pons, 1st – “I can’t explain my feelings in words – I feel like I am flying. Later we have to think about what we did, and to enjoy the championship when we get home. It was a title of a group, of the big family that is my team. I want to congratulate them. It was a difficult year for us, my team-mate Rabat and Scott were so fast, until unfortunately Scott crashed in Australia. I did some mistakes at the start, but we kept on fighting. Now I can enjoy Valencia with my people without thinking about the championship.” Mika Kallio, Marc VDS Racing Team, 2nd – “I’m happy with the 20 points for second, but disappointed not to have won here at Motegi today. The feeling was good, the pace was good and this track has always been a little bit special for me in the past, but Pol was just too fast for me. I made a couple of small mistakes early on that allowed him to pull enough of a gap that it was impossible to catch him. Normally I’d be satisfied to be on the podium, but I’ve won many times before at this track and, today, I was expecting more.” Thomas Luthi, Interwetten Paddock Moto2, 3rd – “It has been a good three races for me, on the podium at each race. In the championship I am now up to sixth, which I did not expect after the bad start to my season with injury. For everyone, it was not an easy weekend. There was no chance to find the set-up for the dry. My team did a good job, and found quite a good bike for me. The race was not easy either, with the red flag. I was already up I think to sixth, but I said okay, I hope it is possible to push again. I am happy with the podium.” Honda Moto3 rider quotes Romano Fenati, San Carlo Team Italia, 5th – “A good race, as far as I am concerned, especially if you think about what happened on Friday and Saturday. We have been able to set-up the bike only this morning – as everybody, on the other hand. On the last laps my bike was sliding very much, but it was expected.” Jack Miller, Caretta Technology RTG, 6th – “We can be a lot better. With the lack of practice time we didn’t have the gearbox correct – first gear was very short. The first laps were okay but when the tyres went down a bit I was getting big long slides every time I got first gear and I couldn’t carry the corner speed. I was losing a lot in the back part of the circuit.” John McPhee, Caretta Technology RTG, 7th – “It’s a personal best for my career, and I’m really happy with the result. We got a good base set-up this morning, and didn’t make many changes – just a bit harder front and rear. We’ve struggled with braking stability all season, and now it was really good. The bike was turning well, I felt really comfortable from the first laps, and I could run with these guys quite happily. Really pleased.” — Ducati Report At the end of a race weekend marked by challenges including thick fog, heavy rain and cancelled free-practice sessions that forced the riders do a single qualifying session, the Japanese Grand Prix finally took place in perfect weather conditions this afternoon. Unfortunately, the dry track wasn’t helpful to the Ducati Team, with Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso unable to capitalize on their decent grid positions in the race. The American had lined up on the front row, but he suffered a problem on the start and was quickly shuttled back through the pack, soon settling in behind Dovizioso, who had left from row 2. The teammates stayed in close formation for almost the entire race, and the Italian appeared to have ninth place sewn up until the final lap until he went long near the end of the last lap, enabling Hayden to slip by. Dovizioso recovered to round out the top ten. This taxing overseas tripleheader now complete, the teams return home for a well-deserved weekend off before heading to Spain for the season finale, in Valencia on 10 November. Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 9th Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 10th Paolo Ciabatti – Ducati MotoGP Project Director — PBM Report Following a run of desperate bad luck in recent rounds of the MotoGP World Championship, whereas both Michael Laverty and Damian Cudlin left round 17 at the weather-affected AirAsia Japanese Grand Prix without scoring points, it was a lot more encouraging performance by both riders for the Penrith-based PBM MotoGP Team. After the debacle of tyre wear in Australia the week previous, bad weather and even earthquakes threatened to disrupt the penultimate round of the series at Motegi and Friday’s free practice sessions were washed out completely. Saturday’s slightly improved conditions saw both Ulsterman Laverty aboard the CRT-specification Aprilia ART and Australian Cudlin riding the PBM-chassised Aprilia qualify on row seven and eight of the grid respectively going into Sunday’s dry race. Laverty, from Toome in County Antrim, on the Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored Aprilia ART got the better start and was challenging just outside the points for the opening third of the race with German-based Cudlin aboard the unique Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored PBM machine trailing just behind. With both riders having had very limited experience at the track and especially in the dry conditions, they didn’t have the optimum settings but battled on regardless as they circulated inside the top 20 for most of the race. Unfortunately for Cudlin, he inadvertently held up eventual race winner Jorge Lorenzo in the latter stages and was reprimanded afterwards by Race Direction and for Laverty, he ran low on fuel in the last couple of laps and eventually had to push the machine home such was his determination to finish. Laverty was classified in 19th position at the end of the 24-lap race with Cudlin in 21st. Laverty dropped one place to 25th overall in the MotoGP World Championship standings in his debut season. In the Claiming Rules Teams (CRT) class, Laverty occupies tenth whereas PBM occupy eighth in the Constructors Championship and 12th in the Teams Championship in their debut season with their brand new British-built machine. Michael Laverty: “Starting a race with only 18 laps under my belt in the dry was always going to make things difficult. I got gradually faster throughout the race as I figured the circuit out and managed to catch back up to Petrucci. I began to run out of fuel on the penultimate lap and had to nurse it home so I wasn’t able to make a pass. I ran dry on the home straight and had to push it the final 100 metres. I enjoyed Japan and the Motegi circuit although it was a little bit frustrating with the lack of track time this weekend meaning we didn’t reach our true potential.” Damian Cudlin: “The weather really didn’t help us at all this weekend as the one thing we need on the bike is time and going straight into a dry race with very limited track time wasn’t ideal. I got into a good rhythm and was riding my own race and I apologise if I held Jorge up but the flags were not clear to me. I’d like to thank the team for their hard work as it has been a difficult couple of rounds but I am happy to record another finish.” Phil Borley, Technical Director: “The good weather we were hoping for at Motegi arrived too late to be of any help to our riders as they both were looking for as much track time as possible. In the race we did not have the pace to challenge for the positions we should be and so we return home from the flyaway races with little to show for our hard work. Nevertheless, we will keep trying hard and hope to finish the season with some positive results at Valencia.” — Aspar Report The weather conditions at Motegi had caused havoc with the MotoGP schedule this weekend, and the final example of this was the reduction in length of the Sunday practice session from 50 minutes to 45. The race was able to take place, however, at its full duration. Jorge Lorenzo took off from pole position and would never look back, leaving behind the pursuing Marc Márquez and Dani Pedrosa after they spent a section of the race close behind him. Lorenzo won the Japanese GP to keep his title hopes alive, with Márquez second and Pedrosa third. The battle for the 2013 World Championship will go down to the final race of the season at Valencia in two weeks’ time. The Power Electronics Aspar riders got off to a great start, with Aleix Espargaró again showing top formo n his ART. The Spaniard was up in the top five off the line, but would have to drop his pace after the opening lap when he experienced braking issues. This problem had him battling over the course of the next few laps, concluding with a crash just after the midway point of the race. Teammate Randy de Puniet was able to overcome some issues experienced in the morning practice session, despite noting a lack of grip on his rear tyre from lap 7 onwards. The Frenchman fought hard to finish as the top CRT rider, but was just bested by Colin Edwards and would have to settle for second in the sub-class. Randy de Puniet (13th): “This morning’s free practice session was difficult, and I was nearly a second and a half off Aleix. I was a little worried about how the race would go, but my start was good. I quickly passed Yonny Hernandez, who was between Edwards, Aleix and me. After that I was able to hunt down Colin. Aleix made a small mistake, I had him just ahead and we closed the gap a bit. Unfortunately, he crashed. At that time I was less than one second behind Colin and I tried to push as much as I could to catch him, but the rear grip on my bike was not good from around lap seven or eight. I tried to handle the situation, but Edwards’ bike seemed to behave better and have more grip. With seven laps to go I saw that I couldn’t catch him. It was a good race, but I’m disappointed because I think I had the ability to be the top CRT. Now we go to the last race in Valencia, where I hope to do my best and round off the year in a good way. My feeling, without much practice, was good today, so if we can sort out the rear grip issue then my pace should be more consistent. I am satisfied with the fact that I did the best I could, and my team also. We made some adjustments between the morning warmup and the race, and took things the right way. That makes me optimistic for Valencia.” Aleix Espargaró (DNF): “It was a shame about the race today, because I got away really well and was fourth or fifth off the line -the bike was going great. In fact, after the warmup I told my mechanics that I hadn’t had such fun in four or five races. We were a second off the top riders in the morning at a difficult track, so I was very excited. And I got a good start. However, from the beginning I noticed I had some problems with the brakes, so I was going very wide on the opening lap and everyone passed me. I had to ride much slower and brake early. In the end I crashed, but fortunately I escaped unhurt. It’s a shame to end the flyaways like this, as it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. At least my brother win the Moto2 title today, so from me and also from all of the Aspar Team, congratulations to him. In less than two weeks we have the race in Valencia, the home race for the team, and we’ll see if we can win there again.” — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds: Front: Soft & Medium. Rear: Super-soft (Asymmetric) Extra-soft (Symmetric) & Soft (Asymmetric) Jorge Lorenzo dominated today’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, the Yamaha Factory Racing rider leading from start to finish at Motegi to set the stage for an enticing championship decider at the final round of the season in Valencia. Starting from pole position, Lorenzo got a great start to seize the lead on the opening lap and although he was pressured by Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez in the middle phase of the race, Lorenzo upped the pace – setting the fastest lap of the race on lap sixteen – to streak away and win the race by 3.188 seconds. Marquez claimed second place ahead of teammate Dani Pedrosa who finished in third place to ensure two Repsol Honda’s on the podium. The top CRT finisher at Motegi was NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards in twelfth place. Dry conditions finally eventuated at Motegi allowing teams to work on race setup and tyre choice in this morning’s extended practice session. After a cool and at times cloudy morning, track temperatures increased throughout the day and reached a peak of 32°C at the start of the race. The stop-and-go layout of Motegi puts a premium on braking stability, resulting in twenty-three of the twenty-five riders selecting the harder option, medium compound front slick for the race. Rear tyre choice was more varied, with fifteen riders selecting the softer rear option – including race winner Lorenzo – and the ten remaining riders selecting the harder rear slick option available to them. Rear tyre choice for the race amongst the prototype riders trended towards their harder rear slick option, while among the CRT riders there was a clear preference for their softer rear slick option. Heading into the season finale at Valencia in two weeks’ time, Lorenzo trails Marquez by thirteen points while Pedrosa has secured third place in the championship by scoring his twelfth podium of the season at Motegi. Masaaki Tsuya – CEO and Representative Board Member Concurrently Chairman of the Board, Bridgestone Corporation Shinichi Yamashita – General Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing – Race Winner |
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 17 – Motegi — Thundering Lorenzo on pole as Spies announces retirement Jorge Lorenzo will start from the front in the AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan, having clinched his second pole position within the space of a week. At the end of a single 75-minute qualifying session, the Yamaha Factory Racing rider headed Marc Marquez and Nicky Hayden, who picks up a first front row start for over a year. On the same day, Ignite Pramac Racing’s Ben Spies, who has been plagued by injury, announced his retirement from racing. On a weekend heavily disrupted by inclement weather, Qualifying on Saturday afternoon marked the first time the MotoGP™ riders had taken to the track at Twin Ring Motegi. In order to allow the field as much track time as possible, one single session of 75 minutes replaced the usual setup of 15-minute Q1 and Q2 periods. Already quickest on a drying track, Lorenzo recorded blistering pace as conditions improved towards the end of the period, registering an effort of 1’53.471. Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) went second on his final flying lap, demoting Hayden to third; nevertheless, the Ducati Team rider still achieves his best qualifying result since the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez in 2012. He now aims to take advantage of his grid position with Ducati before switching to Power Electronics Aspar next season. Lorenzo’s impressive pace was demonstrated by the fact that all riders from third place downwards were over a full second in arrears. Behind, Row 2 will be occupied by Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi for Honda and Yamaha respectively, with the second Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso in sixth position. GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista will line up seventh – despite a crash at Turn 7 – from LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl, with the German returning from a fractured right ankle. Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro was ninth, having already claimed the overall CRT honours for 2013. Yonny Hernandez completed the top ten for Ignite Pramac Racing, while wildcard Katsuyuki Nakasuga enjoyed a strong session en route to 12th place for Yamaha YSP Racing Team. However, it was a difficult time for Monster Yamaha Tech3 as Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith could manage no more than 11th and 13th spots. Nakasuga’s compatriot Hiroshi Aoyama will begin his home race from 18th position on the grid with the Avintia Blusens FTR machine. Should he be able to end the race with a points lead of 26 or more, 20-year-old Marquez will become the youngest ever MotoGP™ World Champion and first rookie title winner for 35 years. Taking place over the course of 24 laps and with dry conditions expected, Sunday’s 2013 AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan is set to begin at 2pm local time (GMT +9). Due to the lack of track time, Free Practice will start at 9.40am local time, and run for 50 minutes. On the same day, American rider Ben Spies, who has taken part in only two races this season, has announced that he will retire from racing, and hence split from the Ducati family. Spies and Ducati sighted his injuries as being too much of a hindrance, feeling that he is not able to race at the highest standard next season. He had originally signed with Ducati until the end of the 2014 season. MotoGP™ Qualifying Practice Classification — Moto2 Mika Kallio will start from pole position for the AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan, picking up the top spot in Moto2™ for the first time. The Marc VDS Racing Team rider will share the front row with Xavier Simeon and Johann Zarco, while title contenders Tito Rabat, Pol Espargaro and Scott Redding line up sixth, seventh and 15th. Ahead of Qualifying, there had been no track action for any category through a lack of visibility and heavy rain at Twin Ring Motegi. Eventually, the intermediate class had one hour of running time in which to set up bikes as well as posting lap times for grid position. On a mostly dry circuit as the sun began to set in Japan, Kallio topped the timesheets with a 2’01.248, edging out Simeon by two tenths of a second; this marked Kallio’s first pole since the 250 season closer in Valencia six years ago. Less than one tenth of a second covered the riders filling spots two to four, with Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team) second, as Zarco (Came IodaRacing Project) demoted Simone Corsi (NGM Mobile Racing) to fourth place in the last knockings of the session. There was a top-five effort from QMMF Racing Team’s Rafid Topan Sucipto of Indonesia, while Tuenti HP 40 pairing Rabat and Espargaro will line up sixth and seventh from Technomag carXpert’s Dominique Aegerter. The top ten was rounded out by Danny Kent (Tech3) and Mattia Pasini (NGM Mobile Racing). It was a difficult day all-round for Redding. On Thursday, the erstwhile championship leader had been cleared to compete, having missed the last race in Australia after breaking his left wrist on the Saturday. In pain today, the Marc VDS rider rode to 15th position ahead of a day on which Espargaro could win the 2013 title; to claim the ultimate honour, he would need to finish inside the top seven, with Rabat not winning and Redding far enough behind to be left outside of touching distance. The current margin between Espargaro and Redding is 16 points, with a maximum of 50 remaining. Sunday’s Moto2™ AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan is schedule to commence at 12:20pm local time (GMT +9), being decided over the course of 23 laps. Due to the lack of track time, Free Practice will start at 8:50am local time, and run for 40 minutes. Moto2™ Qualifying Practice Classification — Moto3 Fresh from his victory in Australia last weekend, Moto3™ title contender Alex Rins has taken pole position for the AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan. The Estrella Galicia 0,0 rider sealed the top spot for the seventh time this season as the field was presented with an unprecedented challenge, having not taken to the track before Qualifying. In a highly unusual situation, Moto3™ Qualifying signalled the first track action of the weekend at Motegi, with all Friday action plus Saturday morning practice having been called off due to poor visibility and wet weather. Qualifying began at the slightly delayed time of ten to one; with 55 minutes on offer, the riders were challenged with adapting to track conditions as well as attempting to post lap times for grid position. With the circuit already wet when the green light illuminated, further late rain helped to cemented pole in the form of Rins’ best effort of a 2’09.387 – 11 seconds off record pace. On Sunday, the Spaniard will aim to overhaul compatriot Luis Salom in the championship table, having already moved to within five points of the leader. Rins will be joined on the front row by fellow title challenger Maverick Viñales (Team Calvo) and Estrella Galicia 0,0 teammate Alex Marquez. Championship leader Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo) will start fourth, joined on the second row by Caretta Technology – RTG’s Jack Miller and Ongetta-Centro Seta’s Isaac Viñales. Niccolo Antonelli and Jonas Folger will line up seventh and ninth for their respective GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 and Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 outfits, while Japanese wildcards shone as Hiroki Ono (Honda Team Asia) and Sena Yamada (Team Plus One & Endurance) qualified eighth and tenth. Fellow countryman Hyuga Watanabe also enjoyed a strong day, managing 12th place for La Fonte Tascaracing. Some qualified lower than expected, but could be ones to watch in Sunday’s race, which is forecast to take place in dry conditions. Mahindra Racing’s Miguel Oliveira and Efren Vazquez could muster no more than 18th and 21st positions, while Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin and Arthur Sissis will be looking to rise from their corresponding 13th and 19th places. Several riders were caught out by the wet surface, including Rins, who slid off-track at the end of the session but had already sealed pole. Sunday’s Moto3™ AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan is scheduled to begin at 11am local time (GMT +9), taking place over the course of 20 laps. Salom could win the title this weekend, but would have to win the race with Rins finishing 11th or lower. Due to the lack of track time, Free Practice will start at 8am local time, and run for 40 minutes. Moto3™ Qualifying Practice Classification — Yamaha Report Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo delivered a stunning performance in this afternoon’s extended MotoGP qualifying session to take pole position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Japan. Following yesterday’s cancellation of practice sessions due to weather conditions, the premier class were today given a special 75-minute qualifying heat, allowing the drama of the Japanese round to finally move to the track. Defending world champion Lorenzo made full use of the extended session, getting straight out onto the wet circuit to start working on his race set up. Having initially swapped the top spot with rival Marc Marquez early in the session he dropped down the timesheets. After some work on the set up he was back, rising quickly to 2nd after a third of the time had gone, 0.1seconds from Marquez in top. The top positions continued to change until with 15 minutes to go, when Lorenzo put the hammer down and delivered a perfect 1’53.965 to go over half a second clear at the top. Whilst his rivals were able to improve, so was he, dropping even further to a 1’53.471 in the final seconds to secure pole 0.65 ahead of Marquez. Teammate Valentino Rossi was also looking comfortable around the Motegi circuit. The nine-time world champion was one of the few who climbed to the top of the timesheets early in the session with a 1’59.304. He continued to be a key protagonist, regularly swapping positions in the top four places with his rivals. With 30 minutes remaining Rossi had taken provisional second on the grid, just 0.12 seconds from Pedrosa on pole. The last minutes as usual saw a flurry of activity as his teammate took a stunning pole position. Rossi eventually took fifth on the second row at the end of the session with a 1’54.732 second lap. Jorge Lorenzo – 1st / 1’53.471 / 25 laps – “I’m really happy, it was not so simple because my last memory of the rain was Assen. At the beginning I was a little bit scared and didn’t want to crash. We were lucky to have the extended qualifying time to get used to the track. Little by little I got confidence and finally I felt really good with the bike and the grip of the track, especially under braking. It doesn’t matter if it’s wet or dry tomorrow, it’s not my problem to think about it, I have to ride in whatever conditions we have. A wet race would be better for the championship though!” Valentino Rossi – 5th / 1’54.732 / 29 laps – “The result is not so bad, I hoped to arrive on the front row, I’m not so far but I am behind. I was in a better shape when it was full wet and felt better with the bike. When there was less water on the track and some places were quite dry I was able to improve my time a little but not enough for the front row. Tomorrow will be a surprise because if it is dry we will have to make the best set up in the morning warm up and try to arrive competitively for the race!” Yamaha Factory Racing Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager – “A very special weekend so far with only one qualifying practice in two days, but pole position! Jorge has a very good feeling with the bike in the wet conditions after his dramatic wet crash in Assen, it was important for Jorge to recover his confidence in such conditions. Tomorrow’s race seems to be dry, looking at the weather forecast; last year we finished second behind Dani with a good pace but at that time we were leading the championship and we did not risk anything. Tomorrow we need to make the difference and there is just one option for us, which is to beat Marc. The team is ready if tomorrow’s practice are dry; we have found a good base set up during the last two races so we are greatly motivated and ready for all circumstances.” Yamaha Factory Racing Massimo Meregalli – Team Director – “It was once again a difficult day but luckily we were able to make the most of the qualification session. We approached the heat in the best way. We knew we had to do a pole position, and we succeeded. It was important to do a few laps, even in wet conditions. Tomorrow probably the track will be dry but we gathered some good data and that’s what counts. Jorge’s attitude was the right one; he started slowly and eventually hit the target. Valentino also made quite an effort, even if in the end he missed the best finish. We did a great job and tomorrow we will try to do the same thing. We want a good result and we are ready to fight!” — HRC Report Repsol Honda RC213V rider Marc Marquez qualified second for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix, further extending Honda’s record of front-row starts at every race this year, after two days of practice and qualifying when the riders only went out on track once, and all free practice was cancelled. Team-mate Dani Pedrosa qualified fourth, to lead the second row; Alvaro Bautista (FUN&GO Honda Gresini RC213V Honda) heads the third row in seventh position, with Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) alongside. Bryan Staring (FUN&GO Honda Gresini FTR Honda) placed 24th on his CRT-category machine. Times were set in a single qualifying session extended to one hour and 15 minutes, after foul weather conditions on the periphery of Typhoon Francisco caused all Friday sessions to be cancelled, and also the scheduled final free practices on Saturday. The track was streaming as heavy rain continued to fall, but the major cause of cancellation was indirect: the essential medevac helicopter was officially grounded under strict Japanese aviation regulations, because low cloud cover at the hilltop circuit cut visibility below safe limits. With the official hospital more than one hour away by road, Race Direction kept competitors grounded as well, because of the risk of being unable to provide quick treatment in the case of serious injury. The delays and repeated rescheduling tested the patience of riders and fans alike. Finally the green light came after mid-day on Saturday, with all three classes having just one session – 75 minutes for MotoGP, 55 minutes for Moto2 and Moto3, Marquez moved up to second on a drying track in the closing stages, to start alongside pole qualifier and title rival Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). This is a crucial race for the championship fight between the two Spaniards. Defender Lorenzo clawed back a significant 25 points one week ago in Australia, when Marquez scored zero points after he was disqualified for a technical infringement. With serious tyre-life issues, the race featured a compulsory pit stop and bike change for the first time in grand prix history. A misunderstanding of the instructions meant the championship leader missed the prescribed pit-stop window. The penalty was severe: a black flag and disqualification. It was the first serious set-back to the 20-year-old class rookie’s stunning first season in the premier class. Marquez won the Moto2 championship last year having previously claimed the 125 crown; and adapted instantly to the much more powerful and specialised V4 Honda RC213V. The first of six wins came at only the second round, and before the Australian debacle Marquez has finished on the rostrum at every race but one. He arrived in Australia with a points advantage of 43 and the possibility of becoming the youngest ever World Champion. But he left for Japan – third of three flyaway races on successive weekends – with his lead cut to 18 points, with a maximum of 50 still available. Marquez will be youngest-ever champion if he extends that advantage to more than 25 points tomorrow … he needs to win, and for Lorenzo to finish no higher than third. Failing that, the fight will continue to the final round at Valencia in Spain in two weeks. Pedrosa will also have his sights set on Lorenzo, in his own interests. The 28-year-old former 125 and double 250 champion is still in touch for second overall, only 16 points adrift. He has won at Motegi for the past two years, and a third win at the Honda-owned circuit would narrow the gap still further. Pedrosa added a third win this season in Malaysia three weeks ago, following it up with second in Australia as his return to full strength maintains momentum. He missed the Motegi front row by three thousandths of a second The older Repsol Honda RC213V rider led on points earlier in the season, but fractured his collarbone at round eight in Germany, missing that race, and hampered over the next rounds, though he did claim two more second places while still recovering. A further set-back came at round 14 at Aragon, when a minor collision with his team-mate freakishly disabled his crucial electronics, and he crashed out while challenging for the lead. Pedrosa has been on the top-three podium at every race he has finished bar three. It is an important race also for seventh-placed Bautista. The Spanish former 125cc World Champion has a special role: race-developing Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, made by Japanese companies with close ties to Honda. As the only rider using this equipment he has no reference points: his and the team’s good progress in this task has seen a series of strong rides in the latter part of the season. He has not finished lower than seventh in the last ten races, with a best of fourth, and fifth places at the last two rounds. Motegi marks a comeback ride for final RC213V rider Bradl, who has missed the past two races after sustaining ankle fractures in practice in Malaysia. Immediate surgery gave hopes he might return the next weekend in Australia, but after a brave attempt in the first free practice, he was ruled out. Another week of intensive physiotherapy meant he was passed fit to ride in Japan. His two missed races allowed Bautista to move ahead, to sixth overall, but only 12 points ahead. Bryan Staring is approaching the end of his first grand prix season, riding the Honda CBR1000RR-powered CRT bike. He has scored points as he adapts to the machine and learns new circuits, but today his time was outside the 107 percent-of-pole cut-off point for qualification. Due to the extraordinary circumstances, however, the team hoped he might be allowed to start. Moto2’s single qualifying session was the last of the day, run on a drying track as sun broke through for the first time all weekend, reinforcing hopes of good race-day weather. Close and reliable racing is a given for the all-Honda powered class, with all riders using identical race-tuned Honda CBR600 engines supplied sealed by the organisers. Although it was never dry enough for riders to use slick tyres, conditions improved throughout the session, yielding a somewhat different front row. Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) claimed a career-first pole position, only his second front-row start this season. The Finnish rider has taken one race win and two more podium finishes so far this year. Belgian racer Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team Kalex) took second place, two-tenths slower than Kallio. This was his second front row start of the season having claimed pole position in round eight at The Sachsenring earlier this year. France’s Johann Zarco (Came Iodaracing Project Suter) sits alongside alongside, his third time this year on the front row. Italian Simone Corsi (NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up) headed row two from Rafid Topan Sucipto (QMMF Racing Team Speed Up), a career best for the Indonesian racer. With his team-mate Esteve Rabat sixth, new championship leader Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP40 Pons Kalex) was pushed down to lead the third row in seventh. Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert Suter) came through in the closing stages for eighth. Danny Kent (Tech 3) was ninth; Mattia Pasini (NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up) completed the top ten. All eyes were on English rider Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex), making an heroic return one week after breaking his wrist in practice for the last round at Phillip Island. Missing the race meant he lost a long-standing World Championship lead to Espargaro, by 16 points. Redding underwent same-day surgery, with a plate and six screws to repair the fracture. Determined not to give away the title easily, he was passed fit to ride at Motegi, and qualified 15th. The Moto3 class sees Honda-powered machines pitted against rival factories – and the single 55-minute practice session gave riders a chance to show the strength of the well-balanced design. Five Honda riders placed in the top ten, with the next-best 12th. The best of them only missed a front-row start by tenths of a second. That was Australian Jack Miller (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda), who was in the top three until the closing minutes, and was caught up in traffic in his final attempt to get back for his first front-row start of the year. Miller ended up fifth, at the head of a phalanx of fast Hondas. Isaac Vinales (Bimbo Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) was sixth, alongside on row two. Seventh and eighth were Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 FTR Honda) and Japanese wild card Hiroki Ono (Honda Team Asia Honda), heading row three. Second wild card Sena Yamada (Team Plus One & Endurance Honda) led the fourth, tenth-fastest, after showing the regulars the way in the early stages. Hyuga Watanabe (La Fonte Tascaracing FTR Honda) was 12th, but usual front-runner Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda) was 20th, with John McPhee (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda) 22nd, Lorenzo Baldassarri (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 FTR Honda) 24th, Romano Fenati (San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda) 26th, Alan Techer (CIP Moto3 TSR Honda) 27th, Hafiq Azmi (La Fonte Tascaracing FTR Honda) 28th, Matteo Ferrari (Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) 30th, Juanfran Guevara (CIP Moto3 TSR Honda) 33rd and Francesco Bagnaia (San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda) 34th. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V): 2nd – 1m 54.129 Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda): 4th – 1m 54.542 Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini): 7th – 1m 55.535 Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V): 8th – 1m 55.610 Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda): 22nd – 2m 02.712 Honda Moto2 Rider quotes Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team): 2nd – 2m 01.452 Johann Zarco (Came Iodaracing Project): 3rd – 2m 01.484 Honda Moto3 Rider quotes Isaac Vinales (Bimbo Ongetta-Centro-Seta): 6th – 2m 10.881 Niccolo Antonelli (FUN&GO Gresini Moto3): 7th – 2m 11.011 — Ducati Report After a day and a half of delays due to poor visibility and dreadful weather conditions, track action at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit finally got underway early this afternoon with a single, extended wet qualifying session for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 2013 MotoGP Championship. Both Ducati Team riders, Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, made the best of the 75 minutes available for qualifying, the American in particular showing superb wet-weather prowess to head up the timesheets on two separate occasions during the session. He eventually ended up third, equalling Dovizioso’s best qualifying performances of the year at Le Mans and Mugello. The Italian took a bit more time to find his rhythm on the drying track, but he gradually moved into sixth position near the end of the session. Afterward, Dovizioso expressed satisfaction with his performance, which put him on the second row for tomorrow’s GP. With a relatively rain-free forecast for Sunday, the schedule now has a 50 minute free practice session in the morning and a race start at the normal 2 p.m. time slot. Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 3rd (1:54.539) Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 9th (1:55.036) — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds: Front: Soft & Medium. Rear: Super-soft, Soft (Asymmetric) & Extra-soft (Symmetric) After yesterday’s and this morning’s Free Practice sessions at Motegi were cancelled due to poor weather, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo adapted best to the revised qualifying format and the wet track, setting a time of 1’53.471 to claim the top spot on the grid for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix. Lorenzo’s best effort put him 0.658 of his closest challenger, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez who was the second best qualifier with a time of 1’54.129. Ducati’s Nicky Hayden had his best qualifying result of the season, rounding out the front row in third place by clocking a time of 1’54.539 on his twenty-sixth lap of the session. The highest placed CRT rider on the grid tomorrow will be Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro, the newly-crowned CRT class champion was ninth quickest with a time of 1’55.719. The track for today’s extended Qualifying Practice session was wet, although the rainfall stopped during the session resulting in parts of the track beginning to dry slightly towards the end of the session. In addition to the rain, ambient and track temperatures were low with a peak tarmac temperature of just 17°C recorded. All riders in the qualifying session used the main wet tyre specification for Motegi, the soft compound wet tyre to ensure maximum grip in the tricky conditions. Each rider this weekend can select up to two front and two rear wet tyres in the alternative, hard compound, should they wish to run this option if conditions are wet again tomorrow. The next MotoGP™ session on the revised Japanese Grand Prix schedule is an extended Warm Up session from 0940-1030 local time (GMT +9) tomorrow, while the twenty-four lap race is set to start at 1400. Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department | 
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 17 – Motegi – Contingencies plans revealed as first day in Motegi cancelled due to bad weather Following bad weather disruption to the World Championship schedule at Motegi on Friday, which saw all practice sessions of the day cancelled, Race Direction has developed a series of contingency plans in order to ensure that all three classes are able to compete at the AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan. On Friday, all practice sessions were called off as heavy cloud cover at Twin Ring Motegi meant the medical helicopters could not be operated. On the grounds of safety, the helicopters must be operable in order to cater for any medical emergencies that could arise. This was explained in a press conference on Friday afternoon. “We are not prepared to run in these conditions when there is a risk that a seriously injured rider could not be given correct care,” commented MotoGP™ Race Director Mike Webb. “The reason no helicopter is here is that, with the low cloud, there is a lack of visibility in which it is not safe to fly. The helicopter has been trying to get permission to fly to the circuit since Thursday and has even tried to take off and then been told to land again. As soon as permission was granted that it could be taken off, we would have given ten minutes’ notice to the teams, but the helicopter was never given permission to fly.” For Saturday, heavy rain is expected to fall in the morning but Race Direction hopes that, by the afternoon, the cloud cover should have abated which would allow the medical helicopter to operate. Currently situated five minutes’ flying time from the circuit, should cloud cover in its current location remain too much, the helicopter will be dissembled, transported to the racetrack by road and then reassembled. Two medical helicopters must be available at the circuit at all times, and on Friday time has been spent analysing the best possible locations for their positioning around the circuit, in order to avoid the need of taking off or landing amidst any further heavy cloud cover at the circuit, which is situated on high ground. In the meantime, Race Direction has developed a number of contingency plans in order to provide each of the three classes with as much track time as possible; this could be spread across Saturday and Sunday, half of Saturday and a full Sunday or a condensed routine of practice, qualifying and races all on Sunday should Saturday conditions remain too poor. The weather on Sunday is forecast to be a significant improvement in comparison with the conditions witnessed so far. “The length of sessions depends on the weather,” Webb continues. “I have written up draft schedules for all possibilities tomorrow, including starting in the afternoon after rain in the morning which could ease at around two o’clock. It depends around what time the weather conditions will allow us to run. We will give as much track time as possible to all classes. Nothing is fixed because it depends on the weather, but I’m aiming at 75 minutes for MotoGP™ and perhaps a little shorter for other classes. Taking into account the shortage of daylight at the end of the day, we will just run for as long as possible. We also have a draft schedule for Sunday; we have prepared a possible plan, in case we don’t have any practice tomorrow, which would be 40 minutes for each qualifying session. Also, teams have proposed that perhaps they would like a single, longer practice session rather than two. We need to discuss this with the riders as well, to make sure they agree with these possibilities”. “The original weather forecast when we arrived here on Tuesday and Wednesday was that the nearby typhoon would be quite close with very strong winds, so we made a plan that tents (housing several of the teams in the paddock) would be disassembled and those teams moved into solid accommodation. Every day those forecasts have got better, so we have been able to leave those teams in place. However, in place of those strong winds we have had low cloud cover, which has been a lot worse (disrupting track action). We are still expecting heavy rain tomorrow morning, but rain does not stop the helicopter from flying – that all depends on the visibility.” Apart from the cancellation, official MotoGP™ tyre supplier Bridgestone called a press conference at mid-day to discuss the events of the Phillip Island race, which was run with mandatory pit stops, as tyre-life could not be guaranteed for more than 10 laps on the newly resurfaced surface. Hiroshi Yamada, Manager of the Bridgestone Motorsport Department, told the assembled press that despite the company having brought the extra-hard compound to deal with the new track surface, it was caught out in particular by the bikes having a higher average corner speed by 12km/h over last year due to the higher grip levels – something not anticipated in its calculations. He went on to say that the company would be carrying out a test at Phillip Island next year, preferably with prototype machines and their riders, to ensure the safety and longevity of its tyres for the 2014 race. No date or approximate timing has been given for this event. — Repsol HRC It’s been a frustrating first day at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit as relentless light rain and fog prevented any bikes taking to the track. The decision was taken by race control to cancel both sessions due to safety concerns as the circuit medical helicopter has been unable to fly and is therefore not available in the event of an emergency, with the nearest hospital an hour away by road. Hopefully weather will improve tomorrow and sessions will resume as normal. If it’s still not possible in the morning, then the afternoon sessions will be extended. If no sessions can take place again tomorrow then race direction will look at a suitable solution, together with the teams, that will include free practice, qualifying and race all taking place on Sunday – again, weather permitting. Marc Marquez – “There wasn’t much that we could do today due to the weather conditions and therefore we didn’t have a medical helicopter and weren’t able to ride. The forecast for tomorrow is similar, but let’s hope that things improve and we can go on track. If not then we will have to see the proposed schedule for Sunday and how it will work, sure it’s not the ideal situation but it’s the same for everybody!” Dani Pedrosa – “There’s not much to say about today – we were unable to undertake any practice sessions, which meant we were a little bored. We hope to have better luck tomorrow and be able to go out on track!” — Yamaha Report The MotoGP paddock was quiet today at the Twin Ring circuit in Motegi, with all free practice sessions for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix cancelled due to weather. Heavy fog around the circuit made it impossible for the air ambulance to land or take-off, meaning no sessions could be run in full safety. Dorna, IRTA and Race Direction will hold further meetings over the next 24hrs to finalise a schedule for the weekend in case of further weather disruption. Jorge Lorenzo – “It was a boring day for everyone but the things were like that. I think it is much better to stay calm and accept the circumstances. Safety is the most important thing in the sport and without the medical helicopter no one can be safe. We will see tomorrow because the forecast is not so positive and if once again the sessions are cancelled we have to wait on a decision from Dorna, IRTA and Race Direction. I hope the race will go ahead because two races is better than just one for us. I spent all the day stretching, relaxing, making some exercises and speaking with the team. I hope tomorrow the meteorological conditions improve and we can ride.” Valentino Rossi – “A great pity about today because there was good conditions for riding on the track. It was wet but there was no wind and not too much water so it’s a pity that because of the helicopter we cannot ride. It’s an important day today because it looks like tomorrow the weather will be worse. Anyway we must wait and in the end it was the right decision for safety so I am in full agreement. It is a shame though that we cannot go on the track.” Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director – “It was a pity that we couldn’t ride today but I think the decision they took was right, the safety of the riders is very important and also the rules state that the helicopter must be here. We respect the decision of the race commission. Hopefully tomorrow will be a different day and we can start a normal Saturday. In case it is not possible to ride in the morning they have already prepared a counter measure and we will follow this. We will try to do everything possible for tomorrow and Sunday.” Practice cancelled at foggy and wet Twin Ring Motegi Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith experienced a frustrating start to the Japanese Grand Prix today, with both practice sessions cancelled because of adverse weather conditions. Morning mist rolling in off the hills surrounding the Twin Ring Motegi resulted in low visibility that meant the essential medical helicopter was unable to land at the vast Japanese motorsport arena. FP1 was cancelled after a lengthy delay and the foggy conditions remained throughout the day. With no sign of conditions improving by early afternoon, FP2 was also cancelled just as heavy rain started to hammer down on the Twin Ring Motegi. Contingency plans have been put in place for a revised schedule for the remainder of the weekend, subject to weather conditions with further disruption anticipated tomorrow ahead of improved forecasts for race day on Sunday. Cal Crutchlow – “Obviously it is disappointing for the Japanese fans not to see us ride today but the safety of everybody on track has to come first. Nobody could have predicted the circumstances preventing the medical helicopter from flying to the track but it was definitely the right decision to cancel both practice sessions and there’s no doubt Race Direction once again made the best call on safety grounds. Hopefully the weather will improve and we can ride and put on a good show on Sunday.” Bradley Smith – “None of us want to be sitting in the box waiting around when there are people coming to watch us ride but it was definitely the right decision to cancel practice. Rider safety is paramount and Race Direction should be applauded once again for ensuring the safety of everybody on track comes before anything else. We need to see what the conditions are like tomorrow but hopefully we can ride. It seems the best conditions will be on Sunday for the race, so all we can do is wait and see how much time the weather will allow us to be on track to prepare in the best possible way.” Katsuyuki Nakasuga – Yamaha YSP Racing Team – “This is my second time competing in the Japan GP following my entry last year, so I am accustomed to the overall atmosphere of it now. It is unfortunate that the free practice had to be cancelled on this first day due to the bad weather, but with regard to machine development testing, there is no problem there because we know everything we have to do in that process. Since the development test work is part of my job in this wildcard entry, I will be doing everything possible to prepare the machine for the race on Sunday, and then give my all from start to finish. At last year’s Japan GP, I ran a time of 1’46.780 in the official qualifying, so tomorrow I want to try to best that time.” — Ducati Report The first two free-practice sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix were cancelled today due to bad weather conditions, and like the rest of the MotoGP squads, the Ducati Team kept the Desmosedici GP13 race machines of Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden parked in the garage. A steady drizzle fell on Twin Ring Motegi all day, but it was the layer of fog that limited visibility, thus preventing the medical helicopter from accessing the circuit, in accordance with Japanese law. Considering the circuit’s relatively remote location, and faced with the possibility of an excessive delay for emergency hospital transport in the case of a serious accident, Race Direction decided in the afternoon to cancel the entire day’s track activity. Officials will monitor the situation tomorrow and make further adjustments to the remainder of the weekend schedule depending on the weather conditions. Vittoriano Guareschi – Team Manager | 
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 17 – Motegi – Rain on horizon as MotoGP™ arrives in Land of Rising Sun The AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan began on Thursday at the Twin Ring Motegi as Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez was joined by Yamaha Factory Racing duo Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, Avintia Blusens’ Hiroshi Aoyama, Tuenti HP 40’s Moto2™ title contender Pol Espargaro and Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami in the Thursday pre-race press conference. The day itself started with important news for the Moto2™ class, as championship contender Scott Redding was declared fit for opening free practice, after suffering a fractured left wrist in a crash at Phillip Island last weekend. At the same time, LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl will also make a return to action, following his fractured right ankle sustained in Malaysia. Marquez, who could take the title this weekend should he beat Lorenzo by eight points or more, commented to those gathered in the Motegi press room: “Motegi will be another race and I hope it will be much better than Phillip Island. Confidence is high. We’ll see the weather here because it doesn’t look so good, but I look forward to riding here with a MotoGP™ bike. I said at Phillip Island that the most important thing is to get the title, but it doesn’t matter when. Jorge is closer now and did a very good race in Australia, but now we’ll see how we can manage the situation. We have two important races so I hope to be there fighting for victory or the podium.” Lorenzo, whose win last time out at Phillip Island was the 50th of his career, will be hoping for more success as he continues his fight for the title, but explained that his Yamaha M1 could struggle under heavy braking should conditions remain dry. “Before the race, we almost had the championship lost,” the current title holder admitted of Phillip Island. “With one mistake from Marc and his team, we don’t have the championship in our hands – because it’s still very difficult – but we have another chance and we have to play our cards in the best way. The weather could play either in our favour or against us. It’s true that braking is not normally our strong point, but we have good corner speed and acceleration. We have won here at Motegi in the past and this year the weather could play in our favour.” His teammate Valentino Rossi could prove vital in helping Lorenzo fight for the title, especially with the Italian looking on good form of late. However, with a typhoon in the vicinity, the multiple World Champion knows Motegi could provide another unusual set of circumstances in the 2013 season. “We are now more or less at the end, with two races left, and this championship has gone very quickly for me,” Rossi began. “Last weekend everything happened and I was able to do a good result and work well in such a strange race. We arrive here and I like this track. It is very difficult and so demanding for the body and bikes, especially under braking. It could be an issue if it is dry, but the weather doesn’t look fantastic and everybody is expecting wet conditions. We will have the chance to run in the wet; I don’t think it has rained this year since Le Mans, so we’ve been lucky all season and now it looks like this weekend we’ll pay a bit for the weather.” Aoyama, for whom this year has been plagued with injury, will look to put this behind him and aim for a strong race in front of his home fans: “I was injured earlier in the season and was a little bit down, but my confidence is coming back race by race and physically I’m getting better. This is one of my favourite race tracks and I have had good results here in the past. It is not so easy with a CRT to keep up with the MotoGP™ bikes, but who knows what could happen with the weather. We will see where we can finish on Sunday.” Espargaro, who stands a chance of taking the Moto2™ title this weekend after celebrating victory at Phillip Island, laughed at the possible dramas rain could provide and stressed that dry conditions would be favourable. At the same time, he is pleased to see title rival Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) attempting to race at Motegi. “I found Scott in the hotel and he said that he is okay,” Espargaro recalled. “He has pain in the arm but he will try; that is good for the championship, for him and for the people following him. I was not 100% happy in Australia because, although we got first position in the championship it was not perfect without him being there, but this sport is dangerous, you have to be very careful and one mistake can win or lose you the World Championship. It was bad luck for him in Australia but I’m happy to see him here in Japan and to know that he will try tomorrow.” Other local boy Nakagami, who has narrowly missed out on the top step of the rostrum on numerous occasions this year, now hopes to take that extra leap with his home support: “Sure, this is a big chance. I have been waiting for Motegi since before the season started and now I’m here. After the summer break we had four second places in four races and I was very close to my first victory. Here, as always, I will push 200% and hope to be on the podium and maybe on the top of it on Sunday. We will see.” he day before, there was a gathering at the Spanish Embassy in Tokyo as Marquez, Lorenzo, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, Italtrans Racing Team’s Julian Simon and Hiroshi Aoyama, as well as Dorna Sports, were made Sporting Ambassadors of the Spain-Japan Dual Year, marking 400 years of exchanges between the two countries. | 
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 17 – Motegi – Marquez in with renewed title shot as Japanese Grand Prix awaits In the final round of the triple-header at the AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan in Motegi, Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez will get another shot at taking the title if he beats Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo by more than seven points. Marquez, who in the previous round was disqualified due to a team error regarding the then-compulsory mid-way bike swap, will be looking to make amends at Honda’s home track. And with the stop-and-go nature of the Motegi circuit, both he and his teammate Dani Pedrosa will be two of the favourites for victory. Yet Lorenzo will be buoyed by the fact that the championship is once again in his reach, and will no doubt be a force to be reckoned with after his convincing victory in Phillip Island last time out. The Yamaha man knows that nothing but a win will do, making the race with the Repsol Hondas yet another exciting prospect. His teammate Valentino Rossi will be looking to make further strides towards the three at the front, and once again challenge for a podium. Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, who only narrowly missed out on the podium in Australia to Rossi, will hope to overhaul the Italian this time out, whilst also keeping GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista at bay. Bautista was a podium-sitter in Motegi last year after an entertaining battle with Crutchlow, and will be an outside favourite for yet more success at the track. LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl, who fractured his right ankle in Malaysia and was unable to race in Australia, will be assessed by track doctors before the race weekend to check if he is fit enough to take part in FP1. Tech3’s Bradley Smith will aim to make further strides towards the front after an impressive outing in Phillip Island, whilst Ducati Team riders Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso will look to squeeze the most out of their Desmosedicis. In the CRT class it will be Avintia Blusens’ Hiroshi Aoyama who will aim to put on a show for his home fans on his FTR-Kawasaki. He has been showing some good form recently, and will hope to make it into the top-CRT spot that so far has eluded him. He will however face the stiff challenge from the Power Electronics Aspar riders in the form of Aleix Espargaro and Randy de Puniet, as well as NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards. There will be one wildcard taking part on a Yamaha M1 in the shape of Katsuyuki Nakasuga with the Yamaha YSP Racing Team. Due to many riders suffering braking issues in last year’s race due to the hard-braking nature of the track, the technical rules for this weekend have been altered to allow the use of 340mm carbon brake discs – a 20mm increase from the regulation size. Some of the teams, including Ducati, have already carried out tests with the bigger brakes in the Misano test this year. World Championship Standings MotoGP™ — Moto2 Tuenti HP40’s Pol Espargaro has the opportunity to win the Moto2™ World Championship this weekend at the AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan in Motegi, if he comes away with a 25-point lead over his closest challenger Scott Redding. Marc VDS Racing Team’s Redding looks set to miss the race due to a fractured left wrist sustained in qualifying for the Australian GP, and unfortunately won’t be able to fight it out with Espargaro on track. The Spaniard’s teammate however, in the form of Esteve Rabat, may be able to challenge, despite not having a great race in Phillip Island last time out. Interwetten-Paddock’s Tom Luthi and Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2’s Jordi Torres both made it onto the podium in the previous round and will be ones to watch, whilst Marc VDS’ Mika Kallio will have recovered further from his crash over the weekend to be a podium contender once more. Technomag carXpert’s Dominique Aegerter is proving a continual threat, whilst local boy Takaaki Nakagami, with the Italtrans Racing Team, will be hoping for a much-improved weekend over last. Other local riders will include wildcard Kohta Nozane with the Webike Team Norick NTS outfit, and Tetsuta Nagashima as a substitute for Mike di Meglio in the JiR Moto2 team. There will be one other wildcard taking part in the form of Thailand’s Decha Kraisart with the Singha Eneos Yamaha Tech3 team. World Championship Standings Moto2™ — Moto3 With the Moto3™ grid tightly poised at the top of the championship table, the AirAsia Grand Prix of Japan in Motegi this weekend is a mouth-watering prospect. Red Bull KTM Ajo’s championship leader Luis Salom now only holds a five-point advantage over Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins, with 50 still on offer in the final two rounds. Rins came out victorious on the last occasion in Phillip Island, and will be hoping for a repeat in Motegi to overtake his compatriot ahead of the final race of the season. Yet Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales is also still in contention, despite having a slightly tougher task at hand with a 22-point deficit to Salom. He has however shown that he can scrap it out with the top two, after coming second to Rins in Australia by a mere 0.003 seconds. And with Mahindra Racing’s Efren Vazquez and Miguel Oliveira, GO&FUN Gresini’s Niccolo Antonelli, as well as Caretta Technology – RTG’s Jack Miller looking strong, the podium could go many ways. Two Japanese wildcards will join the field in the form of Team Plus One’s Sena Yamada and Team Honda Asia’s Hiroki Ono. World Championship Standings Moto3™ |  |
| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 16 – Phillip Island – Lorenzo wins P.I. as Marquez disqualified Jorge Lorenzo has inflicted maximum damage on the day Marc Marquez could have clinched the MotoGP™ crown, as the current title-holder clinched his 50th career race victory in a Tissot Australian Grand Prix including mandatory bike changes. Failing to acknowledge the pre-determined pit window, Marquez was shown the black flag. Prior to the race, it was announced that the duration would decrease from 27 to 19 laps on the grounds of safety, with tyre degradation throughout practice having been significantly higher than expected on the newly resurfaced Phillip Island circuit. Furthermore, all riders would be obliged to pit for bike changes on either the ninth or tenth lap of the race, while also running the harder available compound throughout. A clean start saw no fallers, with Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) attacking Lorenzo at the Honda hairpin, but the Yamaha Factory Racing man immediately retaking the top spot on the run into Siberia. The sensation would come with the mandatory pit window, with Marquez’s teammate Pedrosa first to peel off from third place at the end of Lap 9 and followed by numerous other riders. Lorenzo would pit at the end of the tenth tour but, having expected a pit lane duel with Marquez, saw the 20-year-old rookie continue for another circulation of the circuit. Marquez then came in at the end of Lap 11, outside the pre-determined window of pitting by Lap 10 at the latest. In a remarkable twist for the 2013 World Championship battle, Marquez was disqualified, as was Australian Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) as the same error had been committed. Having escaped a touch with Marquez as the latter re-joined from the pits, Lorenzo went on to claim win number six of the season; this also marked the first time since 2006 that a rider other than the now retired Casey Stoner had clinched victory at Phillip Island. Pedrosa finished second to maintain his own title aspirations, as Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi beat Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow and GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista in a thrilling contest for third, while light rain began to fall as proceedings drew to a close. Bradley Smith was sixth for Tech3, having run as high as fourth thanks to a rapid start, while the top ten was rounded out by Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team), Andrea Iannone (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing), Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) and Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar) who ended a race as lead CRT for the first time this year. Danilo Petrucci finished 15th for Came IodaRacing Project, denying a first point for Luca Scassa as the Cardion AB Motoracing rider finished less than one tenth of a second behind. On the same day, Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro collected honours of top CRT for the season. After the race, the Repsol Honda Team put Marquez’s disqualification down to a misunderstanding in the team, saying that it thought he was able to run ten whole laps before pitting in, which is why he entered in the 11th. The MotoGP™ fight now rages on to Motegi Twin Ring and the Grand Prix of Japan, with the championship lead having been decreased from 43 to 18 points. The season will then end at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, Spain on 10th November. — MotoGP™ Race Classification – Race Result – Round 16 — Championship standings — Moto2™ Pol Espargaro has retaken the Moto2™ World Championship lead, winning Sunday’s Tissot Australian Grand Prix in the absence of Scott Redding. Tom Luthi and Jordi Torres completed the podium, with Tito Rabat sinking to eighth place. When looking back at the Phillip Island round of the 2013 season, the race is likely to be remembered as a key turning point in the campaign. Redding’s chances took a major blow on Saturday, with the Englishman and long-time championship leader being ruled out of action as he fractured his left wrist. Following an operation on Saturday night, the Marc VDS Racing Team rider was left helpless on the sidelines. Espargaro (Tuenti HP 40) started from his fifth pole of the season, joined on the front row by teammate and last weekend’s Sepang winner Tito Rabat who has demonstrated rapidity since practice began on Friday. A reduced race distance saw the riders tackling only 13 laps of the southern Australian venue, with fears over tyres having seen changes to the duration following the qualifying session on Saturday. It would prove to be a lights to flag victory for Espargaro, his fifth of the season, allowing the Catalan to win at Phillip Island for the second consecutive year; in the process, he snatches back the championship lead for the first time since after the season-opening race in Qatar. In a brilliant day for Espargaro’s championship situation, teammate Rabat finished only eighth after running off the circuit. Tom Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing) pushed Espargaro all the way, finishing only half a second behind Espargaro for a fifth rostrum of the season and his second within the space of a week. Jordi Torres was third for Aspar Team Moto2, collecting his first rostrum result since winning the German Grand Prix in July. The top five was completed by NGM Mobile Racing’s Simone Corsi and former Phillip Island winner Alex de Angelis, who ran second for NGM Mobile Forward Racing in the early stages of the race. Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio was seventh from the aforementioned Rabat, Aspar’s Nico Terol and QMMF Racing’s Anthony West who successfully finished in the top ten in his home event. Reigning Moto3™ World Champion Sandro Cortese finished 11th for Dynavolt Intact GP from Forward’s Ricky Cardus and Tech3’s Danny Kent. Five riders failed to finish: Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team), Johann Zarco (Came IodaRacing Project), Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team), Louis Rossi (Tech3) and Alex Mariñelarena (Blusens Avintia), while Tuenti HP 40’s Alex Pons finished 24th after an early-race off. Pons, Italtrans’ Takaaki Nakagami and Maptaq SAG Zelos Team’s Marcel Schrotter were all handed penalties for jumping the start. With just the Japanese and Valencian rounds of the season remaining, Espargaro leads Redding in the championship by 16 points following a dramatic shaking up of the establishment. Rabat sits third, 36 points behind the leader with a maximum of 50 left on offer. The action will continue at Twin Ring Motegi next weekend. Moto2™ Race Classification CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TILL DATE: Moto3™ Alex Rins has won a thrilling Moto3™ Tissot Australian Grand Prix, coming out on top of a multiple-rider battle to beat Maverick Viñales by just three thousandths of a second. Both riders decreased the championship-leading advantage of pole-sitter Luis Salom, who completed the podium at Phillip Island. Rins’ latest victory of 2013 was surely his most dramatic to date, ensuring he has now matched Salom on six race wins this season, as well as having won three of the last four Grand Prix. Remarkably, the top seven riders were covered by just over one second, with Niccolo Antonelli only a further 1.1 in arrears. The majority of riders in the field found themselves in tight groups for the duration of the 23-lap race, affected by light rain on certain parts of the newly resurfaced circuit. Philipp Oettl (Interwetten Paddock Moto3) would fail to start due to engine problems and there were retirements for Francesco Bagnaia (San Carlo Team Italia) and Hyuga Watanabe (La Fonte Tascaracing), but no less than 30 riders managed the testing conditions to finish. A titanic battle at the forefront saw a selection of riders enjoying time in the lead, whereas Salom ran as low as seventh but looked to be making his customary climb to the very sharp end in the closing minutes of the race. However it was Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Jonas Folger who stole the limelight as the final lap began, shooting into the lead at Doohan curve, only to run wide and drop to sixth three corners later. The run to line resulted in the closest finish so far this year in the World Championship, with Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) pipping Viñales (Team Calvo) after having both started on the second row of the grid. The winner now moves to within just five points of championship leader Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo) with a pair of races remaining in Japan and Valencia, whereas Viñales is also in contention and 22 in arrears of the overall leader. Rins’ teammate Alex Marquez finished fourth, with the first group completed by local favourite Jack Miller (Caretta Technology – RTG), Folger, front-row starter Efren Vazquez (Mahindra Racing) and Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3). Avant Tecno’s Niklas Ajo was a further 12.8 seconds behind and headed the second group, with Alexis Masbou rounding out the top ten for Ongetta-Rivacold. Mahindra’s Miguel Oliveira recovered to 26th spot and was fortunate to avoid injury after flying over his handlebars at the MG hairpin on the opening lap. Moto3™ Race Classification CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TILL DATE: — Yamaha Report Defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo delivered a stunning ride today to win the Australian Grand Prix in a thrilling spectacle filled with drama. Teammate Valentino Rossi delivered another exciting performance, fighting to take third on the podium. Following concerns over the safety of the Bridgestone tyres to last full race distance the race was changed to incorporate a bike change at the ten-lap mark, with the total laps reduced to 19. The start saw Lorenzo take the hole-shot from his pole position with riders Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in hot pursuit. The reigning champion gave no quarter but was unable to pull away, the rivals staying within 0.5 of a second as they counted down to the pit stop. This itself turned into a bizarre event with potential consequences for the championship. Pedrosa pitted a lap early, Lorenzo pitted at the ten-lap mark and Marquez pitted a lap too late. As a result Marquez was given a black flag and disqualified and Pedrosa was forced to drop a position after crossing the white line on his pit lane exit. Further disaster was also narrowly avoided when Marquez exited the pits just as Lorenzo passed down the straight at high speed, the two making contact into turn one. Luckily both were able to stay upright and continue. Lorenzo kept the pressure on and held the top spot for the remaining nine laps to claim the race win. Rossi enjoyed yet another intense race long battle with rivals Cal Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista. The three swapping positions in the fight for the last podium spot throughout the first ten laps and again in the following nine. Rossi completed a super fast pit stop, beating both out to gain two positions. As one of the most successful MotoGP riders of the modern era in Phillip Island it was never going to be easy for them to beat him, and they couldn’t. The Italian claimed third at the line to make it another double Yamaha podium. The result leaves Lorenzo now on 280 points, 18 behind Marquez as they head to Motegi for the final of the triple-headers. Rossi stays secure in fourth position on 214 points, 35 ahead of Crutchlow in fifth. Jorge Lorenzo – 1st | 29’07.155 | 19 Laps – “I’m really happy with this win, we’ve also been lucky because Marc made this mistake. Without that he would have been second or first because he was really fast today. So we’ve been lucky but we were unlucky in the middle of the championship so today is a balance. When I was entering the first corner Marc was exiting the pit at exactly the same time, the situation was almost impossible to avoid. I was braking a little later to open the line and I don’t think he was looking so much entering the corner so it was both our fault. Now we have options, if Marc keeps constant on the podium then it is impossible to win the championship but there are a lot of laps to go so anything could happen. “It’s unbelievable to have 50 Grand Prix victories at 26years old. It seems like only yesterday when I won in Brazil in 2003 but it’s been ten years. I’m very proud of it and hope to win some more in the future!” Valentino Rossi – 3rd | +12.344 | 19 Laps – “At the end the result was good, I’m so happy to be on the podium here at Phillip Island because it’s always a great pleasure and a great atmosphere. I tried to give the maximum, the race was very thrilling and I enjoyed it very much, especially because with the team we were able to do a very good job in the pit and gain two positions. I had a great battle with Cal, when I understood it was for the podium I tried to give the maximum. In the last half of the lap it started to rain which was very scary but at the end it was ok and a good result. We still need to work and improve to be faster for the next race.” Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager – “A perfect result, winning here is a dream for us after two tough races. With Marc making the mistake it opens the championship a little more as well. 18 points is a completely different story to nearly 40. We are very pleased with that.” Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director – “It has been an incredible race, Jorge didn’t make any mistakes and led from the first to the last lap, always pushing hard. It was also nice to have the flag to flag in dry conditions and we got a lot of points to close the gap. There is only 18 points between them now so the championship is more open. We are looking to Motegi now to keep going and close it more. Vale did another great race, another double podium which is a great result for Yamaha. We had some doubts before the start of the race on grip but we got a great result.” Double top six for Crutchlow and Smith in Phillip Island thriller The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team celebrated a fantastic double top six finish for Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith in an action-packed and unique flag-to-flag MotoGP race at Phillip Island this afternoon. Concerns about excessive tyre wear on a new track surface meant the race was reduced to 19-laps on safety grounds, which included a mandatory pit stop for fresh Bridgestone rubber at the end of lap nine or 10. There was incredible drama and tension from start to finish and Crutchlow put up a tremendous fight to score his fifth rostrum of the campaign and second in succession at the super-fast Phillip Island track. The 27-year-old pulled into the pits to switch bikes at the end of the 10th lap and in a tense tussle with Valentino Rossi and Alvaro Bautista, the British rider fought for the podium right down to the final corner. As rain spots started to fall on the Phillip Island track on the final lap, Crutchlow missed out on his first podium since his second place in Germany by just over 0.1s, with Rossi claiming the final podium spot in front of a crowd of 31,500 enthralled fans. Teammate Bradley Smith stormed back into the top six for the first time since the German round after he made a sensational start to round 16. The 22-year-old got a stunning launch off the line and on the first lap he’d surged into fourth and was right on the back of leading Spanish trio Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa. Smith gained precious experience after dicing it out with Rossi, Crutchlow and Bautista in the early stages and he employed a different strategy by opting to enter the pit lane at the end of lap nine. He was able to comfortably clinch a richly deserved top six finish and today’s performance gave a significant boost to his hopes of securing a top 10 World Championship finish, with his lead over Aleix Espargaro now 11-points with two races remaining. Crutchlow and Smith’s excellent display also moved the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team a step closer to clinching third in the Team World Championship standings. Cal Crutchlow – 4th – 179 points – “It was a bit of shame that I couldn’t finish on the podium today but to be honest I’d have only been there because of what happened to Marc. But I am happy because I rode really well. The problem once again was my start. I have got to work on that because once again today it wasn’t acceptable. The positive point is I had good consistency in the race and I was a lot faster than I expected to be given what had happened with the tyres over the weekend. It was good to race so close to Valentino on the factory Yamaha and I enjoyed it. It was a very hard but fair battle with him and Alvaro. I actually thought there was one more lap, but because I’d been so close to Valentino on the straight I’d not seen my pit board. I’d have liked to be on the podium but fourth is my best result for a few races and hopefully we can be strong in Japan next weekend.” Bradley Smith – 6th – 99 points – “Sixth position is a very good result and I got another really fast start. It was great to be right up there on the first lap and I could learn a lot in the early stages from the guys with much more experience. The setting we ran wasn’t ready to fight for the top six but I gave it my best shot. We damaged the rear tyre in the first run, so I tried to take it a bit steady in the second one. It has not been an easy weekend with a lot of drama and confusion surrounding the tyres, but my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew remained calm and concentrated throughout and it was good to pay them back with my first top six for a while.” — HRC Report Repsol Honda RC213V rider Dani Pedrosa kept his head in an extraordinary Australian grand prix today to claim a valuable second place in a race that was shortened twice and run in a flurry of rule changes, black flags, penalties, and pit-lane mayhem in the first-ever grand prix with a compulsory mid-race change of motorcycle. Unfortunately for second Repsol Honda RC213V rider Marc Marquez, he was one of three riders to suffer the black flag penalty, after missing the brief window for his compulsory pit stop. Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Gresini Honda RC213V) was fifth, and with Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) ruled out by injury and Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) also black-flagged, he was the only other Honda finisher in the premier class. The “flag-to-flag” race rule was designed to allow bike changes if weather conditions should change mid-race. After high-level meetings by the controlling Grand Prix Commission followed by drastic revisions to the rule book, it was invoked as a compulsory measure at this race in response to a crisis in tyre safety. The 4.448-km track had been fully resurfaced, while conditions were unexpectedly warm. A combination of faster lap times and corner speeds, higher grip levels and higher temperatures than anticipated proved disastrous for the control tyres in both the MotoGP and Moto2 classes. Suppliers Bridgestone (MotoGP) and Dunlop (Moto2) both informed Race Direction that due to severe overheating issues they could not guarantee the safety of their tyres over full race distance. Surprisingly neither tyre provider had tested at the circuit in preparation for racing on the relaid surface. While the Moto2 race was all but halved, from 25 laps to 13, MotoGP elected to apply flag-to-flag rules to MotoGP, along with other strictures including compulsory use of the hardest tyre option. Race distance cut from 27 laps to 22. Bridgestone had put their safety margin at 14 laps. Then after further issues in race-morning warm-up they cut it back still further to ten laps. Race distance was reduced once more, to 19 laps. Pedrosa’s tactics were perfect. Running a very close third to Lorenzo and Marquez from the start, he decided to pit one lap earlier than the others, to take advantage of a clear pit lane. Unfortunately he too suffered a penalty, being later obliged to drop one position on track after he was judged to have run over the pit-lane limit. He served this without losing much time, dropping behind Marquez. After the change, his clear hopes of a second successive race win faded when his second bike lacked the extreme handling finesse of his first, and he was unable to push as hard as before. He gained another 20 points as he demonstrates his return to top form and full strength, and regained a mathematical chance of winning the title. Marquez was well-placed in the race, but for leaving his pit stop one lap too late, and looked certain of his 15th rostrum finish of the year as he ran with the leading pair … until the penalty was applied. It was the result of a team misunderstanding of the hastily rewritten rules, altered on race eve then again on race morning, over the method of counting the laps. Disqualification meant a zero points score at a race where the 20-year-old Spaniard had a mathematical chance of securing the World Championship at his first attempt, and cut his lead over race winner Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) from 43 to 18 points. With two rounds remaining, he will have to be sure of strong results in Motegi and Valencia if he is to succeed in what, before this misfortune, seemed almost a certainty – becoming the youngest premier-class World Champion in history. Bautista had another strong race, jousting throughout with the Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow. The three riders were changing places right up until the last lap, and the Spanish former 125cc World Champion’s fifth place missed a top-three rostrum by less than two tenths of a second, as they flashed across the line all but line abreast. Bautista is the only rider to use Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, in his role as race-developer for the Japanese companies, closely associated with Honda. This position continues a strong run in the latter part of the season: this was his fourth time in fifth place in the last six races. The all-Honda-powered Moto2 class, also run in dry conditions, was a frantic 13-lap sprint, with no room for tactics. This made for an even more hectic battle than usual, in a class where close and reliable racing is ensured, with all competitors furnished with identical race-tuned Honda CBR600 engines by the organisers, fitted into full-race prototype chassis. Crucially for the championship, pre-race points leader Scott Redding was absent. The British Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex rider was eliminated after a heavy crash in qualifying yesterday. He broke his wrist and underwent immediate corrective surgery, but is a doubtful starter also for next weekend’s Japanese GP. Spanish star Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex) had closed to within nine points of Redding in the title charts, and now took over the championship lead with a determined start-to-finish victory. He now leads the championship with 240 points to Redding’s 224, with his Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex team-mate Esteve Rabat still in with a mathematical chance on 204. Espargaro was obliged to fend off a strong early attack from Alex De Angelis (NGM Mobile Forward Racing Speed Up), who later set a new lap record. In the closing laps came another fierce attack from Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Suter). Luthi crossed the line just over half-a-second adrift for his best result of the year, himself fending off a last-lap attack from German GP winner Jordi Torres (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter), less than a tenth behind. Simone Corsi (NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up) was almost as close to him, with De Angelis on his back wheel, and the top five covered by 1.1 seconds. Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert Suter) lost touch in the final stages in sixth while battling with Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex), who finished less than two-tenths behind. Rabat came back to eighth, after running off the track and dropping out of the leading group, while holding third place, putting two-race winner Nico Terol (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter) ninth. Australian rider Anthony West (QMMF Racing Team Speed Up) fought through to tenth in a crowd-pleasing ride after finishing the first lap in 20th. Moto3 champion Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex) Ricard Cardus (NGM Mobile Forward Racing Speed Up). Danny Kent (Tech 3), Gino Rea (Argiñano & Gines Racing Speed Up) and Doni Tata Pradita (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 Suter) claimed the remaining points. The Moto3 race was the only one of the day to run to full scheduled distance, set at 23 laps. In a class where Honda-powered machines are up against rival factories in a variety of prototype chassis, the top Honda rider Jack Miller came heartbreakingly close to a first rostrum finish. The Australian finished fifth in a tight pack, but less than three-quarters of a second off third place, and only six tenths behind the winner. The top seven places were covered by just 1.1 seconds. Miller (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda) had played a popular role in a lead group that was eight-strong for much of the race, moving up to third in the closing stages. He was still pushing out of the last corner, but lost out in the run to the finish line. The usual gang of Spanish KTM riders dominated the rostrum, with Alex Rins winning by inches from Maverick Vinales and Luis Salom. Rins closed to within five points of long-time title leader Salom, with Vinales another 17 behind, ensuring an exciting championship finale. Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 FTR Honda) narrowly lost touch with the leading group to finish eighth. Honda riders played a strong role in a fearsome battle for the next title points, the gap from ninth to 18th place only just over two-and-a-quarter seconds, with places changing corner by corner. Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda) was tenth; Isaac Vinales (Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) 13th, Romano Fenati (San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda) 14th, and John McPhee (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda) just out of the points in 17th. The next race is the Japanese GP at the Honda-owned Twin Ring Motegi circuit, in one week, with the season finale a fortnight later at Valencia in Spain. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2nd – “Today’s race was very stressful -above all before the start, as the rules were being changed every five minutes. Everything was turned on its head and it was very difficult to adapt first time, without making any mistakes. Marc made mistakes and I did too. Everything was going so fast and it was confusing for both the riders and the mechanics. We had to be clear about which lap to enter the pits, as it wasn’t obvious which was lap nine and which was lap ten. The two bikes needed to be prepared and the tyres as well, the pit lane was much longer than normal… it was all so strange today. The exit line from the pits wasn’t clear, and neither could you see the entry line very well, so it was all a bit improvised. In my case I was able to rectify my mistake on the track and, although the second bike wasn’t the same for me as the first, I managed to take second in the race and be very competitive.” Alvaro Bautista, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, 5th – “We have managed to salvage a race that we knew was going to be difficult for us because of the enforced tyre choice. We knew it didn’t work with our bike but we fought hard and thanks to the exceptional work of the team we have come away with a result we didn’t expect. I gave my best, did everything I could on the bike and I have to be happy because I was fighting for a podium finish until the very end. Unfortunately on the last lap I just felt that I couldn’t push the tyre any harder and it’s a shame because I know that on the soft option we would have been able to get on the podium and achieve the objective we have set ourselves for before the end of the season.” Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda, DNF – “Today was our first experience of a Flag-to-Flag race, and suffice to say it wasn’t a good one. My team and I had set out a strategy and we thought that we could come in after lap 10, but in reality this counts as an extra lap. We hadn’t had that in mind and this was a huge mistake. We had everything well planned and I followed the instructions on my pit board. You learn from these things though, so now we have to move on and focus on the race in Japan” Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, DNF – “Today couldn’t have gone worse. I was hoping for a good race in front of my home crowd and instead it has ended prematurely with a black flag.” Honda Moto2 rider quotes Pol Espargaro, Tuenti HP 40 Pons, 1st – “All my life I had a dream – to be World Champion, sooner or later. It is not done, yet, but it is close … I can’t believe where we are and what we did. I’m not 100 percent happy because while I have overtaken Redding in the championship points, he was not on track, and this is not good. But this is racing, where every lap and corner can be dangerous. Anyway, we are not still champion. For sure we are going to work hard as we did all season” Thomas Luthi, Interwetten Paddock Moto2, 2nd – “With just 13 laps there was just one strategy: full throttle from the go. Such a short race… actually, too short for me, because I had quite a good set-up and was not scared at all by a full length. Due to safety reasons we had to do this short race, so I had to change the strategy. The target was to get a good start and push straight from the beginning. After one lap Pol opened a gap, then he made a small mistake, and I was there immediately, but afterwards I made a mistake, and at the end it was not possible to catch up and fight for a victory. I had to battle to keep the other guys behind me, not easy, but at the end second is great. I didn’t struggle at all with the tyres during all the weekend with lost rubber or anything like that.” Jordi Torres, Aspar Moto2, 3rd – “We had a good weekend. In the race we tried to push hard to stay at the top, but midway through the race I lost the rear wheel of Luthi and had to fight with de Angelis. But my bike worked well with used tyres. I’m happy. We are going to do our best to replicate the result in the next two races, but it’s going to be pretty difficult, in a class where the difference between riders is so small.” Honda Moto3 rider quotes Jack Miller, Caretta Technology RTG, 5th – “Missed it by a whisker, but it was a good race even if I didn’t get on the podium. I had to fight back from the start. I could stay there in the group, and also make the passes to get to the front, so that was quite good. In the same point, the bike on the straight was not what we needed. We missed just a little bit of speed. I knew it was going to be difficult to make the podium.” Niccolo Antonelli, GO&FUN Gresini Moto3, 8th – “A great week-end, except for what happened this morning, when I crashed in fifth gear at more or less 200 km/h. I am a bit bruised, but the bike is great, the team did a great job. We were able to fight with the top riders all the race. Maybe I could have risked something more, but I had problems with the tyres at the end and already crashed out at Sepang, so I told to myself: ‘Let’s bring home some points.’ Our results have been improving, and I hope to be able to continue like that.” Alexis Masbou, Ongetta-Rivacold, 10th – “A tough race, at the end of a tough week-end. The first day we were far from the best riders, while in the race my fastest lap was not very distant from the fastest race lap. So, mixed feelings: from one side, I’m happy for the result, from the other I wonder what it could have been with a better qualifying, and a better place on grid.” — Ducati Report In a dramatic Australian Grand Prix that featured a “flag-to-flag” format in the dry, with obligatory pit stops, Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso maintained their cool in challenging circumstances, riding to seventh and ninth place finishes, respectively. The unusual format, which had riders switching bikes at the midway point of the shortened 19-lap race, was implemented by Race Direction in response to tyre wear being much higher than anticipated over the course of the weekend. In the race’s first half, the two Ducati Team colleagues battled with one another and fellow Ducati rider Andrea Iannone. Hayden used good pit strategy to get away from the other two Ducati riders and make a run at sixth-place Bradley Smith that ultimately fell just short. Similarly, Dovizioso was unsuccessful in his late bid to overtake Iannone and ultimately had to accept ninth place. With the first two legs of this overseas tripleheader now complete, the MotoGP teams now return to Asia for next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 7th – “If I’m honest, I hoped to be more competitive, but it went better than some of our recent races. My first tyre didn’t feel as grippy as I expected. I was racing with Iannone and Dovi, but I knew I was faster than those guys and didn’t want to tow them. I waited to do the opposite of them, so when I saw them go in the pits, I put my head down and did a good in-lap, then did a good lap leaving the pits and was able to put a couple of seconds onto them. I got to the back of Smith at the end, but I was struggling in the last corner, and there were some spots of rain. As for the pit stop, it was easy. I’ve been with my team for five years, and we practice it sometimes. Yes, this pit is tight, but we’re used to doing 340 Km/h, so if you use your head, I don’t think coming in at 60 is so dangerous.” Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 9th – “The race was more enjoyable than usual because of the changes they made, as well as the strategies. I had a pretty tough battle with Nicky and Iannone but it was all a bit difficult for me, also because my two GP13s didn’t have the same feeling. The second bike wasn’t as good as the first. Anyway, I don’t have any excuses; I’m just not happy with the result. I had another battle with Iannone and came close to him at the very end, but I didn’t manage to beat him. Nicky did a good job and had a really fast in-lap; he caught Smith and managed to have a good pace from the start of the race.” Paolo Ciabatti – Ducati MotoGP Project Director – “Today’s race was really strange, exciting with many twists. The ‘flag-to-flag’ format in the dry with a maximum of 10 laps per tyre and an obligatory pit stop put more pressure on our team. Still, I must say everything went smoothly, and I’d like to complement our boys, who didn’t make any mistakes. The final result of the race definitely isn’t very satisfying for us, but Nicky and Dovi tried their hardest, as always.” — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Extra-soft & Soft. Rear: Medium & Hard (Asymmetric) Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo won a dramatic flag-to-flag Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island to breathe life back into his championship challenge. With the race reduced to nineteen laps with a mandatory stop where riders were required to change bikes, Lorenzo led the opening stint before making a flawless pit stop on lap nine to put himself in a strong position for the second half of the race. Once on his second bike Lorenzo pulled away from the chasing pack to take the chequered flag by 6.936 seconds ahead of second-place getter, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. Rounding out the rostrum was Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi who claimed his sixth podium of the season in Australia. Having shown great pace throughout the race weekend, the top CRT rider in Australia was Power Electronics Aspar’s Randy de Puniet who placed tenth in Australia. Amid the excitement of today’s race, a new Circuit Record Lap of 1’28.108 was set on the thirteenth lap of the race by Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez. Conditions today were dry but cooler than yesterday, with the peak track temperature of 32°C recorded at the start of the race. With the harder of the two rear slick options – the medium compound for CRT riders and the hard compound for works riders – being made mandatory for the race, the only variation in tyre choice came from the front slicks. Eleven of the twenty-three starters chose the softer front option, the extra-soft front slick, with the other twelve riders opting for the harder option, soft compound front. With two rounds remaining, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez still leads the championship standings by eighteen points – despite being black flagged for not pitting in the mandatory stop window in today’s race – over Lorenzo. Pedrosa remains in third place in the championship, sixteen points adrift of Lorenzo. Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing – Race Winner |
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| — Lorenzo Flies to Record Breaking Phillip Island Pole — Lorenzo on Phillip Island pole as mandatory pit-stops announced Jorge Lorenzo has clinched pole position for the Tissot Australian Grand Prix, beating Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi to the top spot in a highly dramatic shootout at Phillip Island. With only three rounds remaining in the 2013 MotoGP™ season and Marquez able to clinch an historic premier class title win this weekend, the qualifying session at Phillip Island would prove to be one of the most incident-packed of the year. Ultimately, Lorenzo clinched his third pole of the campaign – his first since Jerez in May – courtesy of a best lap of 1’27.899, but this was only after the reigning World Champion’s Yamaha Factory Racing bike clipped a seagull. The margin at the front would be two tenths of a second, with Marquez able to secure the world crown on Sunday if he ends the race with a points-advantage of 51 or more. In third place, Rossi – who on only three occasions in his career has failed to finish on the podium at Phillip Island – will start on the front row for the second consecutive race, ahead of GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista who qualified fourth but went off-track at the end of qualifying. Fifth will be Sepang winner Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) – who is the only rider other than Marquez and Lorenzo who retains a mathematical possibility of winning the championship – from Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, who will start sixth. Row 3 will be occupied by Tech3’s Bradley Smith plus Ducati Team pairing Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso. Tenth on the grid will be Energy T.I. Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone, who entered the Q2 shootout from Q1, as was also the case with Dovizioso. It was towards the end of Q1 when Iannone was involved in an on-track disagreement with Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro, who failed to feature in Q2 for only the fourth time this in 2013. In the meantime, Colin Edwards set the CRT pace as he qualified 11th for NGM Mobile Forward Racing, one position in front of Randy de Puniet while the Frenchman’s teammate Espargaro will be 13th on the grid; both de Puniet and Edwards suffered incidents in the Q2 shootout. LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl has taken no further part in the weekend since attempting to ride in opening practice, having fractured his right ankle at Sepang one week ago; the German hopes to return at Motegi next weekend. Australian Bryan Staring will start his home race 21st on the Gresini CRT bike, with fellow countryman Damian Cudlin having qualified 23rd for PBM on his 31st birthday. In a separate twist, Bridgestone have announced that they are unable to guarantee safety of their rear slick tyres beyond 14 laps, and it has therefore been decided that every rider will be required to enter the pits and change to his second machine with fresh tyres at least once during the race. No rider is permitted to make more than 14 laps on any one slick rear tyre. This means that a bike/tyre change before lap 12 will require a second bike/tyre change to finish the race. Prototypes will have to use the hard-, and CRTs the medium spec tyre. And to mark the occasion of the Australian race, it was fitting that Casey Stoner was inducted as a MotoGP™ Legend at Phillip Island on Saturday. The World Champion of 2007 and 2011 becomes the 20th MotoGP™ Legend, joining riders such as compatriots Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan. — Compulsory Pit Stops for MotoGP Dorna has been notified by Bridgestone that they are unable to guarantee safety of their rear slick tyres beyond 14 laps. It has therefore been decided to make the following changes to the MotoGP class race in the interests of the safety of the riders. 1. The race distance will be 26 laps. 2. Every rider will be required to enter the pits and change to his second machine with fresh tyres at least once during the race. 3. No rider is permitted to make more than 14 laps on any one slick rear tyre.This means that a bike/tyre change before lap 12 will require a second bike/tyre change to finish the race. 4. Riders using “Factory” and “Satellite” machines will be required to use the “hard” option tyre (B51DR). Extra quantity will be allocated by Bridgestone. 5. Riders using CRT machines will be required to use CRT “hard” option tyre (B50DR). Extra quantity will be allocated by Bridgestone. 6. The pit lane speed limit zone will be extended both on entry and exit, and the exit route to rejoin the track will be marked by a white line in the runoff area. Crossing this line whilst rejoining the track from pit lane will result in a penalty. — Bridgestone’s take on the tyre dramas Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Extra-soft & Soft. Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric) Jorge Lorenzo continued to dominate proceedings at Phillip Island this weekend as the Yamaha Factory Racing star set a new outright lap record of 1’27.899 in qualifying today, smashing the existing record by 0.766 seconds to claim his third pole position of the year. Lorenzo set his record time on his penultimate lap in Qualifying Practice 2, beating Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez to the top position on the grid for tomorrow’s race by 0.221 seconds. Joining his teammate on the front row is Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi was third quickest with a personal best time of 1’28.647. All riders on the front row lapped under the existing Circuit Best Lap record of 1’28.665 set by Casey Stoner in 2008. The best CRT rider in qualifying was NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards, the American rider will start in eleventh place on the grid after setting a time of 1’30.264 in QP2. Conditions were again warm and fine at Phillip Island, though slightly warmer than yesterday with a peak track temperature of 42°C recorded during QP1. For the qualifying sessions all riders selected softer rear slick options, while front tyre choice was more varied, with some riders preferring the superior edge grip of the softer, extra-soft compound front slick, over the slight advantage in cornering stability offered by the harder, soft compound front slick. The majority of riders assessed the hard compound rear slicks – which have been made mandatory for Sunday’s race – in the morning FP3 session and feedback indicates that these have slightly less edge grip, but better consistency than the softer rear slick options. With the new, grippier Phillip Island track surface causing an increase in tyre temperature, the works riders also assessed an extra-hard rear slick tyre Bridgestone brought as a contingency in Free Practice 4 to see if it was better suited to the revised track surface. The findings from this session reveal that the original, hard compound rear tyre that was allocated to the works riders performed better, and it will be this option offered to riders tomorrow. The next MotoGP™ session is morning Warm Up scheduled for 1140 local time (GMT +11) tomorrow and the Australian Grand Prix will start at 1600. Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department – “With the new, improved track surface at Phillip Island it was expected that we could see a new Circuit Best Lap record today, but to see it beaten by such a margin was a very pleasing result. We could see after FP3 that tyre temperatures were extremely high, so we offered an extra-hard specification rear slick tyre for the works riders to evaluate in FP4. However, this compound option didn’t work as well on the track surface, hence we will be offering our original hard specification rear slick to riders for the race. Both our extra-soft and soft compound front slicks were used today and the feedback from riders was that both options worked well and I expect both of the front slick choices to be utilised in tomorrow’s race. We anticipated tyre temperatures would be higher this year at Phillip Island, but not to the extreme levels we have seen this weekend. After analysing the used tyres after today`s sessions, we have decided that the maximum safe distance that our rear slick tyres can be run is fourteen laps. Following discussions between Bridgestone, Dorna and the FIM on how to best manage rider safety for the race, it was race direction`s decision to make tomorrow`s race a flag-to-flag contest.” Qualifying Times FRONT ROW SECOND ROW THIRD ROW FOURTH ROW FIFTH ROW SIXTH ROW SEVENTH ROW EIGHTH ROW — Moto2 Pol Espargaro will start from his fifth pole position of the Moto2™ season at the Tissot Australian Grand Prix, whilst championship leader Scott Redding has been ruled out of the race after fracturing his left wrist in a crash. The race will take place over the shortened distance of 13 laps. A dramatic day of qualifying at Phillip Island drew to a close with the intermediate category, with the session being interrupted with red flags following a crash for Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2’s Thitipong Warokorn. As the Thai rider was transported away for medical check-ups and soon diagnosed with a fracture to his right scapula, ruling him out of action for the rest of the race event, whilst Esteve Rabat, who also crashed, was effectively given extra time for bike repairs as he made his way back to the Tuenti HP 40 garage. No sooner had Rabat re-joined the session than the Spaniard crashed once again, having by this point lost provisional pole to teammate Espargaro who will start in front thanks to his leading lap time of 1’32.530. Rabat missed out by just one hundredth of a second, while there were identical times for Jordi Torres and Alex de Angelis; the former (Aspar Team Moto2) will start third by virtue of his quicker second best lap time, leaving the NGM Mobile Forward Racing rider fourth. Tom Luthi rounds out the top five for Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing, while Mika Kallio will be the leading Marc VDS Racing Team rider in sixth; however, the Finn suffered a sizeable accident in the Hay Shed section. Just moments later, teammate Redding crashed at the end of the lap and was duly taken to the Medical Centre where the Englishman complained of pain with his left wrist. Having already posted his 1’32.962 lap time, Redding sank to tenth position in the results and soon headed towards Melbourne to operate on the left wrist fracture. More drama came at the end of the session, with reigning Moto3™ World Champion Sandro Cortese being the last to suffer an incident. The Dynavolt Intact GP rider will start seventh on the grid behind Kallio, while Aspar’s Nico Terol and NGM Mobile Racing’s Mattia Pasini fill positions eight and nine ahead of the unfortunate Redding. Moto2™ Qualifying Practice Classification — Moto3™ Moto3™ championship leader Luis Salom will start from pole position for the Tissot Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. Joining the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider on the front row will be Jonas Folger and Efren Vazquez, with Salom’s championship rivals Maverick Viñales and Alex Rins fourth and fifth. Pole for Salom is his fourth of the season and second in succession, ending of run of four different pole-sitters from the previous four events. It came in the form of 1’36.890, serving as a huge confidence boost as the Mallorcan already carries a 14-point lead over Rins and a 26-point margin over Viñales. Despite being injured in a highside crash in the San Marino Grand Prix in mid-September, Folger continues to deliver solid performances and the Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 rider will be lining up on the front row for the fourth time in 2013, whereas Mahindra Racing’s Vazquez went third on his final lap, just as teammate Miguel Oliveira crashed out of the session. On Row 2, Viñales (Team Calvo) and Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) may be required to work together should they hope to overhaul Salom at the forefront of the race. In fact, Rins is sandwiched by the Viñales name on the second row, as Maverick’s elder cousin Isaac (Ongetta-Centro Seta) will line up sixth. Celebrating a career-best qualifying result, Team Calvo’s Ana Carrasco achieved seventh position to make it six Spaniards in the top seven places, joined on Row 3 by the crashed Oliveira and Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin, who escaped both a fall and a lurid off-track moment on the exit of the final corner. Leading Australian representative Jack Miller will start tenth for Caretta Technology – RTG, with compatriot Arthur Sissis 16th for Ajo. Moto3™ Qualifying Practice Classification — Yamaha Report Defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo became the fastest motorcycle rider ever around the Phillip Island circuit today, taking pole position for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix. The 15-minute qualifying heat began in normal fashion with Lorenzo the first man out on track. Drama immediately unfolded as he collided with a seagull coming over Lukey Heights. The uninvited passenger did nothing to slow Lorenzo down as he stormed to a provisional pole time of 1’28.681, breaking the pole record set by Casey Stoner in 2008. Rival Marc Marquez was quick to take back the top spot, leaving Lorenzo in second position as he headed back in for the first tyre change with eight minutes remaining of the session. After allowing most of the pack to enter the track, Lorenzo was back out with four minutes left on the clock. With no seagull to slow him down the Mallorcan was unflappable, dropping under the 1’28 mark with one minute to go and storming to an incredible 1’27.899 second lap for pole position. The time sets a new record as the fastest ever lap by a motorcycle on the Phillip Island circuit. Valentino Rossi enjoyed another successful qualifying session, delivering his second consecutive front row start with third on the grid for tomorrow’s race. The Italian nine-time world champion was the last rider to leave the pits at the start of the session, waiting to find some clear track for his qualifying efforts. His first laps with the soft tyre were enough to put him in fourth position, 0.817 from provisional pole. He then returned to the pits with eight minutes remaining for a quick tyre change and was quickly back out with over six minutes left on the clock. Rossi then put the hammer down and dramatically picked up his pace to put in a 1’28.647 to move up a position and take third on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Jorge Lorenzo – 1st / 1’27.899 / 7 laps – “I had an impact with a bird on the first few laps on the bike, luckily we could take it off and I could make a second attempt without a passenger, maybe because of this I went a little bit faster and was able to make pole position. I’m very happy because I pushed to the limit to make the lap and I made a very good time. We have some problems with the tyre because the new asphalt makes a lot of graining; we’ll see if there are decisions from Dorna or Bridgestone tomorrow for the race. If we can make a good start we will try to get away at the beginning.” Valentino Rossi – 3rd / 1’28.647 / 9 laps – “Coming back in Phillip Island with the new surface is fantastic, especially with this weather and this temperature to be back on the M1 is a great pleasure. To be able to push 100% on the soft front tyre is a fantastic feeling. I’m so happy with this position, it’s the second first row in a row. It looks like in the last races we have found a better solution for qualifying because at the beginning of the season I struggled a lot. I know the race is tomorrow and especially Marc and Jorge and Dani will be very hard to beat. I have to give the maximum, find a good setting and tyre and try to fight for the podium.” Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager – “A fantastic qualifying and an unbelievable lap so we are very happy with that. Tomorrow of course is the race and it looks like we have different issues than just one fast lap, we are struggling to decide which tyre we are able to use and get approval to use. This is still in our mind and also in our rider’s. Set up wise we are very pleased and ready to go.” Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director – “A really great qualifying result, having both riders on the front row is a great opportunity to start well for the race. We’ve done a great job, the bike has been competitive from the beginning and we have been able to make it even better for qualifying. We had an issue with the tyre so we are now waiting for a decision and we will see how move forward form there.” Crutchlow sixth, Smith seventh in breathtaking Phillip Island qualifying Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith will start tomorrow’s Tissot Australian Grand Prix from sixth and seventh respectively after both mounted a strong challenge for the front row in a record-breaking qualifying session. Crutchlow was less than 0.2s away from registering his eighth front row start in 2013, while teammate Smith was only 0.132s further behind in seventh position on a challenging day at the spectacular Phillip Island track. Lap records might have been smashed across the board thanks to impressive grip levels from new asphalt at the coastal venue, but concerns have emerged over excessive rear tyre wear from the allocation made available by official tyre supplier Bridgestone. Crutchlow and Smith were both able to lap just a fraction outside of Casey Stoner’s 2008 pole position benchmark in a record-breaking session that saw factory Yamaha rider, Jorge Lorenzo, obliterate the outright record with a sensational lap of 1.27.899. Crutchlow’s best lap of 1.28.809 was only 0.061s behind Sepang winner Dani Pedrosa and Smith set a 1.28.941, but unusually high temperatures for the Australian Grand Prix and high grip levels from the new Phillip Island track surface resulted in endurance issues being encountered with all tyre options. Crutchlow and Smith will now consult with their Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew and Bridgestone technicians over the best selection for tomorrow’s race, which is currently scheduled to run over 27-laps. Tomorrow’s race is the 16th of this year’s World Championship and is the middle of a flyaway triple-header that started in Malaysia last weekend and concludes in Japan next Sunday. Cal Crutchlow – 6th 1.28.809 – 9 laps Bradley Smith – 7th 1.28.491 – 9 laps — HRC Report Honda’s full house of front-row starts was extended at Phillip Island today, when championship leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) bounced back unhurt from a low-speed morning tumble to qualify second fastest. Team-mate Dani Pedrosa was fifth in the middle of the second row in a bunch riders with very close times. The winner of the Malaysian GP the week before missed the front row by a tenth of a second, and was only three-hundredths off the lap time set by on-form Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V), heading the second rank with fourth fastest time in qualifying. Defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo claimed pole, only the third this year for the Yamaha rider; while team-mate Valentino Rossi was third, to complete row one. This is an important race for both Repsol Honda team-mates But there are many uncertainties, including the possibility of a change in the weather after two all-dry practice days. The climate at the scenic seaside circuit is notoriously fickle, and the race of the day takes place two hours later than usual, with the start at 4 pm. There is also a question of tyre endurance on the grippy new surface of the 4.448-km circuit, where lap times have dropped considerably. In MotoGP, there has been an unprecedented change to the rules requiring that all riders must pit to change bikes at least once in a shortened race, cut from 27 laps to 22. No rider may do more than 14 consecutive laps, while all are required to use the hardest available compound option. The decision came after control tyre suppliers Bridgestone informed Race Direction they were “unable to guarantee safety of their rear slick tyres beyond 14 laps”, according to an official statement. “Flag-to-flag” races normally only take place in response to changing weather conditions. Control tyre suppliers to Moto2, Dunlop, have similar problems, and race distance has been all but halved, from a planned 25 laps to just 13. For Marquez, victory tomorrow would mean a historic maiden World Championship win in the most prestigious category of MotoGP racing, as long as his last remaining rival Lorenzo finishes lower than second. It would be the first by a premier-class rookie in more than 30 years. The fast-rising Spaniard would also become the youngest-ever world champion, still aged just 20. The reigning Moto2 champion and former 125 champion has made a blistering start to his MotoGP career, showing an immediate affinity to his 1000cc V4 Repsol Honda RC213V. His first win came at only the second round of the series, and since then he has added five more, including a purple patch of four in a row while his major rivals suffered from injuries. On the rostrum at all but one other race (he crashed in Italy), he has amassed an almost unassailable point total of 298 points, with only Lorenzo on 255 mathematically able to catch him. His spectacular style has won him an army of new fans, while his overtaking techniques have left established riders shaking their heads. He was second last weekend in Malaysia, behind team-mate Pedrosa. Pedrosa’s target is also Lorenzo, for his own reasons. His clear victory in Malaysia last Sunday not only signalled his return to full strength and top form. It also brought him within 11 points of Lorenzo for second overall. The 28-year-old Spaniard led on points earlier in the season, only losing that position with a disastrous crash in practice for the German GP, round eight. It ruled him out of that race, and left him nursing a fractured collarbone for the next rounds. A further issue with bike settings was solved at tests after the San Marino & Rimini GP, and he came back strong at the next round at Aragon … only to fall innocent victim to a freak misfortune. A light brush from his team-mate severed an electronic connection, disabling the vital traction-control system and triggering a crash as soon as he opened the throttle. His clear win at the next round in Sepang was his first revenge against the fates, and he will be seeking more in tomorrow’s race, after setting fastest time in the final free practice session. Qualified marginally ahead of Pedrosa, Bautista again underlined his improving form in the latter part of the season, as he and his team get to grips with his exclusive use of Showa suspension and Nissin brakes. The Spaniard is working alone to race-develop the Japanese components, made by companies with close associations with Honda. Strong progress in this task means that the former 125cc World Champion has finished out of the top six only once in the last eight races. His team-mate Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) was enjoying intimate circuit knowledge of one of the few tracks he has prior experience of as he contests his first grand prix season. The Australian is also making progress with getting the most out of his Honda CBR1000RR-powered CRT bike, and qualified 21st, but only one second off 16th. Honda ranks were depleted by the withdrawal after the first practice session of German Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V). Bradl suffered a fractured right ankle in a freak crash in Malaysia the weekend before, underwent immediate surgery, and tried for a prompt return, but found the injury made it impossible to continue. Drama in the all-Honda-powered Moto2 qualifying session came in a series of accidents, the first of which brought out the red flags as Thai rider Thitipong Warokom (Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2 Suter) was stretchered away, fortunate to escape major injury. Leading riders Esteve Rabat (Tuenti HP40 Pons Kalex), Mika Kallio and title leader Scott Redding (both Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) all fell, with Redding also stretchered off the track for medical examination to a potentially costly wrist injury. Redding was taken to Melbourne where a detailed examination of his left wrist revealed a fracture that has ruled him out of tomorrow’s race. Redding was already in danger of losing the points lead he has held for most of the season, with rival Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP40 Pons Kalex) closing to within nine points after finishing second to team-mate Rabat in Malaysia last weekend. No date has, or could be, set for Redding’s return to racing. However, should he miss just one race his hopes of taking the Moto2 title now depend upon Espargaro, and possibly Rabat, failing to score points in one of the three remaining races! Competitive and reliable racing is guaranteed in Moto2, with the organisers supplying all riders with identical race-tuned Honda CBR600 engines; but tomorrow’s radically shortened race stands to be even more spectacular than usual. Concerns about tyre life prompted Race Direction to cut race distance by almost half, turning it into a 13-lap sprint and making qualifying positions all the more important. Rabat’s crash cost him the chance to reclaim the fastest time as team-mate Espargaro took his fifth pole of the season by 0.018 of a second. The final front row position went to Jordi Torres (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter). His lap time was identical to the nearest thousandth of a second to that set by Alex de Angelis (NGM Mobile Forward Racing Speed Up), but he was awarded the position because his second-best lap time was better. Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Suter), Kallio, Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex), Nico Terol (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter), Mattia Pasini (NGM Mobile Forward Racing Speed Up) and Redding completed the top ten. In the Moto3 class, Honda-powered machines again showed strength in practice and qualifying, at a track of fast corners and high rhythm that plays to their strengths. Honda is up against rival factories in the smallest class, where 250cc four-stroke engines operate under strict technical restrictions. Four Honda riders were in the top 12, with Isaac Vinales (Bimbo Ongetta-Centro-Seta FTR Honda) the best of them, claiming sixth place to start on the second row … the Spanish teenager’s best so far. An all-Honda row four is led by Australian Jack Miller (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda) from Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda) and Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 FTR Honda). Miller currently leads Masbou by 11 points in their battle to be top Honda overall in the championship. San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda rider Romano Fenati qualified 17th, one place ahead of Alan Techer (CIP Moto3 TSR Honda), with John McPhee (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda) 19th. Fenati’s team-mate Francesco Bagnaia was 22nd, Matteo Ferrari (Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) 24th, then Lorenzo Baldassarri (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 FTR Honda) 28th. Hyuga Watanabe (La Fonte Tascaracing FTR Honda) was 32nd, replacement-team-mate Hafiq Azmi 33rd, and wild card Lachlan Kavney (Bullet Racing Honda) 34th, with fellow wild card Callum Barker (McVey Racing Honda) unqualified. Honda MotoGP Rider quotes Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V): 2nd – 1m 28.120 Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini): 4th – 1m 28.713 Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda): 3rd – 1m 28.748 Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda): 22nd – 1m 31.775 Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V): withdrew Honda Moto2 Rider quotes Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP40): 1st – 1m 32.530 Tito Rabat (Tuenti HP40): 2nd – 1m 32.540 Jordi Torres (Aspar Team Moto2) 3rd – 1m 32.540 Honda Moto3 Rider quotes Isaac Vinales (Bimbo Ongetta-Centro-Seta): 6th – 1m 37.543 Jack Miller (Caretta Racing Technology): 10th – 1m 37.747 Alexis Masbou (Ongetta Rivacold): 11th – 1m 37.774 — Ducati Report Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso took advantage of nearly ideal weather conditions today at Phillip Island Circuit to both qualify their Desmosedici GP13 race machines on row three for tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix. The American in particular had a good pace throughout the day, and his best lap earned him the eighth spot on the grid. Dovizioso didn’t manage to post a great time in the free-practice sessions and thus had to participate in Q1, but his time in Q2 was good enough to put him one spot behind his teammate. Due to unexpectedly high rates of tyre wear on the new track surface, tomorrow’s race has been shortened by one lap to twenty-six, and a mandatory pit stop will be implemented so that riders can change bikes. Use of the hard rear tyre is obligatory for MotoGP entrants, and riders may go a maximum of fourteen laps per tyre. Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 8th (1:29.295) Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 9th (1:29.660) — Marc VDS Report Scott Redding has been forced to withdraw from tomorrow’s Australian Moto2 Grand Prix, after injuring his left wrist in a qualifying crash this afternoon at Phillip Island. Redding, who leads the Moto2 World Championship by nine points from Pol Espargaro, crashed heavily at the high speed turn 12 in the final few minutes of qualifying. After an initial assessment in the circuit medical centre, the 20-year-old Briton was diagnosed with a fractured left wrist. Redding will be transported to Epworth Hospital in Richmond where he’ll undergo surgery on the fractured wrist later this evening. The severity of the injury means Redding will not race in tomorrow’s Australian Moto2 Grand Prix at Phillip Island. A decision on the likely date of Redding’s return to racing will be made together with the medical staff at Epworth Hospital after the operation this evening. Mika Kallio also crashed in the final minutes of qualifying, shortly after the session recommenced following a red flag, but his time from earlier in the session was enough to secure him sixth position on the grid for tomorrow’s race. The Australian Moto2 Grand Prix has been reduced from 25 to just 13 laps, following concerns about tyre degradation at the recently resurfaced Phillip Island circuit. Full championship points will still be awarded. Livio Loi will start tomorrow’s Australian Moto3 Grand Prix from the eighth row of the grid, after problems with traffic on track saw him qualify only 23rd this afternoon. The 16-year-old Belgian struggled to find a clear space on track throughout the 40-minute timed session and was unable to match his lap time from this morning’s free practice, which was 0.5s quicker than his qualifying time. With a good start and a strong opening lap in tomorrow’s race, a points scoring finish is still a realistic possibility for Loi. Mika Kallio #36 // 6th // 1’32.833 Livio Loi #11 // 23rd // 1’38.637 // @LivioLoi Michael Bartholemy // Team Principal | 
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 16 – Phillip Island – Lorenzo laps up the sunshine as Phillip Island heats up It was reigning MotoGP™ World Champion Jorge Lorenzo who locked out both Friday practice sessions at Phillip Island ahead of the Tissot Australian Grand Prix. The Yamaha Factory Racing rider led Marc Marquez and Alvaro Bautista, while championship leader Marquez escaped an afternoon crash at Lukey Heights. Lap records were expected to tumble at Phillip Island this year, with a new surface having been laid since the 2012 race. Enjoying the bright conditions, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo duly posted a 1’28.961, with Repsol Honda Team’s Marquez second while GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Bautista went third overall but second in the afternoon session. This dropped Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa to fourth position, having stopped his bike on the exit of the Southern Loop towards the end of the second period, as his rear engine-mounting bolt had come loose. Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi – off the podium at Phillip Island on only three occasions since he debuted in the World Championship – completed the top five. Marquez was fortunate to avoid injury during second practice, as the 20-year-old – who could become World Champion this weekend – crashed at the top of Lukey Heights. Having escaped any injury, the Spaniard was back out on-track less than 20 minutes later. The same could not be said for LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl; having fractured an ankle at Sepang last Saturday, the German was allowed to take part in opening practice but finished almost four seconds off the pace and was later declared unfit. He hopes to return in Japan next weekend. Monster Yamaha Tech3 occupied positions six and seven on the timesheets, with Cal Crutchlow half a second quicker than Bradley Smith as the latter made his first premier class appearance at Phillip Island. The top ten was rounded out by leading CRT runner Randy de Puniet for Power Electronics Aspar plus Ducati Team duo Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, with the 2006 World Champion having now been confirmed as joining Aspar for the next two MotoGP™ campaigns. Ignite Pramac Racing’s Yonny Hernandez suffered a fall in the morning, while Avintia Blusens’ Hector Barbera was last to encounter a slip-up as he crashed on the exit of Lukey Heights barely five minutes before the day’s MotoGP™ action came to a close. Australians Bryan Staring and Damian Cudlin ended proceedings in 21st and 24th places on their CRT bikes, run by Gresini and PBM respectively. The majority of riders were using the softer option front and rear tyres for both of the day’s sessions, however Bridgestone has since stated that due to the abrasive nature of the new tarmac, riders should race with the harder compound. This does not rule out using the softer rear for qualifying tomorrow. Both front options remain open throughout. Combined Free Practice Times — Moto2 Fresh from his domination of the Sepang weekend, Tuenti HP 40’s Tito Rabat topped both Friday practice sessions as the Moto2™ action began for the Tissot Australian Grand Prix. He and teammate Pol Espargaro both finished inside the top three, with championship leader and rival Scott Redding between them and in second position. Throughout the field, there was a real mixture between those whose fastest lap times had come in the morning session and those who delivered their best efforts during the afternoon. In the case of Rabat, it was his morning lap time of 1’33.157 that could not be bettered later on, as the Spaniard once again found the sweet spot and continued to top every session of the on-going triple-header. Also making the most of Phillip Island’s new surface, Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) and Espargaro were one tenth of a second down on Rabat, promising a tight qualifying session on Saturday. Jordi Torres and Alex de Angelis were next up for the Aspar Team Moto2 and NGM Mobile Forward Racing outfits, with positions six to eight being occupied by Technomag carXpert’s Dominique Aegerter, Dynavolt Intact GP’s Sandro Cortese and Came IodaRacing Project’s Johann Zarco. Having also posted their personal bests in the first session, ninth and tenth-placed riders Tom Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing) and Mika Kallio (Marc VDS) confirmed that six of the top ten had posted their personal best lap times in the first of the two Friday practice periods. It was a bruising day for Marcel Schrotter, who crashed his Maptaq SAG Zelos Team bike not once, but twice, although the first impact had been the heaviest as the German ran off at Siberia. Teammate Xavier Simeon also suffered an accident, while Espargaro parked his bike at the end of the morning session. In the afternoon, Danny Kent joined the list of fallers when he lost control of his Tech 3 machine. Teams will be told to run a minimum rear tyre pressure of 1.3bar tomorrow after teams and riders voiced concerns about both the new, and old spec Dunlop tyres that were available for the sessions today. It was decided to carry on with the new spec, run in FP1, though with a minimum tyre pressure to ensure they last race distance. — Moto3™ Maverick Viñales went quickest as Moto3™ practice continued at Phillip Island on Friday afternoon. The Team Calvo rider posted a new record for the resurfaced Australian circuit, joined inside the top three by Jonas Folger and Zulfahmi Khairuddin. Enjoying the new asphalt at Phillip Island, Viñales – who sits third in the standings behind Luis Salom and Alex Rins – set the pace with a 1’38.198 lap. The times were extremely close, with Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Folger second from Red Bull KTM Ajo pair Khairuddin and championship leader Salom, with the leading quartet covered by only 37 thousandths of a second over the distance of 4.4 kilometres. Niccolo Antonelli ended the day fifth for GO&FUN Gresini Moto3, from Mahindra Racing’s Miguel Oliveira and Estrella Galicia 0,0’s aforementioned Rins, who was forced to take evasive action at the end of the session after Avant Tecno’s Niklas Ajo (tenth position) lost control and fell on the racing line. On the timesheets, filling the gaps between Rins and Ajo were Isaac Viñales and Brad Binder, respectively eighth and ninth for their individual Ongetta-Centro Seta and Ambrogio Racing squads. A number of riders would hit trouble across the first two sessions, such as wildcard Lachlan Kavney who was twice seen pulling his stranded Bullet Racing machine to safety. RW Racing GP’s Jasper Iwema suffered a crash in the afternoon, going down at the MG hairpin, whereas following a sizeable accident Redox RW Racing GP’s Jakub Kornfeil was taken to the Medical Centre with hip pains. Fastest man Viñales did not escape trouble, either, as he crashed at Doohan Corner during the morning perio — Yamaha Report – Lorenzo On Top Down Under Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo has made a flying start to this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, completing the first day of free practice as the fastest rider. The defending champion came out fighting in the first morning practice and led the session apart from a brief appearance by rival Marc Marquez at the top of the time sheets mid way through. A new tarmac surface at the track has vastly improved grip, allowing Lorenzo to drop almost a second under the race record in the morning. The afternoon saw him pick up the pace even further, the only rider to drop into the 1’28s to finish the day on a 1’28.961, just three tenths from Casey Stoner’s 2008 pole record. Teammate Valentino Rossi also enjoyed a positive start to the weekend today. The Italian nine time champion made a big step forward between the morning and afternoon sessions, shaving nearly half a second off his time and moving half a second closer to the front. He finished the day in fifth overall, 0.576 from Lorenzo in first and just 0.059 seconds from Dani Pedrosa in fourth. Jorge Lorenzo – 1st / 1’28.961 / 32 laps Valentino Rossi – 5th / 1’29.537 / 43 laps Yamaha Factory Racing Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager Yamaha Factory Racing Massimo Meregalli Team Director — Repsol HRC Report It’s been a mixed day for the Repsol Honda riders, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa, in preparation for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix. This morning’s FP1 session went according to plan with both riders putting in fast laps on the new asphalt in Phillip Island and finishing 2nd and 4th respectively. Then in FP2 this afternoon, Marc crashed at turn nine on his first run, resulting in the bike being unusable for the remainder of the session and Dani was forced to stop on track due to a mechanical problem caused by a small mistake by his team – the engine mounting bolt was not properly locked and came loose. However, Dani realised there was a problem immediately and pulled his bike safely off the track. Marc, who after the crash went out on his second bike, was unable to improve from his morning time of 1’29.255, placing him 2nd for the day – 6th in FP2 , and Dani improved by half a second in the afternoon with a 1’29.478 leaving him 4th for this first day in Australia. Marc Marquez 2nd 1’29.255 – “The day went well – especially in the morning. It’s a pity about the crash right at the start of the afternoon run but we went back out with the second bike, which had a totally different geometry and we had no time in which to change things. Thus, we used the initial setup for the entire session. We shall see if tomorrow we can regain the feeling that we had in the morning session, as I felt very good – something that is very important at Phillip Island. We shall continue working in order to improve for the race” Dani Pedrosa 4th 1’29.478 – “Today was very positive, the new asphalt felt good and the tyres worked well for us. The only setback was that we were unable to make the most of all the time available, due to a problem with the bike at the end of the afternoon session. That meant that we had to end the day early. In general it was a good day, and we shall try to improve further tomorrow” — Ducati Report The day-one free-practice sessions for Round 16 of the MotoGP World Championship, the Australian Grand Prix, was marked by strong winds, but with blue skies and springtime temperatures, the riders were able to set fast times on the resurfaced track. Despite the wind, Ducati Team riders Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso worked well over the course of the two sessions, lowering their times slightly in the afternoon, and they were relatively pleased with their progress. At day’s end, the American was in ninth place on the time sheets, with his teammate one tenth of a second behind in tenth. Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 9th (1:30.609) Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 10th (1:30.754) — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Extra-soft & Soft. Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric) Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo set a formidable pace to top the timesheets in Friday practice for the Australian Grand Prix, the reigning champion getting within a few tenths of the outright lap record in an exciting opening day at Phillip Island. Lorenzo took full advantage of the grip offered by the recently resurfaced circuit to set a time of 1’28.961 in Free Practice 2 to beat Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez – who set a time of 1’29.255 in the morning FP1 session – by 0.294 seconds as the fastest rider of the day. Third quickest was GO&FUN Gresini Honda’s Alvaro Bautista whose personal best time of 1’29.438 made him the only rider besides Marquez to get within half a second of Lorenzo. Randy de Puniet put in a phenomenal performance to clock the eighth quickest lap of the day to top the CRT crop, the Power Electronics Aspar rider ending the day just 1.254 seconds off Lorenzo’s benchmark time. Today saw dry yet typically blustery conditions at Phillip Island with a peak track temperature of 37°C recorded during the afternoon FP2 session. For FP1 all riders selected softer slick options front and rear for maximum warm-up performance and edge grip while assessing the new Phillip Island track surface for the first time. With warmer track temperatures present for FP2, some riders switched to the harder of the two front tyre options, the soft compound slick, although the majority of riders continued using the extra-soft compound front. Rear tyre choice followed suit with most riders preferring to use the softer slick options available to them, with only one rider choosing to try the harder rear slick option in the afternoon session. Tomorrow’s weather forecast indicates slightly warmer conditions with a negligible chance of rain. The MotoGP™ riders will be out on track again at 1055 local time (GMT +11) tomorrow for FP3 before qualifying gets underway from 1510. Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department “We anticipated that the new tarmac at this circuit had the potential to make this circuit even more severe on tyres, so we analysed the tyres used by the riders today to see if this was the case. Our analysis shows that the tarmac has made this track tougher on tyres, so we have decided that although riders can still use the softer rear slicks for the remaining practice sessions and qualifying, for the race we have specified that all riders use the harder rear slick options available to them.” | 
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 16 – Phillip Island – Possible history in the making for Marquez as Australian GP gets underway The Tissot Australian Grand Prix got underway today with the regular pre-race conference, where this weekend’s possible title contender, Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez, was joined by his main rival, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo, Repsol teammate Dani Pedrosa, Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaro and Caretta Technology – RTG’s Jack Miller. Marquez, who could take the title if he outscores Lorenzo by eight points this weekend, is trying not to think of the title too much: “That is true, it will be the first chance, but I think it will be so, so difficult, because Jorge was so fast last year. He finished second but we know how Casey was here. It will just be another race for me. The most important is to try and get it – it doesn’t matter when. I look forward to riding a MotoGP bike here. It will be so exciting and the fast corners will be interesting. I saw some videos from last year, and Casey especially did some incredible lines, so we will see how Phillip Island is on a MotoGP bike.” Lorenzo however, has vowed to make it difficult for Marquez: “The last two results were not the best. We wanted to win and finish in front of Marc, but we tried everything in Aragon and then finished worse than expected at Sepang. But that is done. We cannot think about the past. We are at Phillip Island with different circumstances and a different track. We will try to be as good as possible and win this race. Braking is our weakest point at the moment and it should be much colder, so in theory, yes, it is going to be a better track for us, but sometimes theory doesn’t work, so let’s see how it goes this weekend.” Pedrosa, who last year did not finish the race, is hoping the new asphalt will work in his favour: “Last year wasn’t so successful, I crashed early with the cold tyre, but it’s key to get a good practice here and take the time well, especially in qualifying. Let’s see if we can do a good weekend overall. It’s hard to judge now, but obviously the previous one [asphalt] was quite old and there were many bumps. I think we will feel a big different with the new asphalt. We don’t know how the tyres will be, but for sure with these cold conditions it’s a better feeling when the track is new.” Crutchlow, a podium sitter here previously, is aiming for the same once more: “It’s definitely going to be hard to repeat the performance of last year, when we got a bit fortunate with Dani crashing out. I’ve had a few bad results recently, but as Jorge said it should suit our bike better here. Podium last year and I don’t see any reason why we can’t do it again.” News was also confirmed that Nicky Hayden will be on an Aspar Honda production racer in season 2014. Espargaro, second in the Moto2™ class at the moment by nine points, believes both he and championship leader Scott Redding will be feeling the heat: “The pressure is on both of us because we’re almost at the finale in Valencia, with just three races to go. For sure we have a pressure, but it’s just about doing the races, but the strategy will be important and it’s just about doing the three races. I will just go for it, but for sure this year has been so different to last, and we also have the new asphalt.” Local Moto3™ talent Miller joked about the cold weather at the track in reference to it being his “home” circuit: “Home! Sort of. I don’t claim Phillip Island to be part of Australia – we don’t get this weather where I am from! It’s good to be home…‘homeish’ anyway, before we go to Japan! It’s definitely been a difficult year on the Honda. Handling-wise the bike is awesome but we struggle in straight lines. It’s been a good year but we seem to fall off because of tyre wear in the second halves of races.” To mark the occasion of a possible World Champion being crowned at the race this weekend’s race in the form of Marquez, the 10 contenders across all groups lined up for photos before the press conference. Moto3™ saw Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Luis Salom joined by Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins and Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales, whilst in Moto2™ there was the Marc VDS Racing duo of Scott Redding and Mika Kallio along side Tuenti HP 40 riders Pol Espargaro and Esteve Rabat. In MotoGP™ it was the Spanish trio of Marquez, Lorenzo and Pedrosa. In separate news, LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl, who fractured his right ankle in a crash in Sepang, has been declared fit to ride in FP1 tomorrow morning. He will however will be reassessed after the session. Yesterday, a group of riders including Tech3’s Bradley Smith, GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Bryan Staring, PBM’s Damian Cudlin and Michael Laverty, Pol Espargaro, QMMF Racing Team’s Anthony West, as well as Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Arthur Sissis, met some of the stars of Melbourne Heart FC at the AAMI Park in the city for a quick training session. Players Patrick Kisnorbo and Iain Ramsay shared some of their on-field wisdom with the riders clad in Heart FC shirts, before being handed a chequered flag of their own to mark the occasion. |     |
| — Marquez in contention for title as Philip Island beckons Despite missing out on the win last time out in Malaysia, Repsol Honda Team rookie Marc Marquez has a mathematical chance of winning the World Championship at this weekend’s Tissot Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island if he beats Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo by sufficient points to go into the last two races with a 50-point margin. Marquez now holds a 43-point lead heading into the race, meaning that a win could get him the title should Lorenzo not finish second – which would be the first time a rookie has taken the championship in 35 years since Kenny Roberts in 1978. However this might be tricky with the form Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa is in, following his dominant win in Sepang last time out. Pedrosa is not out of the title chase yet, but knows that only wins will suffice to keep his chances alive. Yamaha duo Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi will hope that the notoriously colder conditions at the track will suit their M1s better, with both not quite competitive enough in Sepang. Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow will aim to take the fight to the front-runners once more, as a set-up error in Sepang left him with too much power in the early stages, spinning the rear tyre up too much in the bends and loosing traction. GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, who beat Crutchlow last time out, will aim for a repeat or better, whilst many will be awaiting whether LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl will be declared fit after fracturing his right ankle on the Saturday in Sepang. Tech3’s Bradley Smith had one of his best races to date in Malaysia, and will be aiming to take that rhythm to Australia, whilst the Ducati Team of Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden will look to close the gap to the Japanese manufacturers. Yonny Hernandez will continue to substitute for Ben Spies on the Ignite Pramac Ducati, with Damian Cudlin also maintaining the spot in the PBM team. Luca Scassa remains the replacement for the inured Karel Abraham. All three will be once again looking to get past Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro, who remains the dominant force in the CRT category. World Championship Standings MotoGP™ — Moto2 The Moto2™ class looks set to provide a thriller of a race as the grid heads to the second of the triple-header in Phillip Island for the Tissot Australian Grand Prix with the front-runners separated by only nine points. Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding had a race to forget last time out in Sepang, with his lead cut significantly by Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaro, who now lies a strong second with 75 points still to collect. The race however, does not appear to be between only two any more, as Espargaro’s teammate Esteve Rabat lies only 28 points off Redding, and took a dominant win in Sepang. The entire field looks strong, with the likes of Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing’s Tom Luthi, Came IodaRacing Project’s Johann Zarco, and Technomag carXpert’s Dominique Aegerter putting in great showings in Malaysia. However, there will be many eyes peeled on whether local talent Anthony West on his QMMF Racing Team machine will be able to repeat his podium from last year. Alex Mariñelarena continues to substitute for Dani Rivas in the Blusens Avintia team, whilst Mike di Meglio’s replacement in the JiR Moto2 team will be Japanese rider Kohta Nozane. World Championship Standings Moto2™ — Moto3 Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Luis Salom is the man to catch once again as the Moto3™ contingent heads south to contest the Tissot Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, with the Mallorcan having extended his lead at the top of the championship with a hard-fought win last time out in Malaysia. He now holds a 14-point lead from nearest rival, Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins, whom he narrowly beat in Sepang. Yet Rins is right on his heels and looking to claw back points to improve his championship aspirations. One rider looking for an increase in performance is Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales, who struggled somewhat in the Malaysian heat, despite not being far off the leading pace. Caretta Technology – RTG’s Jack Miller and Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Arthur Sissis will be doing their upmost to impress their home crowd, with Sissis getting a podium at the circuit last year. However this year it is Miller who is the rider on form, and will no doubt be aiming to stop the Spanish dominance. They will be joined by two local wildcards in the form of Lachlan Kevney with the Bullet Racing team, as well as Callum Barker from Barker – McVey Racing. World Championship Standings Moto3™ |
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| — MotoGP – Round 16 – Phillip Island — Aussie watch: quick quintet under the microscope Across the three classes at this weekend’s Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix there will be almost 100 starters – and five of the full-time World Championship riders will be racing on home soil. King Casey may not be racing, but there are still Aussies looking for home support in each of the three categories on view, Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP itself. The numbers home fans are looking for are 50 – 67 – 95 – 8 – 61. The first two belong to our two representatives in the elite MotoGP field, Damian Cudlin and Bryan Staring. Both are Johnny-come-Latelies in this high-class company: West Australian Staring got the call just before this season started to sign up with Fausto Gresini’s squad, while Taree man Cudlin arrived even later: the race in Aragon, Spain, two weeks ago was his first of the year as he replaced Yonny Hernandez at Paul Bird Motorsport. It’s Cudlin who rides the #50 bike, a home-grown machine from the British-based Paul Bird Motorsport team. It’s a minor miracle that he is there at all: he crashed at Eastern Creek when he was 18 and was told he might never walk again. Runner-up in the World Endurance Championship last year, Cudlin spent a long apprenticeship in that category and further honed his skills in his adopted homeland of Germany. He was German Supersport champion in 2010, made his Moto2 debut in that year’s German Grand Prix, finishing seventh, and earned a MotoGP debut in Japan in 2011 as stand-in for the great Loris Capirossi on a Pramac Ducati. Now the 30-year-old has been released from IDM Superbike duties with RAC (Racing Against Cancer) BMW in order to accept the PBM offer to ride in all three long-haul races at season’s end. It hasn’t gone exactly to plan: early retirement in Aragon with gearbox trouble on debut for PBM was followed by a bizarre mishap in Malaysia last weekend when a ruptured exhaust left Cudlin with “a seat like a frying pan” and forced him out after seven laps. Staring, who rides the #67 bike, proudly has Australian national titles in 125cc, Supersport and Superbike racing on his CV, but the MotoGP learning-curve has proved unusually steep for the 26-year-old from Perth. “I’ll be going in wide-eyed,” he admitted when the news of his move to the Italian squad broke. Soon after, Staring’s debut turned sour when he retired after just one lap of the Qatar Grand Prix. “Gutted with my race last night. I still can’t believe it,” he said. “More tricks to MotoGP than what’s in the handbook.” Staring rides the CRT (Claiming Rules Teams) bike in the Gresini squad as opposed to the faster satellite Honda raced by teammate Alvaro Bautista. Development work and his own apprenticeship are tough. “If ever we have something new to try I guess that’s where things are slowed down,” says Staring, “as it’s only me doing the laps and I can only do so many laps in a 45-minute session to learn not only the best outcome in terms of that new part while all the time still trying to learn the circuit. “It’s just an absolutely enormous amount of information to take in over the four sessions before you race. I’ve only got two arms and two legs!” He’s only got two World Championship points as well, picked up when he made it to the end of a Catalunya race that eight other riders failed to finish. Will he be around the MotoGP scene in 2014? Already we have learned that Moto2 front-runner Scott Redding is moving to the Gresini squad: where that leaves the likeable Staring remains to be seen. The man on the #95 machine in the Moto2 class will be the most familiar of all to Phillip Island fans. It’s 15 years since Anthony West made his debut there as a 125cc wild card; his last race in Malaysia last weekend was the 200th of his Grand Prix career. That is a remarkable statistic for two reasons: West has struggled year in, year out to find the machinery and the financial backing to prolong his career. And he is only the second Australian to pass the 200-race milestone, the other being the great Jack Findlay, winner of three premier-class Grands Prix in a 20-year career through the 1960’s and 1970’s. Just once has Queenslander West stood on the top step of a World Championship podium, and that was at a wet Assen in the Netherlands a whole decade ago. That success cemented West’s enduring ‘Rain Man’ nickname. “I’ve always liked big bikes because you can slide them around and use the rear wheel like in dirt track racing,” he said. “That’s my style, and that’s why I can go fast in the rain.” Rescued from relative oblivion by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation last year, West surprised everyone, himself included, with second place at Phillip Island. A repeat might be too much to hope for – he hasn’t finished higher than seventh this year – but with Ant West it won’t be for want of trying. He has just scored points for the seventh time this year with 13th in that 200th milestone Grand Prix in Malaysia. Australia’s last two hopefuls race in the Moto3 class. The #8 Caretta Technology – Racing Team Germany FTR Honda belongs to another Queenslander, Jack Miller. He likes to call himself ‘Aussie Jack’ and is in his second full season in the class. Miller has exceeded expectations this season with no fewer than 11 points-scoring finishes, putting him seventh overall in the Moto3 standings. Malaysia last weekend saw him storm through to the top six in the closing stages and he now stands seventh overall on 89 points. Whatever else happens this year, Miller’s future is secure: he has already been signed by the top squad in the category, Aki Ajo’s Red Bull KTM team. “We are very happy to have signed Jack Miller to ride for us next season,” said the man who has guided names like Mike di Meglio, Sandro Cortese and current MotoGP sensation Marc Marquez to world titles. “I think that everyone has seen that he is one of the biggest talents for the future in the World Championship.” Where does Miller’s arrival leave current Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Arthur Sissis? The Adelaide youngster rides the #61 bike for that squad this season and must hope for a string of strong results between now and the last race in Valencia to cement his own place. Malaysia didn’t provide one: Sissis qualified poorly and finished 19th. He too produced a surprise podium finish at the Island last year in third place but Indianapolis brought his only top-six result of 2013 so far and he is four places below his compatriot in the overall standings on 59 points. All to play for, then, among the Aussie quintet: Staring and Cudlin seeking to secure a place at the elite level, West keen to build on his 200-race foundation, and teenagers Miller and Sissis desperate to make their own way to the top. Come on Aussie! |     |
| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 15 – Sepang — Pedrosa victorious as Lorenzo and Marquez battle in hot Malaysia Dani Pedrosa has won the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle GP, collecting his third victory of the 2013 MotoGP™ season. Marc Marquez completed a Repsol Honda Team one-two after a nail-biting battle with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo, as the reigning World Champion rounded out the podium. With four races to go in 2013, Sepang marked the first event of a triple-header which next weekend takes the MotoGP™ fraternity to Australia, before racing in Japan on the final weekend of the month. Saturday saw Marquez storm to a fourth consecutive pole position as the newcomer attempted to edge ever closer to an historic title win. Pedrosa’s victory came as his first for almost five months, having not stood atop the podium since Le Mans in mid-May. He narrowly missed out on taking the lead as Lorenzo swept through at the start, but overhauled the Mallorcan at the end of the first lap. As Lorenzo became involved in an intense battle with Marquez, who finally made the move stick at Turn 14 with just over 11 laps to go, Pedrosa extended his advantage to pick up a second successive victory on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. The result means all three of the rostrum finishers retain mathematical possibilities of clinching the World Championship, although Marquez is the only rider who could claim the title at Phillip Island next weekend. Should he do so, the 20-year-old Catalan would become the first rookie premier class title winner for 35 years. Outside of the top three at Sepang, multiple winner Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory Racing) experienced a somewhat lonely ride to fourth spot as Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) came out on top in a battle with Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech3); the Spaniard now moves up to sixth place in the Riders’ Championship, ahead of LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl who was forced to miss the race because of a broken ankle. Tech3’s Bradl Smith and Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso were seventh and eighth, ahead of lead CRT runner Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar) and Yonny Hernandez (Ignite Pramac Racing). In 15th spot, NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards clinched the final point after he, Avintia Blusens’ Hector Barbera and PBM’s Michael Laverty were handed ride-through penalties for jumping the start. A total of five riders failed to finish, including 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden who parked his Ducati Team machine on the start/finish straight after suffering technical problems. Round 16 of 18, the Tissot Australian Grand Prix, will take place next weekend as Marc Marquez attempts to become the youngest ever MotoGP™ World Champion. — MotoGP™ Race Classification – Round 15 — Championship standings — Moto2™ Tito Rabat has completed a dominant weekend in the Moto2™ Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle GP, topping every session before winning a shortened race. Pol Espargaro finished second with championship leader Scott Redding seventh, meaning the Englishman’s points advantage decreases from twenty points to nine. Originally scheduled to be a 19-lap encounter, the race distance was shortened to 12 tours following a delay after a multiple collision on the opening lap. After the initial incident for Axel Pons (Tuenti HP 40), Fadli Immammuddin (JIR Moto2) collected the stranded bike before Ezequiel Iturrioz (Blusens Avintia), Zaqhwan Zaidi (Technomag carXpert) and Decha Kraisart (Singha Eneos Yamaha Tech 3) also became involved. Thankfully, all riders escaped major injury. At the restart, Espargaro took advantage by clinching the lead, only for Rabat to slide back ahead and remain in front for the rest of the race. His third victory of the season moves him to within 28 points of the championship leader with a maximum of 75 still on offer across the final trio of Grand Prix. After overhauling Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing’s Luthi at the start of the penultimate tour, Espargaro clinched second place to reduce Redding’s championship lead yet further. Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) lost another point when Johann Zarco (Came IodaRacing Project) slipstreamed his way into sixth place on the finish line, while fourth and fifth positions were filled by Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio and Technomag carXpert’s Dominique Aegerter, who at the restart appeared to have triggered an incident which took both Alex de Angelis (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) and Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team) out of the race. Reigning Moto3™ World Champion Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) fell at the final corner following a battle with Danny Kent (Tech3) who finished 12th, while Anthony West was 13th for QMMF Racing Team to pick up points in his 200th World Championship start. Three races remain in the 2013 season, starting with the Tissot Australian Grand Prix from Phillip Island next weekend. Moto2™ Race Classification CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS: 1 REDDING 224, 2 ESPARGARO 215, 3 RABAT 196, 4 KALLIO 156, 5 NAKAGAMI 138, 6 AEGERTER 133, 7 ZARCO 123, 8 LUTHI 110, 9 TEROL 108, 10 TORRES 90, 11 CORSI 79, 12 SIMEON 71, 13 SIMON 63, 14 DE ANGELIS 46, 15 PASINI 42. — Moto3™ Luis Salom has extended his Moto3™ championship lead by coming out on top of a multiple-rider battle in Malaysia. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider beat Alex Rins by just 69 thousands of a second, with Miguel Oliveira completing the podium. After 18 circulations of the Sepang International Circuit, the lead had changed almost by the lap, with a dramatic race always a prospect after a shaking up of the usual order in Saturday’s qualifying session. Salom started from pole position, with Ongetta-Rivacold’s Alexis Masbou and GO&FUN Gresini Moto3’s Niccolo Antonelli sharing the front row. Masbou would take the lead as the race began, but by the time the final lap arrived the Frenchman had fallen to seventh while a six-rider group battled for the positions at the sharp end of the race. Leading into the final lap, Salom would lose his advantage to Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Rins but had critically retaken the advantage as the pack headed down the back straight for the final time. Rins attacked at the final corner, but was narrowly deprived of a hat-trick of consecutive victories. In third place, Miguel Oliveira and Mahindra Racing collected their first podium finish of the 2013 campaign, while the top five was completed by Rins’ teammate Alex Marquez and Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales (both of whom had taken turns in the lead), with Jack Miller sixth for Caretta Technology – RTG, but only one second behind the winner. The aforementioned Masbou ended his day in seventh spot, ahead of Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Jonas Folger who had topped the Warm-Up session, while Team Calvo’s Ana Carrasco was delighted to score her first World Championship point courtesy of 15th position. However, there was immense disappointment for Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin, unable to race in his home Grand Prix and in which he finished a close second last year, as he suffered pain from the wrist injury he sustained last time out in Aragón. Eight riders failed to finish, including front row starter Antonelli and CIP Moto3’s Alan Techer who was taken to the Medical Centre after suffering a fracture to his left kneecap. Salom’s victory raises his points total to 284 with three races remaining, leading Rins by 14 points with a maximum of 75 still on off. Viñales sites third on 258 points, 26 in arrears of Salom ahead of next weekend’s Tissot Australian Grand Prix. Moto3™ Race Classification CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS: 1 SALOM 284, 2 RINS 270, 3 VIÑALES 258, 4 MARQUEZ 162, 5 FOLGER 137, 6 OLIVEIRA 131, 7 MILLER 89, 8 MASBOU 78, 9 VAZQUEZ 62, 10 KHAIRUDDIN 60, 11 KORNFEIL 59, 12 SISSIS 59, 13 BINDER 55, 14 FENATI 55, 15 AJO 47. — HRC Report Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) shrugged off lingering pain from his recent Aragon crash to score a convincing victory in today’s Malaysian GP, run in gruelling tropical heat. The former 250 and 125 World Champion was followed home by team-mate Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V), who once again increased his World Championship lead over Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) who finished third today. Pedrosa – who also won here last year – finished the race 2.7 seconds ahead of Marquez to record his third victory of the season. The result gave the Repsol Honda team its fifth one-two finish of the season, following similarly impressive performances at Austin, Jerez, Indianapolis and Brno. The result increases Honda’s lead in the constructors’ title race and Repsol Honda’s lead in the team championship. Starting from the second row of the grid, Pedrosa grabbed the lead from Lorenzo on lap five and was soon clear of the entertaining battle that raged behind him, with Lorenzo and pole-sitter Marquez swapping positions time and again before half distance. At one point the Yamaha rider made contact with the reigning Moto2 World Champion – who had set a new lap record on lap two – but their fight continued unabated until Marquez went inside his rival at Turn 14 on the ninth lap. From that moment on, Marquez had only the brilliant Pedrosa ahead, but he had lost too much time fighting back and forth with Lorenzo and soon realised that chasing his team-mate would entail taking too many risks. He knew full well that all he really needed to do was increase his points advantage over the reigning champ, which he duly did. With 15 rounds gone and three to go, the remarkable 20-year-old rookie leads Lorenzo by 43 points. If he does go on to win the title, he will be the youngest crowned king of the elite class in the 65 year history of the sport. After his third win of the season, Pedrosa sits just 11 points behind Lorenzo. Without the Aragon crash – which wasn’t his fault – he would still be very much in contention for the World Championship. Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V) enjoyed a thrilling duel for fifth place with Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha), which went his way in the final few laps. In the early stages he had run with the lead group, but after running wide he lost touch and that allowed Crutchlow to catch and pass him. However, Bautista had the speed when it mattered most. Australian rookie Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) finished 18th, three places out of the points, and is looking forward to going to Phillip Island, a track he knows well. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) missed today’s race after what should have been an uncomplicated low-side crash during yesterday’s final practice session. The German lost the front into Turn One and caught his right foot on some trackside carpet, which fractured the ankle. He underwent surgery in Kuala Lumpur last night and has yet to decide whether he will be able to race at Phillip Island next weekend. Esteve Rabat (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex) stormed to a brilliant win in the Honda-powered Moto2 race to strengthen his outside challenge for the World Championship. The Spaniard started from pole position and quickly made the shortened race – which had been stopped and restarted after a lap one pile-up – all his own. During the 12 laps no one got close to Rabat – who last won a race at Indy in August – and he took the chequered flag 1.5 seconds ahead of team-mate Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP40 Pons Kalex) who won a tense duel for second place with Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Suter). Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) came through to fourth at the finish after getting the better of Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert Suter) in the closing stages. The Finn was just 0.6 seconds off the podium. World Championship leader Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) had another difficult weekend, qualifying on the fourth row and finishing in seventh place after Johann Zarco (Came Ioda Racing Project Suter) had passed him at the final corner. It might have been a different story without the first-lap accident. Redding had made a stunning start from row four to take fourth place at only the second corner, only for the red flags to come out moments later. He was unable to repeat the feat in the restart. With three races remaining, the Briton leads Espargaro by nine points. None of the five riders involved in the pile-up was seriously hurt. Jack Miller (Caretta Technology – RTG FTR Honda) rode a heroic Moto3 race, fighting his way into the lead pack to cross the line just one second behind race winner and series leader Luis Salom (KTM). Miller spent the last few laps in the thick of the lead group of six riders and passed two of them on the final lap, but he didn’t quite have the speed to hold them off and so finished the race in sixth spot. It was another impressive display from the Australian teenager who now travels to Phillip Island for his home race. Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda) also ran with the leaders in the early stages. After qualifying brilliantly to put himself on the front row, he led the charge away from the grid, then used his impressive late braking and corner speed to stay with the frontrunners. However, from mid-race he was troubled by vision problems – possibly the result of an old injury – and although he tried to keep pushing he had to ease his pace slightly and dropped back to lead the second group over the finish line in seventh place. Romano Fenati (San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda) enjoyed a stirring ride through the pack, from 19th at the end of the first lap all the way to ninth, just over a second behind Masbou. Isaac Vinales (Bimbo Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) was the final Honda rider in the points, the Spaniard finishing 14th. Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini FTR Honda) was running in the top ten after qualifying on the front row of the grid, only to tumble shortly before half-distance. The MotoGP paddock now continues its eastern tour, immediately heading south to Phillip Island for next Sunday’s Australian GP. The quick-fire action continues with the Japanese GP on October 27, before the circus returns to Europe for the Valencia GP season finale in Spain on November 10. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: race winner – “I am very happy with this win, as it is very special. My level of riding today was very good and the victory comes after a difficult week in which I was laid up in bed and could hardly move. To come here and win is fantastic, so thanks to all my team! It is a pity about what happened in Aragón, because we had the pace and the same chance of the win as we did here. However, we can’t keep looking back; we need to continue on and try to carry our form into the final races.” Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: 2nd – “These twenty points are very important and I’m really happy with how the race went today. I had a nice, fun battle with Lorenzo, but at the same time I could see that Dani was opening up a gap. When I finally managed to overtake Jorge and make the pass stick, I tried to reduce the distance that Dani had put between us. However, I saw that it was too risky to do so. From that moment on, I decided to focus on keeping Lorenzo at bay, because the goal here was to finish the race ahead of him. We did what we came here to do, so we are very happy!” Alvaro Bautista, Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 5th – “I made a good start and that allowed me to get away with the front group for a few laps but then I had a moment when I couldn’t get the front brake lever fully on and I ran wide. It took me a couple of laps to get confident with the brakes again and I lost touch. Maybe in the battle with Valentino I overheated the brakes. It was a shame but I fought my way back to Crutchlow and then gritted my teeth to beat him in a fight to the end. Another important top-five finish for me, the team, who have done a great job again, and the sponsors.” Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 18th – “The race went pretty much the same as the rest of the weekend here and unfortunately we just haven’t been competitive enough. We have struggled to get confident here and the only real consolation is that next week we go to my home race at Phillip Island, a circuit where I have won many races in the past.” Moto2 rider quotes Esteve Rabat, Tuenti HP 40 Pons: race winner – “It was a very difficult race – so hot! I got a good start and pushed from the beginning, then came the crash and the red flags. In the restart my tyres felt good so I could push immediately. But I made a mistake – for 12 laps I thought a water bottle wasn’t necessary – but it was! Also, I had some front and rear chatter, especially at turns five and six, where I lost time compared to yesterday. But I kept my head. I’m very happy with this result, so my congratulations to the team. Now we go to Australia and try to do the same. The title is not impossible – I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.” Pol Espargaro, Tuenti HP40 Pons: 2nd – “I’m happy, especially because the weekend didn’t start so well for us. I had a very bad FP1, then FP2 was even worse – I didn’t have a good feeling with the bike. Yesterday we tried something completely different and tried a very different setting to give me more grip. We think this setting may also help us at other tracks. I was so fast in qualifying, which helped me relax more for the race, but I wasn’t so good with a full tank and new tyre. I think the restart helped me a lot. I pushed at the end but it was impossible to catch Tito [Rabat].” Thomas Luthi, Interwetten Paddock: 3rd – “I had some rear-grip problems at the end, so I think the shorter race helped me. Tito had such a good pace, so I overtook Pol as quickly as I could and tried to stay close to Tito, but it was impossible. Then my rear tyre went down and I lost a lot of traction out of the corners, which is why I was put back into third place. Overall, a good weekend though, and I had a lot of fun here.” Honda Moto3 Rider quotes Jack Miller, Caretta Technology – RTG: 6th – “It was good, but a shame about the end, after I’d passed a couple of them on that last lap. It’s been good this weekend. We had the suspension dialled in great – after 18 laps in this heat the bike was still working well, so the team have done a fantastic job. We were sixth but we should be proud because we were only one second off the win – that’s our best-ever gap to the winner. And it’s great to get this result leading into Australia.” Alexis Masbou, Ongetta-Rivacold: 7th – “It was good – hard work! This time the bike was very good – in the first laps it was so easy to stay with the KTMs and the lead group. We geared the bike shorter for the race, so it was a little difficult at the end of the straight, but in braking and through the corners I could stay with them easy. Then mid-race I started to have problems – I couldn’t see very well – maybe something to do with an old injury. That made it difficult to stay with the group. I tried again, but I was destroyed, so after that it was just trying to finish.” Romano Fenati, San Carlo Team Italia: 9th – “After warm-up the bike was very good. During the race I had to fight through traffic which lost me a bit of time, so I couldn’t quite catch [Jonas] Folger. Now I go to Australia with high morale because with the team has improved the base set-up which is important. Improving our pace in qualifying remains the priority.” — Yamaha Report Defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo battled hard during the early stages of today’s Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix to take third on the podium. Starting from fourth on the grid, the Yamaha Factory Racing rider was yet again off the start line like a bullet and the first rider through turn one in the lead. With both Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez snapping at his heels he put his head down and tried to break away. With 16 laps to go, Pedrosa made his move at the end of the back straight, taking the lead. Marquez then moved up into third and began an epic battle with Lorenzo, the two swapping positions multiple times and passing within millimetres of each other at speeds of over 190km per hour. With 11 laps to go Marquez was able to make his final pass tick on the inside of turn 14, leaving Lorenzo to hold third to the line and claim third on the podium. Teammate Valentino Rossi dropped initially to fourth off the line from his second place grid position, tucked in behind Marquez on the first lap. The nine-time world champion made a move on Marquez at turn 10 but was unable to pass and settled back into fourth. Rossi spent several laps holding off the advances of Alvaro Bautista, narrowly escaping an incident when the Spanish rider overshot turn one, just missing Rossi as he ran wide. The rest of the race proved to be a lonely one as he held his position in fourth, crossing the line just over ten seconds behind the leader. The results from the first of the overseas triple header sees Lorenzo hold second in the championship, now on 255 points, Rossi holds fourth on 198 points. The team now moves directly to Australia for the next round at the Phillip Island circuit next weekend. Jorge Lorenzo – 3rd / +6.669 / 20 laps Valentino Rossi – 4th / +10.351 / 20 laps Yamaha Factory Racing Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager – “Well, it was a very hot race, especially at the beginning, Jorge made an amazing start again. I think he gave everything he had to fight with Marc but finally it was not enough and he had to let them go for third place. Podiums are always good and sometimes there are races you cannot win, this was one of those.” Yamaha Factory Racing Massimo Meregalli – Team Director – “The weekend didn’t go as we expected. We suffered a drop off in tyre life and we couldn’t ride the bikes as we needed to. We tried hard to make the best setting to be fast and consistent but unfortunately we still needed something more. We won’t give up until the end and fortunately there is one race in a week’s time. We would like to have our revenge so we are really looking forward to Phillip Island.” Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith battled hard in baking hot conditions to claim sixth and seventh respectively in front of a record crowd of over 84,000 fans packed into the Sepang International Circuit. Temperatures still hit over 30 degrees, despite heavy cloud cover and a strong wind blowing around the vast Malaysian motorsport arena, when Crutchlow and Smith engaged in an early battle at the start of the physically challenging 20-lap encounter. A brilliant start from rookie Smith moved him ahead of his compatriot on the opening lap before Crutchlow moved back into the top six. From that early juncture, former World Supersport Champion Crutchlow was caught in a long and tough battle with Spaniard Alvaro Bautista, which went right down to the chequered flag. Crutchlow and Bautista exchanged several overtakes in an exciting battle but the 27-year-old missed out on his first top five finish since the Indianapolis round in August by just 0.152s. Today’s result though consolidated Crutchlow’s position as the leading non-factory rider in the World Championship rankings on 166-points, which keeps him 30 points clear of Bautista with just three races remaining. Smith strengthened his quest for a top 10 overall finish in the Championship standings after he rode to a lonely but very valuable seventh position. The platform for his 10th top 10 finish of the campaign was a terrific launch off the line that put him right on the back of the leading group in the opening exchanges. Unable to keep himself in the hunt for a third top six finish, Smith kept razor sharp concentration in the extreme heat to streak away from those behind with relative ease and his fastest lap of the race was only just over 0.7s behind Crutchlow’s. The nine-points collected this afternoon could prove vital in the chase for 10th in the final standings, with the 22-year-old now six points clear of main challenger Aleix Espargaro. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team has little time to catch its breath now, with the squad heading off to Australia for the second of a gruelling flyaway triple-header that concludes in Japan on October 27. Cal Crutchlow – 6th – 166 points – “It was a difficult race and I am very pleased to be in the top six, though it would have been better to have won that fight with Alvaro. That’s about my level at the moment and we knew this is not an easy track for Yamaha. I lost quite a bit of time fighting with Alvaro because I was looking to push on and maybe chase Valentino. But at the start I couldn’t stop the bike with the soft front tyre and I had a few moments. And I was also struggling with a lack of rear grip and that made it quite a difficult race. It was a good battle with Alvaro and it was a pity he just beat me but at the of end of the day he is on a package very close to the one that won the race today. I’m still satisfied with sixth but I am not so happy with the gap to Dani at the front. I am confident though we will be stronger at Phillip Island.” Bradley Smith – 7th – 89 points – “To be honest today was a good way to end a very positive weekend. During the last three days we improved in every single session, we made progress with the setting of the bike and me finishing in 7th position is obviously a pleasant fact for my Championship standing. Today the track conditions were very tricky and with the higher temperatures the behavior of the bike was very different to what I experienced during the whole weekend and it took me awhile to adjust my riding style. But my second half of the race was quite strong and I am pleased with this. Furthermore we improved my feeling on full fuel load where I normally struggled a lot and also finishing the race still seeing Cal and Alvaro was a very positive feeling. So altogether I’m truly satisfied with this event and I will fly to Australia full of confidence and looking forward to the race next week.” — Ducati Report The Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle GP, round fifteen of the MotoGP World Championship, was short on satisfaction for the Ducati Team. Andrea Dovizioso started from eighth place on the grid and at the end of the 20-lap race, he was in the same position. Following a good start, the Italian went wide in Turn 14 on the third lap, forcing him to mount a difficult charge to make up lost positions. With teammate Nicky Hayden and fellow Ducati rider Andrea Iannone both dropping out, Dovizioso was able to take the chequered flag in eighth place. Despite starting from the fourth row, Hayden did well in the early going and had climbed to eighth place by the third lap. Unfortunately, his bike suffered an engine problem at the end of lap eight, forcing him to retire. The engine will be sent back to the factory in Bologna to be analysed by the Corse technicians. The MotoGP teams now head straight to Phillip Island in Australia, where the second leg of this overseas tripleheader will take place in one week’s time. Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 8th – “I had a good start and was trying to stay with Smith, but I was very close to the limit and made a small mistake in Turn 14, where I closed the front. I went off-track and lost nearly ten seconds. Then it took at least seven corners for the normal grip on the right side of the tyre to come back, and I’m not sure why. We can’t be happy because our lap times were pretty disappointing. At the moment, it’s very hard for us; the other bikes have different characteristics and we aren’t able to close on them.” Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, DNF – “It’s a real shame because yesterday before FP4, the team made a good step with the bike. I didn’t ride well in qualifying, but this morning I was able to go faster than I had all weekend and had a pretty decent pace. In the race, I started eleventh but was able to move up a few spots and was having the best race I’ve had in a while. I was pulling away from Dovi pretty well and had just closed onto the back of Bradley. He was a little faster than I was in a few places, but I was better in some other spots. Just as I tipped it into the last corner, I heard a strange noise. I was hoping it was something on his bike, but when I opened the gas it was clear it was me. We need to let the engineers check out the engine to see what the problem was. It’s just a shame for me and the team to start the three-week trip this way.” Paolo Ciabatti – Ducati MotoGP Project Director – “We’ve already sent Nicky’s engine to Bologna to be checked by the racing department, so we should soon know the real cause of the problem that occurred in the race. It’s a shame because Hayden had done a good warm-up session and was also having a good race, fighting with Smith. As for Andrea, he made a small mistake in the early laps and unfortunately, he immediately lost touch with Hayden, Iannone and Smith, forcing him to work his way back up. Once again, we don’t get much satisfaction from this race in Malaysia.” — PBM Report For the second Grand Prix in succession, it was a case of what might have been for the Penrith-based PBM MotoGP Team as both Michael Laverty and Damian Cudlin left round 15 of the MotoGP World Championship at Sepang empty handed. In a virtual repeat scenario of two weeks ago at Aragon, Ulsterman Laverty crashed out aboard the CRT-specification Aprilia ART and Australian Cudlin retired the PBM-chassised Aprilia with a technical problem on his second ride for the team. Laverty, from Toome in County Antrim, on the Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored Aprilia ART for the second meeting, was continuing his progress aboard the machine and inside the top 20 for most of Free Practice at the Malaysian track, eventually qualifying on row seven in 19th place. Meanwhile German-based Cudlin spent more time getting used to the unique Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored PBM machine and qualified in 24th place on row eight. In the race, both Laverty and Cudlin got good starts and ran strongly for the opening laps but for Michael, he was deemed to have been one of three riders who jumped the start and was penalised with a ride through penalty. What made it worse for the former British Supersport champion was that he was up to 15th place when he had to enter the pits for the penalty. Cudlin was inside the top 20 when he retired on lap seven with a technical problem and the team’s day was compounded when Laverty crashed out at the final hairpin on unlucky lap 13 when pushing to make up the time lost in the pits. Despite not scoring points since round three at Jerez, Laverty remains in 24th overall in the MotoGP World Championship standings in his debut season. In the Claiming Rules Teams (CRT) class, Laverty is in tenth whereas PBM occupy eighth in the Constructors Championship and 12th in the Teams Championship in their debut season with their brand new British-built machine. Michael Laverty: “Things didn’t quite go my way on race day here at Sepang. Hector Barbera jumped the start in front of me, and I instinctively dropped the clutch and jerked forward. Unfortunately any movement before the lights is deemed a jump start. I was up to 15th position but the ride through penalty ruined any chance of scoring points which we had the pace to do today. I then had a small crash pushing hard trying to catch the guys in front. Hopefully a bit of luck comes our way next weekend in Phillip Island.” Damian Cudlin: “Bad luck struck again which was a real pity. Before the exhaust ruptured I’d moved forward in the race and was enjoying a scrap with Staring and Scassa, but eventually the seat unit turned into a frying pan and I couldn’t sit on it any longer, I think I’ll need some Aloe Vera lotion for my butt tonight! Despite another setback, I feel we made progress here this weekend and I’m really enjoying riding for the PBM Team. Hopefully luck will finally swing our way at Phillip Island next week.” Phil Borley, Technical Director: “After a double DNF at the last race, I didn’t think things could get any worse, but in Sepang it certainly didn’t get any better either! Michael got caught out with another rider’s jump start and after serving a ride through penalty he suffered a crash later in the race, so not a good afternoon. Damian was having a strong race but suffered a failure of a new performance upgrade component, which resulted in excessive heat being transferred to the seat unit, making it impossible to continue. Although we were aware of the fragility of this component, we deemed the performance gain was worth the risk but have learned the hard way to be more cautious in the future. On the positive side, both the bike setting and Damian’s feeling with the bike and tyres is improving and as he has previous race experience at the next two circuits we are hopeful of achieving some good results.” — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium & Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium (Symmetric) & Hard (Asymmetric) Dani Pedrosa overcame his heartbreak from the last round at Aragon as the Repsol Honda rider dominated today’s race at Sepang International Circuit to win his second successive Malaysian Grand Prix. Pedrosa made a fantastic start from fifth on the grid to and to slot into second place behind Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo at the first corner. On the fifth lap, Pedrosa squeezed past Lorenzo and then led all the way to the chequered flag. In second place was Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, the championship leader also getting past Lorenzo who rounded out the podium in third position. Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro was once again the best of the CRT riders, taking ninth place in Malaysia. Conditions for on race day were dry and the warmest of the entire race weekend with a peak track temperature of 46°C recorded at the start of the race. The warmer conditions didn’t have an effect on tyre choice, with riders choosing the same tyre combinations used during practice and qualifying. All but two riders on the grid selected the harder rear slick option, while only five of the twenty-three starters chose the harder front slick. Despite the hot conditions, the performance of all the slick compounds used in the race was consistent, with Marquez setting a new Circuit Record Lap of 2’01.415, and the overall race time was eighteen seconds quicker than the existing record. With three rounds remaining, Marquez extends his points lead over Jorge Lorenzo to forty-three points, while Pedrosa’s third victory of the season sees him remain third overall, though he reduces the gap to Lorenzo to eleven points. Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department – “Today we saw a wonderful performance from Dani to score his second straight Malaysian Grand Prix, so congratulations to him and the Repsol Honda team. There was great racing throughout the field today, particularly in the early stages of the contest and I am sure the sell-out crowd of 84,250 enjoyed the show put on by the riders today. The crowds for the Malaysian Grand Prix keep growing and after today’s spectacle, I have no doubt interest in this series will continue to grow in this region. We now head straight to Phillip Island for the second of the three back-to-back fly away rounds as the championship heads towards an exciting conclusion.” Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department – “Tyre performance today in the warmer conditions was very good with a new race lap and overall race time record being set and feedback from the riders indicates that tyre degradation over the race distance was predictable. Although track temperatures were warmer today, they weren’t at a level where it resulted in riders deviating from the tyre choices they made yesterday in practice and qualifying, with most riders preferring softer slick options front and rear. We had typically unsettled conditions here at Sepang, but our tyre allocation for the weekend was up to the task, and we now look forward to Phillip Island which is the most demanding race on our tyres.“ Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda – Race Winner – “It was a great feeling to come back and win this race, especially as it is quite hard physically. I didn’t have the best weekend early on, but I managed to come back strong today and get the win. At the last race I also felt I had the pace to win but unfortunately I crashed, but after today’s performance I’d like to thank my team, my fans and my family for their support.” — Qualifying – Marquez takes Sepang Pole Position ahead of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow Marc Marquez will start from a fourth consecutive MotoGP™ pole position for the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Multiple Sepang winner Valentino Rossi lines up second from Britain’s Cal Crutchlow, with title contenders Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa on the second row of the grid. Having crashed out in dramatic fashion at MotorLand Aragón, it was Pedrosa who topped the first three practice sessions at the Sepang International Circuit. However, when it came to qualifying, the 2012 race winner was unable to muster anything other than fifth place, six tenths of a second down on Marquez’s 2’00.011 pole which breaks Casey Stoner’s record of six years ago. This marks Marquez’s eighth pole of 2013, his fourth in succession and fifth from the latest six race events. Rain had hit just before Qualifying 2, yet had dried out in most places of the track for slicks to be a viable option. However, riders were initially cautious, with many avoiding near crashes at Turn 6, which was still damp. Only in their second runs were riders able to push closer to their true potential. In a repeat of the German GP front row, albeit with the second and third-placed riders reversed, Rossi and Crutchlow will start second and third for their respective Yamaha Factory Racing and Monster Yamaha Tech3 outfits. In the case of the nine-time World Champion, he provisionally held pole position after enjoying a slipstream from Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso down the back straight, whereas Crutchlow celebrates a first front row start since his home race at Silverstone last month. Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing), who won his first MotoGP™ title at Sepang in 2010, will start fourth after missing out on pole by half a second. Behind the reigning World Champion, Marquez’s teammate Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) misses the front row despite his rapid pace throughout practice, while the championship contenders will be accompanied on Row 2 by Alvaro Bautista; incidentally, the GO&FUN Honda Gresini rider will rise to sixth in the riders’ standings if he finishes fifth or higher in the race, as LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl was put out of action after suffering a right ankle fracture through a crash in final practice. Row 3 will consist of Tech3’s Bradley Smith, equalling his second best MotoGP™ qualifying position of seventh from the aforementioned Dovizioso and leading CRT runner Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar), who passed through to the final shootout from Q1. Andrea Iannone rounds out the top ten for Energy T.I. Pramac Racing from Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden, whereas the absent Bradl qualified 12th but is now set to return to Barcelona for surgery. This promotes NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Colin Edwards to a fourth row position, with the grid completed by Damian Cudlin who contrary to initial plans races again with PBM this weekend. Heading into Sunday’s race, which begins at 4pm local time (GMT +8) and with rain expected by many, Marquez heads Lorenzo in the standings by 39 points. Pedrosa is third overall and 59 points off the lead, meaning he could be mathematically ruled out of title contention depending on the results of Sunday’s 15th round of the season. — MotoGP™ Qualifying Practice Classification — Moto2 Tito Rabat continued his domination of the Sepang weekend by clinching pole position for the Moto2™ Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Having locked out every session so far, the Spaniard retained the top spot, but both Tom Luthi and Pol Espargaro were less than one tenth of a second slower. Championship leader Scott Redding will start the race from tenth on the grid. Sublime all weekend, Rabat sealed his second pole (his first having come in Jerez) with a 2’07.063 lap time. As he and Tuenti HP 40 teammate Espargaro sandwich Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing’s Luthi into second place, Espargaro is seven positions in front of championship rival Redding, who once again struggle with traffic; however, Redding started 13th last time out in Aragón but was able to finish one position behind Espargaro. At present, the Englishman heads Espargaro by 20 points, with Rabat 44 behind the leader. Row 2 will be filled by Came Iodaracing Project’s Johann Zarco, Marc VDS Racing Team’s Mika Kallio and Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami, who re-joined the session after a crash at the final corner. Alex de Angelis will line up seventh for NGM Mobile Forward Racing from Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team) and Jordi Torres (Aspar Team Moto2). Joining Redding on Row 4 will be Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert) and Marcel Schrotter (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team). Moto2™ Qualifying Practice Classification — Moto3™ Moto3™ championship leader Luis Salom has clinched pole position for the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, his third of the season. Alexis Masbou and Niccolo Antonelli shone for front row places, while title contenders Alex Rins and Maverick Viñales qualified sixth and ninth, respectively. Having been seemingly off the pace at Sepang on Friday, Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo) sent out a warning to rivals by topping the final practice session on Saturday morning. He went on to clinch his first pole for almost four months courtesy of a leading lap time of 2’13.867. The Mallorcan now targets a first victory since Silverstone. The standout performers were arguably France’s Masbou and Italy’s Antonelli, riding FTR Hondas for their respective Ongetta-Rivacold and GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 outfits. Second place marks Masbou’s best ever World Championship qualifying result, while Antonelli’s first front row slot of the season equals a career best. Miguel Oliveira will start fourth for Mahindra Racing, ahead of Estrella Galicia 0,0 duo Alex Marquez and Alex Rins, with Rins having won the last two races and heading into this event only nine points behind championship leader and pole-sitter Salom. Caretta Technology – RTG’s Jack Miller and Mahindra’s Efren Vazquez will head Row 3 from Team Calvo’s Viñales. Viñales – who has demonstrated tremendous consistency so far this year – is currently third in the standings and only 12 points in arrears of Salom, but finds himself ninth on the grid after qualifying seven tenths of a second slower. The top ten was completed by Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3’s Jonas Folger, while local favourite Zulfahmi Khairuddin managed 14th for Red Bull KTM Ajo despite having undergone surgery only last week in order to assist a fractured right wrist. Also suffering a fractured right wrist, due to separate incidents in this morning’s respective final practice and qualifying sessions, were Kiefer Racing’s Florian Alt and La Fonte Tascaracing’s Alessandro Tonucci; as a result, neither will take any further part in the event. At the end of Qualifying, there was a crash for Ambrogio Racing’s Brad Binder who will start 23rd on the grid. Moto3™ Qualifying Practice Classification — HRC Report World Championship leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) scorched to his eighth pole position of the season at sweltering Sepang this afternoon. Qualifying was made somewhat treacherous when a rain shower dampened part of the circuit, causing many riders a frightening moment or two. However, the track was dry enough by the end of the 15 minute session for Marquez to increase his pace and establish a new qualifying record. This pole was his fourth in a row, following on from Silverstone, Misano and Aragon. The remarkable 20-year-old carries a 39 point advantage into tomorrow’s race which is arguably the toughest of the year due to the heat and high humidity that push riders, bikes and tyres to the limit. Team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) ended the outing in fifth place to start tomorrow’s race from the middle of the second row. The Spaniard, who is still experiencing pain from his highside crash at Aragon two weeks ago, topped free practice but when the rain came down before qualifying, he decided to take fewer risks than usual, rather than chance aggravating his injuries with another tumble. Winner here last year, the former 250 and 125 World Champion is taking painkilling pills to tackle the discomfort he has from his bruised right hip and left buttock. Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V) will start the race next to Pedrosa after qualifying sixth fastest. The Spaniard had been confident of a good qualifying session but he wasn’t able to fully evaluate a settings change during the final free practice session. That and the tricky conditions prevented him from reaching his own limit. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) was ruled out of tomorrow’s race when he slid off at Turn One during FP4, shortly before qualifying got underway. The German lost the front in what shouldn’t have been an injurious crash, then caught his right foot as he slid of the track and fractured the ankle. The former Moto2 World Champion will have the break fixed by specialists as soon as possible with the hope of riding in next weekend’s Australian GP. The injury is a real blow for the German who has been gathering momentum at recent races. He had ended free practice here a close fourth fastest. Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) put his CRT machine 22nd on the grid. The Australian isn’t happy with his pace and hopes he can find something extra for the race. Outside contender for the Moto2 World Championship Esteve Rabat (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex) took pole position in the hard-fought Honda-powered category, his first since May’s Spanish GP, which he won. The Spaniard ended the session a slender 0.018 seconds ahead of Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Suter). Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP40 Pons Kalex), who currently lies second in the title battle, took the final spot on the front row, 0.080 seconds behind Luthi, which means that the front row is covered by less than one tenth of a second. Johann Zarco (Came Ioda Racing Project Suter) was three tenths further back to lead row two in fourth place, just ahead of Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) and Takaaki Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex). The third row consists of Alex De Angelis ((NGM Mobile Forward Racing Speed Up), Xavier Simeon (Desguaces La Torre Maptaq Kalex) and Jordi Torres (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 Suter). World Championship leader Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) could do no better than tenth, 0.917 seconds off pole, due to rear-grip issues. Moto3 qualifying started on a damp track, which gave Alexis Masbou, (Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda), Romano Fenati (San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda) and Jack Miller (Caretta Technology – RTG FTR Honda) the chance to show their talent. At one point the Frenchman, Italian and Australian were first, second and third. Masbou kept up his impressive pace to end the session in second place, just over a tenth of a second behind World Championship leader Luis Salom (KTM). It was the Frenchman’s best grid position of the year and he thinks he can run at the front tomorrow, so long as he gets away with the lead group. Just as impressive was Italian teenager Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini FTR Honda) in third place, making it two Hondas on the front row. Miller ended the session in seventh place to lead the third row. The next Honda men were Fenati in 13th and Isaac Vinales (Bimbo Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) in 18th. Tomorrow’s Malaysian GP is the first of three consecutive races, with the Australian and Japanese GPs following over the next two Sundays. Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: pole position, 2m 00.011s Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 5th, 2m 00.692s Alvaro Bautista, Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 6th, 2m 00.974s Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: DNS Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 2m 06.038s Moto2 rider quotes Esteve Rabat, Tuenti HP 40 Pons: pole position, 2m 07.063s Thomas Luthi, Interwetten Paddock: 2nd, 2m 07.081s Pol Espargaro, Tuenti HP40 Pons: 3rd, 2m 07.161s Honda Moto3 Rider quotes Alexis Masbou, Ongetta-Rivacold: 2nd, 2m 13.985s Niccolo Antonelli, GO&FUN Gresini: 3rd, 2m 14.006s Jack Miller, Caretta Technology – RTG: 7th, 2m 14.436s — Yamaha Report Yamaha Factory Racing rider Valentino Rossi enjoyed his best qualifying heat of the season today scoring second on the grid for tomorrow’s Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. The 15-minute qualifying heat was one of the most complicated of the season with uncertain track conditions after a pre-session rain shower tested the rider skills to the limit. Having saved a big moment at turn six on his first lap, Rossi put his head down and set a 2’03.499 to take provisional pole position. A flurry of activity at the top followed and the nine-time champion came in to change to a fresh rear tyre in third position. As the last minutes counted down Rossi became a key protagonist in the battle for pole, delivering a scorching 2’00.336 lap to take provisional pole, a position he held for a few seconds before a final hot lap from rival Marc Marquez moved him to second, 0.325 seconds from pole. Defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo shared a similar experience to his teammate Rossi, having a big moment at turn six on his first lap. Like Rossi he was also able to save it and then returned to the pits to watch the session unfold and decide on a strategy. As the lap times began to tumble he came back out with six minutes remaining and immediately took provisional pole with a 2’00.792 second lap. He kept the pressure on, immediately dropping further with 2’00,578. A lack of trust in the treacherous track conditions held him back from attempting a perfect lap, his time good enough to take fourth on the grid on the second row, 0.567 seconds from pole. Valentino Rossi – 2nd / 2’00.336 / 7 laps – “I’m very happy about today, from this morning we really improved the bike. We worked hard with the team this weekend and I like the set up a lot, I can really push and have a good pace. Just before qualifying it started to rain and everything became more difficult. I expected it to be full dry but two or three corners were not, I had a big moment on the first lap and I was very happy to not crash, I have to say thank you to my Yamaha! After that I tried to push and I made a very good lap time, especially considering the conditions. Now we wait for tomorrow and I hope it will be dry because I think in the dry we are very competitive.” Jorge Lorenzo – 4th / 2’00.578 / 7 laps – “Today we improved the bike a lot and I feel much more comfortable than yesterday. I did a long run in free practice which went quite well. Then before qualifying we changed the bike a little and we were able to improve it further. The problem was in some corners, especially in turn six and turn seven as it was wet. On my second lap I almost crashed there so I didn’t trust the corners to be able to make a perfect lap.” Yamaha Factory Racing Wilco Zeelenberg – “It was an exciting qualifying, the rain before the practice was of course not ideal and Jorge found out directly on his first lap that it was wet in places. Luckily he didn’t crash and then he decided to come in. I think in the second stint he didn’t want to do that again so he tried to put the bike in the best possible position with a little bit of safety. Second row is a little disadvantage but with our starts I think we should be fine tomorrow, we’re feeling quite confident.” Yamaha Factory Racing Massimo Meregalli – “An unusual qualifying session, the rain came just five minutes before starting so the conditions were very tricky. Both Jorge and Vale almost crashed on their first tyres but were lucky. Starting from first and second row here is very important as always. We improved the bike a lot over today and now we are ready to start the race tomorrow. We have to see the weather forecast as unfortunately it looks like it’s going to be wet. We haven’t had any possibility to do any practice in the wet conditions so it’s going to be interesting tomorrow.” Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider Cal Crutchlow made a welcome return to the front row of the grid in Malaysia this afternoon, the British rider dodging rain showers throughout the second day at Sepang to finish third fastest in a dramatic conclusion to qualifying. Rain showers had fallen on and off throughout today’s proceedings and when a downpour fell just minutes before the start of QP2, it looked like the 15-minute session would be disrupted by rain. Fortunately it was only a very short cloudburst but the session commenced with some corners still damp. Crutchlow though superbly calculated where he could push hard to battle for a third pole position throughout a tense and exciting QP2. A lap of 2.01.801 put Crutchlow on top of the rankings by just 0.006s over Dani Pedrosa shortly after the halfway stage. And in a frantic last lap sprint in improving conditions, the 27-year-old improved his pace to a 2.00.359 to clinch a deserved spot on the front row of the grid for the seventh time in 2013. Today’s QP2 session was also a positive experience for rookie Bradley Smith, who too mastered the unpredictable track conditions with supreme confidence to score his best qualifying result since the Czech Republic round in August. The 22-year-old got a massive confidence in the earlier FP4 session when he set the seventh best time and he took that impressive form into QP2. A best lap of 2.01.306 was just over 0.3s away from clinching a second row start and he will start the physically demanding 20-lap race from seventh position. Cal Crutchlow – 3rd 2.00.359 – 7 laps Bradley Smith – 7th 2.01.306 – 7 laps — Ducati Report Today’s MotoGP Q2 session took place in extremely challenging conditions at Sepang International Circuit. Following a lunchtime rain shower, the track surface was spotted with damp patches when the session kicked off, and with the possibility that the weather could worsen again, riders were forced to ride very close to the limit. Instead, the situation improved toward the end of the session, making it possible for riders to drop their times in the final laps. Andrea Dovizioso managed the situation well and set his best time of 2:01.635 on his very last lap, putting him eighth best at 1.6 seconds from pole-man Marc Marquez. Nicky Hayden, meanwhile, wasn’t satisfied with his performance in the damp Turn 6, which contributed to his eleventh-place finish. The Ducati Team riders will start tomorrow’s Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix from the third and fourth rows, respectively. Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 8th (2:01.635) Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 11th (2:02.900) — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium & Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium (Symmetric) & Hard (Asymmetric) Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez set yet another qualifying lap record at Sepang, the current MotoGP™ championship leader clocking a time of 2’00.011 to shave three-tenths of a second off the existing mark. Marquez claimed his eighth pole position of the season on his last timed lap and will line up on the front now next to a pair of Yamaha riders. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi’s time of 2’00.336 slots the nine-time World Champion in at second on the grid for tomorrow’s race, while Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow was third quickest and a mere 0.023 seconds behind Rossi. Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro topped Qualifying Practice 1 and showed strong pace in QP2 by qualifying in ninth place with a time of 2’02.151. Conditions were predominantly dry today, the exception being a rain shower at the end of QP1 which caused a premature ending to the session, and caused created greasy track conditions for the start of QP2. Track conditions improved throughout the second qualifying session, with the pace being the quickest of the weekend and most riders using the combination of the softer front and rear slicks. Some riders assessed the hard compound front slick tyre in practice, although the softer front and rear slicks are still preferred by most riders and will be the most widely used options should the race be dry. The final session before tomorrow’s race is the Warm Up session at 1140 local time (GMT +8), with the twenty lap Malaysian MotoGP™ race set to start at 1600. Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department |      
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 15 – Sepang — Pedrosa lays down the law as Malaysian GP gets underway Dani Pedrosa was just two tenths of a second off Jorge Lorenzo’s fastest ever lap of Sepang as the Repsol Honda Team rider upped the pace on Friday afternoon at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. The 2012 winner topped the second practice session from teammate Marc Marquez and Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, with Lorenzo fifth quickest for Yamaha Factory Racing. As the premier class escaped the rain that did fall at the Sepang International Circuit on Friday, Pedrosa – already fastest in the morning – raised the bar to 2’00.554, half a second quicker than teammate Marquez. Crutchlow made the top three, despite suffering from pain in his right forearm from the big crash at Silverstone – he has stated that it will need an operation, though could not confirm when. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi was marginally behind in fourth after finding a significantly better set-up in the afternoon session, though feels he can improve tomorrow. GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista set a good pace before crashing at Turn 4, fortunately walking away unscathed. He had been testing a new Showa rear shock, which he has given positive feedback so far. Lorenzo, who was sixth in the afternoon, was in fact fifth fastest when taking into account the combined timesheet, though suffered what he described as one of his most difficult days this year, as both engine braking and rear grip issues hindered his progress. All riders bar five improved on their best times for the day during the afternoon session; one who did not was Colin Edwards, whose NGM Mobile Forward Racing machine had been quickest of the CRTs in the morning. By the time the day met its end, Aleix Espargaro (Power Electronics Aspar) had moved ahead and was 11th quickest. Damian Cudlin rounded out the field as the Australian made his second appearance for PBM. — Practice Results — Moto2™ Tito Rabat was comfortably quickest as Moto2™ practice began on Friday ahead of the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. The Tuenti HP 40 rider led Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing’s Tom Luthi, as Scott Redding moved ahead of championship rival Pol Espargaro after beginning the day in 12th place. Already quickest in the morning when rain had affected the opening session, Rabat proceeded to register a 2’07.321 lap time during the dry afternoon. There was a significant gap of seven tenths of a second back to Luthi, as Marc VDS Racing Team’s Redding made huge strides to crack the top three. This left the Englishman almost two tenths up on Rabat’s teammate and closest title rival Espargaro, as Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami finished fifth despite a crash. Numerous riders were caught out by a lack of grip, particularly off the racing line following the rain of earlier in the day. As well as Nakagami, there were slip-ups for Azlan Shah (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), wildcard Decha Kraisart (Singha Eneos Yamaha Tech3) and Thitipong Warokorn (Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2). These in-turn followed incidents in the morning for Johann Zarco of Came IodaRacing Project and Rafid Topan Sucipto, whose QMMF Racing Team outfit suffered a garage fire during the afternoon which caused damage to bikes and equipment. Alex de Angelis was sixth for NGM Mobile Forward Racing, ahead of Technomag carXpert’s Dominique Aegerter, Aspar Team Moto2’s Nico Terol, who won last time out in Aragón, Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio and the aforementioned Zarco. — Moto3™ Conditions were very much mixed across the second Moto3™ practice session at Sepang on Friday for the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, with Jack Miler eventually going fastest for Caretta Technology – RTG. The Australian completed a reshuffled top three from Mahindra Racing’s Efren Vazquez and Ongetta-Rivacold’s Alexis Masbou, but it was Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales whose morning time was quickest of the day. After title contender Viñales posted a best effort of 2’14.961 in the morning, rain before the second session left riders with no option but to fit wet weather tyres. As the circuit eventually dried and slicks were used towards the end of the afternoon period, there were changes aplenty atop the leader board, but it was Miller’s FTR Honda going top with a leading afternoon lap time of 2’15.598. On the overall timesheets for the day, he would finish third behind the aforementioned Viñales and Masbou. Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0 and also a championship contender) was fourth overall from Mahindra Racing’s Efren Vazquez and championship leader Luis Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo), while Ongetta-Centro Seta’s Isaac Viñales was seventh, but led the way in the closing stages of the afternoon. The overall top ten was completed by Ambrogio Racing’s Brad Binder (continuing to adapt to the Mahindra machine) Miguel Oliveira on a factory Mahindra and Tec Interwetten Moto3 Racing’s Philipp Oettl, fresh from his career-best result of sixth in the Aragón Grand Prix. With damp patches around the track, Eric Granado found himself caught out when entering Turn 7. The Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 rider, who ended proceedings 19th from Malaysia’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Red Bull KTM Ajo), suffered a fall but no injuries. — Yamaha Report The first of the three overseas triple-header weekend’s kicked off today in Sepang with the first two free practice sessions for the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi made solid improvements over the two practice sessions to wrap up the day in fourth in the combined times. The Italian made a 0.5 second improvement over the two sessions and finished 0.115 seconds behind Cal Crutchlow in third. Defending world champion Jorge Lorenzo had a tougher first day in Sepang. The Mallorcan struggled to find an optimum set up for the Malaysian circuit with mid-corner grip issues affecting his final times. He completed the first day in fifth overall, 0.085 seconds behind his teammate Rossi. Valentino Rossi -4th / 2’01.538 / 18 laps Jorge Lorenzo – 5th / 2’01.623 / 14 laps Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director Crutchlow makes flying start to flyaway triple-header in Sepang Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider Cal Crutchlow made a fantastic start to the Malaysian MotoGP weekend today, the British rider setting the third fastest time on the opening day of practice at the physically demanding Sepang International Circuit. Sixth fastest in typically hot and humid conditions in this morning’s opening 45-minute session, Crutchlow was almost a second faster in FP2 to surge up the rankings into the top three behind Spanish duo Dani Pedrosa and World Championship leader Marc Marquez. Crutchlow had struggled this morning with pain in the swollen right arm he first damaged at Silverstone recently, but happily he was able to ride in much less discomfort in FP2 and the improvement in his physical condition was reflected in his pace. The 27-year-old posted a personal best time of 2.01.423 that secured him a top three slot by 0.115s ahead of factory Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi on a track offering excellent grip levels, despite heavy rain falling in between sessions. Teammate Bradley Smith was also able to enjoy a positive start to arguably the toughest spell of the World Championship campaign, with this weekend’s Sepang race closely followed by back-to-back trips to Australia and Japan. The rookie finished inside the top 10 in both 45-minute practice sessions and a best lap of 2.02.551 placed him 10th on the combined timesheets. Smith dedicated much of his time on track today to further adapting to a new smoother braking technique he first began experimenting with at the previous round at the Motorland Aragon track in Spain. He also concentrated on his consistency on worn tyres and was satisfied with progress made ahead of planned significant set-up tweaks to evaluate tomorrow in advance of Sunday’s 20-lap race. Cal Crutchlow 2.01.423 – 35 laps: “It was very difficult this morning to ride at my maximum level because I had some problems with the right arm I first injured during the recent British Grand Prix. I already know I need surgery at the end of the season but until now the big impact my arm took at Silverstone has only given me bad swelling but no pain. This morning instead it hurt me a lot and couldn’t use the arm that well. Fortunately the afternoon session was much better and on my final run of the day we made a positive step and I am pleased to finish inside the top three. I was immediately faster the first time I put in a new tyre because for most of FP2 we worked on the set-up of the bike with worn tyres I’d also used this morning.” Bradley Smith 10th 2.02.551 – 36 laps: “After testing twice at Sepang in the winter I was looking forward to coming back here to understand how much progress I have made in my rookie season. It is nice to be riding on a track where I’ve got previous experience of riding the YZR-M1 and although I wasn’t able to lap as fast as I did in February, my consistency has improved a lot and that is a positive point. I did a lot of 2.02 laps and I am happy with my pace, but we will look at making some more drastic changes tomorrow to take another step into the 2.01s. I did some good times on old tyres and that gives me confidence that I will be strong in the race on Sunday.” — Repsol HRC Report The Malaysian Grand Prix got underway in mixed conditions today, as Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa laid down the marker with a blisteringly fast time in this afternoon’s FP2 session. Teammate, and Championship leader, Marc Marquez finished the day in second place. 2012 race winner Dani was already fastest in the morning, but in the afternoon he improved his time by 0.675s with a lap time of 2’00.554 (just 0.22 off Lorenzo’s record pole time in 2012) on lap 12 of 17. This was all the more impressive considering there was a torrential downpour in-between the sessions, washing away the rubber from the track. Teammate Marc, also second in FP1 this morning, shaved half a second off his morning lap time with 2.01.087 on lap 8 of 17. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Marco Simoncelli this weekend, as it marks the second anniversary of the HRC rider’s premature passing during the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2011, he will be forever missed. Dani Pedrosa 1st 2’00.554 Marc Marquez 2nd 2’01.087 — Ducati Report As expected, the first day of the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit was marked by unpredictable weather, but the first two free-practice sessions saw the MotoGP riders lapping in dry conditions. Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso were both pleased to finish the day in the top ten in the combined times, as they know that should rain strike tomorrow morning’s session, today’s times could well determine who transfers directly into Q2. Nonetheless, both Ducati Team riders hope to reduce their gaps to the leaders. Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 8th (2:02.373) Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 9th (2:02.487) — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium & Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium (Symmetric) & Hard (Asymmetric) Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa set a sizzling time of 2’00.554 in this afternoon’s Free Practice 2 session to finish half a second clear of his closest rival in the first day of practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang. Pedrosa’s time was just two-tenths of a second off the qualifying lap record, the Spaniard topping the opening day ahead of teammate Marc Marquez who was second quickest with a personal best time of 2’01.087. Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow was the closest rider to the Honda duo, his lap time of 2’01.423 slotting him in at third in the overall classification. Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro was the quickest of the CRT today, setting a time 2.056 seconds off Pedrosa’s benchmark to finish eleventh on the timesheets. Dry track conditions greeted riders in both sessions today despite a heavy downpour around midday, with a peak track temperature of 44°C recorded during FP2. At the start of Free Practice One all riders headed out on soft slick options front and rear to gauge the track condition, with two riders assessing the hard compound front slick later on in the morning session. In the second session of the day tyre choice was more varied, with five riders trying the harder rear slick options, while both the soft and hard front slicks were also used. The softer front and rear slick options were preferred by riders today, with almost every rider setting their quickest time on this tyre combination. Similar weather conditions to today with the chance of rain are forecast for tomorrow. The final ranked practice session, FP3, starts at 0955 local time (GMT +8) before qualifying gets underway from 1410. Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department | 
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 15 – Sepang — Marquez and Pedrosa to meet Race Direction as Malaysia kicks off triple-header Marc Marquez’s rivals have a mountain to climb at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in Sepang this weekend to chase down the Repsol Honda Team rider’s 39-point lead in the MotoGP™ World Championship with only four races to go. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo is his closest challenger, and will be giving his all to try and haul back points on the Repsol rookie, who last time out in Aragon made the headlines for not only his latest win. His contact with teammate Dani Pedrosa, which led to the rear wheel sensor of the latter failing – resulting in a big highside – will be discussed by Race Direction and the riders on the Thursday before the Malaysian Grand Prix. Pedrosa, who now sits 59 points behind Marquez after his crash, is well aware that his title chances rely on him winning the remaining races, whilst needing some worse results from Lorenzo and Marquez. This is perhaps where Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi could come in, as the Italian is desperate for another win, and showed true glimpses of such pace in Aragon practice and qualifying. He will aim to take the next step at Malaysia to challenge the top three.Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow will hope that his lack of top-end speed from his new engine is solved before the race on the fast Malaysian circuit, whilst rookie teammate Bradley Smith is pleased to not have to learn a new track on a MotoGP™ bike, as he has spent a good amount of time testing there like the others on the grid. The satellite Hondas in the form of GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista and LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl had a great battle in Aragon, which is something they will no doubt want to repeat – albeit with a podium finish as the result. For the Ducati Team it will once again be a weekend of trying to get the bike closer to the Japanese manufacturers, as Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden battle it out for best teammate honours. The satellite Pramac Racing team will be hoping for a positive weekend like in Aragon, where Ben Spies’ replacement due to injury, Yonny Hernandez, continued to get to grips with the Ignite Pramac machine. Alongside teammate Andrea Iannone on the Energy T.I. bike, Hernandez hopes that his riding style can reap good results on the Desmosedici. In the CRT class, it has now been confirmed that Italian Luca Scassa will be in for Karel Abraham in the Cardion AB Motoracing team until the end of the season, while Australian Damian Cudlin will continue to stand in for Hernandez in the PBM team. Both made great progress in Aragon, and will hope to get their bikes as close as possible to CRT front-runner Aleix Espargaro on his Power Electronics Aspar ART. World Championship Standings MotoGP™ 1- Marc Marquez SPA Honda 278 — Moto2 The Moto2™ title hunt intensifies this weekend at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in Sepang as Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaro tries to overhaul championship leader, Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding. With only 20 points separating the two, and Espargaro getting the better of the Brit last time out in Aragon, Redding will be hoping to strike back in Sepang, as he once again tries to strengthen his grip on the lead. The pair will face stiff competition however, as the rest of the grid is getting stronger race by race, with Aspar Team Moto2’s Nico Terol a prime example by taking a dominant win last time out. And Pons’ Esteve Rabat, who is still in with a good shout at the title, will no doubt be another big podium favourite. Alex Mariñelarena will once again substitute for Dani Rivas in the Blusens Avintia team, with the latter still suspended for the crash he caused in Silverstone Warm-up. And there will also be two wild cards on the grid in the form of Malaysia’s Hafizh Syahrin, who only narrowly missed out on a podium last year with the Petronas Raceline Malaysia team, as well as Thai rider Decha Kraisart with the Singha Eneos Yamaha Tech3 outfit. World Championship Standings Moto2™ — Moto3 The Moto3™ championship is finely poised as it heads out east to the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix with Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins only nine points off championship leader Luis Salom. Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Salom is also only 12 points ahead of Team Calvo’s Maverick Viñales, truly making the battle at the front a three-horse race with still 100 points up for grabs. Salom was not on his usual form last time out in Aragon, and will be hoping to re-discover some of the magic, with Rins and Viñales looking particularly strong at the moment. Red Bull KTM’s local rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin will be able to line up at his home race despite undergoing surgery on his fractured right wrist after a crash in Aragon. Last year he was only just pipped to a win by Sandro Cortese (current Moto3™ World Champion now in Moto2™), meaning that this year he will be aiming for one better. There will however be greater Malaysian representation on the grid this year with two other local riders lining up in the form of wild cards. Touchline-SIC-Ajo KTM will field Aizat Malik and Hafiq Azmi, who will both look to impress the home crowd. World Championship Standings Moto3™ | 
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| — MotoGP 2013 – Round 14 – Aragon – Marquez wins from Lorenzo and Pedrosa goes down Marc Marquez has increased his possibilities of becoming a rookie MotoGP™ World Champion by claiming his sixth victory of 2013 in the Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón. Current title holder Jorge Lorenzo was overtaken by the newcomer en route to second place, as Dani Pedrosa crashed out of the race on the sixth lap. Starting from his seventh pole position of the season, Marquez had beaten Lorenzo by one hundredth of a second on Saturday whereas last year’s Aragón winner Pedrosa was starting on the front row for the first time since Indianapolis. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo grabbed the lead at the start, as the Repsol Honda Team riders immediately went to battle at the second corner. The critical moment of the afternoon, and perhaps of the 2013 World Championship, would come on Lap 6. As both Hondas closed in on Lorenzo for the lead, Marquez ran third but appeared to out-brake himself at Turn 12. Moments later, Pedrosa dramatically highsided out of the race and it was later confirmed that the two teammates had made contact. The moment allowed Lorenzo to extend his lead to 1.7 seconds, although he was caught by Marquez and overhauled at the same corner eight laps later. The championship lead now increases to 39 points with 100 left on offer. Lorenzo’s teammate Valentino Rossi finished on the podium for the first time since Laguna Seca, fending off GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista, LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl and Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow in a highly entertaining four-rider contest. Tech3’s Bradley Smith, Ducati Team duo Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden and Energy T.I. Pramac Racing’s Andrea Iannone completed the top ten, while Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro was once again the leading CRT runner in 11th spot. In 17th place, Italian Luca Scassa ended his debut with Cardion AB Motoracing ahead of two other CRT machines, covering for Karel Abraham who has been ruled out of action for the rest of the campaign. A total of five riders failed to finish. Pedrosa retired for the first time this year on his 28th birthday, while PBM’s Michael Laverty and Came IodaRacing Project’s Danilo Petrucci were put out of action on the opening lap in an incident also involving Scassa. On his return to MotoGP™, Australia’s Damian Cudlin suffered gearbox issues while Avintia Blusens’ Hector Barbera pulled into the pits, having already changed bikes after encountering pre-race problems with his original. With four races remaining in the 2013 season, the drama will continue at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in two weekends’ time. — Race Result – Round 14 — Championship standings — Moto2 Nico Terol has completed a dominant performance of the Moto2™ Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón, celebrating a lights-to-flag victory on Sunday afternoon. Tito Rabat finished second while Pol Espargaro came out on top after a superb battle with title rival Scott Redding, who finished fourth from 13th on the grid. Having turned 25 on Friday, Terol (Aspar Team Moto2) would sail to his first ever intermediate class pole position and was joined on the front row by Tuenti HP 40 pairing Rabat and Espargaro. Delayed by traffic throughout qualifying, Marc VDS Racing Team’s Redding was left 13th – his joint worst grid position of 2013. As Terol enjoyed a clean start, arguably the best getaway came from Redding who just minutes into the race was already inside the top five. Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami was also lightning quick off the line, rising to second at Turn 2 before dropping down the field due to a mistake on the fourth lap; the Japanese rider, who had finished second at the previous four races, would fight back up to 11th spot. At the front, Terol was untouchable and would enjoy career victory number 15 after taking the chequered flag 1.7 seconds in front of Rabat. Espargaro finally came out on top in the duel for the final podium slot, but only after a mesmerising, fairing-to-fairing contest with Redding as the Spaniard and Englishman continued to swap positions over the second half of the race – at one point making contact as the championship leader overtook in a daring maneuverer at the final corner. The final exchanging of places came on the penultimate tour, with Espargaro defending the line into Turn 16 while Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio kept a watching brief from fifth place, having performed a climb of ten places since the start of the race. As Redding’s championship lead over Espargaro reduces to 20 points with four rounds remaining, Terol’s teammate Jordi Torres ensured Aspar bikes bookended the top six while reigning Moto3™ World Champion Sandro Cortese finished tenth. However, the Dynavolt Intact GP rider was involved in a last-lap incident on the exit of Turn 14 which caused the demise from proceedings of NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Alex de Angelis, with Technomag carXpert rider Dominique Aegerter also becoming involved but continuing to finish 13th. In 15th, Alex Mariñelarena (Blusens Avintia) scored his maiden World Championship point in only his fifth Moto2™ race, achieving the feat at the same track on which he made his debut last year. Other incidents included a second corner retirement for Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing’s Tom Luthi, who bounced across the gravel trap, while there was a similar scenario for Xavier Simeon whose race finished at the end of his first run down the back straight; thankfully, the Maptaq SAG Zelos Team rider was not collected by Argiñano & Gines Racing’s Steven Odendaal, who crashed in the same place. 1 / Nicolas TEROL / SPA / Aspar Team Moto2 / SUTER / 40’15.232 / 158.9 / Pole Position: Nicolas TEROL 1’53.812 160.6 Km/h CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TILL DATE: — Moto3 Alex Rins has won the Moto3™ Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón, beating Maverick Viñales after a race-long battle. Alex Marquez made the podium, while championship leader Luis Salom fought up to fourth place but saw his points advantage decrease. Having grown up just minutes from the MotorLand Aragón circuit which first became part of the World Championship in 2010, Rins claimed his sixth pole position of the season on Saturday afternoon. He would never drop out of the fight for the lead on Sunday, which was first between himself, Team Calvo’s Viñales and Estrella Galicia 0,0 teammate Marquez before becoming a two-horse race. The leaders – who in the points table both close in on championship leader Salom – would take the battle down to the wire, but a well-judged piece of riding from Rins saw him head onto the kilometre-long back straight in front on the final lap, then extending the gap. Marquez experienced a somewhat quiet race en route to the final podium slot, while Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Salom made the most of his damage limitation exercise to rise from eighth on the grid to fourth. An error from the otherwise impressive Philipp Oettl (Tec Interwetten Moto3 Racing) left him sixth, having run as high as fourth while setting a new lap record in the process, while Salom successfully finished in front of Mahindra Racing’s Miguel Oliveira as they completed the top five. This leaves Salom with a nine-point advantage over Rins, who now jumps three points ahead of Viñales with four races remaining in the season. Elsewhere in the race, Jonas Folger’s seventh place for Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 was to be noted as the German had undergone surgery for a fractured ankle after the last race at Misano. Belgian rookie Livio Loi (Marc VDS Racing Team) scored a point for 15th position, while Mahindra’s Efren Vazquez rounded out the top ten after escaping unscathed from an incident at Turn 1 on the 16th lap; the same could not be said for Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin, who flew off his bike but was able to walk away. The Malaysian was then taken to the Medical Centre for treatment, where it was confirmed that he had suffered a fracture to his right wrist; in his current state, Khairuddin would be unable to take part in his upcoming home Grand Prix at Sepang. A total of six riders failed to finish, as the field was completed by wildcard Maria Herrera (Junior Team Estrella Galicia 0,0); having raised eyebrows on Friday by unexpectedly finishing inside the top ten in opening practice, the CEV race winner fell on the first lap of today’s race and was forced to rejoin at the back of the pack. Aragón marked the last event ahead of the upcoming triple-header in Malaysia, Australia and Japan. The action continues with the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in two weeks’ time. 1 / Alex RINS / SPA / Estrella Galicia 0,0 / KTM / 40’04.214 / 152 / Pole Position: Alex RINS 1’58.571 154.1 Km/h CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS TILL DATE: — HRC Report Repsol Honda RC213V rider Marc Marquez fought back after almost running off the track to take his sixth win of the year at Aragon, stretching his title lead to almost 40 points with four races remaining. It was Honda’s eighth win this year, and the RC213V’s third in a row at the scenic Motorland Aragon circuit in the Spanish hinterland. The team’s joy was tempered by misfortune to second Repsol Honda RC213V rider Dani Pedrosa, who crashed out heavily in a freak incident on the sixth of 23 laps. He had taken second place from pole starter Marquez, and was mounting a strong challenge on early leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) at the time. Split seconds before Marquez ran wide, he clipped the rear of Pedrosa’s machine, and the team discovered that one of the electronic sensors of the traction-control system had been damaged, causing the system to become inoperative. This triggered the crash, which happened a few yards further on as Pedrosa opened the throttle. The rear wheel spun, the bike slewed sideways, and the Spaniard – who turned 28 on race day – was tossed over the high side. Lorenzo had led away with yet another of his trade-mark lightning starts, and led by a second after the first lap, with Marquez second and Pedrosa third. The Honda pair gradually closed the gap over the next four laps; then on the fifth Pedrosa pounced on his team-mate, and was soon on the Yamaha’s back wheel and challenging strongly. It seemed only a matter of time before he took the lead, but he hadn’t completed another lap when instead he was sent flying. While Pedrosa was taken to the medical centre for checks (he escaped serious injury), Marquez regrouped and set about closing a gap of almost two seconds on Lorenzo. It took him nine laps to catch up and get ahead with a clean but forceful pass. Lorenzo stayed close until the closing stages, but was powerless to prevent Marquez taking the win by better than one second. A crowd of 61,300 enjoying warm but overcast conditions were rewarded with exciting racing down the field, with a four-bike battle for the last rostrum place. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) hung on to the spot under race-long pressure from Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V), Alvaro Bautista (FUN&GO Gresini Honda RC213V) and Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha). It came to a climax in the last six laps. First Bautista got ahead of Rossi, then Bradl joined the action, with Crutchlow a close spectator. The trio changed places again with two laps to go, Rossi regaining the upper hand to lead Bautista over the line by less than a second. The Spaniard had his hands full with Bradl, less than two tenths behind. Crutchlow was just over half a second away. Less than two seconds covered the quartet. Bautista has a special role with Honda, race-developing Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, the only rider to use the Japanese components made by companies associated with Honda His team-mate Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) finished 18th, in the middle of a three-rider battle. The Australian, in his first grand prix season, rides a CBR1000RR-powered machine in the CRT category. Marquez has now amassed a total of 278 points, with Lorenzo second on 239, and Pedrosa dropped to third on 219. Nico Terol (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter) took a resounding victory in the Moto2 class, stamping his authority on a category where all riders use identical race-tuned Honda CBR600 engines supplied by the organisers, to ensure close and reliable racing. It was the former 125cc champion’s second win of the season, achieved after starting from pole position for the first time in the class. Terol led from the first lap to the last, and was able to slow towards the end and still win by 1.7 seconds. Earlier he had been more than four seconds clear. There was a strong battle behind him, as championship leader Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex) strove to keep ahead of challenging rival Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex). Espargaro’s team-mate Esteve Rabat had finally escaped ahead of the pair on the 14th of 21 laps. Soon afterwards second Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex rider Mika Kallio caught from behind, and the three closed up as the laps counted down. Redding resisted fiercely as Espargaro’s attack redoubled, and left tyre marks on his rival’s leathers as they made contact. But in the end the Spaniard prevailed, taking the last rostrum spot by three tenths, and whittling another three points out of Redding’s title lead. He is now 20 points ahead, with four races remaining. Kallio was a close fifth. More than seven seconds away Jordi Torres (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter) was a lonely sixth, with Johann Zarco (Came Iodaracing Project Suter) and then Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex) equally alone behind. Mattia Pasini (NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up) prevailed in a big battle for ninth, from Moto3 champion Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex), Takaaki Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex) and Marcel Schrotter (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team Kalex), with Dominique Aegerter (Technomag carXpert Suter) losing touch at the end to finish 13th. Nakagami had been with the leaders in the early stages, but dropped back after running off the track. In the smallest class, Moto3, Honda-powered machines are up against rival factories, and the top runners among the Honda hordes found themselves engaged in a fierce battle for the points behind the three runaway leaders. A pack of nine, and sometimes ten, 250cc four-strokes were locked in combat for an eventual eighth place. Best of them was rising Italian Romano Fenati (San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda), who conquered the group and came within a little over two seconds of catching seventh-placed Jonas Folger (Kalex KTM). He was two tenths ahead of KTM’s Arthur Sissis. Barely one second behind, experienced French rider Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda) secured 11th, with Australian star Jack Miller (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda) 13th. Miller had ridden through from 20th on the grid, after a tyre issue in qualifying kept him from his more usual position challenging for the front two rows. Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 FTR Honda) was right on his back wheel for 14th, with another clutch of Hondas – Francesco Bagnaia (San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda), Isaac Vinales (Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) and wild card Bryan Schouten (Dutch Racing Team FTR Honda) – filling from 17th to 19th places, in another big group battling for the final point. Fifteenth to 22nd places crossed the line within less than 1.4 seconds. The race was won by Spanish KTM rider Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia KTM) ahead of fellow countrymen Maverick Vinales (Team Calvo KTM) and his team mate Alex Marquez. Luis Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo) finished fourth and retained his lead in the championship. The next race is the Malaysian GP in two weeks’ time, followed week by week by two more long-distance races, in Australia and Japan, before the season finale in Valencia. Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: 1st Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: DNF Alvaro Bautista, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, 4th Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: 5th Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini, 18th Honda Moto2 rider quotes Esteve Rabat, Tuenti HP 40 Pons, 2nd Pol Espargaro, Tuenti HP 40 Pons, 3rd Honda Moto3 rider quotes Alexis Masbou, Ongetta-Rivacold, 11th Jack Miller, Caretta Technology RTG, 13th — Yamaha Report afternoon to take second and third respectively in the Gran Premio Iveco de Aragon. Defending world champion Lorenzo made a flying start from second on the grid to lead the MotoGP field into turn one with rivals Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa in pursuit. The Mallorcan’s stunning first lap pace saw a one second gap created as they headed into the second lap. Pedrosa and Marquez remained hot on the heels of Lorenzo until with 18 laps to go the two chasing riders made contact, Marquez running wide and Pedrosa crashing out. With ten laps to go Marquez caught and passed Lorenzo, but was unable to pull away as the reigning champion tucked in behind to give chase. Lorenzo eventually crossed the line in second, just 1.3 seconds back from Marquez. Teammate Rossi held his fourth grid position off the line and into turn one, closely followed by Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl. The nine-time world champion, promoted to third by Pedrosa’s crash, was able to hold the provisional podium spot until a late attack by Bautista with six laps remaining. The fight for third ran until the penultimate lap, Rossi making the decisive move through the uphill section of the track to retake the final podium spot and hold it to the line. The race result keeps Lorenzo in second in the standings, 20 points ahead of Pedrosa and 39 behind Marquez in the lead. Rossi remains in fourth place after his podium finish, now on 185 points, 29 clear of Cal Crutchlow in fifth. Jorge Lorenzo – 2nd / +1.356 / 23 laps Valentino Rossi – 3rd / +12.927 / 23 laps Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager “Again second in Aragon, same result as last year. We have been much faster than last year anyway, 12 seconds faster. We have improved a lot but not enough to win. It shows our potential at what is not one of our favourite tracks. Hopefully at the next four rounds we will have a little bit more so we can battle for victory.” Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director “Even though it didn’t go as we planned we were still able to put together good results and have both riders on the podium. For us in a circuit where we always suffer this is a great result. As usual we took a lot of information to use. The championship is still open so we will prepare as much as we can and be ready for another exciting round in a couple of weeks.” Crutchlow and Smith take valuable points at Motorland Aragon The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team celebrated one of its best double finishes of the season at the Motorland Aragon track this afternoon, with Cal Crutchlow racing to sixth spot and teammate Bradley Smith finishing in a fantastic seventh position. Crutchlow was one of the main protagonists in the most enthralling battle of a dramatic 23-lap race, as the British rider fought superbly for third position with Valentino Rossi, Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl throughout. The 27-year-old displayed typical fighting spirit to keep himself locked in the battle right down to the last lap, though he was just unable to force his way into contention to claim a fifth podium of the campaign. Crutchlow’s sixth position saw him pick up 10 more precious World Championship points that keep him firmly in control of fifth place in the rankings and on course to end 2013 as the leading non-factory rider. Today’s race, which took place in the coolest conditions of the weekend, saw rookie Smith deliver one of his most impressive performances of the season. Taking full advantage of improved braking performance after tweaking his riding style earlier this weekend, Smith finished in a terrific seventh position. The highlight of his race was his excellent charge away from experienced rival Andrea Dovizioso after passing the Italian on lap three. The 22-year-old maintained a consistent pace throughout the race and one pleasing aspect of his performance today was he managed to finish just over 30 seconds behind eventual winner Marc Marquez. That improvement on recent races bodes well for the final races of the campaign, which includes three back-to-back flyaway races in Malaysia, Australia and Japan. Cal Crutchlow – 6th – 156 points Bradley Smith – 7th – 80 points — Ducati Report The results of the Aragón Grand Prix, the fourteenth round of the MotoGP World Championship, were less than satisfying for the Ducati Team. Both Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden were able to improve slightly on their grid positions (on the third and fourth row, thanks to ninth and eleventh place finishes in qualifying), but at the finish line, they had to settle for eighth and ninth place, respectively, the same results they posted at the previous round. After a difficult start, Dovizioso found himself in eighth place on the sixth lap, followed by his teammate. The Italian then tried in vain to stay with Bradley Smith, while Hayden ceded a position to Andrea Iannone when he went off the track four laps from the end. The American was able to take ninth place back, and he and Dovizioso held their positions to the end. The MotoGP teams and riders will now get a weekend off before embarking on a trip to Asia and Australia that will include three races in three weeks. Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 8th Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 9th Paolo Ciabatti – Ducati MotoGP Project Director — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft & Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric) Marc Marquez returned to winning form at Motorland Aragon, his sixth victory of the season helping the Repsol Honda to take a stranglehold on the MotoGP™ championship with four rounds remaining. Starting from pole position, Marquez lost out to Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo as the lights went out and found himself in third place after his teammate Dani Pedrosa passed him on lap five. Marquez regained second place after Pedrosa crashed out on the exit of turn sixteen on lap six, after which Marquez reeled in and passed Lorenzo for the lead on lap thirteen. Although he was pressured over the remainder of the race by Lorenzo, Marquez held on to take the chequered flag by 1.356 seconds ahead of his compatriot, while Valentino Rossi took third place on the other Yamaha Factory Racing M1 after an entertaining battle for the final podium position. Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro was the top CRT finisher at Aragon, finishing in eleventh place. Ambient and track temperatures were cooler today, with a reading of 31°C recorded at the start of the race. The lower temperatures resulted in all riders selecting softer rear slick options, while four riders – including Marquez and Lorenzo – opted for the soft compound front slick. The pace of this year’s Aragon Grand Prix was the fastest ever recorded at this circuit, with the overall race time bettering the old mark by seven seconds and Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa setting a new race record lap of 1’48.565 on lap two. Marquez’s sixth win of the year stretches his lead in the championship over Lorenzo to thirty-nine points, while Pedrosa remains third in the standings and a further twenty points behind after his second DNF of the season. Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda – Race Winner — Qualifying – Marquez on pole at Aragon Championship leader Marc Marquez has achieved his seventh pole position of the MotoGP™ season, edging out Jorge Lorenzo by one hundredth of a second at MotorLand Aragon. Last year’s winner Dani Pedrosa will start third, with Valentino Rossi and Stefan Bradl completing the top five. Marquez’s seventh pole and third in succession came following a tight battle in north-eastern Spain, with MotorLand Aragón being one of seven anti-clockwise circuits on the current calendar. Lorenzo had topped the timesheets on Friday morning before Marquez moved ahead, although – following a damp third session – it was Pedrosa who led the way in final practice ahead of qualifying. The record pole time was delivered by Marquez in the form of 1’47.804, with Yamaha Factory Racing’s Lorenzo preventing a Repsol Honda Team qualifying one-two. This means the top three on the grid will start in championship order, with Marquez holding a 34-point advantage over both of his rivals. Lorenzo’s teammate Valentino Rossi also saw his grid place match his position in the championship, being demoted from second to fourth in the final moments, ahead of Honda satellite riders Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) and Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini). Struggling for top speed on Aragón’s kilometre-long back straight, Cal Crutchlow could muster no more than seventh place while Monster Yamaha Tech3 teammate Bradley Smith qualified eighth and only two tenths of a second slower, having progressed from Q1 after being denied the chance of a direct Q2 position due chiefly to track conditions in third practice. Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso and Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro (the leading CRT runner) completed the top ten, while Ducati’s Nicky Hayden (11th) was unable to meet his second row target and Energy T.I. Pramac’s Andrea Iannone (12th) rounded out the first half of the grid. Yonny Hernandez enjoyed a strong debut for Ignite Pramac Racing and almost a spot in Q2 en route to 13th place, while Aspar’s Randy de Puniet settled for 16th following problems. Italian debutant Luca Scassa (Cardion AB Motoracing) will head up the back row from 22nd, covering for Karel Abraham who is out for the rest of the season, while Australia’s Damian Cudlin – replacing Hernandez at PBM for both Aragón and Phillip Island – experienced a crash from which he suffered minor injuries to his right hand and arm. This weekend’s race marks Round 14 of 2013 and the fourth at MotorLand Aragón, which first appeared on the MotoGP™ calendar in 2010. — Qualifying Results — Moto2 Nico Terol was fastest in the Moto2™ qualifying session for the Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón, picking up his first pole position in the class. The Aspar Team Moto2 rider will start alongside Tuenti HP 40’s Tito Rabat and Pol Espargaro, with championship leader Scott Redding having managed only 13th place. At the end of Day 1, Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami (second place finisher at the last four races) had topped the timesheets from Rabat, with championship contenders Espargaro and Redding both struggling. On this occasion, it was Terol – one day after his 25th birthday – atop the pile with his best effort of 1’53.812, with Rabat less than two tenths behind. Critically for third-placed Espargaro, he lines up ten places ahead of Redding and would be capable of snatching the championship lead should he win with the Englishman hitting trouble on Sunday. The aforementioned Nakagami will head Row 2 from Terol’s Aspar teammate Jordi Torres and NGM Mobile Racing’s Simone Corsi, while reigning Moto3™ World Champion Sandro Cortese will line up ninth to equal his second-best qualifying performance of the campaign to date. Perhaps the biggest story of the day was that of championship leader Redding who, in pain with his right arm and recovering from surgery for arm pump, lingered in 13th position while Marc VDS Racing Team colleague Mika Kallio faired even worse and qualified 15th. Terol’s pole position is the ninth of his career and first since qualifying quickest for the Malaysian Grand Prix towards the end of his title-winning 125 campaign in 2011. He now targets his second Moto2™ victory, having already triumphed in the inaugural Grand Prix of the Americas. — Moto3 Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Alex Rins will begin the Gran Premio Iveco de Aragón from pole position, starting alongside Maverick Viñales and teammate Alex Marquez. Philipp Oettl put in a standout performance for fourth place, with championship leader Luis Salom managing no more than eighth on the grid. Following heavy rain in the early hours of Saturday morning, final practice had been held in mixed conditions before the sun came out over MotorLand Aragón in the afternoon. Courtesy of his truly impressive effort, Rins grabbed the top spot by no less than seven tenths of a second thanks to a leading lap time of 1’58.571. With Salom back on Row 3, Rins and second-placed Viñales (Team Calvo) are well aware that they are presented with an opportunity to reduce the championship lead of the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider who heads Viñales by 19 points, with Rins 21 off the lead. A superb performance by Philipp Oettl, son of former Grand Prix racer Peter and currently in his maiden full World Championship season, saw the Tec Interwetten Moto3 Racing rider achieve a front row position before being demoted by Marquez; nevertheless, his second row placing is by far his best to date and continues a strong run of form this weekend. Efren Vazquez will line up fifth for Mahindra Racing, while Jonas Folger delivered an inspiring and unexpected performance to qualify sixth for Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3 despite having undergone surgery only last week after fracturing his left ankle in a crash last time out at Misano. With Salom eighth, he is sandwiched into the middle of the third row by Mahindra’s Miguel Oliveira and Red Bull KTM Ajo teammate Arthur Sissis, while second teammate Zulfahmi Khairuddin ended proceedings in 11th place following a small incident at Turn 12. Wildcard entrants and CEV rivals Maria Herrera and Bryan Schouten will start together on the grid, 31st and 32nd for Junior Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 and Dutch Racing Team, respectively. — HRC Report Honda riders qualified first and third for tomorrow’s Aragon GP, bracketing the front row of the grid. Championship leader Marc Marquez was on pole position, and his Repsol Honda RC213V team-mate Dani Pedrosa a close third fastest. In between them was defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). There were two Hondas also on the second row, at a track where Honda’s V4 MotoGP prototype has a strong record, having won for the past two years. LCR Honda RC213V rider Stefan Bradl was less than two tenths ahead of Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V rider Alvaro Bautista, in fifth and sixth positions. Second Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi was fourth. Marquez’s seventh pole of his first MotoGP season was yet another landmark in the rookie in a million’s sensational maiden season in the premier class. The Spanish rising star claimed it with a stunning lap time – not only 1.2 seconds inside the lap record, set in race conditions, but better than 0.65 seconds faster than the best ever lap at the challenging and scenic Motorland Aragon circuit. Both of those times were set last year by Repsol Honda RC213V rider Casey Stoner. Marquez (20) has so far won five races, taking his first victory in only the second round. He followed up with four in a row mid-season, setting yet another “youngest-ever” record in a year of many such achievements. During that spell he regained his early championship lead, which now stands at a significant 34 points, ahead of Lorenzo and Pedrosa, who are equal on points. Although he now need finish only second at the remaining five rounds, the former 125cc and reigning Moto2 champion has pledged to continue fighting for victories in his quest to become the youngest-ever premier-class World Champion. Team-mate Pedrosa is battling to regain ground lost after missing one race and struggling through the following rounds when he broke his collarbone in practice at round eight in Germany. Until then he had been leading on points. Pedrosa chose natural healing rather than the surgery espoused by rival Lorenzo, with a similar injury. Now back to full strength, he is determined and focused, and hoping to repeat his victory at the Aragon circuit last year. Both Repsol Honda riders are fresh from post-race tests after the race at Misano a fortnight ago, where Pedrosa concentrated on improving the settings of his machine to tackle issues with rear grip that has been troubling him. The Spanish star celebrates his 28th birthday on race day tomorrow, and hopes to do so with his own third win of the season, after a run of four podium finishes at the previous races. Stefan Bradl’s second-row start reflects a return to strong form that peaked with a first pole position and second place at the US GP, before the summer break. The German rider showed his pace on the first day of practice, running second fastest, and was confident for the race after his own tests at Misano helped him find better machine settings. Bautista has shown improving form throughout the season, as he and his team get to grips with his exclusive use of Showa suspension and Nissin brakes … the Spaniard is race-developing the Japanese components, made by companies with close associations with Honda. Working alone means no reference points or data, but the Italy-based team has made strong progress during the season, and his results and race performances have steadily improved. His team-mate Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) qualified 21st on his Honda CBR1000RR-powered CRT bike. The Australian is in his first grand prix season, learning new tracks while also getting to grips with a new type of machine. Former 125cc champion Nico Terol (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter) claimed a career first Moto2 pole, only his second time on the front row of the grid this year. The first time was at round two in Austin, Texas, where he went on to claim his first race win in the class. Since then, however, he has been only once on the podium in the volatile class. All Moto2 riders use identical race-tuned Honda CBR600 engines, supplied by the organisers. This ensures not only close but also reliable racing, with riders striving to make the difference on a variety of prototype chassis. Two-time race winner Esteve Rabat (Tuenti HP 40 Pons Kalex) and his team-mate Pol Espargaro complete the front row of the grid, but the major focus of the race is the championship battle between Spanish star Espargaro and English championship leader Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex). Redding still has a points lead of 23, but Espargaro has been closing the gap over the latter half of the season. Redding, fresh from arm surgery, qualified a disappointing 13th at Aragon, on the fifth row of the grid, putting him in the thick of heavy race traffic. The difference on time is not so great, however – the top 13 all qualified within one second of pole time. Japanese racer Takaaki Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex), who has finished second in the last four races, heads the second row. Alongside him, single race winner Jordi Torres (Aspar Team Moto2 Suter) was narrowly ahead of Simone Corsi (NGM Mobile Racing Speed Up). Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team Kalex), Alex de Angelis (NGM Mobile Forward Racing Speed Up), reigning Moto3 champion Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex) and Johann Zarco (Came Iodaracing Project Suter) complete the top ten. In the Moto3 class, up against rival factories, two Honda riders were in close contention with each other. In the end Ongetta-Rivacold FTR Honda rider Alexis Masbou took the fourth-row starting position from San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda rider Romano Fenati in the closing stages. The experienced 26-year-old Frenchman was happy to be top Honda, but anticipated a tough race at a track where a long straight does not favour his machine’s superior cornering ability. Fenati (17) had been higher in free practice, in a generally strong weekend for the young Italian, in his second year in the class. Less than half-a-second slower, Niccolo Antonelli (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 FTR Honda) was 15th out of the 35 qualifiers. Second San Carlo Team Italia FTR Honda rider Francesco Bagnaia was 17th, Jack Miller (top Honda in the points standings) a disappointed 20th on the Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda, one place ahead of France’s Alan Techer (CIP Moto3 TSR Honda). Isaac Vinales (Bimbo Ongetta-Centro-Seta FTR Honda) was 23rd, Alessandro Tonucci (La Fonte Tascaracing FTR Honda) 24th, and John McPhee (Caretta Technology-RTG FTR Honda 27th; with Lorenzo Baldassarri (GO&FUN Gresini Moto3 FTR Honda), wild card Bryan Schouten (Dutch Racing Team FTR Honda), Hyuga Watanabe (La Fonte Tascaracing FTR Honda), Matteo Ferrari (Ongetta-Centro Seta FTR Honda) and Juanfran Guevara (CIP Moto3 TSR Honda) filling the grid. The 5.078-km Motorland Aragon circuit, the central part of a major motorsport and technology centre, is fast and scenic, running up and down a dry and stony hillside and including a long straight just a few metres short of a kilometre. The weather was dry for the two practice days, although overnight rain made a cool and damp start to Saturday. There is a small chance of rain tomorrow, bringing the possibility of a flag-to-flag race in which riders pit to change bikes to match changing conditions. Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V): 1st – 1m 47.804 Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda): 3rd – 1m 47.957 Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V): 5th – 1m 48.128 Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini): 6th – 1m 48.302 Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda): 21st – 1m 52.102 Honda Moto2 Rider quotes Tito Rabat (Tuenti HP40): 2nd – 1m 53.985 Pol Espargaro (Tuenti HP40): 3rd – 1m 54.294 Honda Moto3 Rider quotes Romano Fenati (San Carlo Team Italia): 13th – 2m 00.818 Niccolo Antonelli (Team GO&FUN Gresini): 15th – 2m 00.858 — Yamaha Report Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo has taken second on the grid for tomorrow’s Gran Premio Iveco de Aragon after an intense 15 minute battle at the Motorland circuit this afternoon. The defending world champion was the first rider to set a time this afternoon, putting down a 1’48.241 to set the early pace at the front. He went on to improve with a 1’48.201 before relinquishing the top spot to Stefan Bradl with nine minutes remaining and returning to the pits for a fresh rear qualifying tyre. He was back out on track with just over five minutes remaining and became one of the key protagonists in an incredible fight for pole that saw multiple riders firing into the red as the lap times dropped into the 1’47s. Provisional pole was taken again then lost in the last seconds by just 0.010 seconds to rival Marc Marquez. Teammate Valentino Rossi enjoyed his best qualifying experience of the year this afternoon, taking fourth on the grid for tomorrow’s race, just 0.158 seconds from pole position. The nine-time world champion waited in the pits for a minute at the start of the session, allowing the traffic of riders to leave before entering a relatively empty track space to focus on a lap time. He immediately fired off a 1’48.415 before improving again with a 1’48.366. Rossi then returned to the pits for fresh rubber and was back out again with five minutes remaining. The improvements continued as he began to threaten for provisional pole with red splits, dropping to a final time of 1’47.962 to take fourth on the grid, just 0.005 seconds behind Dani Pedrosa in third. Jorge Lorenzo – 2nd | 1’47.814 | 8 Laps Valentino Rossi – 4th | 1’47.962 | 8 Laps Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director Crutchlow and Smith confident for Motorland Aragon race A fastest lap of 1.48.653 in QP2 this afternoon will see Crutchlow start from seventh position on the grid, the British rider unfortunately unable to continue an excellent qualifying record in 2013 that had seen him qualify inside the top five in 13 previous attempts this season. The 27-year-old’s quickest lap still ensured he was the fastest rider that didn’t attend a test session at the Motorland Aragon track back in June and he remains optimistic that a 10th top six finish of an outstanding season is well within his grasp. Teammate Bradley Smith enjoyed a superb second day at the 14th round of the World Championship campaign. Overnight rain left the track littered with damp patches this morning and prevented Smith from trying to climb into the top 10 at the end of FP3 to move immediately into QP2. The 22-year-old dominated QP1 with a best time of 1.49.724 and he then shaved off almost a second in the second 15-minute session to secure a grid position just one place behind Crutchlow in eighth. His personal best time of 1.48.854 was just over a second off pole position and a fraction outside of 0.2s of the more experienced Crutchlow, with Smith emphatically proving his 13th position yesterday did not accurately show his true potential. With tweaks to his riding style paying off immediately today, Smith is now full of confidence that he can battle for a ninth top 10 finish of an impressive rookie premier class campaign. Cal Crutchlow – 7th 1.48.653 – 8 laps : “I can’t be happy to have missed out on a top six grid position for the first time this season. Qualifying just didn’t go according to plan and I feel we picked the wrong bike. We had a choice of two different settings and unfortunately we chose the wrong one. And on the three laps where I was really pushing for a time I didn’t nail any of them. I made a small mistake on each lap and that is the reason why I am only seventh on the grid, which is a bit disappointing because I was proud of the fact that I’d qualified in the top five in every race before this weekend. A good start is going to be crucial to try and go with the leading group but coming from seventh means I am expecting a very difficult race.” Bradley Smith – 8th 1.48.854 – 8 laps : “The last two races have been pretty dismal, so it is great for me to be able to turn it around this weekend. I said yesterday that I didn’t feel 13th was a true reflection of my potential and thankfully I was able to show that was the case today. The bike felt great and I have to say a massive thanks to my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew. We had a long meeting last night and there were a lot of positive things that came out of it. I was able to change my riding style like they suggested and I got more feeling from the bike and the lap time was a big step from yesterday. Eighth is the position where I expect to be given the competitiveness of the package I am on. Today I got the good feeling back with the bike that I had in Brno and now I am really excited for the race. Tyre life will be the key tomorrow but hopefully I can race in front of the bikes of Dovizioso and Hayden and not behind them.” — Ducati Report Following a third free-practice session that was rendered largely useless by a damp track caused by last night’s rains, the Ducati Team found itself unable to come up with an ideal setup for qualifying this afternoon. At day’s end, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden were ninth and eleventh, respectively, putting them on the third and fourth rows for tomorrow’s Aragón Grand Prix. Although both riders had hoped for higher starting positions, they’re relatively pleased with their qualifying times. Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 9th (1:49.219) Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 11th (1:49.428) — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft & Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric) Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez reigned supreme in a captivating qualifying session at Motorland Aragon in which the top six qualifiers posted times under the existing lap record. Marquez’s time of 1’47.804 smashed the old Circuit Best Lap record by six-tenths of a second and saw the rookie pip Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo to the top grid slot by a mere 0.010 seconds. The reigning MotoGP™ champion split the Repsol Honda’s on the front row, as Dani Pedrosa claimed third in qualifying with a best lap time of 1’47.957. Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro continued where he left off yesterday to qualify highest out of the CRT riders, his best time of 1’49.348 good enough for tenth place on tomorrow’s grid. Overnight rain created damp track conditions for the Free Practice Three, limiting the number of riders who took to the track in the first session of the day. The track was completely dry for FP4, offering the teams an opportunity to work on a dry setup for the qualifying sessions and the race. A peak track temperature of 35°C was recorded today, 7°C lower than yesterday’s top reading. The combination of the soft rear and hard front slick was again the popular choice among the riders in FP4 and Qualifying, however some riders were able to utilise the greater edge grip of the soft compound front tyre to good effect. Rider feedback from today’s sessions suggests that the hard front slick will be the more widely used choice in a dry race tomorrow, though should weather conditions be cooler again, some riders may switch to the soft compound front slick. Sunday’s morning Warm Up session is scheduled for 0940 local time tomorrow morning (GMT +2) and the twenty-three lap Aragon Grand Prix is set to start at 1400. Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department — Friday Reports – Honda men lead the way at Aragon Repsol Honda sensation Marquez was just over 0.5s off record pace for the MotorLand Aragon track with a 1’48.987 best time, which was 0.132s better than LCR Honda man Bradl and 0.267s faster than teammate Pedrosa’s best effort. World Champion Jorge Lorenzo had stamped his mark on the FP1 timesheet with the best lap of the morning and improved his time in the afternoon, although his best FP2 time only gave him fourth. Alvaro Bautista had a spill at turn 8 which complicated the end of his session, but he still registered a top five lap time. Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso were all in the top ten, which was completed by Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro and Dovizioso’s colleague Nicky Hayden. Yonny Hernandez ran off track on Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati on one occasion as he became more accustomed to the bike, but improved to 14th in FP2 from 18th in FP1. Luca Scassa has come into the Cardion AB Motoracing team this weekend to substitute for the injured Karel Abraham who is out for the remainder of 2013. He ended the day 21st overall. Damian Cudlin furthered his Paul Bird Motorsport MotoGP experience by rounding out the timesheet in 24th position. — Practice Results — Moto2 Nakagami produced a best effort of 1’54.325 to lead Rabat by just 0.032s, with Terol’s best lap placing him 0.239s behind the man from the Far East. Johann Zarco of the Came Iodaracing Project was fourth in the session and Marc VDS Racing Team’s standings leader Scott Redding was fifth, but the combined FP1 & FP2 times saw them end the day fifth and eighth respectively. Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio was fourth overall thanks to his best time from FP1, whilst afternoon crasher Jordi Torres (Aspar Team Moto2), Simone Corsi (NGM Mobile Racing) and Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing) all featured in the combined top ten. Tenth best overall was Tuenti HP 40 man Pol Espargaro whose 1’55.244 time from FP1 saw him conclude the day 0.919s behind pace setter Nakagami. — Moto3 As the pace quickened towards the end of the session Rins and Viñales both set record laps of the MotorLand Aragon circuit for the Moto3 class, with Rins eventually taking P1 with a 1’59.801 lap, 0.16s better than Viñales’ fastest time. Salom, meanwhile, was 0.4s off the pace. Also in the top five were Mahindra Racing’s Miguel Oliveira and Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin, respectively 0.676s and 1.123s down on Rins’ P1 lap. The top ten was completed by Rins’ teammate Alex Marquez, Tec Interwetten Moto3 Racing’s Philipp Oettl, San Carlo Team Italia’s Romano Fenati, Ongetta-Rivacold’s Alexis Masbou and the brave German Jonas Folger – who is riding with an ankle injury for the Mapfre Aspar Team. Those results cover the FP2 times only with most riders going faster in the afternoon, though Efren Vazquez finished the day ninth fastest overall having posted his best time of 2’01.173 in FP1. — Repsol HRC Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, who currently leads the World Championship, has come flying out of the gates at a hot Motorland Aragón circuit. With an ambient temperature of 29ºC and a track temperature of 39ºC, Marc set the fastest time of the day with 1’48.987 on lap 4 of 17 in this afternoon’s FP2 session, beating the circuit lap record of 1’49.046 (set by Casey Stoner in 2011). Teammate Dani Pedrosa was third fastest for the day with his lap time of 1’49.254 on lap 7 of 19. Stefan Bradl, riding the Satellite LCR Honda split the two factory riders with an impressive lap of 1’49.119 placing him second fastest for the day and with Alvaro Bautista aboard the Satellite Honda Gresini in fifth, Honda occupied four out of the top five positions on day one at the Spanish track. Marc Marquez 1st 1’48.987 Dani Pedrosa 3rd 1’49.254 — Yamaha Racing Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi got down to business again today in the first two free practice sessions for this weekend’s Gran Premio Iveco de Aragon. Fresh from his two consecutive race victories, reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo was quick to make his intentions clear in the morning session – challenging championship rival Marc Marquez for the top spot on the timesheets – and eventually emerging the faster at the end of the 45 minute session with a 1’49.753. The afternoon saw the competition catch up as the times dropped into the 1’48s, Lorenzo eventually wrapping up day one in fourth place overall, 0.418 from the top. Rossi was quickly up to a competitive pace in the first session, the nine-time world champion completing the morning practice in fifth position, 0.746 seconds from the front. The Italian then struggled with a number of different issues in the afternoon, including a brake problem and a lack of grip which prevented both him and teammate Lorenzo from realising their full potential. Rossi finished the day in seventh, 0.922 seconds from the top. Jorge Lorenzo – 4th / 1’49.405 / 17 laps Valentino Rossi – 7th / 1.49.909 / 16 laps Wilco Zeelenberg – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director Crutchlow makes promising start at Motorland Aragon The penultimate round of the European phase of the 2013 MotoGP World Championship campaign got off to a promising start for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Cal Crutchlow at the state-of-the-art Motorland Aragon track today. In pleasantly warm conditions throughout today, Crutchlow ended the opening day of practice at the technically challenging and undulating Spanish venue in sixth position on the combined timesheets. That was an impressive outcome for the 27-year-old considering six of the top seven riders on the final leaderboard tested at the Motorland Aragon in June. A lap of 1.50.575 in this morning’s FP1 put Crutchlow in seventh position, but a big improvement to a 1.49.840 this afternoon elevated the British rider into the top six ahead of Factory Yamaha rider and nine-times World Champion Valentino Rossi. Teammate Bradley Smith has happy memories of the Motorland Aragon track after taking a podium finish in the 2010 125cc encounter and the British rider enjoyed a positive start to proceedings this morning when a lap of 1.51.263 placed him 10th in the rankings. The 22-year-old, who is looking to consolidate his top 10 World Championship position in Sunday’s 23-lap race, was able to improve his pace to a 1.50.944 this afternoon but his progress unfortunately wasn’t reflected on the timesheets as he slipped down the order to 13th. Experimenting with a new riding position to improve rear grip that he first tried during a test session after the previous round at Misano, Smith was less than 0.5s away from the top 10. Cal Crutchlow 6th 1.49.840 – 36 laps : “Today was a pretty positive start to the weekend and I am happy to be in the top six. This morning proved it wasn’t going to be easy because I was seventh and the top six had all tested here back in June, so they have an advantage in terms of set-up and information. I feel I am riding quite well but for tomorrow we definitely need to try and get some more speed out of the bike. I am quite slow compared to the rest in the speed traps and also quite a way off the fastest Yamaha, so that is one area we need to look at tonight and work on improving for the rest of the weekend.” Bradley Smith 13th 1.50.944 – 36 laps : “I’m reasonably happy with how the weekend has started but obviously the final position doesn’t look so good. I don’t think the position truly reflects our potential because a few guys not so far in front of me used a soft tyre to make their best time and they could only make one fast lap. I feel my pace is consistent but I am certainly looking to improve by at least 0.5s tomorrow. Track conditions between FP1 and FP2 changed quite a lot, so it is not clear which direction to go with on the set-up. But the first goal for tomorrow will be to make sure I am back in the top 10 at the end of FP3 to advance straight into QP2.” — Ducati Report Riding in the dry, hot conditions that are common to the area around MotorLand Aragón, the MotoGP riders kicked off the season’s fourteenth round and its third Grand Prix on Spanish soil by completing the first two free-practice sessions of the race weekend. By day’s end, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden had turned the eighth and tenth fastest laps, respectively, in the combined times, the Italian 1.047 seconds off of leader Marc Marquez and his Ducati Team cohort a further .412 seconds back. For tomorrow, Dovizioso expects to focus on his Desmosedici GP13’s setup for the soft tyre, whereas Hayden will work on improving corner entry. Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 8th (1:50.034) Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 10th (1:50.446) — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft & Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric) Marc Marquez took control in the opening day of practice at the Aragon Grand Prix, the Repsol Honda rookie setting a best lap time of 1’48.987 in Free Practice Two as the Spaniard vies for his sixth victory of the season. Marquez’s benchmark lap was within half a second of the Circuit Best Lap record and placed the current championship leader at the front of a trio of Honda riders at the top of the timesheets. LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl was second quickest today, his best time of 1’49.119 barely one-tenth behind Marquez, while on the other Repsol Honda RC213V, Dani Pedrosa was third overall and 0.267 seconds off the pace of his teammate. Aleix Espargaro continued his domination of the CRT class as he rode his Power Electronics Aspar ART machine to ninth overall with a personal best lap time just 1.068 seconds off the lead. Weather conditions for both of today’s sessions were fine and warm, with a peak track temperature of 42°C recorded in FP2. As is typical for the first session of the race weekend, in Free Practice 1 all riders headed out on softer slick options front and rear to evaluate the track conditions. As track conditions improved and temperatures increased in the afternoon, most riders migrated to the hard compound front tyre, while some riders also took the opportunity to evaluate the harder rear slick options. Rider feedback from today shows that the preferred tyre combination is the harder front paired with the softer rear slick which offers the best drive out of the corners with good braking and cornering stability. Cooler weather is forecast for tomorrow with the next MotoGP™ session, FP3, at 0955 local time (GMT +2). Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department | 
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