Lorenzo has check-up in Barcelona

Following his training injury last Thursday which required an operation on his right hand, the Fiat Yamaha rider is recovering well. His participation at the final pre-season test in Qatar is uncertain however.

Jorge Lorenzo visited the Hospital General de Catalunya on Tuesday where he was examined by Doctor Augusto José Casanovas, the specialist who operated on him last Thursday after he sustained a metacarpal fracture and displaced thumb in his right hand after a motocross training accident.

After his check-up, it was confirmed that Lorenzo’s recovery from the injury was progressing well, but there remains a question over his attendance at the final pre-season test at the Losail circuit – scheduled for March 18-19. Fiat Yamaha confirmed last week that he would not be present at the second Sepang test next week due to his injury.

Press manager for Lorenzo, Hector Martin, told motogp.com: “At the moment there are serious doubts as to whether Jorge will be fully recovered for the Qatar test. We must wait and see how his injury and rehabilitation go after he has his stitches removed, which will be next Friday or Monday.”

The 2009 MotoGP World Championship runner-up will still fulfil his Yamaha promotional tour of Indonesia, scheduled for February 27 to March 2, but has cancelled his planned appearance at Camp Nou on Saturday where he was due to present the race leathers and helmet he wore in the 2009 Catalunya Grand Prix.

Anthony West is pleased with how his MZ Racing Moto2 chassis is progressing at the Montmeló test.

Anthony West was one of the many riders on track at the Circuit de Catalunya on Thursday as he continued his work on board his MZ Racing machine.

The Australian, who has experience in the former intermediate 250cc class and MotoGP and is on the reserve entry for the 2010 Moto2 category, is using the days at the Barcelona track in an experimental capacity, as he explores chassis options for his prototype.

“Today it’s a brand new chassis and it’s a little bit heavier than the last one. The next one will be lighter,” explained West. “I’m just taking it easy. We still have to put better suspension, brakes and an exhaust on, it’s like standard street bike stuff at the moment. The main goal was to find improvements with the chassis and something that turns well, and we’re one step forward from where we were last time. I think from this base we can make the final bike.”

West continued: “With the chassis being stiffer it rides the line a bit better. Lap times aren’t any quicker at the moment but everyone has the same tyres, so we’re just trying to get used to those. It’s good to know that everyone will have the same engine as well.”

“After this I’ll try and get some new suspension,” he added, “and that’ll be a big improvement on what we’ve got now and then we’ve got the tests in Valencia and Jerez that are coming up.”

The Spanish team will compete in the Moto2 World Championship in 2010 with Qatari rider Mashel Al Naimi and Colombian Yonny Hernández.

The BQR team, which will this year be called Blusens-STX in a union between the leader in consumer electricals Blusens and transport and logistics company STX Global Services, has detailed its 2010 project for the Moto2 category.

The Spanish team will take part in the new intermediate class with Qatari rider Mashel Al Naimi and Colombian Yonny Hernández, making Al Naimi the first rider from his country to participate in the World Championship. The team will be led by Ricard Jové, with Josep Oliva and David Tomás the technical directors for Al Naimi and Hernández respectively.

Al Naimi said: “I’m extremely excited at the prospect of working with such an experienced team in the World Championship. It’s the first time I’ll be competing in such a competitive Championship, and it’s a huge step in my career.”

“I’ll be the first rider from Qatar in the World Championship and that makes me very proud, I’ll give my maximum. Moto2 will be a Championship that is very difficult and my objectives are to learn as much as I can about the bike and the circuits, have a season without injuries and do the best I can. I have a competitive bike and am part of a great team for the start of the new Moto2 category.”

Hernández stated: “I am grateful for the confidence placed in me and I will do everything I can to learn from every GP. I hope to bring great joy to my country.”

Blusens-STX will also be present in the 125cc class with Spanish rider Tito Rabat.

Bridgestone back in action at first test

Whilst the bikes were new, the available Bridgestone tyres were exactly the same specifications as used during the Malaysian Grand Prix last year, providing the teams with a known entity to assist them in their set-up work.

In wet and dry conditions on both days riders got the opportunity to gain valuable experience on both the slick and hard compound wet tyres. Many riders started their dry running with the softer of the slick tyre compounds, but favoured the harder option for its added durability as the track temperature rose to a high of 55°C.

The test was also another important opportunity for Bridgestone to work closely with all the new teams and riders entering the Championship this year.

The role of Bridgestone’s engineers becomes even more critical this season with the reduction to just six days of pre-season testing. With track time at a premium, the wealth of information and understanding that the engineers can support each rider with can play a significant role in choosing the best suited tyre compounds and finding the optimum set-up for each bike and rider package as quickly as possible. This can be especially beneficial to MotoGP’s rookie riders who have limited experience of running on Bridgestone tyres in motorcycling’s premier class.

Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department
“I am pleased with the way the test has gone from a tyre perspective, both in terms of outright performance and durability. We can see that our tyres are still suitable for all the manufacturers’ new bikes, and Jorge (Lorenzo) completed a race distance at the end of the final day with consistent times throughout so this is good.”

“We specifically chose to use the same tyre specifications as selected for last year’s Grand Prix to assist the teams in setting up their new bikes by keeping the tyres constant, therefore making their existing data more valid. What was also important during this test, and will be for all events this season, was working very closely with all teams and riders to help them make the most of their limited testing and track time.”

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team ended its first track action of 2010 in positive mood after a rain-hit final day of MotoGP testing at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.

Colin Edwards and Ben Spies were unable to begin any meaningful testing until the track had completely dried on Friday afternoon after heavy morning rain badly disrupting the morning session. Once damp patches had cleared though the Texan duo were able to make significant progress, taking full advantage of the valuable track time before further heavy rain brought an early end to proceedings at 5pm local time.

Spies showed more of his true potential when he clocked the fifth quickest time (2’02.266), despite the reigning superbike champion still feeling below his physical best.

Working closely with his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew, Spies focused his efforts on continuing to adapt his riding style to the YZR-M1 machine. The American made advancements with his braking style and managed to slice close to a second off his best lap time set on Thursday, as he completed 31 laps.

Edwards, who was third quickest on Thursday, finished seventh fastest with a best time of 2’02.479. That was just over 0.2s slower than Spies as the 35-year-old evaluated several different chassis and swingarm setting options.

Ben Spies

“I rode as well and as hard as I could considering how I've been feeling. I'm not wanting to make any excuses but I didn't feel really good with the jetlag. It was still a good test because I learned a lot about improving my riding and adapting my style to suit the Yamaha MotoGP bike. It is hard to break some of my old superbike habits at the moment but I made some big improvements in a couple of places on the track where I was really struggling, particularly in the braking.”

“It started to feel more natural today and I got down to some decent times on race tyres. I was a second faster than the first day, so we made some good progress but this is a really difficult track to learn. This track is really long and really wide, but I got to a respectable pace. I've said it a load of times but it's a learning process and every lap I'm learning. My guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 though have been brilliant again. We're all putting in a lot of effort and I'm pleased with the steps I've made.”

Colin Edwards

“This has been a great test and I'm really happy. The big bonus of the test has been the performance of the engine. Putting it simply it seems they have made the engine with more power and more reliability. Accelerating off the corner was a problem last season but with the new engine it is a strong point. I tried a few things with the chassis and at this stage of the year it is all about crossing off pieces that work and those that don't. We found a couple of things that improved the bike and gave me more confidence and a couple of things we need to work on. It's been a great first test and hopefully we can carry this momentum on for the rest of the pre-season and into the serious business of the racing.”

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad will be back on track at Sepang for another two-day test session later this month before winter testing concludes in Qatar in March.

It was a day of mixed emotions for the San Carlo Honda Gresini team, but one which overall provided important information for the continued development of their RC212V.

The first two-day Sepang test proved to be fairly tough for the San Carlo Honda Gresini duo of Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli, who had to work hard on the set-up of their Honda RC212V machines.

After a confident end to Thursday, Friday unfortunately got off to an inauspicious start. With wet weather conditions preventing both riders testing in the morning, things were complicated further when Simoncelli crashed in the early afternoon, grazing his elbow, left thigh and severely bruising the little finger on his left hand.

Despite the pain, and being conscious of the amount of testing time available before the start of the World Championship, Simoncelli courageously went back out on track to continue his apprenticeship and set-up work with the MotoGP Honda. He picked up his pace once again and collected vital data for future tests.

Melandri also ended the day well, finding the right direction to work in and leaving Sepang confident of further improvement during the next test at the Malaysian track on February 25-26.

Marco Melandri – 2’02.810

“It's been a very difficult day, continuing our work on the geometry of the bike and trying hard to find the right balance, the feeling in the front end and on corner entry. We found both positive and negative solutions before discovering a setting later on which could serve as a base geometry from which to work in the future. Then we also worked on the suspension, finding considerable improvements, however we know there is still lots to do. With everything we've found we will be able to prepare a good working plan for the next test, it was just a shame about the rain here which cut the test an hour short and stopped us from testing with new tyres. The important thing however was to find the right direction and I think that in the end we've managed that so we now leave Sepang extremely confident.”

Marco Simoncelli – 2’03.245

“The first half of the day was relatively difficult because we couldn't get the bike to work properly and lost lots of time, then to top it off I had a crash. I had gone out with new tyres and after half a lap I came back in because of the same problems. I did a technical check and I went out once more. In the first left-hander although I was really paying attention – maybe not enough – the bike catapulted me off. I hit the asphalt hard and thinking about it now I was lucky just to get a few grazes, it could have been a lot worse. Later we went back to work in the afternoon and things were much more positive as the bike felt much improved and I was able to ride it better than yesterday, the feeling was better and the time I did wasn't by chance. Now we need to organise our ideas and think about a plan of attack for the next tests so I'm going home with high morale.”

The 2010 provisional entry list for the Moto2 World Championship as announced by the FIM on Wednesday, January 27 is as follows:

2; GABOR TALMACSI; HUNGARIAN
SPEED UP; FTR

4; STEFAN BRADL; GERMAN
VIESSMANN KIEFER RACING; SUTER

5; JOAN OLIVE ; SPANISH
JACK&JONES BY A.BANDERAS; PROMOHARRIS

6; ALEX DEBON; SPANISH
TEAM AEROPORT DE CASTELLO-AJO; FTR

7; AXEL PONS; SPANISH
PONS RACING; PONS KALEX

9; KENNY NOYES; USA;
JACK&JONES BY A.BANDERAS; PROMOHARRIS

10; FONSI NIETO; SPANISH
G22 HOLIDAYGYM; MORIWAKI

12; THOMAS LUTHI; SWISS
INTERWETTEN MORIWAKI RACING; MORIWAKI

14; RATTHAPARK WILAIROT;THAI
HONDA-SAG; SUTER

15; ALEX DE ANGELIS; SAN MARINO
SCOT RACING TEAM; SCOT

16; JULES CLUZEL; FRENCH
FORWARD RACING; SUTER

17; KAREL ABRAHAM; CZECH
CARDION AB MOTORACING; RSV

24; TONI ELIAS; SPANISH
GRESINI RACING MOTO2; MORIWAKI

25; ALEX BALDOLINI; ITALIAN
CARETTA TECHNOLOGY RACE DEPT; I.C.P.

29; ANDREA IANNONE; ITALIAN
SPEED UP; FTR

35; RAFFAELE DE ROSA; ITALIAN
TECH 3 RACING; TECH 3

37; FABRICIO PERREN; ARGENTINE
KINO RACING; BQR-MOTO2

39; ROBERTINO PIETRI; VENEZUELAN
ITALTRANS S.T.R.; SUTER

40; SERGIO GADEA; SPANISH
PONS RACING; PONS KALEX

41; ARNE TODE; GERMAN
RACING TEAM GERMANY; SUTER

44; ROBERTO ROLFO; ITALIAN
ITALTRANS S.T.R.; SUTER

45; SCOTT REDDING; BRITISH
MARC VDS RACING TEAM; SUTER

48; SHOYA TOMIZAWA; JAPANESE
TECHNOMAG-CIP; SUTER

52; LUKAS PESEK; CZECH
MATTEONI C.P. RACING; MORIWAKI

53; VALENTIN DEBISE; FRENCH
WTR SAN MARINO TEAM; ADV

55; HECTOR FAUBEL; SPANISH
HONDA-SAG; SUTER

56; VLADIMIR LEONOV; RUSSIAN
VECTOR KIEFER RACING; SUTER

59; NICCOLO CANEPA; ITALIAN
SCOT RACING TEAM; SCOT

60; JULIAN SIMON; SPANISH
MAPFRE ASPAR TEAM; RSV

61; VLADIMIR IVANOV; RUSSIAN
GRESINI RACING MOTO2; MORIWAKI

63; MIKE DI MEGLIO; FRENCH
MAPFRE ASPAR TEAM; RSV

71; CLAUDIO CORTI; ITALIAN
FORWARD RACING; SUTER

72; YUKI TAKAHASHI; JAPANESE
TECH 3 RACING; TECH 3

75; MATTIA PASINI; ITALIAN
JIR MOTO2; TSR

76; BERNAT MARTINEZ; SPANISH
BLUSENS BQR; BQR-MOTO2

77; DOMINIQUE AEGERTER; SWISS
TECHNOMAG-CIP; SUTER

88; YANNICK GUERRA; SPANISH
G22 HOLIDAYGYM; MORIWAKI

95; MASHEL AL NAIMI; QATAR
BLUSENS BQR; BQR-MOTO2

TBA; TO BE ADVISED
JIR MOTO2; TSR

RESERVES:

27; VINCENT LONBOIS; BELGIAN
MARC VDS RACING TEAM; SUTER

TBA; ANTHONY WEST; AUSTRALIAN;
MZ RACING TEAM; MZ

Pramac Racing’s Finnish rider is pleased with the new Ducati Desmosedici GP10, as Aleix Espargaró also reacts well to his first ride of the new prototype.

Pramac Racing riders Mika Kallio and Aleix Espargarò returned to work at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia on Thursday after the long winter break.

Conditions were very hot, making it an even tougher first day on track in 2010 for the duo. Espargarò experienced a fall when going through a slow turn, but there was no damage for the Spanish rider who was back on track without complications just a few moments later.

Mika Kallio

“It is always nice to get back out on the track but in conditions like this it was really difficult. I have come from -20°C in Finland to almost 40°C here in Malaysia. Today was really hard and now I need a long night of rest to feel better for tomorrow. The situation on the track is good. The bike has significantly improved from last season thanks to the better delivery of the new engine prepared by Ducati. We are confident that we can have a good season going in this direction.”

Aleix Espargarò

“It is incredibly hot here. We have succeeded in achieving an acceptable result anyway as we have worked well today. First impressions of this year’s bike are very good: when coming out of the turns the bike is less aggressive. It seems that there is not enough power, but instead the bike is as fast as last year which is really good. It is an excellent step forward. Now it’s our turn to find the best way to ride it and improve our lap times.”

The Pramac Racing Team and its riders will be back on track on Friday for further testing.

The MotoGP team unveiled its new 2010 livery today, on the morning of the first test of the pre-season in Malaysia.

The Championship-winning Fiat Yamaha team will field the same line-up as last year with World Champion Valentino Rossi and runner-up Jorge Lorenzo once again spearheading its attack.
The two-day test for official MotoGP riders begins today, February 4, the first of three pre-season tests before the first race at Qatar on April 11. The Fiat Yamaha Team will hold a press conference at the Sepang International Circuit at 6.30pm local time. Lin Jarvis, Davide Brivio and Wilco Zeelenberg, Lorenzo’s new Team Manager, will be joined by Shigeto Kitagawa and Masahiko Nakajima at the press conference before the riders have their turn – Rossi and Lorenzo at 7pm and then Yamaha Tech 3 riders Colin Edwards and Ben Spies at 7.30pm.
Speaking about the forthcoming season Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing, said “2009 was the most successful year for Yamaha’s racing activities for many years. It will be difficult to repeat such a performance but we are intending to try! We are fortunate to have the same fantastic rider line-up with Valentino and Jorge and we are looking forward to getting started with our work on track.”
He continued: “Of course, Yamaha has not been able to escape the difficulties caused by the global economic situation but MotoGP forms an important part of the company’s recovery plan. The MotoGP program is a very important brand image promotion activity and the racing requires us to demonstrate all of our company’s power in engineering, organisational and passion if we are to be successful at the top level.”
“We are extremely fortunate to have retained all of our existing loyal sponsors and even to have added a few more to the team. Our title sponsor Fiat is with us for a fourth year and Petronas, Packard Bell and Yamalube will continue as major sponsors of the team. We have two new sponsors in the form of Yamaha Indonesia, who join us with the aim of promoting their activities in Indonesia, the most important market for Yamaha at the moment, and Iveco. We have also retained all of our existing technical sponsors and suppliers.”
Jarvis concluded: “Last but not least I would like to say welcome back to all of our team staff and also to extend a warm welcome to our two new team members; Wilco Zeelenberg joins from the successful Yamaha Supersport team as Jorge’s new Team Manager and Davide Marelli comes in as his new data technician.”

The test riders complete the opening day of the first official MotoGP test of 2010 at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia.

Conditions were close to what was expected at Sepang on Wednesday as an air temperature of 30ºC and track reading of 60ºC met test riders, ahead of what will be a busy Thursday when the official MotoGP riders take to their 2010 bikes.
Norihiko Fujiwara and Wataru Yoshikawa (Yamaha Factory), Kosuke Akiyoshi (Repsol Honda Team), Nobuatsu Aoki (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) and Vittoriano Guareschi (Ducati Marlboro Team) were present as they all took out the respective official 2010 prototypes.
Also present in Pit Lane and the Paddock, but not riding, were Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, Loris Capirossi, Nicky Hayden and MotoGP debutants for 2010 Héctor Barberá, Álvaro Bautista and Hiroshi Aoyama, who all watched the day’s activities with great interest.
No official times were provided as the primary objective was a focus on the set-ups of each bike, but the Yamaha box indicated that between Fujiwara and Yoshikawa a best lap of 2’07.34 was recorded.
For Honda, Akiyoshi took out the bikes of both Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa to ensure that the basic set-up on each was functioning properly ahead of Thursday, as well as new developments. Dovizioso and Pedrosa will both be testing engines which have been evolved to meet the new regulations, and will also try out new electronics.
Guareschi, Team Manager of the official Ducati structure and also test rider, was on track until 2.30pm local time, and in the afternoon held meetings with the satellite teams.
“We have a few different things to test,” commented Guareschi. “We have three forks of varying rigidity for the riders to choose the best from. It is very important because here it is very hot and that results in much tyre wear.”
He continued: “We also have two different fairings that Nicky will test tomorrow (Thursday), which are very similar to the 2009 ones and which we started to use in the final four races of last season. We also have to keep working on the tuning of the set-up and the suspension.”
Some light rain fell at 4pm local time, although it did not disrupt the work being undertaken, and the official MotoGP team riders will take to the track on Thursday.

A positive first day’s work for factory Ducati riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden at the Sepang test ended with good general feedback on the Desmosedici GP10 on Thursday.

The Ducati Marlboro team’s first day of testing with Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden – after test rider Vittoriano Guareschi’s outing yesterday – delivered constructive results, with both riders pleased at the performance of the 2010 prototype.

Stoner, second fastest of all 17 riders present, was pleased with the new engine and will focus further on the set-up of his bike on Friday to solve a minor problem with chatter. Hayden, who was testing a new fairing, had the same issue and will also seek to improve his setting on the second day.

Stoner, whose fastest lap timed at 2’01.902, said: “This first day was a bit difficult to understand: we started off with a setting that was quite good and that allowed us to make reasonably good lap times. We thought we would improve as the day went on but we had a few problems with chatter. We tried a lot of different combinations trying to make the bike feel a little bit better but we couldn’t really get an improvement. To be honest it was difficult to work out why because the track conditions were particularly difficult - it was so hot that it was actually hard to understand if you were making an improvement on the bike or not.”

The Australian, who completed 42 laps, continued: “In any case I’m really happy with the new engine, I think that with the other one we would have struggled more. Now the bike in general feels very good, very balanced and I’m happy with it. Hopefully the weather will be a little cooler tomorrow so that we can understand better if the changes we try are the right ones.”

Rain ended the day just before it was scheduled to finish, and Hayden, who turned in 59 laps with a best time of 2’02.792, stated: “Overall the day was positive. It went quite fast actually and at the end of the day when we were ready to do some more laps the rain came and cut it a little bit short. It would be nice to have had the chance to do some more laps, but overall the bike was feeling quite good. We made a couple of little tweaks that helped us but we struggled a lot for edge chatter. There’s not much testing before the start of the season so we’ve got to move fast: day one is in the bag, we have established a good starting point and we go from here”.