Casey Stoner

Lorenzo to ride at Qatar test

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:20:19 +0000

Jorge Lorenzo is getting better every day and will attend the final pre-season MotoGP test, at Qatar on March 18-19, although it remains to be seen how effective he will be. The 2009 MotoGP World Championship runner-up sustained a fracture at the base of the first metacarpal and a displaced thumb, both in his right hand, after a motocross training accident in mid-February. The young Spaniard was forced to miss the second pre-season test at Sepang late last month as a result of the injury, which required surgery to insert a titanium plate. Lorenzo’s recovery has since continued at a steady pace, although his exact level of MotoGP fitness won’t be known until he gets back on his M1. “Jorge is better day after day, but we don’t know what he will be able to [do] in Qatar,” Lorenzo’s press manager, Hector Martin, told Crash.net. “Anyway, we will go to Doha [for the test], that’s for sure.” Lorenzo is no stranger to riding injured, having suffered a series of painful accidents during his rookie 2008 MotoGP season. Last year he won four races and finished second only to reigning seven time champion, and Fiat Yamaha team-mate, Valentino Rossi. Lorenzo finished the first pre-season test at Sepang, held just before his injury, in third place behind Rossi and Casey Stoner (Ducati). Rossi remained unbeaten at the second Sepang test. Following the Qatar test, the first race of the 2010 MotoGP season takes place back at Losail on the evening of April 11. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Source: Crash.Net via Yahoo! UK & Ireland Sport

Lorenzo to ‘test’ fitness at Qatar

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:04:09 +0000

Jorge Lorenzo is getting better every day and will attend the final pre-season MotoGP test, at Qatar on March 18-19, although it remains to be seen how effective he will be.The 2009 MotoGP World Championship runner-up sustained a fracture at the base of the first metacarpal and a displaced thumb, both in his right hand, after a motocross training accident in mid-February.The young Spaniard was forced to miss the second pre-season test at Sepang late last month as a result of the injury, which required surgery to insert a titanium plate. Lorenzo’s recovery has since continued at a steady pace, although his exact level of MotoGP fitness won’t be known until he gets back on his M1.“Jorge is better day after day, but we don’t know what he will be able to [do] in Qatar,” Lorenzo’s press manager, Hector Martin, told Crash.net. “Anyway, we will go to Doha [for the test], that’s for sure.”Lorenzo is no stranger to riding injured, having suffered a series of painful accidents during his rookie 2008 MotoGP season. Last year he won four races and finished second only to reigning seven time champion, and Fiat Yamaha team-mate, Valentino Rossi.Lorenzo finished the first pre-season test at Sepang, held just before his injury, in third place behind Rossi and Casey Stoner (Ducati). Rossi remained unbeaten at the second Sepang test.Following the Qatar test, the first race of the 2010 MotoGP season takes place back at Losail on the evening of April 11. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Source: Crash.net

Parrish: ‘Enigmatic’ Rossi might be lucky but you make your own luck

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:00:16 +0000

As a rider with a staggering nine world championship titles to his name – and at barely 30 years of age into the bargain – it is arguable that Valentino Rossi has been blessed with good fortune throughout his motorcycling career, but former British 500cc Champion Steve Parrish points out that sometimes, you make your own luck. Rossi heads into 2010 bidding to claim a third straight premier class crown with FIAT Yamaha – and on the basis of pre-season testing, he looks to be in fine form to do just that, having paced all four major days around the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia thus far. It is indisputable that up against hungry and younger pretenders of the likes of Ducati Marlboro duo Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden – ex-champions both – Repsol Honda rival Dani Pedrosa and his own team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, ‘The Doctor’ is likely to have things far from his own way over the coming months, but still the legendary Italian is considered to be the favourite heading towards the curtain-raising showdown at Losail in Qatar in a month’s time. With good reason, contends Parrish, but Barry Sheene’s former team-mate goes on to caution that Rossi can only physically and mentally remain at such a phenomenally high level for so long, and that one day – perhaps not even too far into the future – he will find that the desire is beginning to fade. “He is an enigma,” the bike and truck racer-turned-BBC commentator told Crash.net Radio, when asked about the 103-time grand-prix winner’s prospects for the forthcoming campaign. “I wouldn’t have believed he could have done it for this long, actually. He is such a bright, intelligent man who has everything that is required of a motorcycle racer. “You see him on the track, at times when it looks like everyone else is overloaded, and he seems to have more space left on his C-Drive than anyone else. He just has that ability to absorb what’s going on, and we all say he has a lot of luck, but you make a lot of luck, and he seems to be able to just look at the situation and work things out. “I don’t know; he certainly has the capability [to win again], but it’s whether or not that fire in his belly is still burning strongly enough – that will be the thing…

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San Carlo Honda Gresini launches all-Italian ‘dream’ team

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:20:15 +0000

San Carlo Honda Gresini has officially launched its all-Italian ‘dream’ team for the 2010 MotoGP World Championship – with strong hopes that between them, Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli will be able to fly the flag high and ‘put a true flavour of Italy out on the track’. The Faenza-based outfit achieved seventh and eighth-place finishes in the final riders’ standings last year with Toni Elías and Alex de Angelis, but both men have since been shown the door. In their stead have come Melandri – a Gresini Racing returnee, having proven to be Valentino Rossi’s closest rival for the MotoGP laurels back in 2005, and remaining on-board until he made an ill-fated switch to Ducati Corse three years later alongside Casey Stoner, followed by a similarly unsuccessful move to Kawasaki’s Hayate Racing Team last season – and namesake and fellow former 250cc World Champion Simoncelli, who is preparing to make his premier class bow. The team, riders and 2010-liveried Honda RC212V were unveiled at the Telenova studios in Milan, where popular presenter Franco Bobbiese – known for his show ‘Griglia di partenza’ (‘Starting Grid’) – introduced the all-Italian line-up to the world’s media. It was, confirmed team manager Fausto Gresini, a proud moment indeed. “Today was a really special day,” acknowledged the erstwhile two-time 125cc World Champion. “A personal dream of mine has been fulfilled – having two top [Italian] riders contest the MotoGP World Championship with my team and an Italian sponsor like San Carlo. I am proud to represent Italy around the world, and I am looking forward to going racing this year – hopefully we can ensure that our flag flies high at circuits all over the world.” “People make the difference,” underlined San Carlo president Alberto Vitaloni, as the partnership enters its third consecutive campaign. “That is what I thought when I met Fausto Gresini for the first time. I had been offered other opportunities to enter the world of motorcycle racing previously, but I was never fully convinced when it came to taking the plunge. As soon as I shook hands with Fausto, I realised that we had an instant understanding and that we could work well together. “Professionalism is not something that comes by chance – it comes through hard work, through having concern for others and the instinct to predict change and being able to move with the times. They are…

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valencia spain, moto gp 2008

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:17:46 +0000

jeaninne haijemaije @ Flickr

casey stoner gp winner 46:46:114

moto gp 2008 valencia spain

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:10:38 +0000

jeaninne haijemaije @ Flickr

spanish tribute for australian winner casey stoner 46:46:114

MotoGP: Nicky Hayden Finds His Groove While Finishing 3rd at Sepang Test

admin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Nicky Hayden enjoyed a dramatic performance surge at Sepang on Friday – shredding 1.5 seconds from his best lap time to claim third on the end-of-test timesheets, in what Valentino Rossi called “the greatest surprise of the day”. Hayden, weakened by recent surgery to remove scar tissue from a previous arm-pump operation, had been only eleventh out of the 16 riders during day one – but the suffocating heat had masked the amount of progress made. “Yesterday I had a lot of chatter and I just couldn’t get through the long corners,” said Hayden. “But we made some changes at the end of yesterday, which made me a few tenths faster even in the heat. Then we tweaked it a bit more this morning and the bike worked really well in the cooler temperatures we’ve had today. “I had a lot better feeling and was able to go a lot faster. I’m pretty happy. “My best time was set with the standard tyre. I tried the new Bridgestone rear, but I was faster with the standard one. “We’re pretty much set on the swingarm and geometry to use at the start of the season now, although obviously we’ll want to confirm a few things at the Qatar test, under different conditions,” he added. Team-mate Casey Stoner has won 20 races for Ducati since the start of 2007, compared with just one win (by Loris Capirossi) for all other Ducati riders combined. But Sepang featured the rare sight of two factory Ducatis in close formation at the sharp end of the timesheets, with Hayden’s best lap just 0.191sec slower than Stoner and within 0.44sec of Rossi (around a long lap of over two minutes). Hayden believes a few more tenths will be instantly available if he and Ducati can find a solution for the top speeddeficit he has struggled with ever since getting on the Desmosedici. “I’m still down on top speed. Actually on my best lap I was two tenths quicker than Casey up until the back straight,” Hayden revealed. “Coming on the back straight and to the finish line I lost it. You can do the maths [regarding how much speed he is down]. I don’t want to get carried away though. That was only on my best lap, not every lap.” Nevertheless, Friday’s form was just what Hayden needed with only one test session remaining before the…

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Maisto 18 2007 Casey Stoner

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:25:34 +0000

mutiara_d27 @ Photobucket

Stoner unfazed by sizzling Rossi

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:48:59 +0000

Australia’s Casey Stoner says he is unconcerned by arch-rival Valentino Rossi’s domination of MotoGP pre-season testing. Stoner’s Ducati was once again pipped by Rossi on a Yamaha in the second test at Sepang in Malaysia, but the former world champion declared himself happy with his progress. Rossi clocked the quickest time, less than two tenths of a second quicker than Stoner as the Italian maintained the lead in the build-up to the first race of the season at Qatar in April. Stoner clipped a tenth of a second off his best time from the last test at Sepang three weeks ago and reported encouraging feedback from the new bike. “Everything was very positive and we have made a big step from the last test,” Stoner said. “In general the bike felt pretty good from the beginning. “We didn’t really change too much, we tried a lot of different things on both bikes but in the end we came back to what we started with, and the bike in general is very well balanced. “It’s working quite well and we could have gone quite a lot faster but we definitely have a little bit in reserve so we’re very happy at the moment,” he said. Earlier, Stoner said it was hard to judge the true speed of Rossi’s bike from the test times. “They look good but they do every year and they always seem to do well at this track – but here is a bit of an Achilles heel for us,” Stoner said. “We’ve had a couple of good tests here and a good race but otherwise we’ve struggled here a little bit more than the other circuits. “This bike is going to be a better package for the whole championship rather than one or two tracks. “In the past our bike has worked well in some tracks and then been difficult in others. This bike has a much better all round feeling and I’m looking forward to some other tracks and see how it goes,” he said. AAP Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Source: Brisbane Times

MotoGP: Casey Stoner on Top Form While Nicky Hayden Still Recovering

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:39:13 +0000

The Ducati Marlboro Team completed the first day of a second test session at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia today as they continue their preparations for the 2010 MotoGP season. Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden were second and eleventh fastest on the unofficial time sheets today, without using the new tyres (hard front and medium rear) that Bridgestone have made available to the teams here. Both riders plan to try the new rubber during tomorrow’s second and final day. Stoner knocked a tenth off his best time from the last test at Sepang three weeks ago on just his second outing of the day and reported positive feedback from the new bike. Hayden also managed to improve his lap times from the previous session here although he was careful not to put too much stress on his right arm, which underwent surgery two weeks ago. Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team) 2nd fastest 2’01.219 (43 laps) “Today went really well, we have taken a good step forward since the last test three weeks ago. We didn’t make any major changes to the bike at the start, preferring to make small adjustments as the day progressed, working in particular on the swingarm. I’m satisfied – the bike feels well balanced and the characteristics of the new engine make it easier to ride in general. We definitely have room for improvement in terms of the set-up – we could find some more traction, for example, although we are still better off in this respect than we were here last year. We could also improve the bike under braking, especially in the hard braking zones, and find some more edge grip but it is a case of refining a few details. We have a good base to work from so I’m happy for today.” Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team) 11th fastest 2’02.221 (65 laps) “We started out with the setting from the previous test, working a little bit with the geometry, and in some parts of the track we got better but there is still plenty of room for improvement. We’ve been working on trying to solve a little front-end chatter and we did that a little by changing to the carbon swingarm. The arm is ok enough but I didn’t want to push it too hard.” Today unofficial lap times 1. Rossi (Yamaha) 2:01.068 2. Stoner (Ducati) 2:01.219 3. Dovizioso Honda2:01.631 4….

Source: Casey Stoner News