Groundbreaking Virtual GP On Twitter This Weekend!

Lots of people slag off Twitter. They’re idiots of course. But they do. And sometimes you can accept that there’s differing levels of usefulness, triviality and purposelessness to the phenomenon in an already crowded world of communications and technology.
Nonetheless, any MotoGP fan should find themselves very grateful that Twitter exists this coming weekend, when the world’s first genuinely virtual sporting event takes place on the service – a completely virtual MotoGP weekend played out in the absence of the *real* Japanese GP (which has been postponed until October due to the travel chaos caused by the Icelandic volcano eruption). READ MORE

Rider And Boss Take Positives Away From Qatar

Alvaro had an entertaining, but ultimately fruitless debut race in last night’s Qatar GP as he crashed on the very last corner when fighting for 11th place. Bati got a poor start as he was hit by another rider, relegating him to last place. He took a few laps to get into a good rhythm, before recording several personal best laps during the mid-way point of the race. He then set about making his way up to the riders in-front of him and as he chased down Simoncelli on the last lap, he pushed too hard in the final bend and crashed. READ MORE

Qatar GP Race Result. (Bah!)

Pos Nº Rider Bike Laps Time Delay/Retirement
1 46 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 22 42’50.099
2 99 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 22 42’51.121 1.022
3 4 Andrea Dovizioso Honda 22 42’51.964 1.865
4 69 Nicky Hayden Ducati 22 42’51.975 1.876
5 11 Ben Spies Yamaha 22 42’54.002 3.903
6 14 Randy de Puniet Honda 22 42’59.421 9.322
7 26 Daniel Pedrosa Honda 22 43’06.607 16.508
READ MORE

Alvaro: My First Official MotoGP Crash

“This is my first official crash in a race weekend, but I am still quite happy because I rode well and got a good setting for the bike during the free practice and I feel very good on the bike. I improved my time on the race tyres and this is very important, but I also think I can still go a little bit faster. I have a good race rhythm and even though I am too far back on the grid for what I wanted, I will try to get a good start and run with a good group and see what happens. I am really excited for tomorrow’s race and I think I can enjoy myself and we’ll see what we can do.”

Qatar GP, Qualifying: Alvaro Takes 13th Despite Fall

A bit of a mixed end to the qualifying for Alvaro, going down whilst improving his time. The result is that he’ll be starting the Qatar GP in 13th spot. Overall it’s still got to be viewed as a very positive start and we’ll see what the race brings… READ MORE

Qatar – Free Practice 1 Sees Alvaro 7th

Alvaro produced a promising first practice session at Qatar to record the seventh fastest time at the 5,380m circuit. Alvaro (1’56.998, 18 laps) is making his race debut for Rizla Suzuki this weekend and showed early potential as he steadily made progress up the leader-board whilst making important improvements to his Suzuki GSV-R. He is in a confident mood and will be looking for a strong position in tomorrow’s qualifying session. Here’s the thoughts of both Alvaro and Team Boss Paul Denning… READ MORE

Qatar GP Weekend: TV Times For Those In The UK

Okay here’s the TV schedules on BBC and Eurosport this weekend. Don’t forget of course that as it’s a night race, the timings are a little bit more odd than usual. As with last year, although Eurosport covers all the practice and quali across all classes in the broadcast stream *live*, they aren’t allowed to play the race live and so have a delayed broadcast.
Hope this helps you see everything unfold… READ MORE

Qatar GP – Schedule of Events

Friday 9 April
20.00 – 21.00 :: 125cc Free Practice 1
21.15 – 22.15 :: Moto2 Free Practice 1
22.30 – 23.30 :: MotoGP Free Practice 1
READ MORE

Number Crunching

It’s all getting very exciting, looking ahead to the imminent Qatar GP, isn’t it…
So just to help get you in the mood is some season-start number crunching courtesy of motogp.com – a few interesting tidbits of info in numbers… READ MORE

Alvaro Signs Off With A Great 2nd At Valencia

A tremendous final race in 250cc for Alvaro – fantastic to watch it in the stands with the Fanclub (and I’ll aim to post up some personal pics form this very soon) – and definitely exciting to the last. Congrats also to Hiro on the title.

Here’s Alvaro’s words…

“I would have liked to have finished the year with a win but, bearing in mind the conditions that we were facing today, second is not a bad result. The wind was taking me off-track constantly, making it difficult to stick to my braking points. Yesterday we had some problems in the practice sessions, and this morning we went back to a setting that I preferred. In the warm up we were faster than we were on Saturday, so I knew that I could be up at the front. The only doubt that I had was whether the rear tyre would last the whole race. It may have gone off slightly ahead of time, and it was difficult to keep up with the guys ahead of me until the halfway point of the race. When I opened the throttle the bike started to slide. Second is nothing to be ashamed of, but obviously I would have been happier with a victory. I have spent a wonderful part of my life in the Aspar team, in which almost every moment has been good for me.”

And here’s the results…

Pos Rider Bike Time/Gap
1. Hector Barbera Aprilia 44m10.601s
2. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia + 3.663s
3. Raffaele de Rosa Honda + 5.665s
4. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 5.680s
5. Ratthapark Wilairot Honda + 13.601s
6. Karel Abraham Aprilia + 13.697s
7. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 27.438s
8. Alex Baldolini Aprilia + 35.097s
9. Roberto Locatelli Gilera + 35.866s
10. Shoya Tomizawa Honda + 40.176s
11. Shuhei Aoyama Honda + 49.095s
12. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 53.132s
13. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia + 1m06.014s
14. Mike di Meglio Aprilia + 1m18.692s
15. Valentin Debise Honda + 1m18.876s
16. Bastien Chesaux Aprilia + 1 lap
17. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia + 1 lap
18. William Dunlop Honda + 1 lap
19. Imre Toth Aprilia + 1 lap

Retirements:
Jules Cluzel Aprilia 23 laps
Marco Simoncelli Gilera 20 laps
Axel Pons Aprilia 19 laps
Mattia Pasini Aprilia 11 laps
Hector Faubel Honda 7 laps

Bati Lines Up 9th For Farewell 250 Race

Another windy session, though less changeable weather overall. Still a bit of a blustery challenge for many riders, and Alvaro putting in plenty of work only to find himself in lots of traffic in the closing minutes…

“We tried a different setting for the afternoon because we had some traction problems this morning but it didn’t work so we went back to the original setting – unfortunately we didn’t have time to get many laps in after that. There was a lot of traffic on track at the end of the session too and I wasn’t able to improve my lap time. It means that once again we’re starting from further back than we’d like but hopefully we can have a good warm-up and gain the confidence to push hard from the start of the race. Everybody wants to win tomorrow so it will be a close race and important to stay in touch with the leaders from the start.”

Here’s the results in full…

Pos Rider Bike Time Laps
1. Alex Debon Aprilia 1m36.116s 20
2. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 1m36.450s + 0.334s 22
3. Hector Barbera Aprilia 1m36.470s + 0.354s 21
4. R.Wilairot Honda 1m36.563s + 0.447s 20
5. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 1m36.656s + 0.540s 22
6. Thomas Luthi Aprilia 1m36.985s + 0.869s 23
7. Karel Abraham Aprilia 1m37.271s + 1.155s 22
8. Mattia Pasini Aprilia 1m37.278s + 1.162s 20
9. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 1m37.303s + 1.187s 22
10. Hector Faubel Honda 1m37.318s + 1.202s 21
11. Raffaele De Rosa Honda 1m37.365s + 1.249s 21
12. Alex Baldolini Aprilia 1m37.577s + 1.461s 21
13. Jules Cluzel Aprilia 1m37.749s + 1.633s 17
14. R.Locatelli Gilera 1m37.811s + 1.695s 22
15. Mike Di Meglio Aprilia 1m37.958s + 1.842s 15
16. Shoya Tomizawa Honda 1m38.085s + 1.969s 20
17. Axel Pons Aprilia 1m38.126s + 2.010s 21
18. Lukas Pesek Aprilia 1m38.291s + 2.175s 19
19. Balazs Nemeth Aprilia 1m38.737s + 2.621s 21
20. Shuhei Aoyama Honda 1m38.795s + 2.679s 19
21. Valentin Debise Honda 1m39.283s + 3.167s 16
22. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia 1m40.371s + 4.255s 19
23. Bastien Chesaux Aprilia 1m41.605s + 5.489s 13
24. Imre Toth Aprilia 1m42.418s + 6.302s 20
- William Dunlop Honda 1m42.906s + 6.790s 20

Alvaro Third In Friday FP

Okay – today’s Friday practice report comes fresh form the infield for a change… well, back at the hotel now, but watched from the infield on a slightly changeable afternoon, mixing sun and cloud, cool calm and wind. You could see some of Bati’s exits onto the back straight looking a little wiggly at times, whilst other longer sweeps into the centre of the circuit and round out towards the big long penultimate curve looked gloriously smooth.
For now here’s Alvaro’s words…

“The conditions were a little strange today. The track surface was dirty and quite cool, so we had to ride carefully. The majority of corners here are to the left so when you flick right you can really notice the lack of grip. Anyway, as the weekend progresses I’m sure the track and the weather will both improve. I felt pretty comfortable with the front end of my Aprilia and we were able to try a few things with the rear aimed at getting more life out of the tyre. We still haven’t found the perfect combination so we’ll keep trying tomorrow. In general I’m happy with the job we’ve done and I felt comfortable out there so it’s a good start.”

And here, for the record, is today’s top ten…

1. Barbera (Aprilia) 1min 36.185secs
2. Debon (Aprilia) +0.317sec
3. Bautista (Aprilia) +0.681sec
4. H. Aoyama (Honda) +0.739sec
5. de Rosa (Honda) +0.914sec
6. Simoncelli (Gilera) +0.980sec
7. Faubel (Honda) +1.028sec
8. di Meglio (Aprilia) +1.088sec
9. Wilairot (Honda) +1.241sec
10. Luthi (Aprilia) +1.621sec

Alvaro Looks Ahead To Valencia Weekend

Although he’s not finishing the season as 250 champ, Bati nonetheless aims to end his 2009 campaign on a high and in a really positive frame of mind.
He’ll be following the race weekend with testing for Suzuki, to give us a mouthwatering teaser of next year…

Here’s his thoughts ahead of the weekend:
“I would have liked to be going to Valencia in different circumstances this weekend but luck hasn’t been on our side for the last three races. The championship is over for me but this is my last race in the 250 class and I want to enjoy it in front of my home fans. I’ll go out there and give it everything to fight for the win. We have missed out on our main objective so now I just want to enjoy the weekend and sign off from the class in style. It is important to me to end this phase of my career with a win. Cheste holds few secrets for me because I have done so many laps there and it is one of my favourite circuits. There are no excuses and I will be giving it everything from Friday.”

Suerte Alvaro!