Valentino Rossi has talked about his future in a long interview in this week’s Motosprint magazine that will leave his numerous fans happy, his haters unhappy and his many racing rivals wincing, because The Doctor has once again said that he would like to stay in racing for another three years and has hinted once again that it could be with Yamaha.

The 9 times World Champion talking about his future said: “I think I can race at the top for another three years. Racing is the thing in my life that I love the best: it’s my passion, I don’t need any other motives.”

Rossi has said that he’ll reveal where he’s going in 2011 only in June, but he feels very good in Yamaha:

“To change, you have to think of going where you can feel better. For me it’s hard to think that there’s something better than Yamaha. Fans would be happy to see me in Ducati, but these decisions can’t be made by factoring in emotions.”

We’ll be getting more of silly season as soon as the championship starts.

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Jorge Lorenzo has confirmed via his Twitter and Facebook pages that he’s been given the green light by his doctor to take part in this week’s final pre-season MotoGP test in Qatar.

The Spaniard has been doubtful that he would be able to test in Qatar after fracturing his first metacarpal and dislocating his thumb in a training incident last February.

Jorge Lorenzo:

“Today we are leaving for Qatar for the last Winter test. I think that it is important that we are there. The fracture happened less than five weeks ago, but we could not have missed this last test because it would have been negative for our preparation; we are not far from the first race of the season! The doctor has made a special carbon fibre protection and Dainese have modified my glove, in order to further protect the fracture, so we will see how we get on.”

Continue reading: MotoGP - Jorge Lorenzo confirms he'll be in Qatar

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Here’s part 3 of the One on One series with the two gods of motocycle racing, Ben Spies and Eddie Lawson. This time they discuss training, teams and support and the similarities from today and the past. There’s some great photo’s from Lawson’s past in the video, with an interesting discussion on the meanest and toughest race bikes that exsisted, the 500cc.

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While Valentino Rossi may have lost out to Usain Bolt as Sportsman of the Year that the prestigious Laureus World Sports assigns every year, but this afternoon the 9 times World Champion was honoured anyway when he was presented with the “Winning Italy” Award by the Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini at Palazzo Madama in Rome.

The award is given to those Italians who promote the image of Italy in the world, be it economics, research or sports and in the case of Rossi it’s because the World Champion has become an icon who represents the marvellous virtues of Italy on a foreign front, making all his compatriots proud to be Italian and with his 103 wins has sounded the Italian national anthem in the five continents.

After the awards ceremony there was the usual round of questions by journalists and as always the topics were: Ducati - “Going to Ducati would be a sort of betrayal, with Yamaha I share a beautiful story, though I have to admit that with Borgo Panigale it would be a perfect Made in Italy partnership” but also added “never say never.” The never ending story about switching to Formula1 with Ferrari : “I don’t think so, it would be very difficult, I’m going to stay in motorcycle racing for a couple more years.”

Rossi also promised that he’ll try to have the national anthem sounded at least another twenty times to try to beat Giacomo Agostini’s record of a 122 race wins (123 races according to Agostini).

Source | gazzetta.it

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After missing the Sepang2 tests due to a fracture at the base of first metacarpal and a displaced thumb during a motocross training accident on February 12th, Jorge Lorenzo is still in doubt for the final pre-season MotoGP test that is scheduled for March 18-19 in Qatar.

While Lorenzo has constantly kept his numerous fans up-to-date on how his recovery is going and that he’s undergoing extensive physiotherapy, and will make his decision about Qatar only on Monday, as he wrote on his Twitter page yesterday: Hello people! Another day of intensive physiotherapy. Probably on monday i’ll decide if i can go to Qatar test.

The first race of the 2010 MotoGP season takes place at Losail, Qatar on April 11th.

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When you see Freddie Spencer trying to sell pieces of his personal racing history like his championship 1983 Honda NSR500 and his 1985 championship NSR250, you just know things can’t be going that well for one of the greatest racers of all times.

Fast Freddie who is the only rider in history to won both the 250cc and 500cc World championship in the same year, has decided to sell off these championship bikes. The bikes are so rare, that they’re the only ones in exsistence outside the Honda museum in Japan and are being sold off as a pair.

Source | rmdmotors.com via motomatters.com

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With WSBK round 2 at Portimao in just two weeks time, we’ve got a couple of injury updates on riders of who will be racing and who’s still in doubt.

Chris Vermeulen (Kawasaki Racing) with his usual video, (thanks Chris) tells us the extent of the knee injuries that he picked up during race 2 when his gearbox locked up and sent him crashing into the tire wall at 200 km/h. Vermeulen in doubt.

James Toseland (Yamaha Sterilgarda) fractured his third metacarpal bone of his left hand during a heavy fall in free practice and hurt his hand further when he highsided in race 1. In race two the Brit rider took 10th place, but rode the race with his hand heavily anethestized. Toseland will race.

Roland Resch (Reitwagen BMW) crashed during Q1 and picked up a concussion and fractured his right collarbone and was operated on a week ago according to his Twitter page and thinks he can be ready for the Portimao round. Resch still in doubt.

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The WSBK website has kindly put up this video so we can finally see how Ruben Xaus took out Noriyuki Haga during warm up practice at Phillip Island, and this fourth and final crash of the weekend resulted in Xaus pulling out of the first round.

While the latest rumors are saying that Xaus may lose his ride, BMW’s team manager Davide Tardozzi hasn’t given up on his Spanish rider and will be spending two days in Spain this week, talking to a dejected Xaus in order to help him regain his confidence:

“He has completely lost confidence and what I want is to to make him regain it. It might take a few races to see the Ruben we’re used to, but we’re counting on it. We know he’s a fast rider, aggressive, a quality rider. In 2008, a little more than a year ago, he won at Misano with a privateer Ducati. We want to bring him back to that level.”

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Yamaha USA has released part two of their One on One series with Ben Spies and Eddie Lawson. In this video both champions come across much more relaxed, especially Spies. Listen to these guys talk about competitivenss, fans and rider obligations and winning.

Enjoy.

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BMW’s Ruben Xaus, who crashed out four times at Phillip Island has been the latest rider to be targeted by the caustic wit of Motoblog’s resident comic artist Luca Ruggeri.

The Spanish rider who seems to single handedly support the motorcycle fairings market, according to the latest rumors that are circulating, may find himself without a ride for the rest of the season if he doesn’t regain his confidence and improve his performance in the next two rounds at Portimao and Valencia.

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