Scott Redding took his first ever Moto2 victory in crash fest and then rain halted race in today’s French Grand Prix at Le Mans.

With the victory, Redding leads by 24 points in the standings and became the first non-Spanish rider to take a win in all three classes after four races.

The riders all started on slicks on the damp track as poleman Takaaki Nakagami got the holeshot and was leading into the Dunlop chicane as Espargaro who got an awesome slingshot start from seventh followed by Johann Zarco, Tito Rabat, Dominque Aegerter, Xavier Simeon, and Mika Kallio, while Redding had a horrible start falling to ninth despite starting on the front row.

Continue reading: Scott Redding takes maiden victory in crash fest, truncated Le Mans Moto2 race

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Maverick Vinales took his second consecutive victory of the Moto3 season, after his victory with a perfectly and intelligently prepared race on a damp/dry track at the famous Bugatti circuit at Le Mans

The race was declared dry and the Team Calvo rider was the pole sitter, but he was beat to the first turn after the lights went out by Jonas Folger and the two were followed by Alex Rins, Luis Salom, Miguel Oliveira, Alex Marquez, Niklas Ajo and Jack Miller.

Vinales and Folger exchanged the lead over the first laps, but the Aspar rider regained the command of the race as the rest field began to lose contact with Folger, Vinales, Rins and suffering Salom, after his huge crash yesterday. The race lost the presence of Oliveira after he crashed his Mahindra at the Dunlop chicane during the fifth lap.

Continue reading: 2013 Moto3 Le Mans: Maverick Vinales takes second consecutive win

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This morning’s MotoGP twenty minute warm-up practice was on a wet/damp track and the riders were out on rain tires without taking any necessary risks, however Jorge Lorenzo posted the fastest time with his tenth of eleven laps in 1.44.307 and leaving the second fastest rider Cal Crutchlow more than 0.455s adrift.

The Yamaha Tech3 was able to take part in the session as he passed the fitness test despite a small fracture to his shinbone that was taped and he was given pain meds. Marc Marquez really didn’t care about the half and half conditions as he dominated his very nervous Honda to take the third best time followed by Ducati’s Nicky Hayden and an impressive Stefan Bradl.

Andrea Dovizioso was sixth fastest albeit already one second adrift from Lorenzo, and worse went Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi - who even problems passing Bradly Smith - and they were 8th and 9th respectively and behind Aspar’s CRT rider Aleix Espargaro.

Closing out the top ten was PBM’s Yonny Hernandez who left behind him MotoGP prototype riders, Alvaro Bautista, Bradley Smith, Andrea Iannone and Michele Pirro.

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo dominates Le Mans warm-up

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Andrea Dovizioso gave Ducati their first front row start of the 2013 MotoGP season at Le Mans with a 1.33.603 lap that put him in third on the starting grid and he did it without a tow, which is also important.

The Italian is however keeping his feet on the ground because the Ducati still has all its usual problems and on race pace after a few laps the GP13 starts having tire issues.

Strangely enough at the French circuit the Ducati is more competitive and has less issues, with many believing that it’s due to the majority of the turns have a shorter radius so the riders can pick up the bike sooner without having to wrestle it back to the racing line like they usually do on the longer and faster corners.

“I’m pleased with the work we’ve done over the weekend because we’ve been consistently fast and we have the pace to do a good race—maybe not to finish on the podium but we’re much closer to the competition than we have been at other tracks. I was surprised to do a 1:33.6, as I didn’t think I’d be able to do that, but it was a beautiful feeling. Although I know it will be a difficult race, I still hope that it’ll be dry tomorrow; those are the conditions that we’ve practiced in and we’re pretty fast. Still, it shouldn’t be a big problem even if it rains, as it seems that our GP13 works well in the wet,” said Dovizioso.

Continue reading: Andrea Dovizioso surprised by front row start, Hayden has problems putting heat in his tires

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Cal Crutchlow is not only tough as nails and even when he’s bruised and battered for the second straight GP weekend, but his still is able to come through and qualify ahead of many more titled riders. Maybe Yamaha should remember that when they are negotiating with Pol Espargaro for the 2014 season wanting to replace the Brit with Spaniard in Poncharal’s Tech3 squad.

Crutchlow lost rear traction going into the La Chapelle corner and his Yamaha M1 spit him off hard and left him lying on the side of the circuit holding his right side, causing the session to be briefly red flagged as the marshals assisted him.

The British rider was able to walk away and returned to the his garage very pale looking and with his nose bleeding.

A very brief medical check up declared him fit to continue and he returned to track to qualify a stunning fourth, missing a front row start by a mere 0.006s.

Crutchlow crashed twice on Saturday the Jerez round that resulted in a small bleed in his left kidney however he then rode to fifth and tomorrow he still wants to ride, fracture or no fracture, despite one of the Clinica Mobile doctors warning that the fracture to the tibial plateau (shinbone) could affect the overall stability and motion of his knee and that he could swell up during the night which could cause extra problems.

Continue reading: Cal Crutchlow wants to race at Le Mans despite a fracture to his shinbone

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Unless you’re twenty years old and leading the MotoGP championship or made from very stern stuff like Cal Crutchlow it is hard to shrug off a crash, even one that hurts more your pride than your body as Dani Pedrosa found out today in qualifying at Le Mans.

The Repsol Honda rider crashed during Q2 at turn 3 - Dunlop chicane - and despite being able to return to track was unable challenge for the pole position that left him down in sixth a position that he isn’t used to, and disappoint for Pedrosa who will have struggle to do one of his usual lightning starts and hope that no one rear ends him.

“The afternoon’s practice sessions were difficult,” said Pedrosa. “I crashed in qualifying and then had to go back to the garage and only had a little time left on the clock when I got back out on-track. I wasn’t able to make the best use of the session, but at least I was able to clock a fairly decent time and place sixth. It is a pity because we could have been much higher up the grid. For tomorrow we will have to try to get a good start, come back up through the field and have a good race.”

Marc Marquez also suffered a crash but luckily for him it happened during the fourth free practice and he was still able to get used to his spare bike before qualifying in pole position for the second time this season.

“I was on my second bike, but to build that confidence again after a crash is quite difficult. It takes time. I took one or two laps, but then it was qualifying and I pushed like before. In terms of my rhythm: I’m happy, not so bad. Jorge (Lorenzo) had a very good rhythm but, you know, we will see how the weather and everything is tomorrow and we will try to do our best,” commented Marquez.

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Even if Jorge Lorenzo didn’t take the pole position at Le Mans pipped by Marc Marquez by mere 0.030 seconds, the Yamaha rider is quietly confident that he can take on the two Repsol Honda riders.

“All weekend we’ve been working pretty much to improve the feeling on the front tyre, where we had some difficulties at Jerez, and trying to improve the bike to keep a more consistent pace. I think we’ve got it. I also concentrated on doing a very fast lap but unfortunately I couldn’t beat Marc today because he was really fast, but our main target was to improve the bike for the race and I think we’ve done that. We’ll see tomorrow,” said Lorenzo.

Valentino Rossi’s strong suit has never been qualifying. In 279 GP race starts he has had only 59 pole positions which we can compare to team mate Jorge Lorenzo who has 182 GP starts and already has 53 pole positions.

The new 15 minute qualifying format puts the Italian rider in a quandrary, unable to use, and above all trust a new soft tire right off, something that Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Marquez are able to do without batting an eye, so they almost always qualify on the front row, while he lingers more often than not on the third row.

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo thinks he's got it, as Rossi is unable to take advantage of new tires

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We’ve run out of accolades to describe the super talented Marc Marquez. The Repsol Honda rookie did it again as he took his second pole position of the 2013 season in today’s qualifying session at the Bugatti circuit at Le Mans.

If a pole position in the Austing GP was more than expected at the French circuit, Marquez learned the layout so well so well that he posted a flying lap in a stunning 1:33.187, shrugging off his FP4 crash just fifteen minutes before QP2.

Only the hammering laps of Jorge Lorenzo could keep up with the Repsol Honda rider and he finished a mere 0.030s adrift, but just checking out the time sectors you can see that the Yamaha rider is a war machine more than prepared for tomorrow’s race.

Andrea Dovizioso took the third spot on the front row, and giving Ducati their first front start after Nicky Hayden’s last year qualifying result at Jerez. Dovizioso also managed to pip by just 0.006s a battered and heroic Cal Crutchlow for the position, proving that the Ducati does like the French circuit.

Continue reading: Marc Marquez takes Le Mans pole position

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MV Agusta Brutale 1090 RR was chosen by the Brazilian Motociclismo magazine as “Moto de Ouro 2013” in the Naked category. With this award, Brutale kicked aside 10 other rivals of leading manufacturers currently active in the Brazilian market. The super sports F4, another finalist, arrived second place in the Sports category.

This is the second award won by MV Agusta in a little over a year of official activity in Brazil. In addition to the Golden Motorcycle won by Brutale, the brand has recently earned the title of Motorcycle of the Year awarded by the Duas Rodas magazine, in the Sport category.

The 15th edition “Moto de Ouro” is part of the “Motorcycle of the year”, the world’s most important motorcycle award, organized by the magazines of the Motorpress Group in 9 countries: Germany (Motorrad), Brazil (Motociclismo), Switzerland (Töff), France (Moto Journal), Spain (Motociclismo), Holland (Moto Plus), Hungary (Motorevue), Poland (Motocyckl) and Czech Republic (Motocyckl).

The Brutale 1090 RR features a 1078cc four cylinder, 4 stroke, 16 valve engine that pours out 158hp (116.5 kW) at 11,900 rev/min and 100 Nm (10.2 kgm) of torque at 10,100 rev/min and has eight levels of traction control.

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It was very overcast and the track temperatures were much cooler for the fourth and final free practice at Le Mans and the session was almost immediately was red flagged when Cal Crutchlow’s Yamaha M1 pitched him off on his third lap out.

The British rider remained laying on the side of the track holding his right side for a few minutes and the was able to get up and walk away on his two legs but with his nose bleeding and reluctantly went to the medical center riding a bicycle, only to stoically return to track and finish seventh.

Jorge Lorenzo set the fastest time of the session and lowering Marc Marquez morning lap time by almost a tenth and finishing with a best lap of 1.33.508, as he hammered out lap after lap in the high 1.33s and very low 1.34s.

Continue reading: Jorge Lorenzo sets new benchmark in FP4 at Le Mans

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