We’ve got the usual rider quotes from the team’s press releases after last night’s final pre-season test in Qatar, but a couple of Italian journalists picked up some gossip from the garages that the releases don’t tell.

Valentino Rossi and Loris Capirossi who are both senior and founding members of the Safety Commission, believe that the Qatar race should be put ahead by at least an hour because of the humidity that makes the track dangerous. Marco Melandri was so angry with the performance of his 2010 Honda RC212V that he actually compared it to the Ducati GP bike he rode in 2008.

The MotoGP season opener kicks off April 11th in Qatar.

Casey Stoner - 1st 1′55.352 (51 laps)

“I am really happy with the test and the work we have done right up to tonight. In the first Sepang test we had a few things to work out but we have made constant progress. The latest big step forward with the GP10 came last night and today I was able to set a consistently fast pace. I have been able to work with the tyres without putting too much stress on them and I was able to keep my pace on used rubber. I like the new engine a lot, it is more manageable and I am pleased to see the other Ducati riders, especially Nicky confirming that with fast times.”

Valentino Rossi - 2nd 1′55.860 (57 laps)
“This has been another good day. We’ve concentrated mostly on the race preparation and it feels like we’re now ready for the first race. We did a long run at the end of the session and we got some good information, which will help us in the race. Now that testing is over I am very excited about the season. We’ve been strong throughout the six days of practice and it feels good to have been fast here also, where we have struggled in the past. We have only tested at two tracks so we need to wait for another different one to fully understand the new bike, but we’re in good shape. My M1 feels great and I’m looking forward to racing!”

Continue reading: MotoGP Qatar Day 2 - Rider Quotes

The Suomy Extreme model helmet now comes in new colours in the form of an Andrea Dovizioso replica, dedicated to the Italian MotoGP rider. Production has already commenced and the helmet will be available soon.

The Suomy Extreme helmet is available in three sizes (XS-M, L-XL, XXL-XXXL) and is made of a composite fibre external shell. The interior has alcantara antibacterial fabric which can be removed and washed. The thickness of the internal lining can be personalised (in terms of padding size), and the helmet uses D-Ring closure.

The Suomy Extreme also has a sophisticated ventilation system with a front adjustable air intake, and side air outlets. For more details on the Suomy helmet range, see the technical info helmet table on the Suomy site.

Continue reading: Suomy Extreme Andrea Dovizioso replica helmet

Casey Stoner put a big stop to Valentino Rossi’s domination in the pre-season testing taking the top spot on the final day of testing under the lights at the Losail circuit in Qatar. The Aussie rider exchanged positions with Rossi during the entire test, but in the end with a best lap of 1.55.717 left the Italian rider in second by over five tenths of second.

Andrea Dovizioso made a big jump forward from yesterday and finished in third, he too a little more than five tenths of second from Stoner and just 0.019s from Rossi. Nicky Hayden finished in fourth, up four positions from yesterday.

Loris Capirossi who was feeling better tonight, finished his test in fifth and improving almost a full second from the 1st session while Jorge Lorenzo who is still nursing his injured hand took sixth.

Several falls characterized this evening’s test, Yamaha Tech3 duo Colin Edwards, Ben Spies and Ducati’s Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner all suffered falls at turn 2, while Marco Simoncelli crashed out at turn 6.

Continue reading: MotoGP Qatar Test - Casey Stoner takes Top Spot on Day 2

With the start of the 2010 MotoGP season that starts in April, the Repsol Honda Team held its official launch at the Palacio de Deportes in Madrid, Spain. In front of 7000 fans who were present for the penultimate round FIM Indoor Trial World Championship, Dani Pedrosa rode in on trials bike to present the 2010 Honda RC212V with it’s new chassis and swingarm that he and team mate Andrea Dovizioso will use to contest in the upcoming season.

Like last year, one of the riders was absent from the event, last year it was Pedrosa who was recuperating from injury and this year it was Andrea Dovizioso. The Italian rider was unable to attend the team launch because he is suffering from a bad case of the flu, prefering to sit out the promotional event in order to be healthy enough to take part in the final pre-season test that takes place in Qatar next week.

After the jump you can read what Pedrosa had to say and Dovizioso’s message, and you can watch the video of the team presentation in Madrid.

Continue reading: MotoGP: Repsol Honda 2010 Team Launch (w/video)

Valentino Rossi once again led testing on the first day of official testing in Sepang, resuming where he left off three weeks ago. The Italian’s led both the morning and afternoon sessions topping the chart with a 2.01.068, which was slightly higher than his best time in the previous test.

Casey Stoner was second, just 0.151 from Rossi and testing different swingarms including a new and updated carbon fiber swingarm. Andrea Dovizioso had a positive day with his third place. His best lap was 2.01.063 which was a big improvement from his previous test where he finished in a lowly th place and a best lap of 2.02.272.

Loris Capirossi , fourth and just 0.056 from Dovizioso with his new GSV-R engine, continued testing numerous new parts that Suzuki brought from Japan.

Continue reading: MotoGP Sepang 2 Test: Rossi Leads Day 1

While the debate of the Rossi-Lorenzo data sharing occupied the pages of various forums, Repsol’s Honda Team Director Kazuhiko Yamano has admitted that like Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, Repsol riders do not share data information: “So, at Repsol Honda, since 2008, data has been separate in the pit garage. But development side the data is still shared. Yamaha is starting this year, but we started in 2008.”

The only novelty in this so called revelation is that the usually tight lipped Honda management has actually gone public with something, albeit with something we’ve already known.

Can anyone forget the Alberto Puig and Nicky Hayden media handbag fight back in October 2008?

Just to refresh your memories, Albert Puig told MotoGP.com: “All I can say is that Hayden may be bothered because now he can’t access information and telemetry data from Dani’s bike. With this information he was able to improve his riding, as he had all of Dani’s references and now he can’t use that any longer. He was simply copying as he never knew how to set-up a bike.”

Continue reading: Honda Admits No Data Sharing since 2008

MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso became a father on Monday the 14th. The 23-year old and his girlfriend Denisa have become the proud parents of a girl named Sara.

Sara was a little small when she was born and had to spend a few days in an incubator, but it seems that everything is fine now.

Twowheels would like to congratulate the new parents and give a big welcome to Sara.

Source | moto.it

Continue reading: Andrea Dovizioso Becomes a Father

HRC Repsol Honda is readying itself for the upcoming 2010 season and is giving the team a partial makeover. After wooing away three techs from Yamaha (Andrea Zugna, Carlo Luzzi and Christian Battaglia) and Ducati’s Livio Suppo who will be their marketing director, they have now decided to have two separate team managers.

HRC will see the omnipresent Alberto Puig follow his protégé Dani Pedrosa, while Gianni Berti will be Andrea Dovizioso’s team manager. Berti followed the Italian when he left the now defunct JiR Scot Team for the factory Honda.

Peter Benson, Dovizioso’s former chief mechanic will be substituted by Ramòn Aurìn, who has been promoted from telemetry technician.

Source | bikeracing.it

Continue reading: Two Team Managers in HRC Repsol Honda

Over 10,000 people turned out to see Valentino Rossi’s event Motocross dei Campioni, 30 anni più tardi (Motocross of the Champions, thirty years later). The fund raiser was organized to help kids suffering from leukemia at the Pesaro Hospital and the public was treated to an exciting day, that saw Andrea Dovizioso take the most points and win the race.

The first heat was won by Spanish rider and this year’s 125cc Champion Julian Simon, followed by Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Melandri, while Rossi was sixth after falling in the third lap but was able to finish.

The second heat finished in the same manner with Rossi taking fourth. Julian Simon could not take part in the third as he had a plane to catch, so the podium saw Dovizioso, Rossi and Melandri, with Dovizioso winning the event with the most points.

“It was a great race,” said a satisfied Rossi at the end of the show: “we had over 10,000 paying spectators and this was our goal, to help the AIL ( Italian Leukemia Association) and the children.”.

After the jump you can check out Marco Melandri in action at Cavallara.

Continue reading: Andrea Dovizioso wins at the Motocross dei Campioni

Andrea Dovizioso is sporting a new design on his Vemar helmet for the final MotoGP race of the season. The ‘Mud Stained’ helmet was designed by Paolo Brindesi, a graphic designer from Turin, who not only won the Dovi Design Competition, but also a weekend pass for the Valencia GP.

Brindesi based his winning design linking Dovizioso’s two passions: road racing and motocross. Dovizioso who started his career on a mini dirt bike before switching to racing, will also be taking part in Valentino Rossi’s Motocross Event to raise funds for children with leukemia and Una Gara x Luca, another motocross charity event to help raise money for Luca Pellegrini who was seriously injured during a motocross practice.

Andrea Dovizioso:

“It will be a pleasure for me to wear the winner helmet during the GP de la Comunitat Valenciana. I like it both for the design and for the meaning. Actually, I have never hidden my passion for motocross. Hopefully it will be also lucky…”

Continue reading: MotoGP Valencia - Andrea Dovizioso new helmet design

When we heard that Daniele Romagnoli would be leaving his role as Jorge Lorenzo’s team manager at the end of this season, we also heard that several other team members were preparing to leave as well.

The offical reasons for this sort of exodus is unkown, but rumors have it there’ve been problems with Romagnoli’s way of running the garage and personality clashes with Lorenzo’s crewchief Ramon Forcada.

Two electronics engineers, Andrea Zugna e Cristian Battaglia who’ve been important in the development of the elettronics on the M1 have signed up with Honda HRC. The hiring of these two specialists, who’ve always followed Magneti Marelli electronics could mean that Honda may be thinking of switching to a Marelli electronics package next year.

Continue reading: Yamaha Techs to Honda HRC

Before this morning’s 125cc race at Misano, which we highly recommend you see, HRC Honda held a press conference to confirm that Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso have both finally put their signatures on the dotted line of their contracts.

Pedrosa has signed for a one year extension while Dovizioso has a one year contract with an option for 2011.

Both riders renewal was announced at Brno by HRC president Tetsuo Suzuki, which was immediately denied by both riders only to have the the Japanese manager say a few hours later that they only reached a basic agreement.

Silly season in 2010 is going to be the best ever for us fans with the four stellar riders, Rossi, Lorenzo, Stoner and Pedrosa all available and the top teams will have to start socking money away for 2011, because it’s not going to be cheap.

Continue reading: Pedrosa and Dovizioso finally sign with Honda