Casey Stoner took his first pole position of the season in what turned out to be an exciting and very tight qualifying at Estoril for the top riders, with nine riders in less than a second, but we will be hearing several angry complaints regarding slower riders after today.

The session however was red flagged with only eleven minutes left, when Randy de Puniet came in too hot at turn 4 and in the change of direction lost control of his Aprilia CRT and went down wiping out an unsuspecting Colin Edwards who hit his head hard on the asphalt. Edwards was stretchered off to the medical centre with a probable left collarbone fracture, while a groggy De Puniet made was able to get there under his own steam with some bruised ribs and a small finger injury.

The Repsol Honda rider layed down a stratospheric 1′37.188, but it wasn’t easy as he struggled with fourth sector where he would lose all the advantage, but in the end he managed to pip his team mate Dani Pedrosa by just 0.013s, however the Spaniard was baulked by traffic in his last flying lap

Taking off on the first row will be the ‘new’ alien Cal Crutchlow who finished ahead of Yamaha factory rider Jorge Lorenzo who ‘only’ qualified fourth. This is the first time in four years that the Spaniard has been off the pole position at Estoril!

Ben Spies was baulked by James Ellison in his best lap and inside the pole position benchmark and ended up 5th while Alvaro Bautista took 6th. Andrea Dovizioso was seventh and he had a slight altercation with Ben Spies who slowed him down in his fast lap.

Following the Honda’s and Yamaha’s is a gaggle of Ducati’s with Hector Barbera in 9th with his satellite GP12 Zero who grabbed his ti,e early in the session with a tow from Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard out qualified factory riders Valentino Rossi (9th) by just 0.053s and had a slight improvement while Nicky Hayden closed out the top ten.

With Randy de Puniet out of action, his team mate Aleix Espargaro claimed top CRT honours in 12th, outqualifiying Ducati rider Karel Abraham who is suffering from severe neck problems, the Czech rider even cut short several of his practice sessions.

Ivan Silva was the last rider to qualify but will be probably be picking a video prize for his massive rodeo-style save.

Continue reading: Casey Stoner pips Dani Pedrosa for pole position at Estoril

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Fortunately this afternoon’s MotoGPs second free practice at Estoril was dry, but slippery so the riders were all using the softer rear tire. Casey Stoner who has never won at the Portughuese track, took the top of the timesheets with a best lap of 1.38.396. The Australian also had another of his usual misunderstandings with a slower rider, this time it was Hector Barbera who baulked him on one of his fast laps.

Ben Spies looks like he’s recovered the feeling that he has lost on his front, something that he was lamenting at Jerez, as he put in the second best time using one of Jorge Lorenzo’s settings and changing the weight distribution on his M1 and he was a little more than three tenths adrift from Stoner.

Seeing Cal Crutchlow in the top spots is no longer a surprise as the Briton took third and he was just 0.024s from Yamaha factory rider Spies. Dani Pedrosa was a little more than four tenths from his Repsol Honda team mate, while Jorge Lorenzo will be an upset birthday boy as he could only finish in fifth and was more than half a second off pace with Alvaro Bautista on his tail separated by just 0.029s.

Nicky Hayden was once again the fastest Ducati rider in 7th followed by Hector Barbera and Valentino Rossi who was 9th and for the first time less than one second adrift (0.961) losing time in the last sector, but he was still a big four tenths of second from his team mate.

Closing out the top ten was Andrea Dovizioso followed by Karel Abraham and rookie Stefan Bradl who was the last rider on the prototypes. Randy de Puniet was again the fastest on the Aprilia CRT and he was a little less than two tenths from the LCR rider.

Continue reading: MotoGP Estoril: Casey Stoner leads in FP2

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As expected one of the first questions posed to Casey Stoner during today’s pre-event press conference at Estoril was the rumor that the reigning World Champion was thinking of retiring at the end of 2012 to spend more time with his family.

The rumor was launched by the European media, specifically by Italy’s Sportmediaset and Spanish magazine Solomoto who actually did a cover story on it calling it the “bombshell of the year.”

Obviously Stoner shot down the rumor, with “Until you hear it out of my mouth then don’t believe anything you read,” but he did repeat for the umpteenth time that he’ll continue as long as he enjoys it, but his retirement will come in a not to distant future.

“Everyone seems quite good at stories and making them up. I’ve said in the past that I’m not going to keep riding until my mid 30s. But I haven’t decided what I’m doing, so certainly no-one else is going to know,” said Stoner.

You’ve got to love the European press, with MotoGP TV audiences slipping in Spain (even attendance at Jerez was down over the weekend) and Italy, they obviously have to create a little drama.

Source | motomatters.com

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Following Italian MotoGP gossip is better than any reality show, this latest rumor comes from Sportmediaset.com (yes, always them) who is upsetting Casey Stoner fans with the idea that their champion is thinking of retiring at the end of this season.

Everyone knows that the Stoner just loves to race, but doesn’t like all the BS that surrounds the paddock nor does he always enjoy answering questions and explaining himself, and of late has hinted that he won’t be dragging out this racing career for many years, and with wife Adriana who has been his shadow over these last year’s is now at home with newborn daughter Alessandra, the Australian is starting to feel a little homesick.

Stoner’s contract with Repsol Honda expires at the end of the season and negotiations are already on the table and he has already shown and obtained everything that any rider could want and money never has really been his end game, so many are now doubting that he’ll want to continue and and when Livio Suppo (who orchestrated Stoner’s behind the scenes switch to Honda) was asked if this could be a possibility or just an assumption, Honda’s marketing manager replied, “With Casey this possibility is always realistic. If you ask me, I say that I don’t know, but it is something I’m afraid of. He thinks with his own head and knows what he wants. If he decides to stop I could even understand it, even if I have the feeling that he’ll continue. ”

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Here is a massive collection of shots coming from the pit-lane and paddock of Jerez, where the Spain Gran Prix of the MotoGP class took place last weekend. The gallery features many nice pictures of the riders relaxing in the pit, talking to their crews and even some shots from the podium: check it out.

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Casey Stoner was finally able to put one of his last bogey tracks, behind him with his first ever victory at Jerez this afternoon. The Australian managed to stay out of trouble in the hectic first laps and away from the wet patches and timed his pull to the front to the pefection and keep a never-give-up Jorge Lorenzo at bay in the final laps, despite his ongoing arm pump issues, which at the moment he refuses to deal with surgically.

“We didn’t get a great start so I tried to stay out of trouble, there were people out braking each other, touching and it was important just to keep out of the way!” commented Casey Stoner. “Then I managed to gain a lot of positions in a short space of time and reached the front. I didn’t try to pull a gap, as I knew Jorge and Dani were very fast, but I just wanted to stay in front with them and pull away from the others. Then I saw that Jorge and I had slightly better pace and we could make a gap. I was focusing on where I wanted to go as there were a lot of wet patches and it was easy to make a mistake. We managed the race for the conditions of the circuit and as they improved I pushed a little more, the bike on a whole felt much better than in qualifying. I did get some arm pump again but thankfully not to the extent I had it in Qatar. Considering the weekend in general and how fast Dani and Jorge are at this track, to win here is something very special for me”.

Dani Pedrosa was highly tipped to win this Spanish GP after dominating the practice sessions and qualifying second, but running alone is easier than being chased after by a group of aggressive riders who threw caution to the wind at the start of the race. The Spaniard admits he was too cautious riding on the wet patches after seeing the numerous crashes in Moto3 and Moto2 and considering his bad luck and numerous injuries over the past seasons, playing it safe for once seems a good idea.

“It’s been a strange race for me. On the grid I thought it might not be a completely dry race so I was very cautions at the beginning also after we saw so many crashes in the first laps of Moto3 and Moto2,” said Pedrosa. “So I started well but I was passed and then I lost too much time with Dovizioso and Hayden. When I managed to overtake them and take the third position, Casey and Jorge were already too far in front, 4 seconds ahead. So I put my head down and started increasing my pace but at the same time it was difficult to keep the concentration because Crutchlow was on a hard front tyre and he was pushing me a lot, braking harder in the last laps. In general, I feel happy with my performance on a really tricky weekend. A second and a third position finish is not the best, but it’s a good start to the season”.

Stoner is now second in the standings (41 points) and Pedrosa is third (36 points) heading to Estoril next weekend.

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If someone was betting that today’s MotoGP race at Jerez would have been an affair between Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa they would have lost, as Casey Stoner claimed his first ever MotoGP win at this particular Spanish circuit in what turned out to be a thrilling race.

Sitting fifth on the grid Stoner had a bad start as Pedrosa, Lorenzo followed by Cal Crutchlow, Nicky Hayden, Ben Spies, Andrea Dovizioso and Alvaro Bautista slipped past him at the first turn boxing him in 7th, but by the end of the first lap he had already recovered a pair of postions as a furious and fairings bashing battle was taking place ahead of him.

Stoner didn’t waste any time as he recovered the lead from his team mate with Jorge Lorenzo following right behind him, as Pedrosa suddenly found himself sandwiched between very two aggressive Yamaha Tech 3 riders, Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso.

The Australian tried to put some massive space between himself and Lorenzo, but the Yamaha rider dug in his heels and kept after him and with ten laps to go he started to close in as Stoner’s tires and arm pump issues decided to act up. Lorenzo was just a little more than two tenths from Repsol rider when he uncharacteristically ran wide as his front tire suddenly decided to quit on him. Stoner then flied across the finish line with almost a one second victory margin

Dani Pedrosa finished third after defending himself from highly effective Cal Crutchlow, the two who almost the same pace as the front runners even managed to close in on them in the closing laps.

Continue reading: Casey Stoner finally conquers Jerez duck

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While Casey Stoner is waiting for the second round of the MotoGP championship at Jerez to start at the end of the month, the reigning world champion is trying to cure his arm pump issues (apparently set off by a pair of new gloves) that cost him him to fade to third in the Qatar GP, he’s also working on his go-kart.

Stoner is passionate about driving racing karts and has had lessons from 6 times Australian and 48 State Champion Remo Luciani back in Australian and has also driven karts at the South Garda Karting facility at Lonato twice with his own Kart Grand Prix Trophy Birel RY 30 chassis fitted with TAG engine. Last year he gifted each member of his Honda crew with their own Birel kart.

Photo source | #official_CS27.twitter.com

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Dani Pedrosa completely turned his Qatar weekend after taking second place in tonight’s thrilling MotoGP race. While we thought he was suffering from some sort of problem following the scandal regarding his boating license, instead the small Spaniard was suffering from the flu and a fever, something that he never mentioned over these long four days.

“I’m very happy with this result because we have been able to turn around all the problems we had during the weekend. After a good pre season we got here and everything went wrong: I had flu and a fever, I crashed on Friday, then the qualifying practice was a disaster… So, it’s very good to leave here with this podium, even if I feel little bit sad because I thought I could win this race, I had it in my hands for a while. The team did a fantastic job and we saw things very different after warm up; then I managed a perfect start which was a key moment in the race, and I was able to stay with Casey and Jorge. In the end, with 4 laps to go I tried to take the lead, but Lorenzo was cleverer than me this time and choose a better strategy. I passed him but he overtook me immediately and also Casey, then I was behind Casey for 1 lap and lost contact with Jorge. Anyway, it’s a good start to the season and we will try to do better in Jerez”, said Pedrosa who had some problems riding with a runny nose.

Casey Stoner’s race was conditioned by arm pump problems - that last time, if memory serves us well it was at Assen in 2010 when too tight under leathers also conditioned his race. Like we said in our previous post, the cause seems due to a pair of too tight gloves and there is no mention of chattering that plagued the reigning World Champion during qualifying, even if his Honda seemed to be pumping in certain areas of the circuit.

“It wasn’t really the way we wanted to finish the race weekend here, after FP3 and Qualifying it was always going to be a tough race for us but in the end it came in the wrong areas. The bike was working well for us, I definitely had the package and the pace to lead the field which was really positive. However, I suffered from really bad arm pump. After three or four laps I felt it but it gradually got worse, I tried to pull a little gap from Jorge and Dani and put in the minimal effort possible to retain the gap and try and win, but as the race continued it got worse and worse and eventually the muscles had nothing more to give. I couldn’t hold onto the handle bars properly and it made things really difficult so it was a disappointing race for this reason, but for many other technical reasons it was very promising”.

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MotoGPs warm-up practice saw Casey Stoner once again take command of the timesheet. The Repsol Honda rider was out on used hard tires and posted a best time of 1.55.999 while his team mate Dani Pedrosa made a big jump forward to second and was just 0.076s adrift.

Poleman Jorge Lorenzo was third followed by both Yamaha Tech3 riders with Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow respectively. Nicky Hayden was sixth, but his race pace with a little luck could get him very near a podium during tonight’s race, while Pramac’s Hector Barbera was on his tail in seventh after hitching a tow from Jorge Lorenzo.

Stefan Bradl was 8th and the last rider to be within a second from Stoner. Valentino Rossi upped his pace and finished in 9th and 1.144s from the Repsol Honda riders, but everyone else was much slower so his improvement looks big. Beside all the other issues he has, it also seems he has braking problems, because Aleix Espargaro was shadowing him on the straight and at the braking point had to run off track to avoid bumping into him.

Closing out the top ten was Ben Spies, while Alvaro Bautista suffered a lowside crash at turn 9, but was able to return to track for the last two minutes of the session and finish in 12th.

Continue reading: MotoGP Qatar_ Repsol Honda raises its head in warm-up practice

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Someone else would have sold his mother to take a second place on tomorrow’s MotoGP starting grid, but not Casey Stoner. The reigning World Champion was pretty upset with how his Qatar qualifying session went because the chatter issues returned with a vengeance.

Livio Suppo believes that the underlying problem is basically due Bridgestone’s new tires performance on the RC213V and also thinks that since the new tires were introduced mainly for safety reasons to avoid the high and devasting number of cold tire crashes that have happened over the past couple of years, that Stoner and Pedrosa who feel safer on the other spec should be allowed to use them.

“I’m not really happy with how qualifying went for us, it should have been a lot better especially on the soft tyre which we hadn’t used all weekend. Last night we were happy with what we had improved and with the set-up in general. Then tonight we tried to improve that set-up and we just made it worse and worse. In the end we did a full circle and came back to what we had on Thursday night and we have huge chattering problems again. Now we have a lot of work to do to understand what’s gone wrong and where the problem is before tomorrow. If we can make a big step forward in warm up then we can challenge for a podium and maybe fight for the win, but if the bike remains as it is at the moment, then we were going to be in for a long hard race,” said Stoner who even dissed his team while he was at the parc ferme.

Whether Dani Pedrosa is carry some guilt complex from being publically caught cheating which may be carrying over into his performance in Qatar no one can really say, but after having exchanged some hot words with his crew chief yesterday in FP3 he immediately crashed, so something is definitely bothering the Spaniard, because no one was expecting to seen him in 7th and on the third row and with so many problems.

“We solved a little the issues we had yesterday with the electronics, but we had other problems today. I stopped in the garage to change the bike and it didn’t start, twice. I lost a lot of time there and I had to take the other bike which I didn’t feel comfortable with either. It’s a shame. The team couldn’t do any better and nor me; from this point I lost the concentration a little and we couldn’t get a better position. Seventh on the grid is not a good place to start the race, but I hope that we don’t have any issues tomorrow and I can have a good race.”

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Valentino Rossi once called the current crop of MotoGP riders the “traction control generation” but he widely misinterpreted Casey Stoner use of electronic aids. The reigning World Champion in tonight’s third and final free practice in Qatar may have ended up third on the charts, but he was hampered by traffic on his final run and just his T1 was almost as fast as Lorenzo’s only Stoner was on hard and used tires.

“Today has been pretty good for us in general, we has some issues in the first two sessions but we’ve fixed them slightly in last one which is definitely positive. We’ve been able to turn down the electronics a lot more and now I have more feeling and connection with the rear tyre which gave me a lot more confidence. This allowed me to do some good lap times with some pretty old tyres. A few people got in our way throughout the session so we were unable to show what we were really capable of, but we know how we feel and we’re confident for qualifying tomorrow,” commented Stoner who strangely enough didn’t throw a hissy fit at Bautista for holding him up and just said that it was strange that a rider with Bautista’s experience could still continue making the same mistakes.

Dani Pedrosa had a very rough night, an unexpected crash in FP2 mined some of his confidence, but fortunately he wasn’t injured, while he had electronics issues in FP3 that left him down in 5th and 0.812s from his team mate.

“The day wasn’t as good for us as we would have liked. I had some problems with the electronics and I couldn’t ride at 100%, especially in the exits of the corners where we have more issues. Let’s hope the mechanics can find a solution and we can have a good qualifying session tomorrow. The crash in the first session was totally unexpected; it was on my first lap of the second exit and I was not pushing at all. But I escaped unhurt and it’s ok.”

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