The inaugural Moto2 season hasn’t even started yet and we’ve already had the first pull out due to financial reasons. The Spanish Kino Racing team who was to compete in the new series on the BQR chassis with 21 year old Argentinean rider Fabricio Perren, have been forced to withdraw after their sponsors backed out.

With the Kino Racing pull out, MZ Racing run by Martin Wimmer and former 250cc rider Ralf Waldmann have been called up from the reserve list and have confirmed that they will compete in the 2010 season with Anthony West as their sole rider.

The German team has already taken part in the private tests at Catalunya and in the recent official tests at Valencia and Jerez.

Continue reading: Moto2: Kino Racing out, MZ Racing in

More rain and cold temperatures affected most of the final day of Moto2 testing at Jerez, but saw Alex De Angelis rise once again to the top of the timesheet for the second time in this official three day test.

De Angelis put in a best lap of 1’55.280 in the wet, improving on his Saturday times by more than a half a second and the only rider to break into the 1.55 mark. Toni Elias was in second, more than seven tenths of second behind his former MotoGP team mate. Tech3 riders Raffaele DeRosa and Yuki Takahashi, were third and fourth respectively.

Missing were Kenny Noyes and Joan Olivé from Jack&Jones by Antonio Banderas team who packed up early and didn’t test. Mapfre Aspar rider Julian Simon who topped during the Valencia tests didn’t even complete a full lap today.

The third and final pre-season Moto2 test will again take place at Jerez March 27-29 before heading to Qatar for the championship opener.

Overall test times here.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez Day 3 : Alex De Angelis on top in the wet

Mixed weather conditions at Jerez saw Gresini’s Toni Elias set the best time with a lap of 1’45.024 leaving Yonny Hernandez (Blusens STX) in second and more than half a second behind him and American Kenny Noyes in third.

Alex De Angelis (Scot Racing) was fourth on the chart, but was 0.708s from his former team mate Elias. The Forward Racing duo Jules Cluzel and Claudio Corti were fifth and sixth.

Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Racing) was seventh and Roberto Rolfo made a big jump forward from Saturday, taking the eighth position after returning from the shoulder injury he picked up in Barcellona and missing the Valencia tests. Shoya Tomizawa was in 9th and closing the top ten was Julian Simon.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez Day 2 - Toni Elias on top on Sunday

We can bet that the Moto2 teams at Jerez are chanting rain rain go away, come back another day as bad weather has once again affected testing and the forecast for the next two days says more rain.

Only 11 riders out of the 30 present braved the wet track with laps times so high that they’re barely worth mentioning. When the rain let up the riders ventured out of their garages on a drying circuit and Alex De Anglis set the fastest time of the day with a best lap of 1’55.835 with Tech3’s Raffaele De Rosa behind his the Sammarinese by less that three tenths of second and Toni Elias from Gresini Racing in third with a best lap of 1:56.246.

Back on track after his injury was Roberto Rolfo (Italtrans STR) who did 9 laps in the afternoon session finishing the day in 23rd.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez Day 1 Test: De Angelis on top

The final day of Moto2 testing at Valencia, saw rain and colder temperatures than from the previous two days but at the end of the day when the track dried out it looked like an ex-MotoGP riders class reunion with four former 2009 riders finishing in the top four spots.

Scot Racing Team’s Alex De Angelis headed the top of chart with a best lap time of 1.37”687 bettering his Tuesday times by three tenths of second. Second on the chart was Toni Elias who was half a second slower than De Angelis and coming up in third was Yuki Takahashi and Gabor Talmacsi in fourth.

During the wet morning session saw very few riders decided to risk riding, but Anthony West who doesn’t let a little rain bother him was the fastest on the MZ racer. Other riders who ventured out were Andrea Iannone and Gabor Talmacsi with Luca Boscoscuro’s Speed Up team and Mattia Pasini and Simone Corsi with the JiR team, who have yet to come to grips with their TSR bike.

Valencia Moto2 overall test times can be found here.

Continue reading: Moto2 - Alex De Angelis on top on 3rd Day

The second day of the Moto2 IRTA tests at Valencia, saw Julian Simon with the RSV on top of the chart with a best lap of 1’37”156, followed by Kenny Noyes of the Antonio Banderas team who was second and Toni Elias in third, Claudio Corti of Forward Racing in fourth and Yuki Takahashi in fifth with Herve Poncharal’s Tech 3 bike.

These five riders were separated by only 0.479s from Simon’s best time and overall the first nine riders are separated by less than one second and this includes Yonny Hernandez and Alex DeAngelis and Thomas Luthi who both made a big jump forward from Day 1, as did Fonsi Nieto who moved into the top 10.

Today will be the last day of testing at Valencia and the Moto2 riders will be back on track for more testing at Jerez on March 8th.

Continue reading: Moto 2: Julian Simon on Top on Day 2 at Valencia

We’ve come across this video interview by Giovanni Zamagni of Italian website Moto.it with Speed Up Team owner Luca Boscoscuro at the Valencia Moto2 offical tests that are seeing former MotoGP rider Gabor Talmacsi and former 125cc rider, but better known for his head butting, Andrea Iannone coming to grips with their new bikes.

The video is pretty good, not only because it gives us great close-up footage of the bike and the new Honda engine, but because the interview with Boscoscuro reveals certain aspects of this new Moto2 series that we found interesting , so we decided to share with you and translated it.

Q: So Luca Boscoscuro, tell us about the new category Moto2:
A: Well, it’s a new series for everyone, thought up in a very short period of time …

Q: Too short maybe?
A: From my point of view, yes. I see that everyone is in the same situation as ours and having difficulties … what we’ll needing for the season … and since these are prototypes we’ve had very little time to work on them.

Continue reading: Moto2 : Luca Boscoscuro talks Moto2, Honda Engine and Costs

Three days of official Moto2 testing got underway today at Valencia, with all the teams finally receiving the long awaited official spec engines signed, sealed and powered by Honda and prepared by Geo Technology that will have to last for the first three races.

Today’s testing saw reigning 125cc champion Julian Simon come out on top of the charts with his RSV and a best lap of 1.37”548 during the afternoon session pipping out former MotoGP rider Toni Elias of Gresini Racing by just 0.004.

Taking third was Claudio Corti on a Suter chassis bike (Forward Racing) who was 0.489s behind Simon and and another former MotoGP rider, Yuki Takahasi on the Tech3 bike in fourth.

Fifth was Yonny Hernandez who has taken Bernat Martinez place in the Blusens STX team. Anthony West was sixth with Ralf Waldmann’s MZ Racing Team is still on the reserve list.

The entry list for Moto2 has increased from 39 to 40 riders with the official admission of Marc VDS Racing Team’s second rider Vincent Lonbois. Also confirmed in Moto 2 is Simone Corsi with Japan Italy Racing that will ride a TSR alongside team mate Mattia Pasini, who will race with #3 as #24 is being used by Toni Elias.

All the official test times from Day 1 can be found here.

Continue reading: Moto2: Simon on Top on 1st day of testing

The final day of testing at the Catalunya race track saw a wet track and cold temperatures that hampered the morning session with only a few Moto2 riders willing to risk riding in tricky conditions.

With weather conditions improving in the afternoon, Raffaele De Rosa (Tech3) and Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar) were the top riders, posting the exact same times 1’49.3, while Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) did a 1’49.4 , the same lap time that saw him on top of the charts yesterday.

Anthony West who is on the Moto2 reserve list with the MZ Racing Team, also recorded the same time as Tomizawa.

All the teams are scheduled back for another official test in Valencia March 1- 3, where they should finally receive Honda’s 4-cylinder 600cc engine developed for the Moto2 class.

Continue reading: Moto2: DeRosa and Simon on Top on Final Day of Testing

After the first day of Moto2 testing at Montmelò that was virtually a washout due to bad weather, today it was sunny and cold, and full of spills.

The morning session saw several riders fall including Roberto Rolfo who dislocated his left shoulder and was shipped off to the Dexeus Clinic where it was put back into place and received a prognosis of 4 weeks, which will cut his testing short and he could also miss the upcoming tests in Valencia.

Alex Debon also crashed and may have fractured his left collarbone and Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar), Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Racing), Fonsi Nieto (G22 HolidayGym), Raffaele De Rosa (Tech3) also went through crashes, but fortunately with no serious consequences.

It was Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP ) who set the fastest lap of the day, posting a best time of 1’49.4 followed by Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) and Yonny Hérnandez (Blusens-STX), who both posted a 1’49.6.

Continue reading: Moto2: Shoya Tomizawa on Top at Montmelò

The first day of testing of Moto2 (still without official spec Honda engines to be supplied at the beginning of March and the now mandatory stickers “powered by Honda”) was conditioned by mixed weather with the majority of the riders sitting in their garages waiting for the Montmelò track to dry out and others who did not take to the track at all yesterday.

A few of the brave hearted riders present (who are sharing the track with several 125cc teams) tried to take their bikes out, with Roberto Rolfo of the Italtrans STR team getting in 35 laps while team mate Robertino Pietri only got in four after having engine trouble earlier in the day.

Alex Debón of Team Aeroport de Castelló managed 12 laps and Technomag-CIP’s Dominique Aegerter got in the most laps (38) and Shoya Tomizawa was able to do 36.

Both Marc VDS Racing’s riders Scott Redding and Vincent Lonbois got their first tast of their Suter chassis 2010, while the Blusens-STX team riders Mashel Al Naimi (who took second in last week’s national superbike race in Qatar) and Yonny Hernandez also managed to get in some laps.

Continue reading: Moto2: Weather Conditions Catalunya Test

This isn’t the official FTR Moto M210 in the photo, but Hungarian rider Gabor Talmacsi who is posing with his new Spidi leathers that he’ll be wearing in this year’s Moto2 championship. If the leathers are black and gold, we can expect that Luca Boscoscuro’s Moto2 Speedup team will have the same coloured livery.

Talmacsi who will race with #2, will be on track with the other Moto2 teams for two days (February 11th and 12th) of testing at Valencia and then in Barcelona from February 15th to 17th.

Source | talma

Continue reading: First Look: Gabor Talmacsi's Moto2 Leathers