There was no better way to finish the 2011 Moto2 season and honour Marco Simoncelli at the same time, as Michele Pirro of Gresini Racing won a very treacherous, ride on eggs race due to the rain, and taking his first ever win in Moto2 with Simoncelli’s “Race your life” slogan on the livery of his Moriwaki.

It was a tearful and emotional Fausto Gresini that welcomed Pirro’s victory after losing his MotoGP rider two weeks ago, and after spending better part of the race at the Clinica Mobile checking up on his other rider Yuki Takahashi, who had a horrific crash at turn 3 hitting his head hard. The Japanese rider was declared okay at the circuit’s medical centre, but taken to the hospital as a precaution.

With Takahashi out, team mate Pirro picked up the lead with Mika Kallio tailing, but the Italian rider who is also part of the Italian police force, would increase even further his margin to finish under the chequered flag 6.150s ahead of second place Mika Kallio.

Dominique Aegerter made his Technomag CIP team proud with his third place, while wet weather specialist Anthony West took fourth. Kenny Noyes grabbed fifth ahead of Yonny Hernandez who had been riding as high as second until he went off track to rejoin in sixth. Mike di Meglio got the better of Xavier Simeon for seventh, while Max Neukirchner and Julian Simon closed out the top ten.

Further back Andrea Iannone took 11th and third in the standings after dicing it out with rival Alex de Angelis who finished in 12th. The Moto2 race was also a crash fest, with included newly crowned Moto2 World champion Stefan Bradl binning it on lap 4.

Continue reading: Michele Pirro wins an emotional Moto2 race for Gresini

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We may not see the highly expected championship battle for the Moto2 title during the season finale at Valencia between Stefan Bradl and Marc Marquez, as the Spaniard is still suffering from double vision problems, so there is a very slim chance he will be able to compete this upcoming Sunday.

Marquez’ eyesight problems stem from that Friday morning highside crash at Sepang when marshals failed to flag a wet patch at turn 10. The young rider was diagnosed with periorbital edema when he returned to Spain and still has a faint hope that his vision could still improve in time for the race weekend - he’ll have to win the race - if not, he’ll concede the crown directly into Stefan Bradl’s waiting hands.

“It is a shame, because I was looking forward to competing in Valencia,” said Márquez. “With the injuries one can do nothing, especially with it being a sight problem. It is nothing serious, but we need more time. If it was the shoulder I could make an effort and ride, but without perfect sight we can’t take risks. If I couldn’t see, even for one moment, I could put me and other riders in danger.

We can’t be very optimistic, but the doctors said there’s a small chance I could be better, so we’ll see. If it doesn’t (improve), it will be a shame to miss the last race in Valencia in front of our fans, but we will be happy anyway with the season we did. We can’t do anything about it and now we should only think about improving.”

Even if Marquez doesn’t compete he’ll remain second overall in the standings and will get another shot at the championship title in 2012 after deciding to stay in the Moto2 for another season.

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Alex Baldolini and Raffaele De Rosa will close their difficult 2011 Moto2 season at Valencia - Baldolini will be riding for the Nieto’s G22 team, while De Rosa will continue with Forward Racing.

The Moto2 class which is between 38-39 riders strong is hard to follow between riders getting the axe and injury substitutions, and Raffaele De Rosa and Alex Baldolini are probably the two riders who have played muscial chairs the most often this season.

De Rosa started the season with the Desguaces La Torre G22 (Moriwaki) only to be axed after just four races, he then subbed for Santi Hernandez in Sag Racing (FTR) at Silverstone and then at the Mugello raced for Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 team (Suter) and then found a more or less stable home with NGM Forward Racing (Suter).

Badolini’s situation wasn’t much better, he started the season with NGM Forward Racing until Brno, where he then went to Pons HP 40 (Kalex) team to sub for injured Axel Pons for three races. He ended up without a ride after the Aragon GP and now will take part in the final Moto2 race at Valencia subbing for injured Sergio Gadea with Desguaces La Torre G22 team run by Pablo and Gelete Nieto, who according to the latest rumors will not take part in the 2012 season.

Source | motoworld.es

Photo Source | motogp.com

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Marc Marquez was not able to compete in last Sunday’s Moto2 race at Sepang after being judged unfit following his highside during the first free practice, which was caused by a wet patch at turn 10 that the marshals failed to flag.

The Spanish rider, who confirmed that he’ll be staying in Moto2, underwent a two day check-up and medical treatment at the USP Institut Universitari Dexeus in Barcelona upon returning home and was discharged today.

However, there has been no decision made whether Marquez will be able to ride against title rival Stefan Bradl in the final round of the season at Valencia, where the Moto2 championship crown will assigned.

Dr. Xavier Mir, Head of Hand Surgery Unit of the USP Dexeus reported on the physical condition of Catalunya Caixa Repsol rider: “Marc Márquez has a left shoulder traumatism, and incisive wound on the chin and second degree burns on the right knee, so we started with the cures to start regenerating the skin,” while Dr. Ángel Charte, Head of the Department of Medicine said, “the rider arrived to the hospital after suffering an accident that caused concussion with brachial involvement and several contusions. In Malaysia he also suffered an episode of blurred vision and image distortion. When he arrived to the USP Institut Universitari Dexeus, we did several diagnosis tests that showed that he suffers periorbital edema that produces a sequential vertical diplopia (double vision), and discards any other type of injury. He is following a treatment to correct this vision alteration and it is evolving satisfactorily”.

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Yesterday two riders at Valencia looked like they jumped straight out of a window of Cartier. Jorge Lorenzo with his gold and Swarovski studded 12.000 euro helmet and Toni Elias stood out from the rest of the Moto2 field with his bright silvery leathers and matching bike livery.

Fabrizio Cecchini of the Gresini Moto2 team prepared this special livery as a tribute to the World title that Elias took in Moto2, and as a gesture of thanks to Elias on behalf of Fausto Gresini and Midori Moriwaki.

While Lorenzo took a stunning 9th win in MotoGP, Elias on the final lap went into the win it or bin it mode. Going from an almost podium, into the gravel trap to end up finishing 30th, not exactly how he planned to end his season before returning to MotoGP.

“I gave 200 per cent to win this race and maybe that was the problem! Over the course of the season I have ridden with caution and tried to avoid getting involved in hand to hand combat but with the title in the bag I went for the win at all costs,” said Elias. “Unfortunately I collided with Iannone and crashed but I went down fighting and trying something impossible so I’m still happy. It has been an amazing season and I wanted to give the team one last gift before I leave because they have done a great job.”

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Karel Abraham took his first and only Moto2 victory in the season finale at Valencia today, before moving to MotoGP next year with his own team.

The Czech rider came out on top in last lap thriller that saw five riders, Andrea Iannone, Julian Simon, Abraham, Toni Elias and Thomas Luthi all going for the win, but it was claimed by Abraham who was riding in fourth, when Moto2 World Champion Toni Elias in an aggressive and almost an impossible move to take Julian Simon’s second place ran into the side of Andrea Iannone’s bike.

Iannone didn’t crash and finished second with Abraham slipping in front of the scattered pack to finish first on the chequered flag,but Elias’ wild move cost Iannone the lead and second place in the final standings, while the Spaniard ended up in the gravel trap and would rejoin and finish 30th.

Third went to Julian Simon followed by Thomas Luthi and Scott Redding who managed to hold off Alex de Angelis for fifth.

Continue reading: Moto2 Valencia: Karel Abraham wins in last lap upset

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