All posts tagged motogp estoril
Colin Edwards to undergo surgery on fractured collarbone
Being wiped out by Randy de Puniet during today’s qualifying session at Estoril has cost Colin Edwards a fractured left collarbone.
Edwards was off the racing line at turn 4 when the CRT rider entered the corner and when he flicked up his Aprilia in the direction change the front folded and it slided out knocking down the NGM Forward rider.
The American is now on his way to Barcelona to undergo surgery and will be operated on by the same doctor who did the three hour surgery on his right collarbone following his crash during last year’s second practice session in Catalunya - he was able to race at a damp Silverstone the following weekend and take a third place podium.
Alex de Angelis with be replacing him on the Suter/BMW during Monday’s post race official test as he tested the CRT machine at the Vairano di Vidigulfo circuit last month.
Casey Stoner pips Dani Pedrosa for pole position at Estoril
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
MotoGP Estoril: Dani Pedrosa pips team mate in FP3
Dani Pedrosa pipped his Repsol Honda team mate in this morning’s final free practice session at the Estoril circuit, which today offered much more grip. The Spaniard suffered an electronics issue on his first bike and had to park it against a fence earlier in the session, but in one of his last flying laps on his second machine and he posted a 1.37.326 taking the top of the timesheets leaving Casey Stoner who dominated the entire session adrift by a mere 0.012s.
Jorge Lorenzo raised his head following his yesterday’s ’so-so’ 5th place and moved up the charts to take third and he was just 0.364s from the top Honda rider. Yamaha Tech3 duo Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso followed up in 4th and 5th respectively, with the Briton falling slightly back while the Italian moved up the timesheets from his Friday’s 10th spot after debuting a new swingarm.
Alvaro Bautista with his 6th spot was the last rider to be within a second from Pedrosa. Valentino Rossi was 7th and the fastest Ducati rider, but he was still more than 1.1 seconds slower that the fastest lap. Ben Spies seemed to suffer a set back with his 8th spot, but according to his team manager Maio Meregalli he did the entire session on hard tires hoarding the softer compounds for qualifying and the race. Nicky Hayden was 9th and he just 0.044s from his fellow American.
Stefan Bradl completed the top ten and the first CRT rider was the usual Randy De Puniet with his 12th spot followed by team mate Aleix Espargaro who finished ahead of satellite Ducati rider Karel Abraham.
Continue reading: MotoGP Estoril: Dani Pedrosa pips team mate in FP3
MotoGP Estoril Friday rider quotes
Casey Stoner did not only set Friday’s fastest time at Estoril, he also hit the top speed of 329,5 km/h on the Portughuese circuit, but it wasn’t all smiles for the Repsol Honda rider who admitted that his Honda still has chatter problems, but only in certain sectors of the track.
Many riders had complaints about the new Estoril asphalt, especially the last turn which continues to remain damp and patchy and doesn’t drain, with outspoken Cal Crutchlow calling the last corner ‘a joke’ and worried about it being a risk especially if it should rain Saturday night.
Casey Stoner - 1st
“We did a few laps this morning to try and understand the bike, to make sure everything was working and like Jerez we wanted to see where the wet patches were on the track. Then this afternoon, unfortunately there were still areas of the track that hadn’t dried out but we managed to get some good dry time, the bike seems to be working ok at this point and we have a fairly good idea of what we need to do tomorrow”
MotoGP Estoril: Casey Stoner leads in FP2
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.
MotoGP Estoril: Ben Spies fastest in FP1
MotoGPs free practice at Estoril was a waiting session for the majority of the riders who sat out the first half hour hoping for better track conditions which still had several damp patches and puddles in the final turn.
At the start of the session only MotoGP rider Ben Spies was out on track followed by CRT riders Michele Pirro, Yonny Hernandez, Danilo Petrucci and Ivan Silva. The Yamaha rider posted the best lap times in the 45 minutes and bettered himself in the last minute with a 1’40″813 lap, finishing ahead of Ducati riders Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi.
Nicky Hayden was a little less than three tenths from Spies who put in 17 laps, while Valentino Rossi using Hayden’s settings was six tenths off pace, pushing back Casey Stoner to fourth who only did five laps on his Honda and was more than a second adrift.
Stoner was followed by Alvaro Bautista and the Yamaha Tech3 duo, with Cal Crutchlow faster than his team mate Andrea Dovizioso. Dani Pedrosa was 8th followed by a surprising Yonny Hernandez in 9th with Karel Abraham closing out the top ten.
Points leader Jorge Lorenzo - celebrating his 25th birthday today - and Hector Barbera (Pramac) decided to sit out the session and didn’t post any recorded laps.
Casey Stoner denies end of the season retirement rumors
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
Stefan Bradl's new livery for Estoril GP
LCR Honda MotoGP team has tweeted the new livery that that Stefan Bradl will be using during this weekend’s MotoGP race at Estoril.
The special livery is the team’s thanks to sponsor Linear (an online insurance company part of the Unipol Group) who just renewed their partnership for another season.
We will also be seeing the same livery during the GP Aperol di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini that takes place at the Misano World Circuit on September 16th.
Source | motoblog.it
Casey Stoner vs Valentino Rossi sparring to be carried over at Le Mans?
It looks like we haven’t heard the last on Casey Stoner vs Valentino Rossi entertaining verbal catfight that we had at Estoril, and by all chances it will be carried over big time during this weekend’s Le Mans GP, if one of the contenders decides to play along.
According to Sportmediaset.com ( yes it’s always them for the gossipy articles and ready to stir up the pot) they were tipped off by someone attending the WSBK round at Monza that Casey Stoner had blocked and run Valentino Rossi off the track during the MotoGP test at Estoril.
We can only imagine who tipped off Sportmediset, but our money goes on Marco Simoncelli who was at Monza, and has become their new darling and has his own couple of minutes of air time every GP weekend called “Dimmi di Sic, chiedilo a Simoncelli” where he answers questions posed by fans.
Continue reading: Casey Stoner vs Valentino Rossi sparring to be carried over at Le Mans?
Hector Barbera may have to skip Estoril test, too
Hector Barbera’s Estoril race lasted only four corners into the first lap, when the Mapfre Aspar rider suddenly crashed out due to the usual cold tire syndrome and was left lying breathless in the gravel pit, unaided at first by a corner marshal who preferred to pick up his Ducati GP11.
Barbera seemed okay when he returned to his garage and stated that he hadn’t been injured, but a subsequent visit to the Clinica Mobile revealed that he had sustained a small crack on the right hand side of his lumbar vertebra. Apparently the injury isn’t serious and only requires rest, but this could mean that Barbera may have to sit out the Estoril test like Randy de Puniet.
Talking about his crash Barbera said, “It is a shame, because I think that we could have been in the top eight with the practice pace that we had. I wanted to continue my form from Jerez. It was my mistake, because I maybe overstretched myself. It was just that I had a group of riders in front of me and didn’t want to lose them. I suppose I should have been a bit more reserved, because it was the first left hander and the tyre was perhaps a little cold. The crash was a strange one, because I didn’t get any warning and suddenly I was on the ground. I rode almost the same line on the warm-up lap, and nothing happened then. I don’t know what to think. It was an excess of confidence, because I had never had problems on that corner before the race. I wasn’t even on the throttle when I took it. After I got changed I noticed that my back was aching, so I went to the clinica and got some scans done. It looks like I might have a small crack on the right hand side of a vertebra, but it is something that maybe won’t trouble me tomorrow. The doctors have told me to rest up and come back tomorrow for another examination.”
Randy de Puniet to skip Estoril test
Randy de Puniet finished 10th in yesterday’s race at Estoril, but it was a real struggle for the French rider, who suffered some pretty bad leg pain, so much pain that he’s decided to skip today’s important MotoGP test to find out why.
De Puniet was one of the many riders that underwent surgery during long break between the Jerez and Estoril GP’s. He had a screw removed from his left knee that was inserted after breaking his leg at the Sachsenring last year and was causing him some lingering pain and discomfort while riding.
“I’m partly happy,” said de Puniet. “Before the start of the race, if I knew I’d finish tenth, I’d have celebrated the result this weekend. But I don’t know what happened with my knee. It hurt very badly in the race, and I didn’t have enough strength in my legs. I had X-rays earlier this week, but I don’t know how my ligaments are. I hope it’s not anything serious, but tomorrow I will return home for a check-up.”
“As for the bike, we’ll try to fix the problems with the front. I’m happy for the six points earned, but without the pain in my knee, my result would undoubtedly have been better. We must work to find the same feeling glimpsed at Losail and Jerez.”
Jorge Lorenzo thinks that Pedrosa was too strong, tool left on Ben Spies' bike wrecks havoc
Jorge Lorenzo may have looked like he was going to win today’s Estoril GP for the fourth consecutive time, but he didn’t take in account another rider, Dani Pedrosa and his sheer determination. At least fans were spared the moonwalk again, I’m just kidding.
Someone on Ben Spies’ team really messed up today, they left a tool that is used to temporarily block the fuel overflow pipe in place and this caused all the American’s problems and mining his confidence which caused him to crash.
“I made a good start and I’m really happy for that then I pushed to my maximum to try to open the gap to Dani,” said Lorenzo. “Unfortunately today was not the day for that, he was too strong and consistent and at the end he was maybe fresher to push. Second is a good result, we have a lot of points from three races so I think we are in a good way to keep fighting for the championship. I want to thank my team who worked really hard this weekend to make sure we were as competitive as we could be.”
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