When you mess up a race like Valentino Rossi did at Indianapolis, what do you do? Find plausible excuses and then go on to the next race or call yourself a stupid ass and make fun of yourself?

After the Indy GP, Aldo Drudi got a text message from Rossi who had an idea for his helmet for the Misano GP. Drudi came up with this one off helmet based on the famous Donkey from the Shrek movies, Rossi’s blue eyes from his 2008 Mugello helmet, his earring and a tooth cavity with the Yamaha logo and the result was one of Rossi’s more ironic helmets designs and here’s they made it.

Continue reading: The Making of Valentino Rossi's 'Donkey' Helmet

Shhh, don’t tell the Dorna watchdogs, but Asphalt & Rubber have found another video of Alex DeAngelis taking out Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden at Misano. It’s from an another angle and you get a closer look see at Nicky Hayden losing his cool.

Jorge Lorenzo, who almost got clipped from behind, got into the blame game against DeAngelis, also citing the Sammarinese as one of those rider’s that have the habit of cruising around the outer track during qualifying, ready to hitch a tow from one of the Fantastic Four:

“I am very angry. In the past I was like that, sometimes I did some crazy things. But when the organisers gave me some ‘advice’, I was more clever. I think now they have to do something with these riders, who are also the same ones who try to follow faster riders on Saturday during qualifying. It is very dangerous and I hope they do something,”

Continue reading: Another Video of De Angelis Wiping out Edwards and Hayden

How can you have a MotoGP race without pretty umbrella girls? These are from the Misano MotoGP and you get an extra this time, a few pics of the Rizla Suzuki babes hanging around a hotel pool, but unfortunately for you guys they’re not in itsy, bitsy tiny blue bikinis.

MotoGP Misano Paddock Babes

Continue reading: MotoGP Misano Paddock Babes

Here’s a look at those dentist girls again, this time from the Nurburgring WSBK round. Like the MotoGP girls better? If you want to compare, check out the Mugello girls, the Sachsenring chicks or the American babes from Laguna Seca.

Paddock Girls Nurburgring 2009

Continue reading: The girls from Nurburgring

Check out the video of Gresini Honda rider Alex DeAngelis binning his bike on the first corner of lap one at Misano taking out Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden.

Both Americans were not happy and we hadn’t seen Nicky Hayden this upset since Dani Pedrosa crashed into him at Estoril in 2006. Hayden vented his anger on the Sammarinese rider had to be stopped by a marshal, while Edwards was quoted as saying when asked what had happened, said ‘I have no idea but it’ll be the usual thing, a dumb-ass Italian at the Italian GP.’

Here’s the usual PR statements when the riders were slightly calmer.

Colin Edwards:

“I thought I had the pace to easily be fourth and maybe fight with Pedrosa for a podium but we are in Italy and occasionally you have to deal with an Italian rider who wants to be a hero and today that was De Angelis. Turn one at the start with seventeen bikes is not the place to be going at race pace and he was never going to make through there. Today De Angelis is the guy who needed to be wearing Valentino’s donkey helmet. I didn’t know what happened until I was sliding through the gravel. Turn one is the most dangerous time to crash with so many bikes around you, it is unacceptable. I’ve been fighting with Dovizioso in the championship most of the season and now he has ten points on me with four races to go. That’s racing.”

Continue reading: MotoGP Misano - DeAngelis takes out Edwards and Hayden Video

It was a field of waving yellow flags and hats that welcomed Valentino Rossi who won his 6th race and the 13th round of the MotoGP championship at the Misano GP.

The opening lap of race was marred by Alex DeAngelis who crashed out at turn 2, taking out the first Colin Edwards who in turn brought down Nicky Hayden who barely missed clipping Jorge Lorenzo.

Rossi sporting his ‘donkey’ helmet after his crash at Indy fell back to third in the first lap and then fourth in lap 2 when team mate Lorenzo overtook him. Rossi took his time passing first Lorenzo on lap 5, then overtook Elias and then lined up Dani Pedrosa and passed him on lap 8 and started to build his advantage. Lorenzo in the meantime passed Elias and then found himself stuck behind Pedrosa who was closing all the lines until the Honda went wide on lap 14 and Lorenzo got past, but Rossi upped his pace and would win the race with a confortable advantage of 2.416s over 2nd place Lorenzo.

Continue reading: Motogp Misano – Rossi Dominates in Home Race

Today’s qualifying session at Misano seemed to be a FIAT Yamaha affair with team mates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo in a private war exchanging tenths of hundredths of a second, for the pole position for almost the whole hour.

Valentino Rossi took his 6th pole position of the season with a last lap of 1.34.338 leaving second place to Dani Pedrosa who jumped in between the two rivals in the final minutes of the session and 0.222s from the Italian rider.

Jorge Lorenzo took third at 0.470s from his team mate. Lorenzo looked to be much closed to Rossi during the entire weekend, but was unable to improve on his final lap.

Toni Elias who is still looking for a ride next year was fourth in front of Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden who closes the second row.

Continue reading: MotoGP Misano - Valentino Rossi takes 6th Pole Position

Valentino Rossi is sporting another of his special one off helmets for his home race at Misano. The AGV helmet is as always designed by Rossi’s favourite designer Aldo Drudi.

Rossi is clearly making fun of himself after his crash at Indy MotoGP that saw him half his lead on rival and team mate Jorge Lorenzo.

The helmet has the face of a donkey on the front and on the back has The Donkey in English and El Sumer, which is the Italian dialect of the area for dunce or ass.

Source | gpone

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi's Misano 2009 Helmet

Valentino Rossi may be playing down his chances in staying in front of Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa in this weekend’s Misano GP, but the first practice session put the Italian rider on the top of the chart with a hot lap of 1.35.304, leaving Lorenzo in second just 0.126s behind.

Lorenzo and Pedrosa exchanged the top position several times putting Rossi and the others well behind with Lorenzo putting in a series of laps almost a half a second faster than the rest of the field.

Dani Pedrosa was third, 0.776s from Rossi and in the final minute of the session his Honda RC212V suffered from some sort of engine problem leaving the Spaniard parking his bike against the barriers and hitching a ride back to his garage. Pedrosa’s engine failure may have left him with one less engine to use for the rest of the season.

Alex DeAngelis, is continuing to show good form and led the the begining of the session until a lowside put him off, but the rider from San Marino was able to come back later and take fourth, just 0.016sec slower than Pedrosa.

Continue reading: MotoGP Misano - Rossi on top in FP1

Valentino Rossi is an icon in his hometown Tavullia, and the small town is revving up for this weekend’s Grand Prix of San Marino at the Misano circuit.

The town municipality which has become world famous due to Rossi, has decked out the small center with even more than the banners and flags that usually hang from most balconies or shops, this time they’ve placed life-size cardboard cut-outs of the 8 times World Champion on street corners and in windows.

Continue reading: Tavullia becomes Rossi's Land