Ever wonder why Casey Stoner is usually the last rider to line up on the grid? Simple, Ducati has a special grid strategy, a procedure that allows their riders to complete the race without fear of running out of fuel.

The goal is warm the tires as soon as possible and avoid an excessive fuel consumption. The rider heads out on the spare bike and brings the tires up to temperature as soon as possible with no worry about fuel, because the bike he’s using will not be used in the race.

Instead of heading to the grid, the Ducati rider heads back to the pitlane and changes to his race bike and leaves the lane and rides back on track at a very low speed to minimize fuel consumption. Once on the grid the tires are replaced with those that have been brought up to the right temperature on the spare bike and kept up with tire warmers.

Continue reading: Ducati Grid Strategy Explained

It didn’t take long for someone to put Casey Stoner’s sighting warm up lap crash at Valencia on YouTube, let’s see how long it takes Dorna to take it off.

Ducati’s Fillippo Preziosi was hard up in trying to explain Stoner’s highside to Paolo Beltramo, pitlane commentator for Italia 1 saying that they would have to download the data before understanding what exactly happpened, while Ducati’s new team manager Vitto Guareschi just chalked it up to cold tires. We’re still waiting to hear from Stoner.

UPDATED:

After the jump you can read the the explanation on why Stoner crashed:

Continue reading: MotoGP Valencia - Casey Stoner Crash Video

In the 17th and final round of the MotoGP season at Valencia saw an upset even before the race began with Casey Stoner who was hugely tipped to win, highsiding on the sighting lap, crashing, leaving his Ducati too damaged to restart.

Dani Pedrosa took off with another of his lightning starts got the holeshot and won the race flag to flag, his second of the season.

Toni Elias was another rider who had rocket start, and by the end of the first turn was second but it would last until the third lap when Jorge Lorenzo overtook him.

Valentino Rossi who was fourth quickly overtook Elias, hunted down his team mate and when Lorenzo’s Yamaha nearly discharged him from the seat, Rossi got past and was in second place with Pedrosa already more than 2.5s clear. It seems that Lorenzo’s Daniese air leathers deployed with the almost highside.

Continue reading: MotoGP Valencia - Pedrosa Classic Win, Stoner bins it on sighting lap

Yamaha Racing has released these official pics of Ben Spies‘ Yamaha M1 Valencia livery. The 2009 Superbike champion will have his MotoGP debut in the last round this season in what has been an exciting year for both WSBK and MotoGP.

The sponsor for Ben Spies‘ MotoGP appearance is Sterilgarda, the main sponsor of the Team Yamaha World Superbike. Check out the Ben Spies M1 livery in the gallery, with a couple of pics of the rider.

Yamaha M1 Ben Spies Valencia livery

Source | Motoblog.it

Continue reading: Ben Spies Yamaha M1 Valencia livery

Niccolò Canepa has had very difficult rookie season, very rarely making it in the top ten and struggling to keep his job until the end of the season and now the Italian will miss the season finale and his last race in MotoGP.

The unlucky rider who has already missed Phillip Island and Sepang GP’s because of an arm injury picked during free practice at the Australian GP underwent a skin transplant and was scheduled to return for the final race, but was advised by doctors to rest his arm more in order to avoid the wound to reopen.

Niccolò Canepa:

“I am very sad as I will not be able to step on track this weekend at Valencia. I really cared about competing in this last Grand Prix of the season to end it with a good result. I want to thank the Pramac Racing Team, Paolo Campinoti and Ducati Corse for this fantastic experience I have lived. Now I will have to think about getting back at the best physical conditions and go back on track whichever will be my next sport adventure.”

Paolo Campinoti Pramac Ducati Team Manager:

“We are very sad that Niccolò will not make it to race with us this last Grand Prix of the season. Last year he has done a quite good job here during the first winter test and he could have achieved a good result also in this occasion. We would like to thank him for the work done this year and we wish him the best of luck for a future rich of success whichever road he will take. He is a talented rider who has to accumulate more experience to come back at the top level. His place will be taken once again by Aleix Espargarò: in every race he has competed with us this season he has done quite well and we confide he will be able to do the same this weekend in Valencia.”

Continue reading: MotoGP Valencia - Canepa di miss final race and says Good-bye to MotoGP

Yamaha confirmed that Ben Spies next year would be putting in a wildcard appearance at the MotoGP season finale at Valencia before his official switch to the series and added that they would be sending two M1’s directly from Japan and that the livery would be based on Yamaha’s corporate colours.

The blue and white Yamaha in the pic will be displayed at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show later this month, could be what Spies livery could look like at Valencia. Elegant and cool looking, but it looks a little too much like what Spies runs on his Yamaha R1 in the WSBK Championship minus the sponsor logos.

If anyone from Yamaha reads us, we wouldn’t mind seeing the the classic yellow/black/white livery that Yamaha ran way back when and revived for the Laguna Seca GP in 2005 or the other red and white classic that that we saw again at Valencia in 2005.

Source | solomoto via motoblog.it

Continue reading: Ben Spies Yamaha M1 Valencia Livery?

Yamaha announced today that Ben Spies will be contesting in MotoGP next year. During tonight’s television show Griglia di Partenza, speaking to Ducati’s team manager Livio Suppo and Filippo Preziosi from Estoril, Suppo let out a Yamaha secret regarding Spies, but don’t ask us how he found out and why he decided to tell viewers something that doesn’t regard Ducati.

According to the Italian manager, Spies will wildcard on the Yamaha M1 in the final MotoGP round at Valencia from November 6th to 8th.

Having Spies wildcard in the final round makes pretty good sense. With testing days severely curtailed as a cost saving measure, MotoGP rookies will have their work cut out for them, as will riders switching from one manufacturer to another. Giving Spies an extra three days to get better acquainted with the M1 may help him give a one up on the other rookies, when the traditional tests begin the day after the Valencia race.

Continue reading: Ben Spies to Wildcard at Valencia GP?