Dani Pedrosa was once again the fastest rider on the final day of Moto 1 testing at Valencia. The Repsol Honda rider best lap was 1.31.807 and he pipped team mate Casey Stoner who lead most of Wednesday’s testing session. The two riders were also the only ones who broke the 1.32 mark with the new 2012 spec tires that Bridgestone brought in.

Ben Spies was again third, but he had a vast improvement from Tuesday test times, shaving off almost nine tenths and getting closer to the Honda’s. Satellite Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow was fourth and he took off more than a second from his lap time while his new team mate Andrea Dovizioso took fifth.

Ducati and Valentino Rossi will have a massive amount of work to do this winter. The Italian is still 1.5 seconds of pace even with the GP0 or step 1 from the top of the timesheets, the same gap that he had throughout the entire 2011 season. Other Ducati riders, Karel Abraham and Hector Barbera were behind him in 7th and 8th, respectively.

Continue reading: MotoGP Valencia test: Dani Pedrosa leads off on final day of testing

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It is now officially official, Alvaro Bautista will be riding for Team San Carlo Honda Gresini in 2012. Suzuki announced earlier this morning that they had released Bautista from his contract and now the Spaniard is currently on track with Hiroshi Aoyama’s RC212V and at the moment is 10th after 21 laps and 2.624s from Dani Pedrosa, who is still leading the timesheets at Valencia.

Fausto Gresini: “I am particularly satisfied that Alvaro Bautista will ride a Honda RC213V in the colours of Team San Carlo Honda Gresini next year. He is a very fast rider and I also hold him in high regard for his personality and pleasant nature. I am sure that he will integrate swiftly into our group and that we will enjoy some pleasant experiences together in the future.”

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Rizla Suzuki had announced that they would be testing at Valencia, however as most of us assumed, we though it would be Alvaro Bautista doing the test, instead we saw an impressive and immediately fast Randy de Puniet debut on the 2011 800cc machine, while Bautista and his manager were working on negotiations with Fausto Gresini, sponsor San Carlo and HRC.

Early this morning Rizla Suzuki officially announced they were parting ways with the Spaniard, who debuted in MotoGP and spent his first two years with the team.

Bautista is expected to debut on the Gresini Honda later today, while Suzuki has received an ultimatum that they have to comunicate their future racing plans in MotoGP by Friday.

“I am very sad to be leaving Suzuki after the two great years that I have had here. It has been a great team to work in and I have learnt a lot of things from everyone in the team. It was a fantastic experience working with an English/Japanese team and we have become like a big family, except we have never had any arguments and no-one falls out with each other! I want to thank everybody personally for the last two years, sometimes it has been difficult, but nobody ever gave up and I felt like I always had their full support and commitment. I don’t feel like I am leaving a team, but a group of friends that I hope I will know for a long time. I want to say a special thank-you to Tom, Paul, Ken san and Sahara san, and wish them and the rest of the team all the best for the future,” said Bautista.

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At the end of the first day of Moto 1 testing at Valencia saw Dani Pedrosa top the timesheets and take over from his team mate Casey Stoner who lead for most of the testing session on the Honda RC213V. Pedrosa’s best lap time was 1.32.816 which was a little more than a tenth of second faster than the reigning World Champion.

Ben Spies was third on the 2012 Yamaha M1, while Yamaha Tech3 rider Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso who switched from Honda to Yamaha, also tried out the new machine. Dovizioso also tried out the 800cc M1 before hitting the track with 1000cc. Crutchlow was 5th while Dovizioso ended up 7th.

Valentino Rossi debuted the GP0 Ducati laboratory bike with the perimetral aluminium chassis as did Hector Barbera who is now riding for Pramac Ducati and Karel Abraham, while Nicky Hayden had to bow out after finding out that he has a fractured scaphoid and radius, that may require surgery.

The 800s were also on track. Suzuki , according to MCN has a Friday deadline to decide if they are staying in MotoGP in 2012, tried out Randy de Puniet and he immediately was fast on the GSV-R 800 infact he posted a best time of 1.33.544 meaning he was almost as fast as Alvaro Bautista was during FP3 Saturday morning. Rumors have it that Bautista who didn’t test any machine today will going to Gresini Honda, despite having been courted by Lucio Cecchinello over these last few months.

Continue reading: MotoGP Valencia tests: Dani Pedrosa tops the charts on Day 1

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Talk about bad luck for Nicky Hayden.This morning we thought that he had limited his testing time due to problems to his wrist, but apparently his lap times were done by Ducati test rider Franco Battaini who went out to give the Ducati GP0 a shakedown early this morning.

The factory Ducati rider infact had to head back to the hospital to get his wrist X-rayed again, only to find out it was fractured in two spots. Hayden hurt his hand when he was involved in the first lap crash at Valencia caused by Alvaro Bautista trying to avoid Andrea Dovizioso.

Hayden will now have to leave the testing responsibilities of the GP0 to team mate Valentino Rossi and the satellite Ducati riders.

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It is dry and sunny at Valencia today, and the teams are out to begin the new 2012 season and the debut or may we say the welcome return of 1000cc machines.

Besides the usual MotoGP riders (minus Jorge Lorenzo who is still recovering from his finger injury) and teams, there are also some CRT’s on track.

Ivan Silva is on the Inmotech which we’ve already seen and read about in the past, Gianluca Nannelli is on Grillini Team’s (they’re from the Italian CIV) Gapam bike that mounts a BMW S 1000RR engine, and apparently Federico Sandi will also be testing the new bike according to his personal website.

Nicky Hayden has done only a few laps due to a sprained wrist, but the Ducati GP0 with the full aluminium chassis seems to encounter favour with the various Ducati riders and Randy de Puniet is set to test Suzuki’s GSV-R 800 later this afternoon, with no word where he’ll be going next season.

Stefan Bradl is out on LCR Honda’s 800 and at the moment he looks faster than Toni Elias was in similar track conditions during FP3 last Saturday morning. Andrea Dovizioso is now with Tech3 and testing Yamaha’s 2012 bike, while Josh Hayes’ wife/racer Melissa Paris got to test ride the same M1 that hubby rode this weekend during the Valencia GP.

Session 1 Lap times as of 13:00 - courtesy of MotoGP official website:

1 Casey Stoner Repsol Honda Team 1:32.876 (12 laps)
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1:32.939 (18)
3 Ben Spies Yamaha Factory Racing 1:33.49 (42)
4 Valentino Rossi Ducati Team 1:33.857 (28)
5 Cal Crutchlow Monster Yamaha Tech3 1:34.754 (39)
6 Andrea Dovizioso Monster Yamaha Tech3 1:34.790 (16)
7 Karel Abraham Cardion AB Motoracing 1:34.840 (27)
8 Hector Barbera Pramac Racing Team 1:35.052 (21)
9 Stefan Bradl LCR Honda MotoGP 1:35.592 (22)
10 Akiyosshi Kosuki Repsol Honda Team 1:37.475 (5)
11 Ivan Silva BQR 1:38.074 (25)
12 Carmelo Morales Desguaces la Torre 1:39.100 (14)
13 Gianluca Nannelli Grillini Team 1:42.970 (8)
14 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 1:51.702 (4)

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Yesterday we posted that 2011 Moto2 World Champion Stefan Bradl had been gifted with a MotoGP test ride by Honda for winning the title, and it has now been confirmed he’ll be doing it out of LCR Honda team garage.

With Toni Elias being dropped (he should be back testing with Gresini’s Moto2 team where he won the first Moto2 championship title) it seems that Lucio Checchinello interest (he was seen talking to both Fausto Gresini and Livio Suppo) is now focused, not only Randy de Puniet but also on Bradl, with John Hopkins looking to be out of the picture.

“In a few days, together with our sponsors and Honda, we will make a final decision on the riders for 2012,” said Cecchinello. “Meanwhile, we welcome the request from HRC to provide our RC212V to Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl to give him the opportunity to try out a MotoGP bike.”

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Marco Simoncelli’s death, even if it cruel to say and think about, forced Fausto Gresini and Honda to scurry to find someone to replace the late Italian for the 2012 season.

Andrea Iannone will be testing a Honda MotoGP on Tuesday and so will newly crowned Moto2 World champion Stefan Bradl. Supposedly it is a gift for winning the title, but more likely it will turn into a real test, even if it will be on a 2011 RC212V. Bradl was to spend another year in Moto2 as sponsor Viessmann couldn’t entirely afford to lease an expensive Honda, but now the sponsor could partially fund the German rider’s switch to MotoGP.

Marc Marquez was also supposed to gifted with a MotoGP test ride by his sponsor Repsol, but he’ll be unable to take part due to his vision problems. The 2011 Moto2 runner-up recently announced he’d be staying in Moto2, but as usual nothing is ever set in stone. We could also see other riders called up from Moto2 in a whirlwind of testing try-outs.

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According to Sportmediaset Premium commentators and confirmed by Andrea Iannone, the Speed Master Moto2 rider will be testing Gresini’s RC213V Honda on Tuesday during the post-season MotoGP official tests.

With Marco Simoncelli’s untimely death, Fausto Gresini has been forced to find another rider and Iannone ,who was to stay in Moto2 for another season, is now being called up to see how he handles a 1000cc bike. An Italian rider would also satisfy sponsor San Carlo. Iannone tested a Pramac Ducati GP11 at the Mugello test last July.

Other rumors coming from the Valencia paddock has Suzuki staying in MotoGP in 2012 with Alvaro Bautista as their rider with the team fielding only one bike, the same as this year and Randy de Puniet moving to LCR Honda.

More news and gossip when we hear it.

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With more than half of the MotoGP grid changing teams onTuesday at Valencia, Dorna knowing how important it is for fans and playing up the importance of these tests, has decided to allow TV networks to show part of the testing.

Italia 1 will be going live for two hours Tuesday morning from 10:30 to 12:30 (you’ll easily find Italia 1 in streaming, even if you’ll have to put up with the blattering and hear Rossi’s name pronounced a million times) and you can watch Valentino Rossi on the Ducati, Casey Stoner on the factory Honda, Ben Spies on the factory M1, rookie Cal Crutchlow with the Yamaha Tech3, Toni Elias return to MotoGP, Loris Capirossi back on a Ducati, Randy de Puniet also on the Ducati, when Pramac final confirms him, and newbie Karel Abraham with his new MotoGP team.

British Eurosport will also offer feature coverage from the two day test next Friday at 4:45pm so you won’t miss a thing.

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