Reigning Moto2 World Champion and MotoGP rookie Stefan Bradl is being sponsored by Honda Germany and to celebrate this partnership, they’ve decided to offer to the German market only, this CBR600F Special Edition with LCR’s team livery and Bradl’s racing number.

Beside the LCR paint job, the motorbike has Honda accessories, Progrip handgrips and an Arrow exhaust Street Thunder Titan.

Bradl spent a day on track for testing the Honda CBR600F designed with a special layout and he said, “This motorbike has been made for real 2-wheel fans and with the LCR design is simply fantastic. I enjoyed lapping on this machine and I am sure this “toy” will be pure fan for their owners. It’s nice to know that many bikers will ride around with my Team colours and my race number: it makes me proud of my job! Once again I must thank Honda Germany for their support and this great idea!”

The CBR600F - LCR Edition will be officially presented to the German public at the AMI car show at Leipzig from June 2nd till the 10th.

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Being the only German MotoGP rider and for Honda to boot, has certain fringe benefits as Stefan Bradl can attest to, as can LCR Honda.

The reigning Moto2 World champion and MotoGP rookie received from Honda Germany - who continues to sponsor the young rider - a brand new car and a VFR1200F, while his team received 5 Honda Vision 110cc scooters to use in the paddock for the rest of the 2012 season.

“I am happy to continue my working cooperation with Honda Germany especially this year. This season is extremely important for me and I want to thank Mr Katsushi Inoue and Mr Klaus-Peter Kniedel for their precious support. Now I can easily ride my VFR1200F for my Sunday outings at home with my friends and drive my new car to reach the circuits in a easy way: then on track I have got my Vision scooter to move easily in the paddock,” said Bradl.

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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

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During last week’s Ducati & Ferrari Wrooom event, Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden has time to comment on the 2011 Moto2 champion Stefan Bradl who will be debuting in MotoGP this season.

Bradl who tested the LCR Honda 800cc at Valencia, will finally be getting the chance to test for the first time his new 2012 bike, the RC213V in the upcoming Sepang tests, and Rossi talking about the German champion said, “Bradl will have to adapt to MotoGP in his first year, but he is a very intelligent rider and he’ll show his talent” and the added jokingly “hopefully he’ll be slower than I am.”

While Ducati team mate Nicky Hayden talked about his debut in MotoGP back in 2003, saying that Bradl will adapt easily considering that he comes from the GP paddock, “When I arrived in GP racing in 2003 I was very young and didn’t have have any experience at an international level. He [Bradl] comes from the paddock, knows the tracks and the people and this will help him. It’s always good to have new riders in MotoGP and I’m curious to see how they’ll fare. It’s also important to have a German rider as MotoGP is very popular in Germany and at the Sachsenring circuit there’s always a lot of fans, so I’m happy to go back there.”

Bradl has already stated his objectives for the 2012 season, “I’d like to close the first half of the season between 7th and 9th and then in the top five. My long term goal is the title and that would be the top.

Source | motograndprix.com

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After the FIM and Dorna decided to retire Loris Capirossi’s #65 to honour his long and fruitful career, reigning Moto2 World Champion Stefan Bradl who took the title with the same number (actually it was his sponsor’s 6,5%) had to choose another number for his upcoming debut season in MotoGP and announced via his Facebook page that he’s picked number 6.

“Dear Fans! Now it´s official, my new racing number is “6″. I´m sure it´s a lucky number :-) See you soon!

Bradl signed a two year contract with LCR Honda after having first tested the RC212V during the Valencia MotoGP test last November, and will be getting his first taste of the Honda RC213V at Sepang on January 31st.

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They’re both this year’s World Champions, Sebastian Vettel in Formula 1 and Stefan Bradl in Moto2, both are German and were interested in swapping machines for a little demonstration, until Red Bull Racing nixed it.

It was the 22-year old Bradl who launched the idea, following in the steps of MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi who in the past had thrown the gauntlet towards Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, “I would gladly try a F1 and Sebastian could get on my bike and yes, the change would be harder for him than for me,” said the newly crowned Moto2 champion.

However Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Dr. Helmut Marko put a stop to the swap, “Not under any circumstances. The danger that Sebastian could get hurt on a bike is too great.”

Vettel isn’t completely raw on motorcycles, he’s become the lastest F1 driver to been captured by the beauty of motorcycles, infact this year he commissioned $100,000 Avalanche chopper from German master motorcycle builder Marcus Walz’ - but had to accept the orders of his boss saying, “If you make a mistake with a car, you run off track, on a bike you can fall off and hurt yourself.”

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2011 Moto2 World Champion Stefan Bradl underwent surgery yesterday. The new MotoGP rookie who recently signed a two year deal with LCR Honda tweeted “today I had an operation on my left feet. Which was succesful. They removed a plate and six screws. Leave tomorrow.”

Bradl will have two full months to recover from surgery and be ready to ride at the Sepang test at the end of January, where he will finally get to ride the Honda RC213V after testing LCRs 800cc machine during the post season test at Valencia.

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It was just a matter of waiting a few days after the Valencia test and the final contract details to be ironed out, but as expected Moto2 World Champion Stefan Bradl will be riding for LCR Honda, and for two seasons.

The 21-year-old German champion was expected to stay in Moto2 for another season after Keifer Racing’s sponsor Viessmann refused to fund the exorbitant leasing costs of a Honda RC213V, but the untimely death of Marco Simoncelli changed everything, with Italian managers Gresini and Cecchinello having unexpectedly to find new riders, which gave Bradl a chance to test one of LCR’s 800cc machines.

“This is simply fantastic like a dream that comes true!” said Brad. “When I tested the RC212V in Valencia I realised that the LCR team is very professional and well organised so I am sure they will do their best to support me: making my debut in the premier class aboard the RC213V is great and I can not wait to get back on track.”

“Next year will be very important for the MotoGP; starting from next April the championship will be rich of new technical rules and participants. Together with Honda we have considered several riders and Stefan was one of our candidates. After the test in Valencia we were very impressed by his potential and his determination: Stefan is young and fast and he just clinched the Moto2 World Title so we believe we can grow together with the Team in the next two years. He already knew the technical staff and today I am happy to give him our warmest welcome in the LCR Team!” said Lucio Cecchinello.

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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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There was a still a very slight hope that Marc Marquez would able to race this weekend at Valencia and try to win the Moto2 championship title, and that the vision problems that he sustained after his crash at Sepang would clear up in time, however the Spanish rider and his team officially informed the race direction this morning that he would not competing this weekend and thus de facto assigning the title to Stefan Bradl.

Bradl had a 23 point lead ahead of Marquez after Sepang and with no other riders in mathematical contention, the German rider therefore is the 2011 Moto2 champion.

Bradl had dominated the first part of the season gaining a massive 62 point lead, but Marquez recovered from his three consecutive race crashes to go on take seven wins, but his amazing finale to the season went downhill after being penalized to start at back of the grid for crashing into Ratthapark Willairot at Phillip Island, but he blazed through the field to take to third in the race, but it wasn’t enough to stop Bradl from moving ahead in the standings and then the practice crash at Sepang halted his championship title hopes.

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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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