Today at Brno, HRC President Tetsuo Suzuki announced that Honda would be signing Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso for two more years. Despite this announcement, neither rider has apparently signed an actual contract with HRC yet, as minor terms of the contract still need to be ironed out.
With this being MotoGP’s last stop at Donington for the foreseeable future, the British venue seems to be putting its best foot forward. Agreeable weather, rabid fans, and close qualifying makes Sunday’s race and send off that much more enjoyable. It won’t be all clear skies though, Sunday’s weather forecast is showing some rain, and undoubtedly riders are practicing their bike swapping out in their minds.
Because nothing is ever predictable in MotoGP, the sunshine appeared after soaking the Championship riders all week in Germany. With a dry track ahead of them, teams had to gamble, guess, and pray on bike setups for Sunday’s race. With that, we got to see some new riders near the top of the pack, but it was the usual suspects+1 who were the real show stoppers.
With Jorge Lorenzo’s contract up at the end of this season, rumors are beginning to make their way through the MotoGP paddock about where the Spaniard will be racing next season. While Lorenzo has stated he would prefer to stay at Yamaha, he has also stated that he “knows what he’s worth.” For anyone playing MotoGP silly season, that’s an open invitation to assume that offers from Honda could have potential of becoming true.
This weekend was a double-wammy for American motorcycle enthusiasts as we celebrated our Independence Day on Saturday, and the coming of MotoGP to Laguna Seca on Sunday. Despite the weather being cooler than in previous years, Seca proved once again to be a hot track that would be no open book to race teams.
Teams and riders had problems keeping both sides of the tires in the sticky, and suspension proved to be an issue on the bumpy and rough Seca tarmac. That didn’t stop a few riders from breaking away from the group though, and giving the American fans some fine laps of racing. Continue through to read more.
With the Dutch GP a day ahead of the other racing events, today’s Friday qualifying session was not only special because of its weekday time slot, but also because of the close clustering of riders for the top 3 spots. Valentino Rossi had a squeaker of a run, just beating out Dani Pedrosa by under a tenth of a second. Rossi is looking for his 100th win at the Dutch track, and seems to be on-track to achieving that goal.
If that title didn’t illicit a “huh?” from you, then let us be the first to say the MotoGP rumormill has kicked it up a notch now that we’re about a third of the way through the 2009 season. The first rumor up to bat is the talk that Red Bull, the maker of the energy drink with wings, is looking to sponsor a MotoGP team. Early speculation places Red Bull flying into premiere motorcycle racing with the factory Honda team, which is currently Repsol Honda.
That brings us to our next rumor in this double-header, Repsol is rumored to be considering a move to Yamaha next year. Displeased with the performance Honda has given them in bringing a Spanish MotoGP Champion into fruition, the Spanish Oil company is looking for new tune at the Piano making company. More bizzaro after the jump.
Dani Pedrosa announced today that he has sufficiently recovered from from Mugello, and will be racing at Barcelona for the Catalan GP.
This announcement shows truly how determined riders like Dani are, as the Spainard would easily qualify for any sport’s disabled list. Pedrosa was given the “all clear” after doctors conduct a trial of injecting the Repsol Honda rider with painkillers, and then testing him for sensitivities to pain and motion.
Although Dani Pedrosa didn’t have the best weekend in Mugello, he did win the title of the fastest man to ever ride a MotoGP bike. The Jockey sized Spainard was clocked in the speed trap at a phenomenal 217.03mph, shattering the previous record set by Makoto Tamada by 4mph.
If you’re a close watcher of MotoGP, you may know that Dani Pedrosa suffered a bad crash in the second Free Practice session of the Mugello GP that severely injured the Spaniard’s hip. In the incident, Pedrosa was nearly flicked off his Repsol Honda, and landed poorly on the groun, causing a tearing of a tendon at the top of his thigh.
Pedrosa would go on to race in the Italian GP, but crashed out midway through. Fortunately, the second crash didn’t aggrivate his hip/thigh injury.
The Repsol Honda team has just issued a press release on Pedrosa’s condition. It is enclosed after the jump.
You may remember that a month ago, . While still able to stay in the race, fans watched as the Spainard began slowing down, unable to challenge the Fiat Yamahas any further. Pedrosa would finish 3rd for the day, but some serious questions and concerns were being asked of Bridgestone, the sole tire provider of the series.
Bridgestone has now confirmed that faulty construction of the tire allowed a foreign element to be embedded in the rubber, which later broke out, taking chunks of rubber with it.