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MotoGP: Crashes Shake-Up Qualifying at Jerez

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Qualifying for the Spanish GP got underway today under the sunny, but windy skies of Jerez, Spain. Unsurprising to just about anyone, the Repsol Hondas of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa were on the top of the time sheets, with local Jorge Lorenzo completing the front row and only 0.16 seconds off the qualifying pace. While the rank and order surprises few, all eyes will be on the latter stages of tomorrow’s race to see how Dani Pedrosa can manage with his ailing shoulder, which the Spaniard will have operated on immediately after the GP

The qualifying session saw a total of six riders hitting the tarmac and gravel traps, with many blaming the wind as a contributing factor. The list of riders crashing includes Valentino Rossi, Ben Spies, Colin Edwards, Randy de Puniet, Karel Abraham, and Hiroshi Aoyama. Thankfully no one was injured, but in the case of Rossi, it meant trashing his preferred bike for the session, causing him to qualify on his other machine, and landing 12th on the starting grid.

He’ll be joined on the fourth row by teammate Nicky Hayden, who has been having a miserable season thus far on the Desmosedici GP11, and once again Randy de Puniet proved himself to be the fastest Ducati, qualifying seventh. Honorable mentions go out to John Hopkins, who continued his progress filling in for the injured Alvaro Bautista this weekend with a fourteenth grid position for tomorrow’s race. With a good start we could see a mid-pack finish for Hopper, who has shown marked improvement with each session on the Suzuki GSV-R.

With the rain very likely to make an appearance for tomorrow’s race, all bets are off for how the Spanish GP will shape-up.

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MotoGP: Qatar GP Turns into a Two-Wheeled Battle Royal

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The MotoGP season is underway in earnest now, as the premier class took to the desert’s night sky in Qatar for the inaugural race of the 2011 MotoGP Championship season. With the Repsol Hondas seemingly operating in a parallel universe, all eyes were on the rest of the field to see if they could touch the dynamic duo of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa.

With the pair joined by Jorge Lorenzo on the grid, the Spaniard was eight tenths of second slower in qualifying than the second-fastest Honda of Pedrosa. Some worried that the MotoGP fans of Qatar would be in for a follow-the-leader race, but those concerns were put to rest as multiple bouts between riders erupted on the night track. Spoilers on the Qatar GP after the jump.

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Chapter 1: Your Cheat Sheet to the Qatar GP

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Just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock this week, the 2011 MotoGP Championship is about to kick off today. Asphalt & Rubber has made the trek out to the Middle East, coming to you straight from the Losail International Circuit located just outside of Doha, Qatar. The weather has been favorable here in Qatar, with the heat down during the day, the skies clear but at times hazy, and the humidity staying down during the evening sessions. Hosting a two-day testing session before the Qatar GP, the riders have been here in Doha for almost 10 days now.

While you enjoy the return of MotoGP racing action to your online feeds and television screens, we’ve put together a cheat sheet to the Qatar GP to fill you in with the off-season happenings, as well as what’s been going on in the paddock while we’ve been here at Losail. Hold on race fans, prototype motorcycle racing is coming at you very, very, very soon.

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MotoGP: Stoner Scorches the Desert at Qatar Qualifying

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Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa put on a show for us tonight during the first Qualifying Practice of the 2011 MotoGP season being held at the Losail International Circuit. Cheers and groans could be heard in the media center as reporters from Spain, Italy, and other countries watched the session unfold…we’ll let you guess as to how each of those groups specifically reacted to the result. Throughout the MotoGP testing sessions and practices leading up to the Qatar GP, the Repsol Hondas, especially those of Stoner and Pedrosa, have been on an entirely different quantification of reality from the rest of the paddock.

For instance, fellow front row starter and 2010 MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo was eight tenths of second back from Stoner’s time. Disappointingly for Valentino Rossi fans, the Italian will grid tomorrow in the 9th spot, a full second and half back from Stoner. Teammate Nicky Hayden fared the worst out of the factory riders, 13th on the grid for Sunday’s race and a 1.75 seconds from the pole time. Rizla Suzuki did not field a bike for qualifying because of Alvaro Bautista’s injury, and will not participate in tomorrow night’s race.

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Photo of the Week: A Man with a Million Things to Ponder

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Jorge Lorenzo has his hands full in 2011. With his stylized JL #1 replacing last year’s 99 on his Yamaha M1, Lorenzo wants to keep up the momentum with which he swept the 2010 season. But as the official tests have made clear, repeating in the style of the man he both dislikes, and wants to be, will be prove a difficult task indeed. After the first night of the final test in Qatar, Lorenzo managed the fifth best time, four tenths behind Dani Pedrosa, and nearly three tenths behind the man everyone fears, Casey Stoner.

Stoner only put in 20 hot laps (32 total) and managed second on the time sheet. Lorenzo did 60 total laps, but had one impressive series of low 1:57s and high 1:56s after another. That consistency just may be the key to fending off the competition over the long haul if he can make 2011 as mistake-free as 2010. The lone star on JL’s new 1 logo is eerily reminiscent of his teammate, Texan Ben Spies, who managed to creep ahead of Lorenzo to demote the Spaniard to 5th on the evening. There is no shortage of riders who are likely to make Lorenzo’s amazing season in 2010 very tough to replicate.

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Jorge Lorenzo: Parte Dos

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Alpinestars has cooked up the second part to its profile on reigning MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. As a member of the new generation of GP riders, Alpinestars focuses on Lorenzo’s elevation in the sport, and what is different for these younger riders compared to their older counterparts. Coming from the soon-to-be defunct 125GP, more riders coming in from World Superbike, and talking to fans on Twitter & Facebook, are all budding issues for the Spanish rider. Check it out after the jump.

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Honda Wraps-Up Domination at Third Day of Sepang

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“Veni, Vidi, Vici” might as well be stenciled on the four factory Honda RC212V race bikes of Stoner, Pedrosa, Dovizioso, and Simoncelli, as the foursome has dominated the Malaysian track over the past three days of MotoGP testing. Casey Stoner takes the top prize though, climbing once again to the top of the time sheets, with Dani Pedrosa right behind him as the only other man to crack under the two minute barrier at Sepang. While these results aren’t too surprising to those following the off-season closely, the time sheets speak an interesting story for the rest of the field.

The Top 13 riders are clumped by manufacturer, and who leads each group is a bit surprising. Ben Spies bested teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who also found himself behind Colin Edwards from the satellite Monster Yamaha Tech3 squad. In the Ducati camp, it was Hector Barbera who had the fastest time, ahead of Hayden and Rossi who both shared a best lap of 2:01.469 in Day Three. Even Alvaro Bautista’s Suzuki made a surprisingly quick journey around the track at Sepang, as the Spanish rider was 8th fastest overall for the day.

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Casey Stoner Leads MotoGP Testing at Sepang

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Casey Stoner set the pace today at MotoGP’s second off-season test at Sepang. The Australian, and the rest of the four factory Honda riders, proved to be very impressive on the Malaysian track, as the 2011 Honda RC212V seems to be hitting its stride just before the season opener in Qatar in a few weeks.

The Honda riders don’t have things all sewn up though, as the Yamaha of Jorge Lorenzo was looking very fast, as were Americans Ben Spies and Colin Edwards. Earlier in the day, nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi even cracked into the Top 5 on the standings, and despite finishing the day just over a second behind Stoner, the Italian was upbeat about the team’s progress and his physical condition.

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Yamaha’s 2011 MotoGP Livery Unveiling

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Yup, it’s official folks: Yamaha will run without a title sponsor for the 2011 MotoGP season (at least initially), as the team’s official race livery was unveiled at Sepang today (actually, we’re releasing these photos ahead of the official announcement, so in a way this post is coming from the future), along with the official unveiling of the 2011 Yamaha YZR-M1 MotoGP race bike.

Trading a corporate sponsor for a “50th Year in Road Racing Championship Grand Prix” emblem, Yamaha has seemingly been unable to woo a title backer onto its carbon fiber fairings after Fiat’s departure, despite winning the team, rider, and manufacturer Championships in the 2010 season. Check out the full gallery after the jump.

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Yamaha Will Debut 2011 MotoGP Livery at Sepang Test

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Yamaha Racing has just announced that it will debut its 2011 MotoGP team livery at the Sepang test on February 21st. Yamaha has been without a title sponsor since the departure of Valentino Rossi, as Italian car manufacturer Fiat dropped its support of the Japanese team when Rossi went to Ducati Corse for this upcoming season.

Despite having the reigning MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, the 2010 MotoGP Rookie of the Year Ben Spies, and being the team to beat in 2011, Yamaha has reportedly struggled to find a title sponsor for the upcoming season, that is until now.

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