After much ado, Suzuki has confirmed that they have signed Alvaro Bautista for next year’s MotoGP season. Bautista had been pursued rather intently this last month by his old 250GP boss, Jorge “Aspar” Martinez (pictured above), for his satellite Ducati team, which will be debuting next season. However, Bautista has been resistant to the idea of riding the Desmosedici, and was looking for a factory ride, which only Suzuki can provide.
Mika Kallio filled in for the absent Casey Stoner this weekend, and finally got his shot riding with the factory Ducati team. Kallio’s big break would be cut short though, as he had an “incident” with Marco Melandri on the second to last lap, which took both riders out of the race.
In a classic he said, she said, Kallio and Melandri have very different views on what exactly went down. Read the quotes below, watch the video above, and decide for yourself what you saw happen.
Big announcements came out of Brno this week, with the 2010 season starting to shape up with riders solidify positions for next year. With plenty of silly season ahead of us, we can at least reflect on the racing from the Czech Republic, which has once again shaped the MotoGP Championship standings.
After a two week hiatus, MotoGP is back to racing with a stop in the Czech Repubilc. Amongst the press conferences, and positioning for next year, the riders actually made it out to the track to qualify for Sunday’s race. The masters of two-wheels clearly used their break to hone their game, and for the first time a pole position record was broken since the introduction of the one-tire rule.
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.
Jorge “Aspar” Martinez hopes of entering MotoGP with Spanish rider Alvaro Bautista in-tow seem to have disappeared today. After calling an emergency meeting with the young Spanish rider today, Aspar had hope to be able to persuade Bautista to not sign with the Rizla Suzuki factory team, which has an exception to the rookie rule. Those hopes, however, no seem to be in vain as early indications point to Bautista instead opting to ride for the Rizla Suzuki team.
Ducati has just announced that Casey Stoner will miss the GP this weekend at Brno, as well as the next two races. The decision was made by Stoner and his medical staff back in Australia, who have been trying to track down the reason for the rider’s chronic fatigue.
Stoner will return to MotoGP racing in October, at the Portuguese GP. Until then, Mika Kallio will replace Stoner on the Ducati Marlboro factory bike, and WSBK rider Michel Fabrizio will take Kallio’s spot on the Pramac Ducati satellite team.
With the MotoGP paddock still up in the air as to where riders will land for the 2010, some riders are in better positions than others. Nicky Hayden finds himself in the unique position of deciding whether or not he will stay with a factory ride, or move elsewhere. Hayden currently has a one-year contract with Ducati, which has an option to renew the contract for another with the American rider.
Frenchman Randy de Puniet has broken his ankle while training on his motorcross bike. Riding with three-time World Champion Yves De Maria, de Puniet hit the ground while going through a turn. The injury required de Puniet to have an operation, and he now has screws in-place to hold the fracture. With only two weeks remaining in MotoGP’s little summer siesta, Randy will clearly not be 100% when MotoGP resumes at Brno on August 16th.
No word yet as to whether de Puniet was wearing a helmet, or if he had his shirt on.
Source: MotoGP Hotties
You may remember that we reported earlier in July that Jorge “Aspar” Martinez was closing-in on realizing his dream of racing in the MotoGP series. Well, that day is finally upon us now. While at Donington Park this past weekend, Aspar announced that a deal with Ducati had indeed been reached.
The Spanish team principle will run a satellite Ducati team with a solitary bike, however a rider has yet to be determined. Alvaro Bautista, the most logical choice to pilot Aspar’s Ducati, has said that within the next few weeks he will make a decisions as to whether he will join MotoGP. Should he decide to move up to the premiere class, you can bet that he will land on the Spanish team.
The provisional MotoGP schedule is out. New to the line-up (well sort of), is the stop in Hungary at the Balatonring (yet to be built). And also, the British GP will be held at Silverstone instead of Donington Park. Donington will host Formula1 instead for the foreseeable future.That shouldn’t be a surprise to you if you’re a A&R regular, but for you newcomers…umm, gee…well, SURPRISE!
Dorna doesn’t seem convinced that the Balatonring will be completed in time. So they’ve hedged their bets with a “reserve circuit” in Spain, the Motorland Aragon Circuit. Motorland is a brand new facility that is just outside of Alcañiz, about a hundred miles inland from Barcelona. If the reserve circuit is used, it will mean 4 Grand Prix’s in Spain for 2010.
That might be good news for the rabid motorcycle racing fans of Espana, but it’s even better news for Motorland, which has been trying to establish itself as a premiere venue, by courting Formula1 and MotoGP. Full listing of the schedule after the jump.