While having a quick look through some pictures from Jerez, I stumbled across this one from the pre-event press conference that made me chuckle. I thought it would make for a funny “Caption This” post for the readers of Asphalt & Rubber.
I’ll start us off with: M.M.: “I’m a little concerned Dovi. The instructions said the swelling should go down within 4 hours. That was 5 hours ago and it still looks like this.
Over to you guys.
With the dust settled on the Spanish Grand Prix, the serious business of testing got under way at the Jerez Circuit this past Monday morning.
With a live track for eight hours, this is invaluable time for riders and teams to assess new parts, fine-tune existing parts, and go in search of the elusive setup.
For a photographer, a test is an all together more relaxing experience than a race weekend. With so much time available you can linger at locations and take your time wandering around the track.
Additional locations become available as the advertising boards, which are usually too high to shoot over, have been removed. Pit lane is almost deserted, and provides opportunities that are harder to pick out on a race weekend.
With that considered, I will leave you with the gallery below from Monday’s test.
Lorenzo lead from start to finish to claim his 34th MotoGP victory and put his title challenge back on track.
Marc Marquez was able to ignore the pain from his injured hand to claim a comfortable 2nd place.
Rossi grabbed another podium and extended his lead in the championship to 15 points over Dovizioso.
Andrea Dovizioso exit’s Sito Pon’s corner during FP3.
Second place on the grid for tomorrow’s race for Marc Marquez, who has so far managed without any painkillers for his broken finger.
Valentino Rossi will be hoping to extend his lead in the championship this weekend.
Valentino Rossi was a little off the pace today, finishing 9th on the timesheets.
Jack Miller crossed up on the exit of Turn 1.
Expectation is starting to grow for Danny Kent after his dominant wins in Austin and Argentina.
I might be in France right now, but everyone is talking about Austin, Texas. They’re talking about that lap, you know the one I’m talking about…
In case you’re drawing a blank, it’s the one where Marc Marquez’s Honda RC213V throws a warning light and gets abandoned on the front straight as Marquez jumps the pit lane wall, runs back to his #2 bike, and put on a two-lap show for fans.
He was on the wrong bike, with the wrong setup, and the wrong tires. It was not his best lap ever, but it might be his most memorable though.
It shows that you never say die. It shows that the truly great riders overcome the adversity in front of them. It shows that luck is when opportunity meets preparation. As much as Marquez down-played his qualifying result in Austin, it showed the Spaniard’s true grit. I ask the question: are you not entertained?
The above photo is 2000 pixels wide, if you click on it. Feel free to use it as your computer desktop background.
At last weekend’s Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin I achieved a landmark moment in my fledgling MotoGP career. Thanks to Melanie at Asphalt & Rubber, I was the proud recipient of a Honda Ruckus scooter and what a revelation it was!
The ability to get from point to point with ease was a joy although I did have one small mishap, of sorts. On race day I had decided to photograph the MotoGP race from the outside of the track.
I started at Turn 1 and worked my round to Turn 10. After spending a couple of laps at Turn 10, I returned to my scooter and realised I was missing one of my cameras.
Two races into the start of the 2015 season and The Doctor leads the championship after a win and a third.
25 MotoGP bikes safely make their way through one of the tightest first turns on the MotoGP calendar.
A great day for British fans as they watched Sam Lowes back up Danny Kent’s win in Moto3 with a win of his own. It was also Sam’s first grand prix victory. I have a feeling he’ll have a few more before the season is finished.
Jorge Lorenzo put his troubles from yesterday behind him to qualifying on the front row for tomorrows Grand Prix of the Americas.
Nicky Hayden pits during FP2, balance and electronics issue have left him looking concerned.
Not even with the soft tire in qualifying could let Andrea Dovizioso match Marquez’s stunning lap.
Scott Redding was quick in this mornings wet session but couldn’t back that up in FP2.
Valentino Rossi starts another wet lap during FP1.
How low can you go? Around 64º by all accounts.
I’ve arrived in Austin and settled into my digs ahead of Round 2 of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship.
As I sat down to write ahead of the coming weekend, I thought back to one of my favorites times from last year.
I’d had a great holiday with my partner Clare prior to coming to the 2014 race and really enjoyed the Austin experience.
While thinking about the weekend I wondered as to what, if any, images still stood in my memory from last year. One I immediately thought of was the MotoGP podium selfie of Dani Pedrosa, Marc Marquez, and Andrea Dovizioso.