Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi says he is ‘confident’ he and his team will be competitive in this weekend’s season-opener in Qatar despite a tough pre-season. The nine-times world champion Italian, entering his 22nd year of grand prix racing, has so far found life on the 2017 YZR-M1 difficult. So much so, in fact, that at the end […]
Jorge Lorenzo comes into his first race as a Ducati rider confident of being competitive despite a largely difficult pre-season. Lorenzo’s switch to Ducati for 2017 is one of the most hotly anticipated stories of the new season, with the Spaniard aiming to become just the sixth rider in history to win the MotoGP title with […]
Reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez has admitted that the Losail Circuit isn’t best suited to his aggressive riding style, but thinks the level reached with the RC213V during testing will have him fighting for the podium. The Honda rider has endured a busy pre-season. A new ‘big-bang’ engine introduced by HRC caused several headaches […]
Aspar MotoGP rider Alvaro Bautista comes into the opening round of the 2017 season aiming at being a regular top five contender on his Ducati. Bautista last raced with the Spanish team in the 250cc class, where he was runner-up in 2008. He also won the 2006 125cc world title with them. He stepped up to the […]
Race Department ATK#25 rider Alex Baldolini will miss next week’s Aragon round of the 2017 World Supersport Championship because of an ankle injury sustained in Thailand. The Italian ride endured a tough weekend at the Chang International Circuit, mechanical issues with his MV Agusta thwarting his progress during practice. A crash towards the end of FP2 […]
British Talent Team’s John McPhee ended the final pre-season test of the year 12th fastest and satisfied with how his winter preparations have gone. The Scottish rider returns to Honda machinery this year with the Dorna-backed British Talent Team following a largely difficult 2016 campaign on a Mahindra with the Saxoprint Peugeot squad. Running was limited this […]
The final day of pre-season testing for the Moto2 and Moto3 World Championships from Qatar has been brought to an early end due to incredibly poor weather. Friday saw just one session run due to high winds and rain fall later in the day. Though both Moto2 and Moto3 got two sessions of track time […]
Marinelli Rivacold Honda’s Romano Fenati ended a tight second day of Moto3 testing at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar top of the pile. Only a handful of riders in the lightweight class completed any laps yesterday, as high winds and heavy rain saw just one session run. With everyone keen to make up for […]
Honda Team Asia’s Takaaki Nakagami ended a busy penultimate day of the Qatar Moto2 test top of the time sheets, with both Marc VDS riders slotting in close behind. The 5.4km Losail International Circuit was abuzz with activity as soon as the opening session was given the green light, after yesterday’s running was cancelled due […]
The opening night of the final pre-season test for the Moto2 and Moto3 World Championships in Qatar was called off after just one session of running due to heavy rain. The day got off to a slow start, with high winds tempting only a few Moto3 riders out of their garages for a handful of […]
Italian outfit VFT Racing has announced its plans to race a Ducati Panigale R at a handful of rounds of the 2017 World Superbike Championship with rider Fabio Menghi, though are yet to reveal which ones. VFT Racing, a Menghi family-run effort, stepped up to the Superbike class in 2016 having spent a number of […]
MotoGP commercial rights holder Dorna Sports has struck a deal with Channel 5 to broadcast highlights of the 2017 season on free-to-air television in the UK. Fans were left in limbo last month when it was announced MotoGP’s previous terrestrial home, ITV4, had opted against renewing its contract to broadcast highlights of the series throughout […]