Toby Moody, our MotoGP man on the inside, is back with his regular round-up of the lesser-reported news from the paddock..
A right old knees-up
Along with Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden had all sorts of trouble on Saturday afternoon trying to get some speed out of his Ducati GP11, eventually tumbling to a lowly 13th on the grid. The reason? The softer front tyre wouldn’t work in the cooler conditions leaving the 2006 World Champion to lose the front to such a degree that he leant on his knee so hard that the knee slider rolled around the side of his knee leaving the leather to then be in contact with the ground. That’s some kinda pressure…
Pedal power
Cal Crutchlow’s previous weekend involved a day out cycling with none other than Tour de France sprint finish god Mark Cavendish and Commonwealth cyclist Andy Roche. But it was no ordinary day out cycling, instead it was 67-mile road race on the Isle of Man. Given three days notice for the event after a long run had deadened his legs, CC was put into the Elite Category 1 race instead of the slightly lesser race that happened earlier in the day. All was cool until the last 30 miles when they all sped off to the finishline over the steep climbs out of Ramsey. No mean cyclist himself, Cal's amazement of riding with the guys and seeing them sprout wings was something he told all about on Thursday.
Grandstanding for the fans
The Italian MotoGP at Mugello in early July has already started cracking up the needs of the massed ranks of Rossi/Ducati followers by building a permanent grandstand on the home straight opposite the pits. A towering bridge will feed the stand from the paddock, but what an atmosphere it will be for the fans in the stand.
Toby Moody
Tyred and emotional
A few Moto2 teams went testing in the near four week-gap before Estoril with Stop & Go at Aragon, Aspar at Valencia and the Italtrans duo at Mugello, the latter thrashing around within easy reach of the lap record. Dunlop who feed the tyres to all Moto2 runners were nearly caught on the hop at the race before when teams asked on Sunday night for tyres they could take away with them for their various tests. “We barely had enough tyres to even give them as they hadn’t asked in advance, but we cleared the trucks out and even shipped some to Valencia for Aspar’s lot.” Said Dunlop's Alan Nicholls. “We supplied 1,367 tyres at Jerez, just a few more than just over 800 at Qatar, although there were obviously no wets in Qatar..”
Testing, testing...
The new GP 12 Ducati with the 1000cc engine tested at Jerez in the break, something that’s all over YouTube without the sound of the engine to stop rival engineers analysing the firing order, but Honda have already tested their 1000cc bike for 2012 at Suzuka and Motegi with Kasuke Akiyoshi, Shinichi Itoh and Tady Okada. One bike will come over to Europe for Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa to test after Le Mans, but who’ll be testing it first?
It ain't over, till it's over
Casey Stoner’s retirement at Jerez was talked of ad nauseum in the run up to the race at Estoril, but even if the Aussie might have got his Honda fired up again, it was devoid of any traction control and anti-wheelie because a sensor wire was ripped during the coming together with Valentino Rossi. Could Stoner have finished the race on worn-out tyres with no electronics? I hear he was adamant he could have done it. You gotta love racers. It also appears that Valentino Rossi was lucky in getting his Ducati back in the race at Jerez. There's an engine cut-out that turns the engine off after should the bike be on its side for more than 15 seconds. The time before the bike was righted? 14.8 seconds.
Keep watching the skies
My fascination for watching the International Space Station fly over on a clear night in the UK spread to downtown Cascais where many stay during the GP weekend. Talking to Andrea Dovizioso’s mechanics of the potentially long and bright five-minute sighting on Thursday night at 9.07pm, all parties drifted off to their various restaurants with alarms set to come out into the street and see it. I knew what to look for, but others were not so sure, especially with the amount of dirty light and narrow horizon one gets from being in a town. Not only did I look a complete muppet trying to find it while down a narrow street - nigh on impossible with hindsight - but Dovi’s boys also stood out in the street eventually calling me all sorts of names under the sun, or moon, convinced it was a joke from yours truly. Next time guys!
Armed and dangerous
BBC Commentator Charlie Cox broke his arm before Jerez and turned up in Estoril with a plastercast in the colours of the Portuguese flag. A bit of a fan? Well, his surgeon is actually Portuguese and ironically called Miguel Olivera, just like the 125cc front-running local.
Toby Moody
The Royal Wedding on Friday had some people watching and some really not bothered, but the cake has to go to Canadian Tom Jojic and American Randy Mamola, who watched Kate Middleton arrive at Westminster Abbey on the TV in the Tech 3 Moto2 garage right up until the last moment before practice. "We'll remember where we were whenever it's talked about in the future!"
Brad to the bone
Brad Binder won the first Red Bull Rookies race of the weekend on Saturday afternoon, his KTM eventually winning by a stunning 15.9 seconds. “When I saw the gap was 4 seconds I realised that it was going OK, but I wanted to keep pushing and I only eased up right at the end. In fact, I almost crashed at the chicane on the last lap when the front tucked but I got away with it.” Again, on Sunday he pounced into the lead, but crashed on lap two leaving Arthur Sissis and Lorenzo Baldassarri to battle to the flag who are now first and second in the championship. Austrian Sissis won it, now having a 27-point advantage after only four races. Impressive.
Green is good
Pramac Ducati have really gone green in their hospitality unit. Cardboard tables and chairs...!
Toby Moody
Give the man a hand
Danny Kent with his Red Bull Ajo Aprilia was all over the place throughout the weekend, all for the good until he crashed in qualifying making a mess of his left hand. He could barely move it a few hours later, but amazingly did the race... Only to jump the start and get a ride through penalty. However, he did fight back through the field and bag the last point on the last lap. Hero.
Toby Moody
Want more?
Comments
Add a comment