Tough qualifying for Spies in Malaysia

The Texan’s injuries sustained in Australia continue to hamper his abilities to ride to the limit. As a result Spies crashed in both the morning practice and afternoon qualifying session, finally taking 16th place on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Katsuyuki Nakasuga made a step forward today, Jorge’s replacement rider getting more familiar with his bike and team as the weekend progresses. Nakasuga-san wrapped up qualifying 2.6 seconds from pole, over two seconds closer to the fastest rider than yesterday. He will start tomorrow’s race from 17th on the grid, behind his temporary team mate Spies.

Ben Spies:
“It’s been a pretty eventful weekend. The bike is working really well but I’m just not feeling 100% and ready to get it over and done with. Qualifying was tough, we went out there and experienced a crash, I’m not sure why yet but we’ll check the data later. We don’t have a great position on the grid but we’ll do the best we can for points to try and hold on to fifth place for the Championship.”

Katsuyuki Nakasuga:
“This morning’s session was quite positive for me. I had a good feeling and found a rhythm on the track which was very motivating. Tomorrow I will try my best for a good position. The bike set up is working well so I am feeling confident for my first ever MotoGP race.”

Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager:
“This is a completely different experience to last year where we won the Championship here. Now we are second last and last on the grid. I think Nakasuga-san did a good job today, his lap time was a lot better than yesterday and he didn’t crash so he did well. He has to learn a lot but we are now approaching it the right way. He’s improving so let’s see how he gets on tomorrow. It’s going to be a long hot race, he looks good in a group so hopefully he can stay up there with some of the pack and fight with them until the end.”

Yamaha Factory Racing press release

Read More

Pedrosa takes pole as Repsol Honda Team dominates front row

Dani Pedrosa took his second pole of the season (third one in MotoGP at the Sepang circuit) with 2011 World Champion Casey Stoner in second, just 0.029 off the Spaniard and Andrea Dovizioso in third.

Pedrosa, who has been the fastest all weekend, continued his dominance in qualifying even after crashing at the beginning of the session. The time of 2'01.462 achieved on his 18th lap, put Dani out of reach from Casey (2'01.491) and Andrea (2'01.666), who fought until the last seconds for pole position.

The Repsol Honda Team have achieved double front row places nine times this season, 8 with Stoner and Pedrosa and 1 with Stoner and Dovizioso, but it is the first time this season that the team has occupied the entire front row for qualifying, a feat not matched since the final race of 1997 at Phillip Island when Mick Doohan was on pole with Alex Crivillé second and Takuma Aoki third. Also in that race, Tadayuki Okada was fourth on the grid making it an all Repsol Honda front row (in 1997 there were four riders on each row of the grid).

All three riders have lapped under the circuit record and have the pace to fight for the victory tomorrow but tyre choice and weather conditions will be key factors to consider.

Dani Pedrosa:
"It was a very difficult session, extremely hot, I couldn't breathe inside the helmet. We had a small crash in the front that I didn't expect, but was able to go back and go faster and take my second pole of the season. I thought I would be able to improve a little more at the end and get closer to the time I did yesterday, but I found some traffic on my final run. Anyway, it's good to be on pole and I hope our race pace can be even better. We have to work on the set up and make a good rear tyre choice because our rivals are also very strong. It's going to be very physically demanding for everybody. To have three Repsol Honda riders on the front row is very good, but we cannot forget the other rivals and we must keep focused to finish the weekend in the best way."

Casey Stoner:
"I tried to steal pole but it wasn't really our day today. We tried a few different things in set up but we haven't really gone the right direction at all this weekend. In qualifying we tried to find another path to go but we just haven't been able to get grip along with turning, we can find one or the other but at best they are both average so we have some improvement to make for tomorrow. Our race pace isn't too bad, we've looked worse than everyone else because we've been running on the harder tyre all weekend but once we put the soft tyres on the bike worked a little better."

Andrea Dovizioso:
“I’m really happy with this front row and even more satisfied with my race pace. We have improved a lot, reducing the gap to two tenths after being 1.4 seconds behind in FP2 and 0.8 behind in FP3. We were consistent and fast both with soft and hard tyre, meaning that it’s possible to race with both of them. This afternoon the conditions were really demanding, it was very hot and there was no grip but we were able to be consistently fast so we go into the race very strong. With such conditions here it’s impossible to push 100% for 20 laps so it will be very important to make a strategy for the race and to manage the tyres. I really like this track and tomorrow it would be fantastic to repeat a Repsol Honda 1, 2, 3 on the Podium, but… in the reverse order!"

Repsol Honda press release.

Read More

Lenovo IdeaPad A1

Specifications
Lenovo IdeaPad A1
Network2G
3G
SizeDimensions
Weight
Display		195 x 125 x 12 mm (7.68 x 4.92 x 0.47 in)
400 gram
TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
600 x 1024 pixels, 7.0 inches (~170 ppi pixel density)
MemoryPhonebook
Call records
Internal
Card slot

16 GB, 512 MB RAM
microSD, up to 32 GB
DataGPRS
EDGE
3G
WLAN
Bluetooth
Infrared port
USB


Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, hotspot
v2.1 with A2DP, EDR

microUSB v2.0
FeaturesOS
CPU
Messaging
Alert
Browser
Radio
GPS
Games
Camera
Video
Colors
Java		Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)
1.0 GHz Cortex-A8
Email, Push Email, IM
Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
HTML, Adobe Flash

Yes
Yes
3.15 MP
Yes
Black, blue, pink, white
via Java MIDP emulator
- Loudspeaker
- Multitouch
- 3.5mm jack
- Geo-tagging
- Accelerometer, compass (sensors)
- MP3/WAV/WMA/AAC player
- MP4/H.264 player
- Document viewer
- Organizer
- Predictive text input
- Clock
- Calendar
- Alarm
Battery
Stand-by
Talk time		Non-removable Li-Ion battery
Up to
Up to 6 h

Image: http://www.gsmarena.com/lenovo_ideapad_a1-pictures-4442.php
Read More

Bridgestone reviews a drama-filled Japanese GP

Starting from fourth on the grid, Pedrosa was one of five riders to use the harder front and rear slicks and once at the front of the field, he didn’t look back and set a new lap record to round-off what has been a very fast weekend. Factory Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo followed him across the finish line in second to cut Casey Stoner’s championship lead, but only by four points to 40 with three rounds remaining.

Throughout the rest of the field though, the action was far more intense. Stoner got away to an early lead until he ran wide at turn eleven on lap five, demoting him to seventh although he fought back strongly to clinch third. The top three all used the harder front and rear slicks as the sun emerged just before the start of the race, warming the tarmac enough for some riders to change their minds about the durability of the softer rear. Every rider chose the hard compound front slicks which have been favoured all weekend because of their extra braking stability.

As the field constantly changed as a result of crashes and ride-through penalties and riders fought to regain positions, some intense battles emerged in the closing stages, especially between Simoncelli and Dovizioso who almost traded paint to finish fourth and fifth respectively. Dovizioso was the highest-placed rider to use the soft compound rear slick.

Yoshiyuki Morimoto – Vice President and Senior Officer, Bridgestone Corporation
“I would like to congratulate the Repsol Honda Team and Dani Pedrosa for their excellent victory here today at the home circuit of HRC. We are honoured to have been able to support this Japanese Grand Prix especially after the earthquake earlier this year and for MotoGP to have shown such solidarity with the Japanese people. MotoGP remains a very important platform for us and Bridgestone will continue to strive to provide tyres of consistently high quality and safety and a fair tyre service to all teams.”

Hirohide Hamashima – Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division
“With the incidents on track that was a very frantic race for all but Dani and Jorge who avoided trouble to stay in front. The sun emerged shortly before the race start which meant the tarmac got hotter and with race tyre choice so dependent on the weather, many riders made their selection last minute. The hard front was always favoured for its extra stability under braking, but rear tyre choice was more mixed. With the top four riders, clearly the harder rear was the faster choice, but I am pleased that even our soft compound allowed Álvaro to run in third for a time, and we could see that until the end Andrea was able to fight hard with Marco, who used the harder rear.”

Bridgestone press release

Read More

Simoncelli gets first taste of RC213V

After agreeing a new contract with San Carlo Honda Gresini and HRC at Motegi, Marco Simoncelli was back on track on Monday following a bittersweet Grand Prix to test the 1000cc bike he will ride next year. It was an important opportunity to discover the potential of the RC213V and give his feedback to HRC, and turned out to be a fun day for Marco who now heads to the Philippines for a short break before the next round of the MotoGP World Championship at Phillip Island in Australia.

Marco Simoncelli
“The big day finally arrived and I was able to test the bike I will be riding in Team San Carlo Honda Gresini colours next year. It was a fantastic experience to get out on the RC213V and I would like thank HRC for the opportunity. I completed 50 laps and quickly felt confident with the new bike, setting similar lap times to the RC212V. At the end of the day I gave my feedback and suggestions, which I hope will be important in the development of the bike from here. Now I am taking some days off on the island of Boracay in the Philippines before the next race at Phillip Island.”

San Carlo Honda Gresini press release

Read More

Hopkins To Race At Sepang MotoGP

John Hopkins will re-join the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP team as a wild-card rider in Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Sunday 23rd October.

Hopkins will make a welcome return to the Rizla Suzuki squad for his second wild-card event of the season. His first event was at Brno where he unfortunately crashed and injured his right hand in a practice session. He had shown huge potential during the first day and had finished in 10th place on the time-sheets, but his injury on day two stopped the Anglo-American from showing what he might have achieved after a full weekend on-board the Suzuki GSV-R. Hopkins has already completed a MotoGP race this season, after he deputised for Alvaro Bautista at Jerez and scored a creditable 10th place at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Hopkins is currently leading the British Superbike championship onboard his Suzuki GSX-R1000 with the Samsung Crescent Racing team. The final event of the season will see him compete in a triple-header race weekend at Brands Hatch in England on October 8-9th, as he attempts to secure the Championship during his debut season.

John Hopkins:
“I am really pumped to get this chance to ride in a MotoGP race with the Rizla Suzuki team. I thought after Brno that I wouldn’t get the opportunity again and was really disappointed that I missed out there due to a silly mistake, so to be heading to Sepang is fantastic. It is one of my favourite tracks and I know it well because we used to test there a lot. My main focus is on the British Championship at the moment, but as soon as that is over I will be in MotoGP mode and putting all my efforts into getting a good result at Sepang and showing that I can perform at the highest level. I really want to get back into MotoGP and this is a great chance to show what I can do.

“Again I need to thank everyone at Rizla Suzuki for giving me this opportunity and my Samsung Crescent team – I hope that by the time I get back on the MotoGP bike we will have been celebrating something really big at Brands Hatch!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“We’d intended to give John at least one outing on the Rizla Suzuki Grand Prix bike this year and we’re delighted that he’ll join us in Malaysia to form a two-man team with Alvaro. Sepang is one of John’s favourite tracks and also one that the GSV-R has performed well at in the past. What happened in Brno – with John’s injury – and the way he has worked so hard to come back from it and challenge for the British Superbike Championship, has only reaffirmed his commitment to success and getting back to the top level. Let’s hope at Sepang we manage to line up at the start of the race with two Rizla Suzukis and that Alvaro and John can show what they and the team are all capable of producing.”

Read More

Marco Melandri Lines Up Alongside Leon Haslam For BMW Motorrad Motorsport In 2012

BMW Motorrad Motorsport has confirmed its second rider for the 2012 FIM Superbike World Championship: alongside Britain’s Leon Haslam (28), 29-year-old former MotoGP rider Marco Melandri (ITA) will ride the second BMW S 1000 RR for the team from Munich and Stephanskirchen.

BMW Motorrad Motorsport Director Bernhard Gobmeier says: “We are really looking forward to working with Leon and Marco. I am convinced we will have arguably the strongest rider’s line up in the Superbike World Championship field. We are delighted to have two riders who are both hungry and experienced for the coming season. That is the next important step for our team.” Gobmeier adds: “Marco has performed brilliantly this season, even during difficult periods. He impressed us in his first season in the championship, and we are pleased to be able to welcome him into our team.”

Profile: Marco Melandri

Date of birth: 7th August 1982
Place of birth: Ravenna (ITA)
Place of residence: Ravenna (ITA)
Family status: Engaged
Height: 1.66 m
Weight: 60 kg
Hobbies: All kinds of motorsports, cycling, music
Passion: Bikes
First bike: Malaguti Grizzly 50ccm
First race: 1989, Mini-Bikes, Cattolica (ITA)
Career highlight: 250ccm World Champion (2002), 2nd MotoGP (2005)
Superbike World Championship record: 22 races, 12 podium finishes, 3 wins, 5 second and 4 third places, 1 pole position, 3 fastest race laps

Website: www.marcomelandri.it

Read More

Archive