Motorcycle Sport & Racing News

Nicky Hayden seeking more consistency

Nicky Hayden seeking more consistency

Nicky Hayden reckons he’s still got to find a more consistently fast pace to mount a regular podium challenge in the 2011 MotoGP world championship. Hayden made a drastic improvement in his second...

Suzuki boss expects brutal racing in MotoGP

Suzuki boss expects brutal racing in MotoGP

Factory Suzuki boss Paul Denning reckons MotoGP fans will be treated to some ‘brutal’ racing in 2011, with competition in the 17-rider field stronger than it has ever been. Many expect a seven-rider...

Honda buoyed by internal competition

Honda buoyed by internal competition

The fierce internal competition between Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli is a major positive for Honda in 2011, says HRC boss Livio Suppo. Honda hasn’t won the premier...

Honda has no big advantage, says Dani Pedrosa

Honda has no big advantage, says Dani Pedrosa

Dani Pedrosa has denied that Honda will start the 2011 MotoGP world championship in Qatar with a big technical advantage over Yamaha and Ducati. The new Honda RC212V has been the dominant bike in...

MCN’s BSB pre-season testing blog: Viva Espana - the final day

MCN’s BSB pre-season testing blog: Viva Espana - the final day

There’s no such thing as downtime for the technical staff in a professional race team. Even on a disgusting wet, cold day in the middle of nowheresville Spain, when the track’s too slippery for the...

Suzuki unveils new 2011 GSV-R

Suzuki unveils new 2011 GSV-R

This is the new factory Suzuki GSV-R that Alvaro Bautista will race in the 2011 MotoGP world championship. Sporting a striking blue livery inspired by Troy Lee Designs in the colours of title sponsor...

Re-live classic MotoGP races on British Eurosport

Re-live classic MotoGP races on British Eurosport

MotoGP fans will be able to re-live some of the best races of the modern era in a special series of ‘Best Battles’ to be screened on British Eurosport during 2011. British Eurosport will screen a...

Andrea Dovizioso expects to mount title challenge

Andrea Dovizioso expects to mount title challenge

Andrea Dovizioso believes he can mount a serious threat to win the 2011 MotoGP world championship. The Italian has been in impressive form during the winter testing campaign with the new factory Honda...

Valentino Rossi’s best mate unveils Moto2 squad

Valentino Rossi’s best mate unveils Moto2 squad

Valentino Rossi’s lifelong best friend Alessio ‘Uccio’ Salucci unveiled the new Moto2 squad he is helping run in 2011 in Milan yesterday (Tuesday). Salucci helped show off the new Speed Master Team...

MCN BSB blog: First day at Guadix

MCN BSB blog: First day at Guadix

After driving down from Cartagena to Guadix yesterday and kicking around the town, having a lazy afternoon, today it was back to business as usual – or so we had hoped. Guadix is a beautifully...

Casey Stoner against extended Qatar MotoGP weekend

Casey Stoner against extended Qatar MotoGP weekend

Casey Stoner says he is against the new format for the season opening night race in Qatar, with the schedule extended to four days for 2011. Five pratice sessions will take place on Thursday night...

Casey Stoner predicts wide open title fight

Casey Stoner predicts wide open title fight

Casey Stoner says he’s expecting the 2011 MotoGP world championship fight to be a wide open contest. The Aussie has made an impressive switch to the Repsol Honda squad for the new season and he...

Ben Spies won't be fazed by Jorge Lorenzo threat

Ben Spies won't be fazed by Jorge Lorenzo threat

Ben Spies won’t be fazed at all by having current MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo as his team-mate in 2011, according to former team boss Herve Poncharal. Spies hasn’t been defeated by a team-mate...

Yamaha more united without Valentino Rossi

Yamaha more united without Valentino Rossi

Yamaha will attempt to win a fourth successive MotoGP crown in 2011 as a much more united force, according to new factory rider Ben Spies. Following the departure of talisman Valentino Rossi to...

Alvaro Bautista: 'I'm better off alone'

Alvaro Bautista: 'I'm better off alone'

Alvaro Bautista reckons it will be more beneficial for him to operate as the lone rider in Suzuki’s factory MotoGP squad for 2011. The Spaniard will be Suzuki’s single entry this year following the...

Norton continuing MotoGP talks for 2012

Norton continuing MotoGP talks for 2012

Norton continues to be in regular contact with Dorna about a potential 2012 entry in the new 1000cc MotoGP class. But Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta said there was still no guarantee that the legendary...

Rossi's potential tough to gauge, says Colin Edwards

Rossi's potential tough to gauge, says Colin Edwards

Valentino Rossi’s true potential on Ducati’s new factory GP11 will be difficult to fully understand until the Italian has regained 100 per cent fitness. That’s the view of Colin Edwards as Rossi...

Honda desperate for final 800cc glory

Honda desperate for final 800cc glory

Honda bosses have admitted failure to win the final 800cc MotoGP world title in 2011 would be a massive disappointment. HRC hasn’t seriously challenged for an 800cc world title since the class was...

Scott Redding: 'I'm ready to bang fairings again.'

Scott Redding: 'I'm ready to bang fairings again.'

Scott Redding says he can’t wait for the cut and thrust of competition again having completed his Moto2 world championship preparations in Jerez yesterday (Sunday.) The 18-year-old ended the...

MCN BSB blog: Cartagena and Calafat times

MCN BSB blog: Cartagena and Calafat times

Tommy Hill wound up fastest in the four-day test here with a 1:32.9 on the Swan Yamaha but Josh Brookes second and Michael Laverty – each just one tenth of a second further back and Shane Byrne just...

Simpson and Tonus take big gold in Little Silver

The Maxxis British Championships took the gate for the first time in 2011 at Little Silver near the bottom end of the M5. Shaun Simpson made a great impression making his UK debut in the 450 class for Honda, scoring a Toni Cairoli (2-2-2) to take the overall on one of his rare domestic forays. Jason Dougan passed Brad Anderson early on to lead ahead of Simpson and Stephen Sword in race one, but...

Villopoto makes breakthrough at Daytona

It’s been a long time coming, but as the clock ticks over into the second half of the AMA Supercross championship, someone has finally had a decisive break. Ryan Villopoto went to Daytona hanging onto his slender series lead, but by the time he left the Speedway, the lead was out to 23 points – a margin just two points shy of a full win. Given how close the battling has been between the five...

MCN BSB Blog: Cartagena times

MCN BSB Blog: Cartagena times

Times were the talking point in the Cartagena pit lane today so I’ve compiled this list of top runners. Bearing in mind the BS and the banter, I’d hope that these times are pretty much spot-on since...

MCN BSB testing blog: Hill and Laverty on fire

MCN BSB testing blog: Hill and Laverty on fire

There wasn’t exactly fear on the faces of the BSB teams in the Cartagena pit lane but there was genuine surprise at how fast Michael Laverty and Tommy Hill were today on the Swan Yamahas. Everyone...

Rain disrupts Jerez Moto2/125 testing

Rain disrupts Jerez Moto2/125 testing

After the recent three-day Estoril test was virtually washed out by persistent rain, hopes that the Moto2 and 125GP field would benefit from more favourable conditions in Jerez were quickly dashed...

Shakedown at Cartagena

Shakedown at Cartagena

The four-day Barry Symmons-run Pro-Test kicked off at Cartagena today with former MotoGP star American John Hopkins making his debut on the Samsung Suzuki. Although primarily an installation day for...

Yamaha can cope without Rossi and Furusawa, says race boss

Yamaha can cope without Rossi and Furusawa, says race boss

Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis is adamant the double blow of losing star rider Valentino Rossi and the major engineering influence of Masao Furusawa in the space of a few months will not hurt the Japanese...

Andrea Dovizioso: Internal battle helping Honda

Andrea Dovizioso: Internal battle helping Honda

Andrea Dovizioso reckons the intense internal competition at HRC in 2011 is helping lift the performance of the impressive new RC212V machine. Honda is going all-out to win the final 800cc world title...

All-woman endurance team aims to kick some TT Legend butt

All-woman endurance team aims to kick some TT Legend butt

Four of the world’s most successful female racers will join forces to field a BSB-crew-supported S1000RR in this year’s World Endurance championship. Team Weronica will be the first all-woman team to...

BSB Testing Blog: Viva Espana! Day Three

BSB Testing Blog: Viva Espana! Day Three

Cartagena, Thursday, March 3 Another day, another race track. We’re at Cartagena now and it feels more like a normal BSB meeting than a pre-season test – packed garages, loads of new bikes, chilled...

Dani Pedrosa to make last minute chassis choice

Dani Pedrosa to make last minute chassis choice

Dani Pedrosa will leave it to the last minute to decide which factory Honda chassis he will begin his quest to win a first MotoGP world title on later this month. Despite only two days of pre-season...

Colin Edwards: Rossi not holding back

Colin Edwards: Rossi not holding back

Colin Edwards dismissed suggestions that Valentino Rossi is deliberately avoiding showing his true potential ahead of his competitive Ducati debut in Qatar next month. American Edwards mocked gossip...

Cal Crutchlow's 2011 MotoGP livery unveiled

Cal Crutchlow's 2011 MotoGP livery unveiled

This is the new Monster Yamaha Tech 3 livery that Cal Crutchlow and Colin Edwards will race in the 2011 MotoGP world championship. Racing with his favourite number 35, former World Supersport champion...

Casey Stoner: Ducati won't be worried

Casey Stoner: Ducati won't be worried

Casey Stoner isn’t expecting Ducati’s current dip in form to drag on for long with the Australian convinced Valentino Rossi will be competitive in the early part of the 2011 MotoGP world...

BSB pre-season testing blog: Viva Espana! Day Two

BSB pre-season testing blog: Viva Espana! Day Two

It didn’t seem such a busy day on track for the boys at Calafat today, compared to Tuesday – but everyone seemed happy enough with the way things had gone. It was pretty cold early in the morning and...

Steady progress at Calafat

Steady progress at Calafat

Swan Yamaha pair Tommy Hill and Michael Laverty both talked about the huge potential of the 2010 factory WSB R1s they will be racing in BSB this year. After yesterday’s ‘installation’ day at Calafat,...