2002
Rossi takes pole at damp Assen
24 June 2002
Valentino Rossi splashed to his sixth pole of the season at Assen today, ahead of Saturday’s MotoGP round. The Honda rider made the most of the two combined sessions as bad weather disrupted normal...
Rossi makes it six wins in Assen
24 June 2002
Valentino Rossi continued his winning ways with another dominant performance at the Dutch GP on Saturday, taking his tally of wins this season to six out of seven so far. But it was the old school...
Rossi edges Biaggi for provisional Assen pole
24 June 2002
Valentino Rossi has snatched provisional MotoGP pole in Assen today with a last gasp effort lap of 2:01.691. Max Biaggi had looked on for a double celebration this afternoon, the Italian was 31...
Garry McCoy "I’ll ride at Donington"
24 June 2002
Garry McCoy has declared himself full fit and has promised he’ll ride at the British GP at MCN Donington Park on July 14. The Australian star badly broke his right leg during pre-season testing. He...
Rossi claims fifth win in Catalunya
17 June 2002
Valentino Rossi took another step to retaining his world crown with his fifth win of the 2002 MotoGP season in Catalunya on Sunday. The Honda rider let Yamaha’s Carlos Checa make the early running and...
Biaggi beats Rossi’s record
17 June 2002
Marlboro Yamaha rider Max Biaggi went under Valentino Rossi’s lap record, set only a couple of days earlier, while testing development Michelin tyres at Catalunya. The Yamaha team were joined by the...
Italian motorcycle legend dies
17 June 2002
Italy lost one of its most famous motorcycling heroes yesterday when 250 GP legend Walter Villa passed away at his Modena home. The 58-year-old died of a heart attack. Villa dominated the quarter-litre class in the mid seventies, taking three consecutive 250 GP crowns in 1974, ’75 and ’76, all on Harley-Davidsons. He also managed to take the 350cc GP world title in 1976, making him one of the last...
Capirossi quickest in Catalunya qualifying
10 June 2002
Loris Capirossi gave some heart to die-hard two-stroke fans today when he set the fastest time in first qualifying in Catalunya ahead of Sunday’s MotoGP race. The West Honda rider went 1.2 seconds...
Eddie Lawson enters Hall of Fame
10 June 2002
Four-time 500cc world champion and GP legend Eddie Lawson has been inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Detroit. Lawson won 31 500cc GPs in a riding career spanning three...
Meet the MotoGP stars this July
03 June 2002
Ahead of the MCN Donington Park British Grand Prix there’s the traditional Riders for Health Day of Champions. You can shake hands with all the top Grand Prix stars, bid for loads of one-off items in...
Rossi digs deep for Mugello win
01 June 2002
Valentino Rossi’s MotoGP victory in Mugello won’t be remembered so much for the way in which the defending champion scorched to another victory, so much as the race when Yamaha’s four-stroke challenge...
Ducati unveils its new GP bike
27 May 2002
Ducati has just lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding its new four-stroke Grand Prix bike. For a full report on the new Ducati GP machine, don’t miss the June 5 issue of MCN. Until today Ducati had...
Ryo handed European GP rides
27 May 2002
Akira Ryo, the Japanese rider who took Suzuki’s GSR-V four-stroke GP bike to a debut podium in Suzuka this year, will return for the factory for a handful of European rounds – starting with the...
Yamaha first and second in qualifying at Mugello
27 May 2002
Carlos Checa squeezed out his Marlboro Yamaha teammate Max Biaggi by just one tenth of a second to claim provisional pole at Mugello, Italy today, ahead of Sunday’s MotoGP race. The Spaniard, whose...
Checa edges provisional Le Mans pole
13 May 2002
Carlos Checa made a mockery of Yamaha’s four-stroke troubles when he grabbed a shock MotoGP provisional pole position in Le Mans today. The Spaniard took his YZR-M1 to the top of the leaderboard in...
Get GP news on your phone
13 May 2002
This weekend it’s the turn of Le Mans in France to host the MotoGP circus. Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia have been working overtime, trying to get their four-strokes to match the pace of Honda’s dynamic...
Victory in France for Rossi
13 May 2002
Valentino Rossi won a rain-hit French GP at Le Mans to maintain the Honda RCV’s perfect start to the 2002 season. Crucially, the Italian had taken the lead on lap 21 when he passed team-mate Tohru...
Rossi claims provisional pole in Jerez
01 May 2002
Valentino Rossi has claimed another provisional pole today in Jerez, Spain ahead of Sunday’s MotoGP race. But Daijiro Katoh proved that the new four-strokes won’t have it their own way as he led a...
Get GP results on your mobile
01 May 2002
It’s going to be the most breath-taking, wheel-spinning, mad-overtaking, superstar-creating GP season since Noah was a lad. Make sure you’re bang up to date with every qualifying session and race...
Capirossi’s RCV ultimatum
01 May 2002
MotoGP star Loris Capirossi is warning Honda he’ll leave next year if he doesn’t get the same machinery as Valentino Rossi. Fo the full story on Capirossi’s demands,don’t miss the new issue of MCN,...
Rossi reigns (again) in Spain
01 May 2002
Valentino Rossi swept to a well-deserved victory in Jerez, Spain, today. Fighting back after an early clash with Suzuki’s KennyRobererts he closed back up to the front and a dice with his Repsol Honda...
Criville announces his retirement from racing
01 May 2002
Alex Criville has announced his temporary withdrawal from Grand Prix racing is now a permanent retirement. The Spaniard, who won the 500cc world championship in 1999, hasn’t recovered from mystery...
Suzuki tired with Dunlop
29 April 2002
Suzuki’s four-stroke GP team will run Michelin tyres at this weekend’s Spanish GP in Jerez having ended a short but disastrous spell with Dunlop. An official announcement is not expected for another...
Jeremy McWilliams: In his own words
22 April 2002
Sweetandsour: What are you going to do about bikes for Jerez?… I’ve heard they’ve gone walkies…? JeremyMcWilliams: Well it’ll be an easy weekend then if that’s right! At least mine haven’t been crashed, so when they do arrive we’ll be able to go straight out, and we’ve got our Jerez set-up so we’ll be able to go straight out. But I’d rather be putting my feet up somewhere like Malaga if they...
Take a bite at our caption competition
22 April 2002
Oh look, Rossi’s going bananas… wonder if anyone’s going to ape him, there’s certainly something a-peeling about a pre-race snack etc etc (fnarr, fnarr). Good, that’s most of the bad puns out of the...
Ukawa pips Rossi in South Africa
22 April 2002
Tohru Ukawa held off Repsol Honda team-mate Valentino Rossi to take the MotoGP win in Welkom, South Africa today. The pair again proved the RCV four-stroke’s dominance finishing over twenty seonds...
Jeremy McWilliams: I wish I was on a four stroke
22 April 2002
British MotoGP star Jeremy McWilliams chatted live with motorcyclenews.com users today, Thursday April 25. He answered a very wide range of questions, including whether he would rather be on Max...
First glimpse of MZ GP motor
15 April 2002
This is the engine MZ will take into the MotoGP series and which will power the firm’s first superbike. The 90° V4 is already running on the test bench, though so far the firm has only revealed this...
Get GP results on your mobile
15 April 2002
Welkom, South Africa is over 5500 miles away, but you can keep bang-up-to-date with this weekend’s GP qualifying news and race results simply by signing up for the latest text messaging service from...
Capirossi leads qualifying in South Africa
15 April 2002
Loris Capirossi again blew away the myth that the new generation four-strokes would cruise to this year’s new MotoGP world championship after he comfortably stuck his two-stroke Honda NSR500 on...
Rossi on pole in South Africa
15 April 2002
Valentino Rossi starts as a red-hot favourite for tomorrow’s South African GP at Welkom after a commanding display saw him grab pole position this afternoon. The 23-year-old Italian wasn’t bettered after he’d beaten Loris Capirossi’s provisional pole time from yesterday within seven minutes of today’s final qualifying getting underway. He would improve his time on a further five occasions to show...
World Ducati Weekend debut for GP bike.
15 April 2002
SEE Ducati’s new four-stroke GP missile in the flesh at the World Ducati Weekend in Misano, Italy, on June 14-16. So far only two images of the 990cc V-four bike have been released and this will be...
Rossi gives Honda RCV pole on Suzuka debut
01 April 2002
Valentino Rossi shrugged off his second crash in two days to give the new Honda RCV four-stroke a dream debut in Suzuka today when he grabbed pole position for the historic first MotoGP race. The...
Capirossi blasts to Suzuka provisional pole
01 April 2002
LORIS CAPIROSSI struck a blow for the supposedly old generation two-strokes as he beat Valentino Rossi and the new RCV to provisional pole position at Suzuka this afternoon. Most people expected the...
Poggiali snares provisional Suzuka pole
01 April 2002
REIGNING world champion Manuel Poggiali drew first blood at a sun-drenched Suzuka today when he grabbed provisional pole for Sunday’s opening 125 GP. The Italian was 0.2s faster than Spanish teenager...
Battaini surprise fastest in 250s
01 April 2002
ITALIAN Franco Battaini was the surprise provisional pole qualifier in the opening 250 qualifying session of 2002 at the Suzuka circuit in Japan today. He pipped fellow works Aprilia rider Fonsi Nieto...