September

Rossi and Crutchlow praise ‘fantastic’ Jorge Lorenzo

16 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow could do nothing more than stand back and admire a magnificent Misano victory from reigning world champion and fellow Yamaha YZR-M1 rider Jorge Lorenzo. A mesmerising...

Cal Crutchlow upbeat on return to top six in Misano

16 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Cal Crutchlow salvaged a hard fought sixth place out of a tough Misano MotoGP weekend to put his recent miserable home race experience at Silverstone behind him. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider...

Nicky Hayden frustrated at Ducati upgrade snub

16 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Nicky Hayden could not disguise his frustration at being denied the chance to test and race an upgraded factory Desmosedici GP13 for the last five races of his Ducati MotoGP career. The American...

Mistakes cost impatient Marc Marquez

16 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Marc Marquez was delighted to collect 20 valuable world championship points with a hard fought second place behind dominant factory Yamaha rival Jorge Lorenzo in yesterday’s Misano MotoGP clash. But...

Jorge Lorenzo rues mid-season mistakes

16 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Jorge Lorenzo fears his painful crashes in Holland and Germany earlier this season will prove crucial in his bid to capture a third MotoGP world title in 2013. The Spaniard produced yet another stunning display at Misano yesterday to romp to a start-to-finish victory that cut the gap in the title chase to Marc Marquez to 34-points with five races left to run. Lorenzo has been in sparkling form...

San Marino MotoGP: Lorenzo dominates to take win

15 September 2013 by Liam Marsden

Reigning MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo showed his class in San Marino to take the win by 3.379 seconds from championship leader Marc Marquez. Lorenzo got a terrific start from second on the grid and...

San Marino Moto2: Espargaro closes championship gap with win

15 September 2013 by Liam Marsden

Pol Espargaro took the win at Misano today to close the gap to championship leader Scott Redding to 23 points. Redding, who qualified on the second row, was never quite in touch with the front group...

Cautious Cal Crutchlow fights back in Misano

14 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Cal Crutchlow produced his best form of a tough Misano MotoGP weekend in this afternoon’s final qualifying session to secure a place in the middle of the second row for tomorrow’s 28-lap San Marino clash. Lacking confidence with his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine after a crash-strewn home race at Silverstone earlier this month, Crutchlow didn’t make the top 10 cut for QP2 for the first time...

Bradley Smith slumps to worst qualifying of 2013

14 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

British rookie Bradley Smith will start from the lowest grid position of his impressive rookie MotoGP campaign in Misano tomorrow after the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider struggled to a lowly 13th in qualifying. A run of six consecutive top 10 starts came to an abrupt end as a lap of 1.34.869 meant Smith failed to advance from the opening QP1 15-minute session for the first time this season. The...

San Marino: Marquez in Pole, Crutchlow Fifth

14 September 2013 by Steve Hunt

Marc Marquez continued his assault on the MotoGP World Championship in this, his rookie year with another pole position in qualifying at San Marino. Cal Crutchlow, starting for the first time in the earlier Q1 session claimed a second row start behind a measured Lorenzo, a jubilant Rossi, and an increasingly quiet Pedrosa. In the earlier qualifying session, Crutchlow’s teammate and compatriot...

Cal Crutchlow: ‘I am riding s**t’

13 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Cal Crutchlow pulled no punches after the British rider endured one of the worst days of an excellent 2013 MotoGP campaign at the Misano track today. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider was left...

Ben Spies ruled out for rest of 2013

13 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Injury-ravaged Texan Ben Spies will not return to MotoGP action for the Ignite Ducati squad in the final five races of 2013. The left shoulder he dislocated in a practice crash for last month’s...

Nicky Hayden still weighing up 2014 options

13 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Nicky Hayden might have tested Ducati’s factory Panigale World Superbike machine and visited Aprilia’s Italian HQ recently, but the popular American is still to decide whether his future lies in...

Tech 3 in dark over Yamaha’s new seamless shift gearbox

13 September 2013

Yamaha has yet to clarify whether Cal Crutchlow’s replacement Pol Espargaro and British rider Bradley Smith will race its new seamless shift gearbox from the start of the 2014 MotoGP world...

Slow healing arm troubles Cal Crutchlow

13 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

British rider Cal Crutchlow’s bid to get his 2013 MotoGP campaign back on track in Misano will not be helped by a slow healing right arm injury he suffered in the first of three bruising crashes at...

Yamaha to race new gearbox in Misano

13 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi’s long wait to race Yamaha’s new seamless shift gearbox will come to an end this weekend in Misano. Yamaha has finally confirmed after months...

Cal Crutchlow seeks to regroup in Misano

11 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Cal Crutchlow insists he and his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad will need to regroup in Misano this weekend after a tough recent spell in the MotoGP world championship. After coming within two seconds of...

Scott Redding ripping up history books in 2013

11 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Scott Redding’s surge to the top of the Moto2 world championship in 2013 has seen the MotoGP-bound British star break numerous long-standing records. Three wins has moved Redding into a comfortable...

MotoGP crew chief search goes on for Scott Redding

10 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Scott Redding is still waiting to learn who will be the technical mastermind behind his rookie MotoGP campaign in 2014 after current crew chief Pete Benson declined the chance to move to the Gresini...

Michael Laverty to test Aprilia ART after Misano race

10 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Michael Laverty will have the chance to compare the British-built PBM frame he has been racing in the 2013 MotoGP world championship against the Aprilia ART machine in a post race test at Misano next...

Yamaha: Essential to keep Jorge Lorenzo beyond 2014

09 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Re-signing Jorge Lorenzo will be Yamaha’s number one future priority, with the Japanese factory fearing rivals Honda will try and tempt the reigning world champion into a Spanish super team with Marc...

Scott Redding: Strategy is just to beat Espargaro

09 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Scott Redding says his only strategy for the remainder of the 2013 Moto2 world championship will be to finish ahead of Pol Espargaro in what is sure to be a tense and dramatic final six races. A...

Suzuki not committed to wild card races in 2014

09 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Suzuki has no plans to thrust its new 1000cc factory prototype into direct competition against Honda and Yamaha in 2014. It was thought that Suzuki would make selected wild card appearances next season to ensure its new 1000cc contender returns race ready and competitive in 2015. By throwing itself into direct competition against dominant Japanese rivals Honda and Yamaha, Suzuki would at least...

Paul Bird reveals ambitious future MotoGP strategy

09 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

High profile British MotoGP boss Paul Bird has unveiled ambitious plans to run a factory-backed effort for Yamaha or Ducati in the 2015 world championship. Bird currently runs an Aprilia ART machine...

Colin Edwards excited at 2014 MotoGP prospects

06 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Colin Edwards is convinced Yamaha’s new production YZR-M1 racer will re-establish the Texan as a regular top 10 challenger in MotoGP next year. The double World Superbike champion is hotly-tipped to...

Aspar fears Aleix Espargaro departure

06 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Aprilia’s radical upgrade of its 1000cc ART machine doesn’t appear to have convinced number one rider Aleix Espargaro to commit his future to the high-profile Aspar squad. Espargaro dominated the new...

Tech 3: Equal treatment for Smith and Espargaro in 2014

06 September 2013 by Matthew Birt

Pol Espargaro will not get any preferential treatment over Bradley Smith at Yamaha in 2014. The Spanish Moto2 world title contender will replace Cal Crutchlow in the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad next year but he will be contracted directly with Yamaha in Japan. That will not get him a higher spec YZR-M1 1000cc machine than Smith though and his bike won’t be any closer to the factory bikes that will...