The world champ shrugged off some muscular problems to come back and annihilate the rest of the field, having a day off in the process. It makes you wonder who’ll get close to the Aussie and his Repsol Honda this season. We bet the grid is hoping Casey’s impending childbirth will slow him down.

A massive half a second back was Jorge Lorenzo, then times get tighter. Fellow Spaniard, Dani Pedrosa is doing his usual steady progression during testing and was less than a tenth from J-Lo. The other factory Yamaha of Ben Spies was next up and, despite a crash, was a couple of tenths back from Lil’ Dani.

Valentino Rossi, amid rumours of Photoshopping, continued development of the new Ducati and ended up in fifth place. Rossi was 1.2 seconds adrift from Stoner, but only 0.7s behind second spot. Clearly encouraging signs from the VR46 box, with fresh ‘problems’ from the 90% all-new Desmo rather than the old issues of last year.

It was another Ducati in sixth, with Hector Barbera, followed by the Tech 3 pairing of Cal Crutchlow (who had a small crash) and Andrea Dovizioso. Alvaro Bautista was in ninth, still getting comfy with the Gresini Honda after a few years on the redundant Suzuki.

CRT leader, Colin Edwards continues to struggle with major chatter issues (along with some of the big boys) but still got down to a 2:04.7, and only two seconds behind the prototype of Karel Abraham. The other CRTs are clearly struggling, and probably wishing they’d chosen the new Aprilia ART.

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1. Stoner In Shockingly Fast Shock

Casey was on the pace of yesterday’s fastest times on his third lap, despite pulling a muscle in his shoulder while trying to compensate for his back troubles of yesterday. Stoner set a time of 2:00.8, which is still slow in comparison to last year’s testing. Odds on CS27 taking the championship in 2012?

Next up were the factory Yamahas, led by Ben Spies who was just over a tenth from Stoner. Jorge Lorenzo was a hundredth off the Texan, while Dani Pedrosa was another half a second from J-Lo. Brit Cal Cructhlow continued his love for the new 1000cc M1 to take fifth place. He’s also doing a grand job of spanking his team-mate, although Dovi is still obviously struggling with injury, along with Nicky Hayden.

Perhaps the most interesting news from today’s test was from the Ducati camp. Hector Barbera and his Pramac ‘GP12’ ended up fastest Ductai in sixth spot, with Valentino Rossi a tenth of a second behind the Spaniard and 0.9s from the leaders.

Colin Edwards again, unsurprisingly, led the CRT bikes, but this time Colin had a full-spec 2012 BMW-Suter and was ‘only’ five seconds shy of Stoner’s pace.

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Valentino Rossi debuted the ‘90% all-new’ Ducati and was instantly quick, ending the day 0.7 seconds off the top spot in fifth place. Still lots of work to do, but VR46 seems happier on the bike. Casey Stoner, meanwhile, didn’t even manage to get out on the circuit after straining his back while warming up in the box. He’s resting now and will hopefully have a ride tomorrow. No doubt Casey will lap a second quicker than anyone else after his first session.

The new-for-2012 CRT bikes were led by Colin Edwards on his Forward Racing Suter, but still 6.5 seconds off the pace. Colin and the team did have some difficulties though. The other CRT bikes of Ivan Silva and Jordi Torres were a disastrous nine seconds behind Whoregay. That’s getting lapped within 12 laps territory. Shocking. Then again, these small teams are doing all their testing and development in the public eye, and are years behind the factories.

Moto2 champ, Stefan Bradl made a decent big-bike debut, finishing 11^th and two seconds adrift. Nicky Hayden, still struggling for fitness after badgering himself in the off-season, was 0.5s ahead of Bradl and a tenth off Alvaro Bautista onboard the Gresini Honda.

That was exciting. More tomorrow

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1. Bid For Lorenzo’s YZF-R1

Pole man, Dani Pedrosa looked likely to piss off with serious race pace all weekend. But Lil’ Dani crashed out early and robbed us of a Repsol Honda showdown with Stoner, turning the race into a bit of a snooze-fest. Thankfully, Pedrosa didn’t break any bones.

Behind Stoner it was fairly interesting, albeit without any real overtaking or action. Jorge Lorenzo made a massive error with front rubber choice, opting for the softer Bridgestone which saw him save a big front end slide after just a few laps. The only other man to roll the dice was Alvaro Bautista, who chucked it down the road after losing the front – still an encouraging outing for Suzuki, despite losing John Hopkins with some mangled fingers sustained in a qualifying crash.

Ensuring Honda domination was out-of-favour Andrea Dovizioso and, finally making his podium debut, Marco Simoncelli. Up until the weekend, Super Sic was behind his painfully slow team-mate, Hiroshi Aoyama in the points table but still hasn’t beaten Dovi all season. With the pair possibly fighting over a ride next year as well as race etiquette, this skirmish will continue.

Next up were the two factory Yamahas. Whoregay managed to fend off the slightly crippled Ben Spies, who struggled with a ‘pinched nerve’ in his arm but still managed to beat The G.O.A.T. And what of Rossi I hear you cry?

Things were looking shabby before the last few minutes of qualifying, with the same old story from Ducati’s non-existent front-end. Apparently, some changes to the headstock and riding position gave Valentino a huge boost and allowed him to lap within a few tenths of the podium hoppers. Only a slow start prevented him from a serious podium attack. Whether or not this is a permanent solution remains to be seen, but Ducati has to do something for 2012 and even for the remainder of this year. Enough is enough. Still, with Pedrosa crashing out, Rossi jumped back into fourth place in the standings. Stoner extends his lead to 32 points.

Cal Crutchlow had another nightmare as he launched his M1 into the kitty – he’s getting well and truly smashed with the MotoGP stick at the moment, and hopefully he can sort the front-end issues for the last third of the season.

The rest were there, just miles behind…

Today sees the debut of Yamaha’s 2012 1000cc at the Brno test, while the Honda makes its second outing in the hands of Pedrosa and Stoner. Rossi and Nicky Hayden are persevering with trying to make Ducati’s 800cc go into corners. Noticeable absentees include Simoncelli and Dovizioso who aren’t sure what they’ll be riding next season, and Suzuki haven’t even got a 1000cc bike on the drawing board yet. At the time of writing, Stoner is riding his motorbike really fast, lapping nearly a second quicker than his race pace of yesterday. When things are dandy, nobody on this planet is quicker than Casey.

The Brno Moto2 race backed up the reasoning for some riders using lever guards. Marc Marquez, Steffi Bradl, Alex De Angelis and Andrea Iannone traded paint and Dunlop rubber for the majority of the race, with the later taking the victory. Bradley Smith crashed out and Scott Redding had another dog-poo race finishing 26^th.

The 125s carried the best hopes for England. Danny Kent had a free upgrade to a pukka factory Aprilia when he checked in to Brno, after his Red Bull team-mate had ‘a virus’ and couldn’t race. Danny was top six all weekend and was sniffing a podium when the bike broke. The same issues hampered championship leader Nico Terol. Johann Zarco got shafted for the umpteenth time this year and lost out to Sandro Cortese – the German with the Italian name. Danny Webb managed to get the fickle Mahindra home in 12^th, just ahead of fellow-Brit Harry Stafford who had his best result of the year

Next up is another trip Stateside and the Indianapolis GP.

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Despite a massive highside in practice, Jorge Lorenzo made an early charge from pole position and took Dani Pedrosa with him. Casey Stoner was struggling with a full fuel tank (something many of us would die for) in the opening laps, but soon caught Pedrosa who is still hurting after surgery. It didn’t take long for Stoner to reel in Lorenzo who was clearly battling the bruises sustained in his attempt to orbit the earth. After busting a move to take the lead, Stoner pressed on and eased to victory, from Whoregay and Pedrosa.

Valentino Rossi made a mistake in qualifying by going too quickly, putting the Ducati 7^th on the grid, and therefore leaving little room for his usual dash-through-the-pack improvement during the race. He finished 6^th. Rossi had a race-long battle with Nicky Hayden, who rode Ducati’s latest GP11.1 in practice and didn’t like it. Ducati really need something completely new to end this torrid time. Maybe a trellis frame like some of you are suggesting?

Only 13 finished after a number of crashes and retirements, while Randy DeRuinit didn’t even make the start after breaking more bones in qualifying. Fellow crash-meister Marco Simoncelli, who stayed on for a whole race last weekend, slid off unhurt, as did Cal Crutchlow and Alvaro Bautista.

Ben Bostrum, ex-WSB winner and current AMA midfielder, made his MotoGP debut at the age of 37 and rode Toni Elias’ spare shitter. B-Bos brought in some of Michael Jordan’s cash to the LCR Honda team in a bid to entice Elias to go faster. It didn’t work. Tiger Toni got lapped and Bostrom retired after running into the gravel. It would of interesting to see what would have happened when the rain came down and they had to pit to swap bikes.

Stoner once said that if you’re quick, you’ll show the pace immediately no matter what equipment you’re on. Some of the recent recruits have backed up this theory – Bautista, Barbera and Spies – while Hiroshi Aoyama is never going to worry the top five. Loris Capirossi is just riding around collecting his wages and is bordering on the obese, and Tortoise Toni shouldn’t last the season after another dismal ride. We need Jonny Rea or another hungry young rider on the grid. Actually, make that ten.

Fagan

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If you’d like to see the whole report – it’s HERE

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But ‘close’ doesn’t even come close to describing the 125’s finish, with Johan Zarco and Hector Faubel confusing the timing screens by flashing up with 0.000 difference as they crossed the line. The later was awarded the win by virtue of the fastest lap. Poor Zarco.

Although slightly spread out, Moto2 still produced a decent spectacle. Marc Marquez continued his run of race wins and beat the only other bloke seemingly capable of winning the championship this year – Mr Charisma himself, Stefan Bradl. Scott Redding finished 7th after a crap qualifying and showed why people are talking about him being in MotoGP next year along with Bradl. Bradley Smith had a shocker, running off the track on the first lap and, later on, crashing out proper.

The real racing at the Ball-Sach-Ring was MotoGP. Yes, MotoGP. Although there was a hint of a possible bore-fest and the usual mid-race sleep when Casey Stoner hit the front and looked as if he was going to bolt, it actually turned out to be quite interesting, with overtaking and everything – sometimes two genuine overtakes on the same lap. Unbelievable.

Dani Pedrosa stunned all of us by taking the win. Fresh from surgery and yet more Meccano in his collarbones, the wafer-thin Spaniard never sneezed over the 30 laps, and therefore didn’t break any bones. Lorenzo was second (even with arm pump), beating a grumpy looking Casey Stoner who got mugged for the second race in a row.

The significant findings from Germany confirm you can have a podium covered by less than a minute. And the second group down to sixth place (Dovi, Super Sic and Spies) were only a few seconds off the leaders. The rest? Cal Crutchlow had another mare and gambled with a set-up that didn’t work, and Valentino Rossi continues to mimic Stephen Hawking trying to ride a Segway.

Possible reasons are:
-      The Ducati is poo
-      Uccio’s involvement in Moto2 has distracted his best mate
-      Rossi, in the words of BJ, has been found out and isn’t very good

Meanwhile back in Britain, the usual home of edge-of-the-seat racing and entertainment, things didn’t go to plan. The weather, and various fluids to diminish adhesion, eventually brought a premature end to racing at Oulton. Highlights included the return of World Supersport’s James Ellison and the out-of-favour Karl Harris, who were both quick until the sodden race day. Swan Yamaha’s Tommy Hill won the first and only race, managing to stay onboard in tricky/treacherous/darn slippery conditions, while ex-MotoGP  Anglo-American, John Hopkins, crashed out on ‘some oil’. Aussie Josh Brookes and his Relentless by TAS Suzuki have found some form and finished second, just in front of old boy Michael Rutter who made his feelings on the track condition well known on TV. There was much murmuring in the paddock about unburnt fuel reacting with the water… dunno.

Ciao

Fagan

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Click on the image for a wallpaper…

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Despite FB spreading the rumours six months ago, the hottest topic of current conversation is all about Casey Stoner and his move to Honda. You don’t need to be a media centre cling-on to figure that it’s a real possibility, especially after Livio Suppo (the man who brought Casey to Ducati) moved to Honda. Ducati are obviously gonna offer big bucks to keep him red. It’ll happen, won’t it?

The more user-friendly Desmo is helping every other rider, bar Casey. It’s now Honda’s RCV, the most changed and developed bike from race-to-race, that’s looks to have the Ducati’s evil traits of last year. Stoner should thrive on his return to the Big H.

He’s probably the only rider that has the raw pace to change their fortune. The hot-and-cold Pedrosa has had too long on that bike with bugger-all success – time for a change. And Dovi hasn’t showed the promise that got us all excited in his rookie year.

As for the Yamahas, who knows? There isn’t enough room in that garage for the both of them. We’d all love to see Valentino on an Italian bike, but dare he risk finishing his career on a downer? Lorenzo should feature in Yamaha’s long-term if Rossi does jump.

I love motocross. It’s how I started riding bikes. But if you’re a million-dollar sportsman getting paid to ride MotoGP bikes most weekends, caning an MX bike as part of your training regime doesn’t sound too bright to us. These boys don’t do a mediocre-paced ride.

Thankfully for Rossi after he ‘hyper-extended’ his shoulder on a mud-plugger, the Motegi round was cancelled due to the Volcano. He still suffered at Jerez though. Alvaro Bautista isn’t so lucky – after breaking his collarbone, he reckons he’ll be good-to-go for this weekend. Like he needs even more of a handicap.

Back on to this weekend’s shenanigans, and Le Mans is the first circuit on this season’s calendar to see the asymmetric Bridgestone slick. With nine rights and only a few lefties, the riders called for greater use of the multi-compound rubber so the harder option of the two available compounds will feature such tech.

After Jerez gave us the second closest finish in the 800cc era (Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Rossi were covered by 0.89 seconds) Le Mans looks like it could be another interesting weekend, especially if Rossi is fully-fit and can eradicate any of his antics of last year.

And finally, a special mention to Dani for saying ‘fuck’ live on the Beeb….

A-Force

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