Rossi expects tough season

Valentino Rossi’s legacy as MotoGP’s greatest ever rider is in danger of being further eroded by another lacklustre season with Ducati and the Italian is under no illusions about how difficult this year could be. The season will begin at the Losail track in Qatar on Sunday and Rossi, a nine-times World champion across the classes, will have to work hard throughout the year if he is to better last year’s seventh place finish on the uncompetitive Italian bike.

Rossi said on Tuesday: “We worked hard over the winter and although we went the wrong direction at one point, we once again managed to find the good feeling with the GP12 that we’d had in the first test. I’m a realist and I know well that our times are still a long way off and that there are still some things to fix. We won’t be able to address some of them right away, but it’s also true that both we at the track and the guys back home now have a direction to work in and we must try to do as well as we can.”

“We won’t completely redo the bike during the season, but we’ll try to progress little by little,” he added.

 

Report: Reuters

Rossi expects tough season

Valentino Rossi’s legacy as MotoGP’s greatest ever rider is in danger of being further eroded by another lacklustre season with Ducati and the Italian is under no illusions about how difficult this year could be. The season will begin at the Losail track in Qatar on Sunday and Rossi, a nine-times World champion across the classes, will have to work hard throughout the year if he is to better last year’s seventh place finish on the uncompetitive Italian bike.

Rossi said on Tuesday: “We worked hard over the winter and although we went the wrong direction at one point, we once again managed to find the good feeling with the GP12 that we’d had in the first test. I’m a realist and I know well that our times are still a long way off and that there are still some things to fix. We won’t be able to address some of them right away, but it’s also true that both we at the track and the guys back home now have a direction to work in and we must try to do as well as we can.”

“We won’t completely redo the bike during the season, but we’ll try to progress little by little,” he added.

 

Report: Reuters

The Indian outfit made their Italian championship debut with a win

Mahindra Racing made their Italian motorcycle road racing championship debut at the Mugello circuit by winning the first race in the 125 GP class. The team’s Italian rider Riccardo Moretti secured pole position on Saturday with a lap-time of 2:01.413, giving the team a positive start. Meanwhile, his team-mate, India’s Sarath Kumar qualified 22nd on the combined grid of the 125GP and Moto3 classes.

In the race, Moretti was in the lead from start and built a gap of over 16 seconds by the end to cross the finish-line first. Kumar, on the other hand, managed to move up one place by the ninth lap but had to retire from the race on the next due to a mechanical failure in his bike.

Next round of the championship will be held between April 6-8 at the Imola circuit.

The Indian outfit made their Italian championship debut with a win

Mahindra Racing made their Italian motorcycle road racing championship debut at the Mugello circuit

by winning the first race in the 125 GP class. The team’s Italian rider Riccardo Moretti secured pole

position on Saturday with a lap-time of 2:01.413, giving the team a positive start. Meanwhile, his team-

mate, India’s Sarath Kumar qualified 22nd on the combined grid of the 125GP and Moto3 classes.

 

In the race, Moretti was in the lead from start and built a gap of over 16 seconds by the end to cross the

finish-line first. Kumar, on the other hand, managed to move up one place by the ninth lap but had to

retire from the race on the next due to a mechanical failure in his bike.

 

Next round of the championship will be held between April 6-8 at the Imola circuit.

 

 

The Indian outfit made their Italian championship debut with a win

Mahindra Racing made their Italian motorcycle road racing championship debut at the Mugello circuit by winning the first race in the 125 GP class. The team’s Italian rider Riccardo Moretti secured pole position on Saturday with a lap-time of 2:01.413, giving the team a positive start. Meanwhile, his team-mate, India’s Sarath Kumar qualified 22nd on the combined grid of the 125GP and Moto3 classes.

In the race, Moretti was in the lead from start and built a gap of over 16 seconds by the end to cross the finish-line first. Kumar, on the other hand, managed to move up one place by the ninth lap but had to retire from the race on the next due to a mechanical failure in his bike.

Next round of the championship will be held between April 6-8 at the Imola circuit.

The Indian outfit made their Italian championship debut with a win

Mahindra Racing made their Italian motorcycle road racing championship debut at the Mugello circuit

by winning the first race in the 125 GP class. The team’s Italian rider Riccardo Moretti secured pole

position on Saturday with a lap-time of 2:01.413, giving the team a positive start. Meanwhile, his team-

mate, India’s Sarath Kumar qualified 22nd on the combined grid of the 125GP and Moto3 classes.

 

In the race, Moretti was in the lead from start and built a gap of over 16 seconds by the end to cross the

finish-line first. Kumar, on the other hand, managed to move up one place by the ninth lap but had to

retire from the race on the next due to a mechanical failure in his bike.

 

Next round of the championship will be held between April 6-8 at the Imola circuit.

 

 

Ducati auctions off rare GP10 and GP11 machines in Monaco

Ducati has announced that it is offering two exclusive Ducati Desmosedici GP machines at this years RM Auctions’ Monaco sale – a GP10 raced by Casey Stoner and GP11 raced by Valentino Rossi respectively. Both machines are coming directly from the Ducati Corse racing department within the Ducati factory in Bologna, Italy and represent “motorcycle exotica” at its most desirable.

RM’s highly-anticipated Monaco auction will also offer the private Saltarelli Collection of historic Ducati motorcycles, providing a wonderful celebration of Ducati history. In addition to the motorcycles, the two-day sale will also feature a stunning roster of blue-chip automobiles. The release of these two very special machines is an extremely rare occasion; the lucky buyer will not only enter into a confidentiality agreement, but also become a close member of the ‘Ducati family’!

Ducati auctions off rare GP10 and GP11 machines in Monaco

Ducati has announced that it is offering two exclusive Ducati Desmosedici GP machines at this years RM Auctions’ Monaco sale – a GP10 raced by Casey Stoner and GP11 raced by Valentino Rossi respectively. Both machines are coming directly from the Ducati Corse racing department within the Ducati factory in Bologna, Italy and represent “motorcycle exotica” at its most desirable.

RM’s highly-anticipated Monaco auction will also offer the private Saltarelli Collection of historic Ducati motorcycles, providing a wonderful celebration of Ducati history. In addition to the motorcycles, the two-day sale will also feature a stunning roster of blue-chip automobiles. The release of these two very special machines is an extremely rare occasion; the lucky buyer will not only enter into a confidentiality agreement, but also become a close member of the ‘Ducati family’!

Buddh International Circuit to be the venue

The World Superbike Championship (WSBK) is the highest platform for production based motorcycle racing in the world. The motorcycles raced here are tuned up versions of road bikes like Honda’s CBR 1000 RR Fireblade or BMW’s S1000RR and are almost as fast as the MotoGP machines.

Until last year, most of the rounds of the championship were held in European countries with the exception of USA and Australia. However, the FIM and the championship promotors (Infront Motor Sports) now want to expand the sport in Asia due to its growing motorcycle industry. Russia will its first World Superbike round in Moscow this year followed by Indonesia from next year and talks are on to add an Indian round too!

Paolo Falmmini, CEO Infront Motor Sports has confirmed that they are considering an Indian round to be held on the Buddh International circuit from as early as next year. Flammini is  impressed with the successful introduction of Formula One in India and believes that WSBK has a lot to gain from the exposure received here as most of the manufacturers involved in the sport have their subsidaires in the country.

Buddh International Circuit to be the venue

The World Superbike Championship (WSBK) is the highest platform for production based motorcycle racing in the world. The motorcycles raced here are tuned up versions of road bikes like Honda’s CBR 1000 RR Fireblade or BMW’s S1000RR and are almost as fast as the MotoGP machines.

Until last year, most of the rounds of the championship were held in European countries with the exception of USA and Australia. However, the FIM and the championship promotors (Infront Motor Sports) now want to expand the sport in Asia due to its growing motorcycle industry. Russia will its first World Superbike round in Moscow this year followed by Indonesia from next year and talks are on to add an Indian round too!

Paolo Falmmini, CEO Infront Motor Sports has confirmed that they are considering an Indian round to be held on the Buddh International circuit from as early as next year. Flammini is  impressed with the successful introduction of Formula One in India and believes that WSBK has a lot to gain from the exposure received here as most of the manufacturers involved in the sport have their subsidaires in the country.