Dani Pedrosa crashed after his bike came into contact with Marco Simoncelli’s back wheel while the two riders were vying for second place at Le Mans.  The race was won by Australian Casey Stoner.

A spokesperson from Honda Repsol told reporters, that Pedrosa will decide whether to undergo surgery or let the bone heal naturally.

Dani Pedrosa is currently third behind Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and Honda’s Casey Stoner after four races of the Moto GP 2011 season.

Jorge Lorenzo – Catalunya MotoGP 2010

The Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo crossed the line to take the chequered flag yesterday at the Catalunya MotoGP extending his lead in the championship standings.

It was the Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa that took to the front as the lights went our at the Circuit de Catalunya from fourth spot on the grid but as he came out of the first turn he discovered that he had no front brakes, forcing him wide and  back to ninth position.

Lorenzo to the front of the pack as the Marlboro Ducati of Casey Stoner began to put pressure on the Spaniard followed closely behind by the second Repsol Honda of Andrea Dovizioso and Randy de Puniet.

Within two laps Dani Pedrosa was back on the pace and had fought his way back to fifth position as his team-mate passed Stoner on the inside to take second place at turn five and began to chase down the leading man.

Dovizioso then passed Lorenzo on the following lap as they headed into turn one but only managed to hold the position for a short time as the Yamaha rider retook the lead within a lap and a half.

Stoner decided he wanted a taste of the lead and after running in the slipstream of the two front runners picked up enough speed to pass but missed his braking point at turn 1, rejoining behind Randy de Puniet and Pedrosa.

Pedrosa continued to chase down the front runners, passing De Puniet on lap 7 as the battle for the lead between Lorenzo and Dovizioso went on.

Dovizioso’s moment ended when after suffering some sort of problem with his rear brakes the Honda rider crashed out leaving Lorenzo some breathing space as he cruised towards the finishing line.

Stoner recovered from his earlier off and passed Randy de Puniet before chasing down Pedrosa for second place, however, Pedrosa gave the Ducati rider no chance of passing and finished the race ahead.

Randy de Puniet finished in fourth place ahead of the Rizla Suzuki rider Alvaro Bautista in fifth and Monster Tech3 Yamaha rider Ben Spies in sixth.

In seventh place was the second Rizla Suzuki man Loris Capirossi followed by Nicky Hayden on the second Marlboro Ducati in eighth, Marco Melandri on the  San Carlo Honda Gresini in ninth and Hector Barbera on the Paginas Amarillas Aspar in tenth.

Here are the results;

1.  Jorge Lorenzo  ESP Fiat Yamaha Team  43m 22.805s
2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 43m 27.559s
3. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 43m 27.761s
4. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 43m 40.862s
5. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 43m 44.166s
6. Ben Spies USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 43m 44.308s
7. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 43m 46.986s
8. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 43m 50.746s
9. Marco Melandri ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 43m 50.851s
10. Hector Barbera ESP Paginas Amarillas Aspar 43m 55.244s
11. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 44m 1.211s
12. Mika Kallio FIN Pramac Racing 44m 21.062s
13. Kousuke Akiyoshi JPN Interwetten Honda MotoGP 44m 32.153s
14. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 44m 55.207s
15. Wataru Yoshikawa JPN Fiat Yamaha Team 44m 58.042s

DNF:
Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini
Aleix Espargaro ESP Pramac Racing

Axel Pons – Tenerife 40 Pons Moto2 Team 2010

Axel Pons, rider of the Tenerife 40 Pons Moto2 team suffered a fractured radius in his right arm after crashing out in the qualifying session of the Assen MotoGP last week which is expected to take up to three weeks to repair.

The Spanish rider is to be replaced by his fellow countryman Carmelo Morales at this weekends Catalunya MotoGP, making his debut at the championship.

The 31-year-old rider is currently competing in the Moto2 series of the Spanish National Championship and is also a Spanish Extreme champion holder twice as well as holding two European Superstock 1000 titles.

Although it is the first time on the bike for the Spaniard he doesn’t feel that this will be of a disadvantage and is looking forward to getting to grips with the challenge on Friday.

Rossi's Fiat Yamaha 2010

The Fiat Yamaha MotoGP team are replacing the injured Valentino Rossi with their test rider Wataru Yoshikawa at the Catalunya Grand Prix on July 4th.

The Japanese rider is a two-times Superbike champion is expected to ride the YZR-M1 for at least the next 3 races while Rossi is out of action.

Team Managing Director Lin Jarvis said in an interview;

“Finally, after a great deal of consideration, we have selected Wataru Yoshikawa, our Japanese YZR-M1 test rider, to join us as our substitute rider. We provisionally plan for three races (Catalunya, Sachsenring and Laguna Seca) but we will adjust the plan accordingly when we know more about Valentino’s expected date of return.”

The 41-year-old has only competed in the series on one previous occasion when he raced as a wild-card back in 2002, at Motegi where he finished in twelfth position.

World Superbike Championship 2010

The Interwetten Honda MotoGP injured rider Hiroshi Aoyama is to be replaced by the Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi at the Assen round of the championship and the following Catalunya round.

Aoyama was injured during the warm up session at Silverstone last weekend and suffered a fractured vertebrae.  The Japanese rider was hospitalised and kept in to be monitored following the crash which is expected to keep him out of the series for at least the next couple of months.

Akiyoshi will now take to the track on the RC212V at Assen next weekend and again in Spain for July 2-4th where he will race under the number 64, the test rider will replace Aoyama until a longer term replacement can be found.

The MotoGP cost cutting goes a bit further than expected!

The provisional MotoGP Calendar has now been released by the FIM for the MotoGP World Championship of 2010, and hopefully all teams and riders will be on the grid as the economic crisis continues.

Date – Grand Prix – Circuit:
11 April – Qatar* – Losail
25 April – Japan – Motegi
2 May – Spain – Jerez
16 May – France – Le Mans
30 May – Italy – Mugello
6 June - Great Britain – Silverstone
26 June – Netherlands** – Assen
4 July – Catalunya – Catalunya
18 July - Germany – Sachsenring
25 July - United States*** – Laguna Seca
15 August – Czech Republic – Brno
29 August – Indianapolis – Indianapolis
12 September - San Marino & Riviera di Rimini – Misano
19 September - Hungary – Balatonring
10 October – Malaysia – Sepang
17 October – Australia - Phillip Island
31 October – Portugal – Estoril
7 November Valencia Ricardo Tormo-Valencia

* Evening Race
** Saturday Race
*** Only MotoGP class

In the event that one of the circuits is not able to comply with the requirements to hold the scheduled Grand Prix, the Motorland Aragon Circuit would host a reserve “event” on the same day.

Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda 2009

Dani Pedrosa took his Repsol Honda across the line yesterday to take his first win since June 2008 when he claimed the victory at his home track in Catalunya.

Pedrosa took to the front of the pack by the first corner after qualifying fourth on the grid, and by midway of the race had created a gap of over 3 seconds ahead of Rossi.

As Pedrosa led the riders, Stoner who had a big crash on the Marlboro Ducati in qualifying, slotted into second place ahead of Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi.

Once Rossi had passed Stoner, the Ducati rider tailed him for the next 20 laps before dropping back.  Stoner had a big crash in qualifying and is still suffering from a mystery illness and is now set to undergo further tests in America.

Jorge Lorenzo on the second Fiat Yamaha, was amazingly on the grid after his huge high-side in qualifying, almost snatched second place away from his team-mate towards the end of the race, somehow the Spaniard stayed on his bike after a series of wobbles but lost time as he ran wide.  After a terrible start from pole position, Lorenzo dropped back to eighth place but by the end of the first lap he had pulled himself back to fifth and then fourth after Andrea Dovizioso crashed out on the Repsol Honda.

As Pedrosa began to ease-off on the final lap, Ross closed the gap and was now only 1.5 seconds behind.  He tried to wrestle his way past the Honda rider on the very last corner but Pedrosa held him off to take the chequered flag.

Lorenzo finished in third place ahead of Stoner, who by the end of the race was 12 seconds behind the front runners, followed by his team-mate Nicky Hayden in fifth .

Toni Elias on the San Carlo Honda Gresini, finished the race in sixth ahead of Colin Edwards on the Monster Tech3 Yamaha and Chris Vermeulen on the Rizla Suzuki in eighth.

In ninth place was Randy de Puniet on the LCR Honda followed by Marco Melandri on the Hayate Racing team machine to complete the top ten riders.

Lap 4 of the race saw both Scot Racing rider Gabor Talmacsi and Loris Capirossi on the Rizla Suzuki crash out and retire from the race and on lap 8, Sete Gibernau was sent flying through the gravel on the Grupo Francisco Henando Satellite bike and was unable to rejoin.

James Toseland on the Monster Tech3 Yamaha, was given a penalty for a jump start at he beginning of the race from fifteenth on the grid.  He was told on lap 5 but had failed to take the ride-through penalty by lap 11 and was shown the black flag.   The British rider came in on the following lap, took the penalty drive through before retiring from the race on the next lap.

Toseland has since said that he was unaware of the penalty, having failed to see his pit-board or the black flag, and feels a little hard done by.  Toseland said;

“I feel like the jump start was pretty harsh,” he said. “I knew it was close but I didn’t think I’d jumped the start and that early in a 32-lap race I’m not looking at my pitboard.

“I was just concentrating on catching the guy in front and the first thing I realised that I’d been penalised was when I saw the black flag and my number.

“Obviously if I’d known I’d jumped the start then I would have come in but I’ve watched the TV replay and you can’t see anything. I didn’t gain any places either so in my opinion it’s pretty harsh.”

Here are the results;

1. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team 44min 1.580 sec
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team 44min 1.924 sec
3. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team 44min 3.506 sec
4. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 44min 14.012 sec
5. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 44min 23.243 sec
6. Toni Elias SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini 44min 23.621 sec
7. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 44min 31.781 sec
8. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 44min 34.437 sec
9. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 44min 41.905 sec
10. Marco Melandri ITA Hayate Racing Team 44min 49.608 sec
11. Alex de Angelis RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini 44min 50.390 sec
12. Niccolo Canepa ITA Pramac Racing 45min 20.111 sec

Disqualified;
James Toseland GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Valentino's 99th Victory

A fantastic battle between the two Fiat Yamaha riders on Sunday saw Valentino Rossi snatch the victory from Jorge Lorenzo on the final lap of the MotoGP at Catalunya.

125cc

Julian Simon must be one of the most embarrassed men in the MotoGP 125cc series today after losing his win yesterday when he crossed the line to celebrate a lap to early, handing the victory to Andrea Iannone.

Ongetta Team I.S.P.A. rider Iannone, and Bancaja Aspar Team 125cc Team rider Simón exchanged the lead countless times during the race with Simón opening a gap on the penultimate lap, however, at the start of the final lap Iannone began to celebrate despite his team holding up his pit board showing him he the race still had a lap to run.

Iannone, needless to say, took full advantage of the mistake and sailed past to take his third win of the season a Simón, finally realising his error, got swallowed-up by the group of riders battling for the final podium position.

Jack & Jones Team rider Nicolas Terol, finished in second place followed by Sergio Gadea in third but only after a photo finish decision was made between himself and his team-mate Simón, who crossed the line with equal times.

Marc Marquez on the Red Bull KTM Motorsport bike took fifth place ahead of Jonas Folgar on the second Ongetta Team machine and Stefan Bradl on the Viesmann Kiefer Racing bike.

In eight place was Britain’s Bradley Smith on the Bancaja Aspar Team 125cc followed in ninth place by Sandro Cortese for the Ajo Interwetten Team and Randy Krummenacher for the Degraaf Grand Prix team to complete the top ten riders.

Here are the results;

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider              Bike           Time
 1.  Andrea Iannone     Aprilia  41m10.494s
 2.  Nicolas Terol      Aprilia  +   2.245s
 3.  Sergio Gadea       Aprilia  +   2.330s
 4.  Julian Simon       Aprilia  +   2.331s
 5.  Marc Marquez       KTM      +   2.356s
 6.  Jonas Folger       Aprilia  +   2.531s
 7.  Stefan Bradl       Aprilia  +  10.795s
 8.  Bradley Smith      Aprilia  +  10.824s
 9.  Sandro Cortese     Derbi    +  14.984s
10.  R.Krummenacher     Aprilia  +  15.089s
11.  Scott Redding      Aprilia  +  16.427s
12.  Esteve Rabat       Aprilia  +  16.515s
13.  Johann Zarco       Aprilia  +  27.455s
14.  Joan Olive         Derbi    +  27.712s
15.  Takaaki Nakagami   Aprilia  +  28.411s
16.  Simone Corsi       Aprilia  +  33.697s
17.  Tomoyoshi Koyama   Loncin   +  42.581s
18.  Cameron Beaubier   KTM      +  48.847s
19.  Alberto Moncayo    Aprilia  +  49.532s
20.  D.Agerter          Derbi    +  49.772s
21.  Jasper Iwema       Honda    +1m02.666s
22.  Sturla Fagerhaug   KTM      +1m15.215s
23.  Johnny Rosell      Aprilia  +1m21.568s
24.  Luca Marconi       Aprilia  +1m37.919s
25.  Jordi Dalmau       Honda    +1 Lap
26.  Luca Vitali        Aprilia  +2 Laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider              Bike       Laps
     Lorenzo Savadori   Aprilia     16
     Luis Salom         Honda       13
     Daniel Webb        Aprilia     11
     Lorenzo Zanetti    Aprilia     10
     Pol Espargaro      Derbi        5
     Alexis Masbou      Loncin       5
     Lukas Sembera      Aprilia      4
     Efren Vazquez      Derbi        1

FASTEST LAP: Marquez, 1m51.175s on lap 7

250cc

Alvaro Bautista, on the Mapfre Aspar Team bike, dominated his home Grand Prix yesterday after taking the lead from lap 3 and remaining at the front until he crossed the line to take the chequered flag, increasing his lead in the World Championship.

Marco Simoncelli crashed his Metis Gilera on the second lap of the race and retired, claiming a mechanical problem but bringing a huge cheer from the Spanish crowd after his clash with Bautista in the last round saw him fined for dangerous riding.

Hiroshi Aoyama on the Scot Racing Team Honda claimed second place, seven-seconds behind the leader but after having snatched the lead from Héctor Barbera on the Pepe World Team bike on the final lap.

Mattia Pasini on the Team Toth Aprilia took fourth place ahead of Alex Debon on the Aeropuerto-Castello Blusens in fifth and Thomas Luthi on the Caffe Latte Team bike in sixth.

In seventh place was Ratthapak Wilairot on the Thai Honda Sag bike followed by Karel Abraham for Cardion AB Motoracing, Raffaele De Rosa on the Scot Racing Team bike in ninth and Hector Faubel on the Pepe World Team machine completing the top ten.

Roberto Localtelli on the Metis Gilera crashed out on lap 15 after a fantastic race saw him come from sixteenth on the grid to fourth place.

Mike Di Meglio on the Mapfre Aspar Team machine had been running in seventh place on lap 14 until he took a trip through the gravel, finally finishing down in fourteenth.

Here are the results;

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider              Bike           Time
 1.  Alvaro Bautista    Aprilia  41m09.018s
 2.  Hiroshi Aoyama     Honda    +   7.185s
 3.  Hector Barbera     Aprilia  +   7.282s
 4.  Mattia Pasini      Aprilia  +  10.784s
 5.  Alex Debon         Aprilia  +  15.740s
 6.  Thomas Luthi       Aprilia  +  15.780s
 7.  R.Wilairot         Honda    +  28.654s
 8.  Karel Abraham      Aprilia  +  31.600s
 9.  Raffaele De Rosa   Honda    +  33.760s
10.  Hector Faubel      Honda    +  33.843s
11.  Jules Cluzel       Aprilia  +  34.871s
12.  Lukas Pesek        Aprilia  +  35.117s
13.  Alex Baldolini     Aprilia  +  39.840s
14.  Mike Di Meglio     Aprilia  +  42.821s
15.  Steve Bonsey       Aprilia  +1m16.524s
16.  Axel Pons          Aprilia  +1m16.689s
17.  Valentin Debise    Honda    +1m28.826s
18.  Balazs Nemeth      Aprilia  +1m39.488s
19.  Bastien Chesaux    Honda    +1m47.958s
20.  Vladimir Leonov    Aprilia  +1 Lap
21.  Toby Markham       Honda    +1 Lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider              Bike       Laps
     Imre Toth          Aprilia     21
     R.Locatelli        Gilera      14
     Shoya Tomizawa     Honda       13
     Marco Simoncelli   Gilera       6

FASTEST LAP: Bautista, 1m46.656s on lap 9

MotoGP

What a race!  Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo thrilled the crowd of almost 90,000 fans yesterday as they dominated the Catalunya MotoGP on their Fiat Yamaha machines.

With three laps of the race to run, Rossi passed Lorenzo on the first corner but by the following lap the Spanish rider reclaimed his lead as they ran side by side down the straight, but Rossi out-braked him and Lorenzo was once again sat behind the Italian.

At the beginning of the last lap, Lorenzo took the lead with Rossi running wide as he tried to re-pass .  Not to be deterred,  Rossi stuck on Lorenzo’s tail and snatched the victory on the final corner of the final lap.

Casey Stoner on the Ducati Marlboro claimed the final step of the podium, more than eight seconds behind the Yamaha’s but had been having his own battle holding back the Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso who finished in fourth place just 0.52s behind.

Loris Capirossi on the Rizla Suzuki battled with the injured Spanish rider Dani Pedrosa on the second Repsol Honda for fifth place with the Italian finally holding the place.

Colin Edwards finished in seventh place on the Monster Tech3 Yamaha followed by Randy De Puniet on the LCR Honda in eighth, Mika Kallio for Pramac Racing in ninth and Nicky Hayden on the second Ducati Marlboro in tenth place.

Yuki Takahashi on the Scot Racing Team machine, crashed out on the first lap of the race when he tried to pass the Rizla Sukuki of Chris Vermeulen. The Japanese rider broke his little finger in the incident and will not be taking part in the testing today.

Toni Elias on the San Carlo Honda Gresini, had qualified in fifth place on the grid but crashed out on lap 10 of the race while running in eleventh.

Meanwhile, Gabor Talmacsi, the 125cc World Champion, was also on track for the Scot Racing team, fuelling rumours that he is to be a replacement for Takahashi, despite the teams protest that they are to run with two riders for the rest of the season.  Talmacsi finished in seventeenth place, he may have been the last over the line but he still completed the race unlike his team-mate.

The majority of the riders were too remain at the circuit today for a test session running from 10am until 6pm.  As previously mentioned, Takahashi will not be taking part in the session and neither will Dani Pedrosa due to fatigue.

Here are the results;

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Bike            Time
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    43m11.897s
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    +   0.095s
 3.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    +   8.884s
 4.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     +   8.936s
 5.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    +  19.831s
 6.  Daniel Pedrosa    Honda     +  22.182s
 7.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    +  23.547s
 8.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     +  25.265s
 9.  Mika Kallio       Ducati    +  31.797s
10.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati    +  33.593s
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    +  36.683s
12.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     +  36.874s
13.  James Toseland    Yamaha    +  39.433s
14.  Marco Melandri    Kawasaki  +  44.788s
15.  Sete Gibernau     Ducati    +  46.754s
16.  Niccolo Canepa    Ducati    +  55.873s
17.  Gabor Talmacsi    Honda     +1m27.640s

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Bike       Laps
     Toni Elias        Honda         9
     Yuki Takahashi    Honda         0

FASTEST LAP: Stoner, 1m42.858s on lap 2

Dani Pedrosa

It has been confirmed that the Spanish, Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa, will be racing at the Catalunya MotoGP this coming weekend.

Pedrosa, crashed out in the practice session of the last round of the championship in Italy, injuring his hip.  He then crashed during the race on the Sunday and after further checks it was discovered that he had cracked a bone at top of his thigh in the original accident and was told to immobilise his leg for the next ten days.

On Tuesday, the 23-year-old, underwent a final check-up in Barcelona and has been given the all-clear to race in front of his home fans.

Pedrosa said;

“I didn’t want to miss this important date for anything in the world.  On the one hand I wanted to ride because missing this race would mean losing too much ground in the standings, and also because I wanted to race in front of my fans, friends and family.”