One does not usually associate complaining (except about Rossi) with Casey Stoner. His style is to get on to the bike and do his thing, which is riding very fast and occasionally crashing. Rarely do you hear him say negative things about his steed. Estoril has provided that instance this year. Stoner has been fast from the moment he got on to the Honda this season. Yesterday in the first free practice, he was dethroned by Simoncelli and in the second free practice he ended up only in fifth, behind Rossi in fourth. He then complained that the bike was not turning very well and that there were set up problems. That is very different from what he said in the last few outings. Then he said that he can go faster still and every body thought that the Honda was turning like it was on rails. So what went wrong yesterday? Right now we don’t know, but qualifying practice and the race itself should throw up some answers.
Yearly Archives: 2011
Simoncelli is flying at Estoril. He comfortably went fastest even in the second free practice after having done the same in the first. Estoril seems to be a circuit of his liking and last year too Simoncelli was within striking distance of the podium in the race. Now that the first two practices have gone quite well, Simoncelli is cock a hoop and is not ruling out a victory for himself in the race on Sunday. We hope that it is confidence and not a case of over confidence. It will be very nice to see Super Sic winning a race. The guy is a character without trying to be one consciously like J-Lo, Jorge Lorenzo, not that beautiful woman whose picture came into your mind.
Casey Stoner has exonerated Valentino Rossi of the charge of intentionally making the mishap between them at Jerez. He also said that there was no question of any payback since it was an honest mistake on Rossi’s part. When quizzed about his quip that Rossi did not have the talent to match the ambition he clarified that he only said he ran out of talent. A very bad attempt at defence but no one can hold it against Stoner for being angry at having been taken out immediately after the crash. It is a World Championship where stakes are high and at the end of the season even a single point can make the difference between Champion and not being champion. Stoner however, rubbished suggestions that it was not the duty of the marshalls to help fallen riders get back on to their bikes by saying that this was an established practice from many, many years ago. He still holds it against the marshalls at Jerez for not helping him push start the bike.
Super Sic or Marco Simoncelli had a lack lustre debut season last year but this year with the Honda going fast from straight out of the box, he has shown promise and glimpses of good form. In the last race at Jerez, Super Sic crashed out while leading a wet race. His team manager Fausto Gresini who runs a factory spec Honda for Simoncelli has said that his pace at Jerez was genuine and not induced by a wet track. In the fast free practice at Estoril in Portugal Super Sic went super fast to bump Casey Stoner off the top perch, something that only Dani Pedrosa has been able to do thus far this season. Honda has confirmed its position as the bike to beat by making sure that the fastest three riders were all on Hondas. Super Sic was followed by Casey Stoner in second and Daniel Pedrosa in third. Jorge Lorenzo was only fourth fastest in today’s practice session. Valentino Rossi had a reasonable first session by finishing fifth but he was more than half a second behind the leaders. Andrea Dovizioso was in sixth followed by Colin Edwards in seventh. Ben Spies on the second works Yamaha could only manage eighth today. Nicky Hayden was down in fourteenth position. It should be remembered that this is only the first practice session which is sometimes utilized by riders and teams to test out some new settings and therefore one should not read too much into this.
India Yamaha Motors has been a conscientious company that is not just interested in selling its motorcycles of world class reputation but also in inculcating the right driving and riding practices among people. Yamaha has taken a laudable initiative called the Yamaha Safe Riding Science (YSRS) through which it teaches young children the science of riding correctly. They have already conducted these one day events in Varanasi and Kolkata and the latest was yesterday and Noida. Here is the press release from the event.
Yamaha brings Kidz Yamaha Safe Riding Science to Noida. Offers knowledge & exposure to children on safe riding techniques
Noida, 28th April, 2011: After two successful sessions in Varanasi and Kolkata, Yamaha now brings the Kidz Yamaha Safe Riding Science (YSRS) to Noida to educate the youngsters of the city about traffic safety and proper riding techniques. Attended by 120 students between eight to thirteen years of age from Delhi Public School, Greater Noida, the day long program was divided into 2 sessions – First was a classroom or theoretical session and 2nd was a practical session wherein the kids were taught the basics of road safety, importance of riding gear and also how to ride a bike with the Yamaha TTR 50 and PW 50 bike. The children learned these techniques from Yamaha licensed trainers. The initiative focused on inculcating safe riding habits that would contribute to raising traffic safety awareness among local communities and not just Yamaha customers. The initiative has been developed by the company in accordance with its basic philosophy of “Safety riding being achieved by intelligent activity, not by the operation or movement”. Intelligent activity, in turn, is achieved by imbibing and following traffic safety awareness & values into riding.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Jun Nakata, Director-Sales and Marketing, said, “According to a recent report India has the highest number of road deaths in the world at more than 1 lakh deaths a year with almost 13 people dying every hour. Understanding the need for an accident free environment, we feel that safe riding habits should be inculcated from the start and that is why our Yamaha Safe Riding Science (YSRS) initiative is directed towards today’s kids. We want to teach them the nuances of riding safely so that when they grow up and start riding bikes they are well aware of traffic safety and proper riding techniques. We are glad that our YSRS initiative has been acknowledged and well accepted across India.”
Yamaha launched Yamaha Safe Riding Science (YSRS) initiative in India in 2008, and has successfully introduced it to the youth of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Nagpur and Goa. Overwhelmed by the public response everywhere, Yamaha is taking this initiative to the inner parts of the country and hopes that it will go a long way in inculcating safe riding habits among everyone who has a passion for biking.
About India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd.Yamaha made its initial foray into India in 1985. In August 2001, Yamaha India became a 100% subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, Japan (YMC). In 2008, Mitsui & Co., Ltd. entered into an agreement with YMC to become a joint-investor in the motorcycle manufacturing company “India Yamaha Motor Private Limited (IYM)”. IYM operates from its state-of-the-art manufacturing units at Surajpur in Uttar Pradesh and Faridabad in Haryana and produces motorcycles both for domestic & export markets. With a strong workforce of more than 2,000 employees, IYM is highly customer-driven and has a countrywide network of over 400 dealers. Presently, its product portfolio includes VMAX (1,679cc), MT01 (1,670cc), YZF-R1 (998cc), FZ1 (998cc), Fazer (153cc), FZ-S (153cc), FZ16 (153cc), SZ, SZ-X & SZ-R (153cc), YZF-R15 (150cc), SS125 (123cc), YBR 125 (123cc), YBR 110 (106cc) and Crux (106cc).
Jorge Lorenzo who has disgusted more people than made fans, has said that he would like to keep his perfect record at Estoril the way it is. He is also looking forward to the official test on Monday to try new parts. He believes that while the Yamaha is no slouch, it still needs improvement to catch up with the Honda which seems to be the bike to beat for this year. Lorenzo is hoping that things will improve with the test and that he can confidently defend his crown. Lorenzo has christened himself J-Lo this year, something that has disgusted both motor racing fans and Jennifer Lopez fans. If you look at how the no.1 is written on his bike you will see that it is written like JL.
Ducati has been testing a heavily revised version of the GP11 chassis for sometime now. Its team manager Vittoriano Guareschi who also doubles as a tester along with regular tester Franco Battaini have been testing it for a while now though neither of the two factory team riders have tried it as yet. It was being believed that the new chassis could be introduced for the Estoril GP but now it seems that the old chassis will be used in the race and Nicky Hayden will get to test the revised version only on Monday. There is no world yet on when Valentino Rossi will get his hands on to it. Ducati has been experiencing huge problems with the exit of Casey Stoner whose genius as a rider made light of the shortcomings of the Ducati and propelled it to many victories and a World Championship as well. No one else, including Valentino Rossi thus far has looked like winners on the bike. What a great pity that Casey Stoner is not more likeable.
In a surprise move Hiroshi Yasukawa, the former Director of the motorsport division of Bridgestone tyres has been hired by Dorna the commercial rights holder of MotoGP as Advisor to CEO, Carmelo Ezpelata. This has taken the media by storm and has generated curiosity which in turn has started throwing up theories. Though Dorna has only said that his appointment is strengthen the FIM MotoGP Championships through his insights, it is being speculated that there is more to this than meets the eye. In his former position, Yasukawa came into contact with all manufacturers involved in Formula1 and MotoGP and is believed to command respect from all of them. It is well known that grid sizes in MotoGP have been a big problem for sometime now and while a few years ago grid sizes in World Superbike were large they have now dwindled to 22 even though that is significantly higher than the grid size of MotoGP. Next year is a crucial year for both championships with MotoGP proposing a Claiming Rule Team (CRT) class (some are calling it Moto1), which will allow for engines based on production motorcycles of one litre capacity custom fitted into prototype chassis and with Paolo Flammini and Infront, rights holders of World Superbike Championships crying foul. Flammini’s contention is that this is a violation of the understanding between MotoGP which is supposed to allow only prototype machines and World Superbikes which is to allow only production based machines. Ezpelata has argued that since there is no stock chassis involved it is still a prototype only racing. In this fight the support of Japanese factories will be crucial since in MotoGP with the exception of Ducati all other manufacturers are Japanese. Of these only Honda and Yamaha have committed to 2012 and beyond while Suzuki has cut its involvement this year to one bike only in MotoGP and World Superbikes respectively. Suzuki has not committed anything to next year. Kawasaki withdrew from the sport at the end 2008. Yasukawa’s role could be crucial in not only getting Japanese support for the CRT category but perhaps to bring Suzuki back full fledged into the sport. There is also speculation that Kawasaki engines from the ZX-10 R which have been considered potent could be asked make a comeback with custom chassis builders. All in all it is going to be very, very interesting in the coming months.
Medical checks on Alvaro Bautista have found him to be fit enough to race at Estoril, Portugal in this weekends MotoGP race, which will be the fourth of this year. Bautista has been out of two races owing to his breaking a bone in his leg following a crash on his Suzuki in practice preparation for the second GP of the season. In pre-season testing Bautista showed promise of his own and the Suzuki’s form. But the crash made things nasty. Hopkins rode in the previous GP and took the Suzuki to a solid tenth place. We have to see how Bautista goes on it this weekend.
Niki Lauda along with Jackie Stewart is a sure bet to give comments on anything under the F1 sun. Niki Lauda has assessed the performance of Felipe Massa at Ferrari and Mark Webber at Red Bull Racing. Lauda believes that Massa and Webber are not in the same league as Vettel and Alonso. He believes that next year could see changes in the form of replacements for these personnel. But so far Massa has been doing better than Alonso even though it is only in the midfield and knowing Alonso’s proclivities for wanting a number two driver a la Schumacher it is not in the realm of improbability that Massa will continue at Ferrari. Webber could be different. After the last grand prix Webber expressed happiness at Vettel not winning. But that could be in the context of his wanting to challenge for the World Championship as well, after being done in by the car in the first two races. Whatever the reason, Vettel is not going to like that and will be looking at someone less competitive than Webber as his team mate. Toro Rosso drivers Buemi and Alguersuari are under pressure to perform since there are other drivers like Daniel Ricciardo waiting in the wings. Good performances from them could be rewarded with a seat in RBR.