Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner beat back the challenge of Marco Simoncelli and Jorge Lorenzo convincingly to claim pole position in the qualifying session for tomorrow’s British GP at Silverstone. Marco Simoncelli on the factory spec Gresini Honda held provisional pole for a while but ultimately could not match Stoner’s time. Defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo finished qualifying in 3rd position on the works Yamaha while his works Yamaha team mate Ben Spies finished fourth. Fifth position on the grid went to Andrea Dovizioso on the other Repsol Honda while rookie Karel Abraham claimed a very surprising 6th position on the grid on his Cardion AB Ducati while Nicky Hayden on the factory Ducati qualified in 7th position, 8th position on the grid going to Colin Edwards on the Tech3 Yamaha even as he is just recovering from a broken collarbone and surgery post that only last week. This week it was the turn of his team mate and British rookie Cal Crutchlow to break a collarbone. The unfortunate Crutchlow seems to have broken the same clavicle on which he was operated on earlier in the year. He also suffered concussion in the qualifying crash today. Valentino Rossi had a miserable qualifying session and finished in a lowly 13th position on the factory Marlboro Ducati and his misery was matched by that of Loris Capirossi’s who finished last on the Pramac Ducati while his team mate Randy De Puniet finished in 10th place. Eleventh on the grid went to Hector Barbera on the Mapfre Ducati while Hiroshi Aoyama took twelfth on the grid. Tony Elias on the LCR Honda continued to have the horrors as he crashed once and only managed to finish 14th on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
Yearly Archives: 2011
In the run up to the Misano Superpole and the race in World Superbikes, Carlos Checa riding the Althea Ducati stayed ahead of rival Max Biaggi the defending World Champion who is riding the Alitalia Aprilia. The race ahead is likely to be a stonker with both leading bikes being Italian and one of the two riders also being Italian.
In yet another underlining of superior riding skills, Casey Stoner on the Repsol Honda RC 212V has topped both practice sessions of Friday at Silverstone in the run up to the British Grand Prix. The first session was dry, but the second session was wet and in both sessions Stoner’s arch enemy Valentino Rossi was not even in striking distance finishing twelfth and ninth in FP 1&2 respectively while his team mate Nicky Hayden on the other works Ducati GP 11 finished in 4th and 3rd positions in the two free practices. Series points leader Jorge Lorenzo finished in 3rd and 5th positions in the free practices and has expressed great unhappiness with the Yamaha.
Sauber F1 driver Sergio Perez has reportedly taken ill in the preparations for the F1 GP of Canada and in the last minute McLaren test driver Pedro de La Rosa who is a veteran has been asked to fill in for Perez. It is believed that Perez could still be suffering from the after effects of a horrific crash two weeks ago at Monte Carlo. Surprisingly Gutierrez who is the reserve driver for Sauber has not been called to take Perez’s place. De La Rosa drove for Sauber last year in many races before being ousted and replaced by Nick Heidfeld who himself lost the Sauber seat to Sergio Perez for this year. Heidfeld stepped in to fill for the badly injured Robert Kubica at Lotus Renault team this year.
This is indeed a very busy weekend for motorsport. There is a World Superbike race at Misano in Italy and a MotoGP race at Silverstone in England. Apart from this the Formula1 GP will be held at Montreal, Canada and Indycar racing at Texas apart from the preparations for the Le Mans 24 hour race. For viewers in India, the MotoGP and Formula1 should be available live and maybe one of the two races of World Superbikes if they do not clash with GP timing. It could also be that Star Sports will show MotoGP and ESPN the World Superbike race. If you have access to Ten Sports you will likely get to see qualifying of MotoGP as well. So don’t forget to check all these channels. Enjoy a great motorsport weekend.
There are rumours in the international press that Opel the German car making unit which is the property of General Motors maybe up for sale. In the past, when GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it had originally intended to sell Opel and Vauxhall along with all the other brands such as Saab. Later it decided to hold on to the two because they, especially Opel is seen as a technology provider for the rest of GM. The latest rumours have been saying that Opel could be bought over by a Chinese company or by Volkswagen. However Opel and GM authorities have rubbished the rumours and have said that Opel is not for sale.
Premier, previously one of the bigger manufacturers of cars in India along with Hindustan Motors sank for a while after two of its joint ventures with Peugeot and Fiat awry. The company is trying to stage a comeback with the Chinese Zoyte bodied and an old Peugeot engined small SUV called the Rio but has not made much of a headway. Now Motorbeam.com has reported that the Rio with a facelift and possibly new Fiat diesel engines could get into the showrooms by October of this year.
Picture Courtesy: motorbeam.com
Vaibhav Saigal has been clicking spy pictures of the new Yamaha that is undergoing testing for some time now. The new Yamaha was first reported to be the R125 which is a 125cc motorcycle, then it was proclaimed to be the upgraded version of the R 15. Then some wild rumours circulated on the web that given the fattish tyre on the back of the motorcycle this could be a higher capacity motorcycle. Some have said that it is 180cc and called it the R 18 and other have said that it is actually the R 25 or a 250cc machine testing in R 15 clothing. What is certain is that nobody seems to know the truth. Only time will tell, but Yamaha is taking a little too much time with this whole thing.
Picture Courtesy: indiancarsbikes.in
Bikeadvice.in has first hand information that TVS is looking at the launch of a new scooter and a new motorcycle this year. Bikeadvice.in has quoted Mr. Goindy as having said that the scooter and the motorcycle will be launched before the end of the year, but not giving any further information. It also seems that TVS has launched an upgraded Max4R motorcycle called the Max4R LX. The Max brand is TVS’ version of a load carrying two wheeler that has four shock absorbers at the back instead of the conventional two.
It has been reported that the existing marketing and CKD assembly tie up between Garware Motors and the S&T group of Korea, manufacturers of the Hyosung brand of two wheelers could be converted into a joint venture in India so as to locally manufacture Hyosung motorcycles and keep them competitive price wise. It is expected that the process of setting up the joint venture could take up to two years time. Meanwhile Garware claims that there has been a healthy interest in their products in the cities where the motorcycles have been launched.