As you will all probably know already, last weekend saw round nine of the GAS British MotoGP come to Donington Park Circuit in Derby. The weather was scorching hot and the racing even hotter and, with the likes of ‘Super God’ Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa, Loris Capirossi, John Hopkins and Colin Edwards all in the country to show us what they’ve got, Londonbikers went along to bring you the latest news, and up-close and personal photos.
ThursdayDonington Park opened its gates on Thursday at 10am for the ‘Day of Champions’. This is traditionally a day to raise money for the Riders for Health charity, where the gates are opened to the public, and the fans get to rub shoulders with their hero’s, collect autographs and chat to the teams. The pits were open all day to give everyone the opportunity to get close to the GP bikes. Over 5,000 fans flooded the gates during the day, there were various activities including a bus ride around the circuit with the BBC’s Steve Parish behind the wheel and the chance to get a ride in a sidecar. James Toselands band ‘Crash’ had the crowd rocking and X-Treme Riders put on a great show of their trials skills for all to see.
This year saw Riders for Health hold a charity auction which included John Hopkins auctioning his lid all signed which fetched an amazing £1100. Also on stage with items going to the highest bidders were Valentino Rossi signing various things, Nicky Hayden selling the shirt off his back, Troy Corser taking bids on a Wayne Gardener signed replica helmet, Dani Pedrosa with a world cup signed football, Colin Edwards auctioning his signed leathers and Chaz Davies with a children’s bike signed by all of the MotoGP racers. The auction raised its largest total to date with a staggering £191,000.
FridayThe day started bright and early at 9am, seeing the 125cc racers go out for the free practice sessions, this was followed by the MotoGP practice at 10am and the 250cc boys going out at 11.15am. At 12.30pm Randy Mamola took a couple of lucky Riders for Health auction bidders out on the track for a two-up ride on the Ducati Desmosdici Two-seater giving them the ride of their lives.
LB’s Foxy and Jay wandered around the pit and track looking for opportunities and taking photos.
The afternoon saw the start of the qualifying practice sessions staring with the GP125 boys going out first. This was followed at 2pm by another session of free practice for the MotoGP riders and teams. Just after 3pm the GP250 lads were out on their qualifying practice. The day’s sessions saw a few crashes, but this was hardly surprising with the temperatures soaring, the tyres getting sticky and the riders giving it all they have to qualify the fastest.
Because of the extreme rain at Mondello Park at the BSB round earlier on in the year, two other races had been scheduled for the weekend. These included the BSB Metzler Racetec National Superstock and the Yamaha R6 cup.
After the GP sessions had finished at 4pm, it was time for the BSB Metzler National Superstock riders to go out on track for their free practice session; this was followed at 5pm by the Yamaha R6 Cup free practice. No rest for the wicked, after their free practice session, the young Yamaha Cup riders were straight out again on their qualifying practice. After that, the National Superstock boys were out again giving it their all for qualifying, before their first races late on Saturday afternoon.
SaturdayEarly Saturday morning the sun was beating down on Donington Park, the venue was already buzzing and at 9am the second free practice sessions started for the 125cc lads. Spectators and fans were making their way to prime spots around the famous circuit and the atmosphere was full of fun. The third session of free practice for MotoGP started at 10am, the sound of the bikes flying past was loud enough to make your ears bleed, it is something that really needs to experienced in real life and not just heard on the TV. 11.15am and the 250cc boys were out for their last session of free practice before qualifying in the afternoon.
Just after mid-day there was a VIP Village pit lane walk and while this was going on Randy Mamola took another lucky two Riders for Health auction bidders on the back of the Ducati Desmosdici Two-seater round the track for a couple of laps.
The second qualifying practice started at 1.25pm for the 125cc racers and every one of them had improved on yesterday’s times. Master MVA Aspar Team rider Álvero Bautista won pole position for the fourth time this season, followed by his team mates in 3rd 5th and 6th on the grid.
At 2pm it was time for the MotoGP qualifying. The air temperature rose to 29°C and on the track surface the temperature reached an overwhelming 47°C. Camel Yamaha had been having problems with the set up of their YZR-M1’s on the free practice sessions, Valentino and Edwards were baffled by the lack of progress they had made, and with Valentino’s wrist and ankle still not up to scratch, both of them qualified on the fourth row of the grid. Sharing the fourth row for the race with Rossi and Edwards was Repsol Honda’s Nicky Hayden.
Hayden had suffered with technical problems on his RC211V at the start of the afternoons qualifying session and this reduced the time available on track for the 24 year old American. His team mate Dani Pedrosa was on top form and qualified on pole, the 20 year old rookie recorded a lap time of nearly half a second quicker than his closest rivals. Dani also broke the lap record for Donington with a 1m 27.676s on the 2.5 mile circuit. This is the fastest anyone has ever done the circuit on two wheels!
Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen improved consistently and steamed his way to his personal best in qualifying, putting himself and his GSV-R second on the grid. Team mate John Hopkins had a high speed crash in the morning session and walked away from it in one piece, he was able to get back on his second bike and finish the session and get fourth on the grid.
Capirossi was also still suffering from injuries from the previous race and still ended up finishing his session only 0.718 seconds off pole position. Still standing in for Ducati Marlboro’s injured Sete Gibernau, Alex Hoffman finished 15th fastest after losing confidence in his tyres during the afternoons session.
Kawasaki riders Randy de Puniet and Shinya Nakano finished their session 6th and 7th on the grid respectively. Randy’s ZX-RR had been suffering chatter problems during practice yesterday, but still managed to get 6th on the grid. Shinya had minor problems with the gearbox during qualifying and came in, which meant he couldn’t make use of his two remaining tyres.
At 3.15pm after the GP qualifying, it was time for the 250cc boys to go out and do their best. Fortuna Aprilia’s Jorge Lorenzo qualified on pole for the race.
The first of the Metzler National Superstock race got underway at 4.30pm with Carbon Can Yamaha’s Hudson Kennaugh on pole. Hudson also had a new grid girl for the weekend in the form of LB’s Foxy, she was asked to stand in at the last minute after his regular girl had called in sick. Hudson held his own for the first two thirds of the 12 lap race until Adrian Coates on the Dyer Engineering Suzuki passed him. Unable to keep up with Adrian’s pace, Hudson looked comfortable in second; he was then bumped by John Laverty in the hairpin, managed to stay on the bike and still managed to get himself a fourth place finish.
The last race of the day was the Yamaha R6 Cup race one. Tom Grant pushed his way to seize the win in the 10 lap race from Matt Whitman. The two swapped paint and fought hard around the Melbourne Loop, leaving Matt wanting revenge for the second race on Sunday afternoon.
The evening remained very warm and there were thunder storms forecast for the evening. The whole compound was alive with the hustle and bustle of racers whizzing around on scooters, the teams busy preparing the bikes for race day and work was still going on in the media centre until 10pm. There were lots of sorry England fans wandering around, drowning their sorrows after watching their beloved team go out to Portugal on penalties.
SundayA mega down pour started the day on Sunday. The gates opened early and over 80,000 avid MotoGP fans flooded Donington Park, Rossi mania hit the East-Midlands circuit with a yellow sea of t-shirts and baseball caps as far as the eye could see, most travelling many miles for their annual fix of the racing God. 9am and the 250cc boys were out on track on their 20 minute warm up session before the race. This was followed by the 20 minute MotoGP warm up at 9.30 and the 125cc boys went out at 10am for theirs.
At 10.25 Randy Mamola was flying around the circuit two-up on the Ducati Desmosdici Two-seater with another couple of Riders for Health auction bidders. Like the day before, there was another VIP Village pit lane walk before the first race of the day.
The first race of the day at 11.15am was for the 250cc riders; the 27 lap race proved to be another exciting race for Fortuna Aprilia’s Jorge Lorenzo, who claimed his fifth victory of the season as he crossed the finish line and reduced championship leader Andrea Dovizioso’s point’s lead from 16 to only one. Late falls from Hiroshi Aoyama and Marco Simoncelli stopped Lorenzo from taking the entire championship lead.
Second race of the day started at 1pm and this was the big boys out on the MotoGP bikes. It was Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa who was completely untouchable during the 30 lap race. From pole, Dani was second into the first corner and spent the first 5 laps fighting hard with Marco Melandri and messing up big time after diving down the inside of the Italian on the Melbourne Loop and nearly taking himself and Marco out. Young Dani took the lead on lap 11 and it wasn’t long before he had a very comfortable seven second gap. For the second time this season Dani took the pole position, race win and fastest lap. Team mate Nicky Hayden had a tougher time out on track; he fought hard to keep his seventh place finish, to keep him with the most points at the top of the leader board.
Camel Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi pulled out all of the stops to finish in a well deserved second place. With his wrist and ankle still playing up he battled hard from a 12th place start on the grid. He showed determination and strength during the race and after the bad start to the season with chassis problems. Vale is now only 35 points behind championship leader Hayden. Colin Edwards who had a bad weekend struggling to get the correct setting on his bike fought hard and finished in 6th.
Fortuna Honda’s Marco Melandri started third on the grid and took the lead for the first few laps and gave Pedrosa a good run for his money. Marco finished third after a good fight for second with Rossi. Young LRC Honda rider Australian Casey Stoner also rode a good race, battling with John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen at the start and finished fourth. Kenny Roberts Jr was on great form on his KR211V and came in a respectable fifth over the line. Konica Minolta Honda rider Makoto Tamada crossed the finish line in 11th after having problems with under-steering in the fast corners.
Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins was feeling his Anglo-American roots and fought hard at the start of the race holding on to a podium position for the first few laps. With the excessive heat out on track John’s tyres started to lose grip and he struggled to keep up the pace. He managed to get into the top ten of the leaders board by bringing his Suzuki over the line in seventh. Team mate Chris Vermeulen also had a strong first half of the race and stayed with the leaders. On lap 16 Chris had a collision with Colin Edwards and came off the worse for wear, he got back on his bike and bought it back into the pits before re-joining the race and finishing in 16th and scoring no points.
Loris Capirossi crossed the line in ninth for the Ducati Marlboro Team after enduring 30 laps and the intense heat. With the rain first thing in the morning, the choice of tyre held him back and his Ducati started to slide around after around ten laps and his injuries started to give him more pain. Alex Hoffman’s tyres also held him back from picking up the pace, he lost grip and came in 16th overall.
As the race finished, the crowd went wild. As Pedrosa, Rossi and Melandri did their celebratory lap, thousands of fans flooded the circuit to get nearer to their hero’s. Valentino Rossi did the mother of all rolling burn-outs towards Parc Firmè and finally made it in after being swamped by his adoring supporters.
Following the madness from the previous celebrations was the 125cc race. It was Master MVA Aspar Team rider Álvaro Bautista, who was on pole position, the Spanish youngster was convincing throughout the race with a lap record and a win. His team mates Mattia Pasini and Sergio Gadea came in fourth and fifth respectively. KTM rider Mika Kallio came in second and 15 year old Brit Bradley Smith finished twelfth on his Repsol Honda.
3.45pm saw the second 12 lap race for the Metzler National Superstock riders. Carbon Can Yamaha rider Hudson Kennaugh got off to a fast start from pole position and held onto second place. By the fifth lap Kennaugh started getting problems with his Yamaha R1 overheating and had trouble keeping up with the pace as the problems bike got worse. Fighting hard Hudson crossed the finish line in sixth.
The final race of the day was the Yamaha R6 Cup at 4.30. The youngsters had watched their idol Valentio ride a hard race and come in second, they all and lined up on the grid ready to follow the legends tracks. The start of the 10 lap race saw a five way battle between James Rose who got holeshot, Matt Whitman, Tom Grant, Midge Smart and Calvin Hobs. All of them took turns in taking the lead. There was a major crash in the first half of the race as young Robbi Brown’s brakes failed as he went into Redgate. Series leader 19 year old Matt Whitman crossed the line first to claim the championship prize of a brand new Yamaha R6.
Sun burnt and tired leather clad fans piled out of Donington Park, all with big grins on their faces. All discussing the excitement they had experienced during the weekends qualifying and races and the woes of the England quarter final against Portugal in the World Cup. By this time in two weeks all they’ll be thinking about is the next MotoGP race in Germany!
Over the weekend our photographers were tirelessly hiding in bushes and getting sunburnt to ensure you have the largest collection of British MotoGP '06 pictures known to mankind. Check out the seven action-packed galleries below!
Related GalleriesBritish MotoGP '06, 250 Race!British MotoGP '06, MiscBritish MotoGP '06, Race!British MotoGP '06, QualifyingBritish MotoGP '06, Superstock RacingBritish MotoGP '06, Paddock & PitsBritish MotoGP '06, Friday
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