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Vermeulen Splashes to Front Row at Donington
22 June 2008
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer Chris Vermeulen piloted his Suzuki GSV-R to his first front row grid position of the season, as he again showed his true class as one of the world’s best wet weather riders. Vermeulen (1’39.018, 29 laps) will start from third on the grid for tomorrow’s race at Donington Park after a near faultless performance on the wet 4,023m circuit that saw him in pole position several times in the hour-long session. Vermeulen had a crash in this morning’s practice that saw him lose valuable track time, but Suzuki’s Australian star was able to return to the track uninjured this afternoon and challenge for the front row, which leaves him well placed for tomorrow’s race – whether it is wet or dry.
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Repsol’s Hayden Ready to Race Pneumatic-Valve RCV Engine
22 June 2008
Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa today qualified fourth and ninth fastest for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix, round eight of this year’s MotoGP World Championship. Following yesterday’s two dry sessions, rain dominated today. This morning’s practice outing was run in heavy rain while this afternoon’s qualifying session was run on a wet but drying track. Pedrosa and Hayden were second and third fastest in the morning but found the damp conditions more challenging. Hayden, using the pneumatic-valve RC212V engine for the first time at a race, was once again impressive, ending the day just a quarter of a second off the front row.
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Front Row Start for Rossi’s 200th Race
21 June 2008
Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi will start his 200th Grand Prix from the front row of the grid tomorrow, after a consistent performance in the wet this afternoon put him second for tomorrow’s British round at Donington Park. The Italian will be bidding for his eighth career win at this track but tomorrow promises to be no easy challenge, with today’s wet weather expected to give way to high winds.
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Second Straight Pole for Stoner
21 June 2008
For the sixth time in eight rounds the MotoGP paddock was hit by rain today as the clouds burst over Donington Park for the final free practice and qualifying sessions. Casey Stoner, the fastest man in the dry yesterday, splashed his way to pole position for the second time in as many races whilst his team-mate Marco Melandri will start from the fifth row after qualifying fifteenth fastest. The Italian is hoping for dry conditions after finding a more promising set-up yesterday, whilst the Australian is ready to charge into battle whatever the weather.
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Third Row for Wet Weather West
21 June 2008
Kawasaki's Anthony West will start tomorrow's British Grand Prix from the third row of the grid, after qualifying his Ninja ZX-RR in seventh position during this afternoon's rain soaked timed session at Donington Park. The slippery conditions at the 4.023km track caught out many leading riders during the two, hour-long sessions today, although following the developments made in yesterday's dry practice, West managed to find a good set-up aboard his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR.
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Best Qualifying Session for Guintoli
21 June 2008
Cold and rainy day at Donington Park circuit, in England. The morning free practice has shown a great performance by Sylvain Guintoli who under the rain has always demonstrated great qualities. The afternoon session, that has determined the starting grid of the 22nd English Grand Prix hosted on this circuit, rain wasn’t so heavy making the track faster. The French rider has made it to improve his best lap times constantly finishing the session in twelfth position, his best qualifying session of the season. His teammate, Toni Elias, didn’t make it to find the right feeling to push at the maximum in this weather condition and will have to start in eighteenth position.
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Bridgestone Riders Lock Out Front Row in Donington
21 June 2008
Bridgestone-shod riders Casey Stoner (Ducati Corse), Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) and Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) have locked out the three front row positions for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix after a highly competitive wet qualifying session at Donington Park this afternoon. Stoner has been on the pace all weekend in dry and wet conditions, and dominated the qualifying hour today, taking pole position by an impressive margin of almost seven-tenths-of-a-second. It is his second consecutive pole position of the season and the third consecutive pole position for a rider on Bridgestone tyres, after Rossi took the top spot in Mugello, and Stoner’s Catalan pole from two weeks ago.
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Dovizioso on the Second Row at Donington
21 June 2008
The second day on the circuit of Donington Park and heavy rain in the morning led to a wet practice session, which showed how Andrea could ride in the rain. Always staying in the upper part of the classification, Andrea ended in first position making a virtual front row packed with Honda machinery. In the afternoon the JiR Team Scot rider in the qualifying session for the British Grand Prix ended with the sixth fastest time – his best qualifying this season – thanks to this he will start on the second row of the grid.
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Spies Shows Promise on Rizla Suzuki Debut
21 June 2008
Ben Spies made his Rizla Suzuki MotoGP debut at Donington Park in England today and settled into his new environment quickly, showing a marked improvement in his times during today’s two free practice sessions. Spies (1’30.766, 58 laps) is deputising for the injured Loris Capirossi at the British Grand Prix and the two-time AMA Superbike Champion spent the majority of the day learning the 4,023m English track. Spies knocked over a second off his lap-times between the morning and afternoon sessions as he finished the day in 17th place on the timesheets. He is confident of improving tomorrow and will be trying to move further up the standings.
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First Day of Work for Alice Team at Donington
21 June 2008
After a weekend of break, MotoGP is back in action for the eight round of the 2008 World Championship at Donington Park circuit, in England. Alice Team riders haven’t begun in the best way, even if after the two days of test completed last week in Barcelona, they have shown improvements. The Spanish rider, Toni Elias, has also been unlucky today: in the afternoon session he had to stop in the garage for some minutes due to some technical problems. Back on track in the last minutes of the second free practice, he made it to improve his best morning lap time by almost a second, concluding the day in fifteenth position. His teammate, Sylvain Guintoli, didn’t make it to take a big step forward in the second hour of work, concluding the day in eighteenth position.
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Edwards & Toseland Happy with Early Pace at Donington
21 June 2008
Tech 3 Yamaha team pairing Colin Edwards and James Toseland made an encouraging start to the British GP at Donington Park, both clocking top ten times at the end of the first day of free practice. Edwards showed why Donington is the track where he’s enjoyed the most success in his MotoGP career as he clocked the fourth best time overall. Edwards has claimed four top six finishes at Donington and he was third fastest this morning despite small issues with the gearing on his Tech 3 Yamaha YZR-M1. Edwards held second until the closing stages this afternoon and a best lap of 1.28.969 clinched fourth as the American spent the opening day evaluating Michelin tyres and a new rear shock from Ohlins.
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Toseland Happy & Ready After First Day
21 June 2008
James Toseland is confident he can be in the hunt for at least a podium finish after the first day of practice for the bwin.com British Grand Prix at Donington Park. The 27 year old Yorkshireman was eighth fastest after the first day of practice round the 2.5 miles Parkland circuit and less than one second behind World Champion Casey Stoner who led the way on the Marlboro Ducati.
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Stoner Fastest at Donington
21 June 2008
The threat of rain held off at Donington to allow Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri to make full use of the first free practice sessions for the British Grand Prix. The Australian was the fastest man on track in both, taking advantage of improvements made with the electronics of his GP8 during tests at Barcelona last week. Melandri found a promising set-up and is looking forward to refining it tomorrow after lapping fourteenth fastest.
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Further Improvements for Hopkins & West
21 June 2008
Kawasaki’s John Hopkins and Anthony West finished today’s opening practice sessions at Donington Park in a confident mood, after improvements to their machine set-up saw them finish in 11th and 12th positions respectively. Hopkins bravely ended the day’s proceedings just a fraction of a second outside of the top ten, despite suffering from the discomfort of a back injury sustained in practice at Catalunya. The 25-year-old Anglo-American wisely used today’s dry track time to run through various Bridgestone race tyre combinations ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying session, which is predicted to be wet.
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Lorenzo Makes Tentative Return to Action At Donington
21 June 2008
Two weeks after crashing during practice in Catalunya and ruling himself out of his home race, Jorge Lorenzo made a welcome return to the track on his Fiat Yamaha M1 at the British Grand Prix today. After his sensational start to the season, the youngest rider on the grid has undergone a torrid time since fracturing both his ankles in China at the start of May and he is now riding with a special glove on his right hand to protect the skin graft that he underwent 12 days ago.
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Repsol's Hayden Second Fastest on Day One at Donington
21 June 2008
Repsol Honda RC212V riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa were second and sixth fastest in today’s opening two practice sessions at Donington Park. Hayden had a positive day, using HRC’s pneumatic-valve engine at a race for the first time. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion worked hard at dialling in the engine, which has a 1000rpm higher rev ceiling than the valve-spring RCV engine, ending the day half a second off reigning champ Casey Stoner. Pedrosa was also going well in the cool, blustery conditions, running third fastest this afternoon before he highsided at Redgate corner.
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Rossi Launches 200th GP Challenge at Donington
21 June 2008
Valentino Rossi, who is scheduled to contest his 200th Grand Prix on Sunday, got his weekend off to a solid start today by finishing third overall in the first free practice sessions at Donington Park. The 29-year-old Fiat Yamaha Team rider, whose first ever 125cc race was back in 1996 at Shah Alam, has an illustrious record at this circuit with eight wins to his name, including two with Yamaha in 2004 and 2005.
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First Day of Practice for Dovizioso at Donington
21 June 2008
Today’s first day of practice for the British Grand Prix saw some typical English weather. In the sky there were clouds, just a little sunshine but no rain despite the weather forecast! In the morning session Andrea Dovizioso showed that he would be a force to be reckoned with, having a good pace with the leaders and ending the session in fourth place. In the afternoon the JiR Team Scot rider worked hard on tyre choice, testing all the various materials that Michelin brought for him, as he prepared for the practice and qualifying sessions of tomorrow. The final position in the afternoon does not show Andrea’s potential and both team and rider are confident to find the right pace for the race.
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60 Years of MotoGP & Champions Honoured at Donington
21 June 2008
This year sees the 60th season Anniversary of MotoGP. Dorna, the company behind MotoGP, held a press conference yesterday (20th June) at Donington Park media centre to mark this special Anniversary and the very first ceremony handing out the 'MotoGP Champions Towers' to all past winners of the world championship. Present at the UK conference was Dave Hailwood, the son of the legendary Mike Hailwood who won the championship consecutively from 1962 - 1965, Phil Read who was world champion in 1973 and 1974, Stuart Graham who's father was TT winner Les Graham and the first man to win a MotoGP race 60 years ago in 1949. Of course it wasn't called MotoGP back in 1949, it was known as the 500cc World Championship.
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MotoGP’s Most Complete TV Coverage Ever
20 June 2008
This weekend’s bwin.com British Grand Prix ushers in a new era in the television coverage of the MotoGP World Championship. Commercial rights-holders of the series and producers of the world television broadcast, Dorna Sports this weekend will employ 126 separate cameras to cover every angle of the Grand Prix. It is a figure that few sporting events can match.
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