The rookie rule is to be dropped for the 2013 season. The Spanish daily El Pais is reporting that Dorna and IRTA have decided that the rule preventing MotoGP rookies from being signed to a factory team had to be scrapped due to the difficulties presented by the limited number of bikes available to ride. As a consequence, it was felt it was better to drop the rookie rule altogether, rather than create more problems for existing satellite teams by maintaining it.
With Sunday’s race having perhaps some of the best weather yet at Silverstone, the British GP started with concern, after Cal Crutchlow missed qualifying after a hard crash in FP3. Getting cleared to ride Sunday morning, the Honey Badger was relegated to the back of the grid for the start, dashing any hopes of a podium finish.
Still, the man from Man delighted British fans with his resolve to go racing, with further spectacle coming in the form of Alvaro Bautista’s first MotoGP pole-positiion start, putting his black San Carlo Gresini Honda in front of the factory machines of Ben Spies, Casey Stoner, and Jorge Lorenzo. With the British GP showing the first signs of Spies’ renewed confidence, MotoGP fans had all the makings of a good race as the sun shined through the cloud cover. To see how it all finished out, click on past the jump.
With tough conditions being the week-long tradition at the British GP, MotoGP qualifying at Silverstone began with dry, but very windy, conditions. Friday’s rain saw the Ducatis of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden on the top of the time sheets, though the day proved to be the tale of two Ducatis, as once the British track dried, the Desmosedici GP12 once again showed its other personaly, and proved to be a handful in the dry.
Unsurprisingly, Casey Stoner was the fastest once the water cleared, with Yamaha-man Ben Spies showing some renewed confidence as well. Noticeably quick was satellite Honda rider Alvaro Bautista, who posted a third and fifth in FP2 & FP3 for the San Carlo Gresini Honda team, respectively. With the weather supposedly set to improve tomorrow, though the chance of rain still seems to be a coin toss of probabilities, the certainty for a wet race seems to have been reduced in the paddock, though the tough windy conditions can still be expected.
“It was an up-and-down day,” Ben Spies said after practice on Friday, and truly, he spoke for a large part of the paddock. It started with the weather: the overnight rain continued for the better part of the morning, leaving the track soaking during FP1. The sun came out at lunchtime, quickly drying out the track, helped by the strong winds buffeting the circuit. The dry track helped, the wind certainly didn’t. “That’s what happens when you build a circuit on an airfield,” Cal Crutchlow commented curtly, after complaining about being blown around by the gusting wind in the afternoon.
The official charity of MotoGP, and an example of motorcycles making the world a better place, Riders for Health is an organization Asphalt & Rubber truly enjoys supporting. For those still not familiar with the work being done by Riders for Health, the charity was founded by Andrea & Barry Coleman, along with some guy named Randy Mamola. Providing motorcycles to health workers in Africa, Riders for Health has helped bring vital and reliable (this point being key) medical care to remote locations in DRC, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Being here in Silverstone for MotoGP’s British GP has meant the unique opportunity to participate in the Day of Champions, the trackside Thursday event that helps raise money for Riders for Health. The event is perhaps most well known for its rider auction, which has forever been immortalized with the antics of then teammates Cal Cructhlow and Colin Edwards.
For an added bonus this year, the British government has graciously agreed to match any funds raised by Rider for Health at the Day of Champions, which means yesterday’s event helped raise in total £254,989 for the organization. British readers, if you want to help support Riders (and get a gold star in our book), you can donate 3 by texting the letters “RFH” to 70303 (your donation will also be doubled by the Crown). US readers, you can go to Riders.org to make a donation (I’m told the text message donation system doesn’t work abroad).
Dropping a bit of a bombshell ahead of the British GP at Silverstone, Yamaha has announced that it has retained the services of one Mr. Jorge Lorenzo for the 2013 and 2014 MotoGP Championship seasons. Coming to Yamaha in 2008, Lorenzo won the Rookie of the Year title that year as he finished the Championship in fourth place. Second in 2009, and winning the Championship in 2010, Lorenzo was runner-up again last year, and currently leads the Championship by 20 points (his worst finishes this season thus far have been his two second step podiums) — all in all, not a bad legacy to continue with the tuning-fork brand.
A major piece in the 2012 Silly Season puzzle, Lorenzo’s steadfastness with Yamaha Racing means that a seat remains open at Repsol Honda garage (likely to be occupied by Marc Marquez, as the Rookie Rules seems set to be abolished this year). The move also means that there will only be one seat to be fought over in the factory Yamaha squad, with Ben Spies, Cal Crutchlow, and Andrea Dovizioso all having an equal claim to occupying it.
