A lot has to happen if Andrea Dovizioso wants to win the 2017 MotoGP championship at Valencia. What he doesn’t want to happen is for Marc Márquez to run away with the race. And so far on Friday, that’s exactly what looks like happening.
On the face of it, fifth in both FP1 and FP2 is not promising. But look at race pace, and it is clear that Márquez is in devastating form.
In FP1, Márquez used a single medium rear tire, and posted 11 laps of 1’31. No one else managed more than 3 laps at that pace.
In FP2, he again used just a single tire, putting 20 laps on a soft rear tire. He set his fastest lap – good enough for fifth in the session – on his final lap, with a tire that has two-thirds race distance on it. While everyone else was throwing extra tires in to secure passage straight to Q2, Márquez was not concerned.
His pace left him feeling positive. “Of course this gives me good confidence,” Márquez said. “But what is better is that we started the weekend in a good way. In FP1 I felt good with the bike. We are on Friday so we need to keep working and keep the same mentality and concentration.”
Asphalt & Rubber is in New York right now, attending the unveiling of the 2018 Pirelli Calendar. It might seem strange that a tire manufacturer from Italy would become so famous for producing something as benign as a calendar, but the Pirelli Calendar is an institution in its own right.
A product of the fashion elite – mixing the world’s top models and celebrities with some of the most renowned photographers, at some of the most beautiful locations – the Pirelli Calendar is available only to a select few of Pirelli’s best customers, as well as the most famous of people.
For a long time, the Pirelli Calendar grew from the intersection of garage pin-up photography and high-fashion aesthetic and production, but in 2016 “The Cal” switched its tone to something more reflective of the time, and with a larger social message. Gone were the naked supermodels.
For the 2018 edition, the Pirelli Calendar continues this trend, and for the second time ever, it features an all-black cast of models, actors, celebrities, and social figures.
Relying on the talents of British photographer Tim Walker, the 2018 Pirelli Calendar retells the story of Alice in Wonderland by ?Lewis Carroll.
It features the following models: Adwoa Aboah, Sasha Lane, , Thando Hopa, Slick Woods, Zoe Bedeaux, Alpha Dia, King Owusu, Wilson Oryema, Adut Akech, and Duckie Thot as Alice – with celebrity appearances by Jaha Dukureh, Whoopi Goldberg, RuPaul, Djimon Hounsou, Puff Daddy, Naomi Campbell, Lupita Nyong, and Lil Yachty
In a sign of how difficult Yamaha’s 2017 season has been, they have a busy testing schedule ahead of them in the next few weeks. After the traditional two-day test at Valencia, both the Movistar Yamaha and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team will be heading to Malaysia, for a private test at Sepang.
The testing schedule for Yamaha means that Michael van der Mark will not be taking part in the two-day test at Valencia. Yamaha needs the resources from the Tech 3 team to assist Maverick Viñales, Valentino Rossi, and Johann Zarco get through their program.
“They have so much to test here that they need my team to help prepare everything,” Van der Mark told the media on Thursday.
The testing schedule and the decision to enlist the help of the Tech 3 team is a sign of how much work Yamaha fear they have ahead of them.
Episode 62 of the Paddock Pass Podcast sees David Emmett and Neil Morrison on the mics, as they cover the three flyaway races for the MotoGP Championship: Motegi, Phillip Island, and Sepang.
MotoGP’s stops in Asia and Australia have proven to be pivotal to the championship standings, as Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez have been battling during the latter half of the season.
Now going into the final round of the season, Marquez leads Dovizioso by 21 points, creating a do-or-die scenario for the Ducati rider at Valencia. There are only a few ways that Dovizioso can win the Championship, but during this episode, we focus on how that came to be.
Examining the results of the top riders in MotoGP, and the highlight of the flyaway races, Neil gives his insights from being at the races, while David provides is usual analysis.
The focus then turns to the Moto3 and Moto2 classes, with the show wrapping up with our winners and losers from the flyaway rounds. It’s another great show from the Paddock Pass crew, and you won’t want to miss it.
As always, be sure to follow the Paddock Pass Podcast on Facebook, Twitter and subscribe to the show on iTunes and SoundCloud – we even have an RSS feed for you. If you like the show, we would really appreciate you giving it a review on iTunes. Thanks for listening!
For the fourth time in twelve years, Valencia will play host to a MotoGP title showdown. On Sunday, Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Márquez will slug it out for who gets to call themselves the 2017 MotoGP champion.
If you want a detailed breakdown of who has to finish where to wrap up the championship, you can read our separate story here.
But it boils down to two simple premises: If Andrea Dovizioso doesn’t win the race, the title belongs to Márquez, but Márquez can put it out of reach of Dovizioso by finishing eleventh or better.
If you are staging a championship showdown, the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Cheste, near Valencia, is a fine venue to choose. Set in a natural bowl, the circuit owners have managed to snake 4km of asphalt into a confined space.
The upside to that is that spectators can see just about every part of the track from whichever stand they sit in. The furthest point of the track is at most a kilometer away, no matter where you sit.
Cramming so much track into such a tight space has obvious consequences. There are a lot of tight corners in Valencia: of the fourteen turns the circuit has, three are first gear corners, six more are second gear corners, while half of them are tighter than 90°.
The compact space into which the track is crammed, combined with the long front straight create a lot of complications for tire manufacturers.
The Yamaha FZ-09…pardon us…the Yamaha MT-09 is a top-seller for the Japanese brand, mixing a solid motorcycle, with decent features, all for a reasonable price.
Hoping to appeal to riders more “up-market” though, Yamaha has a conundrum, and the hope is that the Yamaha MT-09 SP is the solution.
Taking its potent three-cylinder street bike, Yamaha has taken the MT-09 and added an Öhlins rear shock and fully adjustable front forks to the package – which are not from Öhlins, I might add.
If this sounds familiar, it should. The Yamaha MT-09 SP follows in the same vein as the Yamaha MT-10 SP.
Indian Motorcycles is recalling 2,096 motorcycles because they may have been fitted with a European-spec headlight, rather than an American-spec one.
The issue affects the following 2017 and 2018 models: Chief, Chief Classic, Chief Dark Horse, Chief Vintage, Chieftain, Chieftain Classic, Cheiftain Dark Horse, Chieftain Elite, Chieftain Limited, Springfield, and Springfield Dark Horse.
Because the European headlights fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 108, “Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment,” a recall has been issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
On Sunday, Marc Márquez and Andrea Dovizioso will line up on the grid for the final MotoGP race of the 2017 season. At stake is the title of 2017 MotoGP Champion.
For Marc Márquez, it would be his fourth MotoGP title, making him the most successful Spanish rider in the premier class. For Andrea Dovizioso, it would be his first title, the one which is always most highly prized.
Dovizioso’s challenge cannot be underestimated. He trails Marc Márquez by 21 points. His path to the championship is difficult, and relies heavily on things going wrong for others.
Marc Márquez, on the other hand, faces a much easier task. The Repsol Honda rider has his destiny entirely in his own hands.
After 17 races, Marc Márquez has 282 points, while Andrea Dovizioso has 261 points. With 21 points separating them, who needs to do what to win the 2017 MotoGP title? We break down the arithmetic.
ARCH Motorcycle’s first model, the KRGT-1, is getting a host of updates for the 2018 model year. The big changes come in the form of ergonomic refinements, and modifications to the bodywork.
Other changes include updated front suspension, in the form of Öhlins FRGT series forks, and an ARCH proprietary rear shock; updated ISR Brakes with an optional ABS module; and Euro4 compliance for riders on the other side of the pond.
At the center of the ARCH KRGT-1 remains a 124ci (2,032cc) air-cooled v-twin engine, which is held in a steel frame with an aluminum subframe. Wheels are five-spoke carbon fiber pieces from BST.
Forward controls are standard on the ARCH KRGT-1, though mid-controls are available as an option, as well.
We can expect to see the 2018 ARCH Motorcycle KRGT-1 early next year, available in the USA and Europe.