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Friday MotoGP Summary at Spielberg: Cold Temperatures, Fast Ducatis, & Interfering Teams

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It’s the Sachsenring all over again. Or almost: when the MotoGP bikes were here in July, air temperatures were in the low 30s, and track temperature was around 50°C. During FP1, the air temperature was just 9°, and track temperature was 14°C.

“The temperature this morning was pretty extreme,” Jorge Lorenzo said after practice was over. “Only a few times in my life have we been riding in such cold conditions.”

Cold temperatures meant cold tire crashes, especially in the morning. The most obvious was Dani Pedrosa’s crash, who fell at Turn 9 as he touched the front brake, the front folding as if the track were wet.

The crash caused the session to be red-flagged, as Pedrosa’s Honda ended up puncturing the air fence and landing on top of the tire barrier.

The crash seemed to be a warning of the excesses of tarmac run off, but Pedrosa was happy that there wasn’t a gravel trap at the edge of the track. “I crashed in fifth gear, so I was going very fast,” Pedrosa said.

“From one point of view I think, most of the run-off area was asphalt so maybe the bike didn’t decelerate enough. But on the other side I was very lucky it was only asphalt, because I crashed so fast that if I went into the gravel I would have tumbled over and over with a lot of speed.”

There are upsides to asphalt run off sometimes.

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MotoGP

Thursday MotoGP Summary at Spielberg: New Challenges

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In the last few years, the MotoGP season has shown remarkable stability. New tracks have been added from time to time, but the calendar has been very similar from one year to the next.

Even though you get to go to some of the most amazing tracks in the world, the travel becomes routine, humdrum almost. You get to know the road from the hotel to the track, the circuit itself, the idiosyncrasies of each paddock, each media center, like the back of your hand.

It becomes almost like a daily commute to an office. Almost, but not quite.

So new circuits have something a little special. They bring fresh faces, new ideas. There are new routes to learn to the circuit, a new paddock layout, figuring the most efficient path through the paddock.

As a journalist, each media center has its own secrets. The best place to sit to get a view of the TV screens, whether the setting sun in the evening will end up shining on your laptop making it impossible to work, where to sit to avoid being whacked on the head by cameras as photographers try to squeeze past.

You make note of which media center has good coffee, and which has none (Italy, surprisingly). You scout the paddock for food, if you do not wish to wear out your welcome at the hospitality units of various teams.

The Red Bull Ring in Austria has something special too. The track is different, in both good and bad ways, both simpler and at the same time more complicated.

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MotoGP

Paddock Pass Podcast – Episode 33 – Sachsenring

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Episode 33 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, just in time for your weekend listening. This episode sees David Emmett and Neil Morrison discussing the German GP at the Sachsenring, as well as the first official MotoGP test at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Major points of conversation include Cal Crutchlow’s performance in the wet conditions of Germany, as well as Scott Redding’s string of good results.

David and Neil also talk about the progress made on both the Ducati and Honda racing machines, with of course some obvious attention given to the landslide results that the Ducati riders posted in Austria.

The show finishes up with a look at the Moto2 and Moto3 paddocks, where we are seeing some great racing unfolding, as well as some movements for next year.

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!

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MotoGP

Austria MotoGP Test Times – Day 2: Ducati’s Domination Continues

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The second day of testing at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria saw the Ducatis continue to dominate the timesheets, as times continued to tumble.

It was Andrea Iannone’s turn to top the timesheets, the Italian posting a very fast lap to beat his teammate Andrea Dovizioso by nearly half a second.

Test rider Casey Stoner set the third fastest time, though a late fall at the end of the session hampered any further improvement. Stoner put the fall down to using soft tires for the first time in four years.

He was unhurt in the crash, but ran out of time to get back out on track. Stoner has spent all his time testing the GP16 without wings, while the two factory riders tested the bike with wings.

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MotoGP

Austria MotoGP Test Times – Day 1: Dovizioso Fastest, Ducatis Dominate, & KTM Debuts

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The Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, venue for the Austrian round of MotoGP, appears to be a Ducati track. At the end of the first day of testing for the MotoGP riders in Austria, Andrea Dovizioso topped the timesheets, nearly six tenths clear of his factory Ducati teammate Andrea Iannone.

Scott Redding set the third fastest time of the day, just ahead of official test rider, Casey Stoner. There is persistent paddock gossip that Stoner is using this test to gauge his competitiveness, with a view to racing as a wildcard at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Given Stoner’s long association with Red Bull, and the fact that nobody has raced at the Red Bull Ring (except for Valentino Rossi, who raced a 125 there in 1996 and 1997, and Jack Miller, who raced a 125 there in 2011 in the German IDM championship), it gives him the best chance of being competitive.

Maverick Viñales was the first non-Ducati in fifth place, but he was squeezed in between three more Ducatis, with Hector Barbera, Eugene Laverty and Danilo Petrucci taking slots six through nine.

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Dirt

Get Excited, The Erzbergrodeo Is This Weekend

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The Erzbergrodeo is billed as motorcycling’s toughest single-day event, and it certainly lives up to the hype. Last year, only five competitors crossed the finish line, after the event organizers decided to “toughen up” the already grueling day of racing by adding the new “downtown” section.

With its iconic start out of the bottom of a open-pit iron mine, those riders that can make it up the mine’s walls are then a barraged by a numbers of hard enduro sections – it is easy to see why the hare scramble styled event is so popular with fans and competitors.

The 2016 edition of the Erzbergrodeo is this weekend (the main event is Sunday), and it is anyone’s guess as to who, and how many, of its competitors will even finish the race, let alone win it.

To get us pumped up for this weekend, event sponsor Red Bull has put together a video that tells the history of the off-road race. Enjoy it, after the jump.

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News

KTM Pulling Its Shares off the Public Market

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News out of Austria says that KTM is gearing up to pull its shares off the public stock market. The move comes from a request by Cross Industries, which is run by Stefan Pierer and is the largest shareholder of KTM’s stock, with 51.4% of the shares.

With Indian motorcycle manufacturer Bajaj owning another 48%, this means the announcement only affects roughly 0.6% of KTM’s overall stock, which is floating around on the Third Market (Dritter Markt) of the Vienna Stock Exchange.

According to KTM’s press release on the issue, Cross will offer €122.50 per share for the outstanding stock, which will then make KTM officially a privately held company.

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Bikes

KTM RC16 Will Make Its Public Debut at the Austrian GP

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In addition to working on a secret Moto2 project, KTM will also be entering into the MotoGP Championship for the 2017 season. The Austrian brand has been busy developing the KTM RC16 race bike platform, with the help of a bevy of test riders.

Initial feedback has been positive, with the RC16 looking very competent – though, it should be noted that everyone saying that is on KTM’s payroll. Still, we expect big things from the project as it develops more this year.

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Bikes

XXX: Even More Photos of the KTM RC16

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This is our third story about the KTM RC16, in I don’t know how many weeks, but the Austrian brand just dropped off a bunch of high-resolution images of its MotoGP race bike in the company’s media gallery, and we feel obligated to share them with you because they’re just that good.

While the MotoGP paddock is in Valencia right now testing machines, electronics, and riders for the 2016 season, KTM is busy looking farther down the road with their plans to join the premier class in 2017.

The KTM factory team is being cagey about how many resources it is devoting to the MotoGP project, though we do know that KTM is building a dedicated facility for the MotoGP project in Mattighofen and hiring top-level talent right and left for the effort.

So far KTM’s hard work has brought out a machine that visually looks like a lot like the Honda RC213V, and smart speculation pegs the power plant between the fairings as being very similar as well: a 90° V4 with a “screamer” firing order.

KTM is of course using a steel trellis frame design and WP suspension, and numerous more subtle changes abound. Reportedly KTM is keen to hire MotoGP suspension gurus to help add to the knowledge already found at WP – could we see a new brand come into MotoGP to rival standard-bearer Öhlins?

While we ponder all that, there are 22 ultra high-resolution photos for you to ogle over, after the jump.

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