Photo: Yamaha Racing
MotoGP qualifying was underway today in Germany, as riders took to Sachsenring with good weather abounding. With the return of Valentino Rossi to the series, the MotoGP paddock is buzzing with excitement, but the good vibrations would be cut short as the qualifying session was red flagged part-way through.
Seemingly grenading one of his six precious motors, Jorge Lorenzo dumped oil onto the German track, but before officials could the halt the session, Ben Spies and Randy de Puniet experienced a better understanding to what a mu coefficient is, and ended up in the gravel trap. While Spies was un-hurt, de Puniet was seen grabbing his ankle after the crash. The French rider did not participate in the restarted qualifying session, and spent his time in Clinica Mobile.
Meeting today with the Chief Medical Officer at the Sachsenring, Rossi has received word that he can participate in, and race at, the German GP. This means Rossi can turn a wheel in Friday’s practice sessions, and further assess his readiness for MotoGP racing. Should Rossi take to the Yamaha YZF-M1 by Saturday, he will have gone from injury to competition in just six weeks’ time, an incredible feat.
Although he completed 46 laps at Brno this week, Rossi still reported pain in his leg and shoulder, along with being tired from the testing sessions. With fans and MotoGP keen to see the nine-time Champion is keen to get back to racing, we can imagine there’s little that will stop Rossi from riding on Sunday, thus giving Wataru Yoshikawa a reprieve from his duties.
Valentino Rossi announced today that he is fit enough to race at the German GP this weekend. Crashing only six weeks ago, Rossi has undergone a miraculous recuperation process, which saw the Italian rider utilizing a hyperbaric chamber to expedite his body’s recovery process. After a painful testing session at Misano, Rossi looked to be in far better physical shape a couple days ago at Brno.
Riding a WSBK spec Yamaha R1 at near Superpole pace (and faster than James Toseland), Rossi looked ready for Sachsenring this weekend, but postponed his scheduled annoucement on Monday to today. Seeing now that he has the fitness to race again, Rossi hopes to ride the Fiat-Yamaha M1 once again. Howver, Rossi will first have to get the green light from the MotoGP Chief Medical Officer before he can race, but that’s more of a formality than a material concern.
Because nothing is ever predictable in MotoGP, the sunshine appeared after soaking the Championship riders all week in Germany. With a dry track ahead of them, teams had to gamble, guess, and pray on bike setups for Sunday’s race. With that, we got to see some new riders near the top of the pack, but it was the usual suspects+1 who were the real show stoppers.
Weather at the Sachsenring for MotoGP’s qualifying was rainy to put it mildly. As such, the water soaked track feasted upon the unsuspecting riders as they left pit-lane wearing full sets of rains. In total, six riders touched the asphalt with more than a knee puck or elbow, with Turn 6 responsible for the majority of that action.
MotoGP this season has been plauged with changing conidtions on race weekends, and Germany will be no different. With Saturday’s rain, comes Sunday’s sunshine (or at least more sunshine than Saturday’s). This will likely cause a bobble in the qualifying order, which has already seen some surprise this weekend. Continue reading to find out all about it.
Take a walk around the MotoGP paddock at the Sachsenring this weekend, and you might see some interesting posters being hung up through out the race track.
Wanted dead or alive is Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dorna Sports CEO, for his crimes against the 250cc class. Someone has put up as a joke (we hope) a $1,000,000 bounty on the race promoter’s head, with a caption that reads, “Wanted for crimes against the 250 cc bikes. He is a 2-stroke killer. Outlaw is known to be extremely dangerous and should be approached with caution.”
The poster is an obvious reference to Dorna’s demise of the 250GP class, in favor of the upcoming Moto2 class, which will replace the 2-stroke 250cc bikes, with 4-stroke 600cc prototypes.
Ezpeleta has been responsible for a number of changes in premiere motorcycle racing, starting with Moto2, which will launch at the beginning of the 2010 season, and serve as a feeder into the MotoGP series. Additionally, any rider coming into MotoGP, including from Moto2, will have to first start in a MotoGP satellite team, with some exceptions.
It’s only rumor right now, but expect the bounty to be increased if plans to replace the 125GP class are put into motion.
Source: GPone via Two Wheels Blog