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“MotoGP Unlimited” Docuseries Coming Soon to Amazon Prime

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On the coattails of the success seen by Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” series, which follows the car world’s Formula One World Championship, MotoGP has finally decide to allow a series of its own.

Titled “MotoGP Unlimited” and produced by The Mediapro Studio, the eight-episode docuseries will be streamed on the Amazon Prime service (and also available on MotoGP.com for its subscribers).

This premiere series will follow the 2021 MotoGP World Championship, and aims to cover the stories behind the races.

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Podcast

Paddock Pass Podcast Episode 263 – Mandalika MotoGP Test

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Episode 263 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees once again getting into some on-track action, as MotoGP made a stop in Indonesia, testing at the Mandalika street circuit.

To discuss the tropical topics, we have the usual crew of Steve English, David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler on the mics, as they trade insights on our first glimpse of the MotoGP bikes on the island track.

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MotoGP

Mandalika Circuit to Be Partially Resurfaced Ahead of Indonesian GP

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The people of the MotoGP paddock were extremely enthusiastic about their return to Indonesia. The series had long-wanted to return to a country that is at the heart of the MotoGP fanbase in Southeast Asia.

Once at Mandalika, the teams and riders loved the setting and the scenery, and were very positive about the layout of the track. It was fast, and it was fun. They were less happy about the surface of the track.

It was filthy on arrival, with mud and dust all over the track, and the riders were forced to make laps on the first day of the test to clean it up, creating a single racing line. Once clean, the track had plenty of grip.

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MotoGP

The 2022 Aprilia RS-GP MotoGP Race Bike Is Ready for Duty

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The dark horse in the 2022 MotoGP Championship has to be the Aprilia RS-GP race bike. With a budget that is a fraction of the other factories, Aprilia has been able to evolve the RS-GP each season into a sharper weapon – albeit, slowly.

The Italian squad made big steps in the 2021 season, however, and Aprilia is keen to keep that momentum moving forward and see Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales on the top rankings of the score sheets.

Taking one look at the 2022-spec bike, which was on hand for the team’s season unveiling and photography, and we can already see the evolutions in place for the coming season, and motions are under way for a breakout year.

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MotoGP

Mandalika MotoGP Test Saturday Notes: The Cream Rises to the Top

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You could tell testing was underway in earnest at Mandalika on Saturday by the fact that for most of the day, Brad Binder’s name was stuck at the top of the timesheets. The time Binder set was already well under Pol Espargaro’s best time from Friday, hitting a 1’31.814 on his third exit from the pits.

But, nobody followed suit until the final hour or so of the test, with Luca Marini eventually ending up fastest with a lap of 1’31.289. The teams and riders were too busy with the hard graft of testing, optimizing parts and refining setup, figuring out the best base with which to launch their assault on the 2022 MotoGP championship at Qatar in three weeks’ time.

A day of riding had made a huge difference to the track surface, with a clean line with high grip appearing.

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MotoGP

Mandalika MotoGP Test Friday Notes: Sweeping the Circuit to Start

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It was a good day for attention-grabbing headlines at Mandalika. Pol Espargaro ended the day with a scorching lap which took him under the WorldSBK Superpole by four tenths of a second.

There were six different manufacturers in the top six. The lead on the first day changed hands time after time in the last couple of hours.

But the headlines don’t really mean very much. Times were dropping because the track started off filthy and only really started to clean up in the last hour or so of the day.

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MotoGP

The 2022 Honda RC213V Brings Big Changes from HRC for MotoGP

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It feels like a broken record to say that the MotoGP team launches have become a bit anemic in terms of what is being presented, versus what is going to be raced in 2022, but today is a little different.

Launching their 2022 Honda RC213V at the Sepang MotoGP test last weekend, HRC is showing off its new bike, in its “new” colors, ahead of the season-opener at Qatar.

This is because the Japanese manufacturer has big changes underway for the 2022 season, and to see that, you only need to take a quick look at the bike displayed in these photos.

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Podcast

Paddock Pass Podcast Episode 262 – Sepang MotoGP Test

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Episode 262 of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and this one sees us getting into the nitty gritty of the 2022 MotoGP Championship season, with bikes finally on the track at the Sepang test in Malaysia.

To discuss the return of on-track action, we have the usual crew of Steve English, David Emmett, Neil Morrison, and Adam Wheeler, as they trade insights on our first glimpse of the teams’ 2022 efforts.

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MotoGP

Ducati Debuts the Desmosedici GP22 to Dominate MotoGP

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Another day, another MotoGP team launch presentation. This time, our eye candy comes from the Ducati Corse factory team, which hopes to find grand prix greatness in the 2022 season.

Though a third of the bikes on the 2022 grid will come from the factory workshop in Bologna, not all of those machines will be 2022-spec Ducati Desmosedici GP22 race bikes.

Additionally, the photos here are almost certainly not the machines we will see on the grid in Qatar at the start of the season, but the high-resolution photos do give an indication of how hard Ducati is pushing the rules and the progress in the MotoGP paddock.

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MotoGP

What We Learned at Sepang, Part 1: Trying to Read the Tea Leaves

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With the bikes all crated up and shipped to Indonesia, and the entire paddock flown to Mandalika on the island of Lombok (bar those stuck in quarantine in Malaysia after testing positive for COVID-19), there is time to look back at the Sepang MotoGP test.

Because this year is so different to previous years in a number of ways, I am breaking it down into two parts.

First, some general points that apply to the test itself and across several or all manufacturers, and later in the week, a breakdown manufacturer by manufacturer.

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MotoGP

Sepang MotoGP Test Saturday Notes: Aeros & Engines

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Shall we declare Aprilia 2022 MotoGP champions, now that Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Viñales ended the first day of the Sepang MotoGP test in the top two positions? Obviously not.

The Aprilias have already had extra time around Sepang, Maverick Viñales spending two days on track during the shakedown test, Aleix Espargaro one day extra. So they were already up to speed and used to riding a MotoGP bike again.

That doesn’t mean that Aprilia’s speed isn’t real. The 2022 bike is a step forward, in part a result of Aprilia changing course after a disappointing Jerez test back in November.

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