As predicted, Jorge Lorenzo will take part in the Qatar tests due to take place at the end of this week. Yamaha today issued a press release confirming his intention to ride in the tests, the final opportunity for testing before the 2010 season gets underway at Qatar on April 11th.

The news had been expected, for Lorenzo had been increasingly optimistic about his chances of making a return in his posts on Facebook and Twitter. The Spaniard is not yet fully recovered, though, so his times will be difficult to judge. Lorenzo will be forced to ride with a specially-made brace and special gloves, to provide support for the fractured metacarpal he suffered. Lorenzo described his predicament in a press statement issued by the Fiat Yamaha team as follows:

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Jorge Lorenzo is almost certain to take part in next week’s final MotoGP test at Qatar. The Spaniard’s participation in the test had been in doubt since Lorenzo broke his wrist during a motocross accident in early February. The injury had already caused Lorenzo to skip the second test at Sepang, and with testing limited to just six days before the season starts in April, Qatar would be the final chance for the Fiat Yamaha rider to test before the championship commences.

Lorenzo has spent a lot of time in physical therapy since his injury, squeezing it in between a full program of personal appearances for several sponsors, as well as appearing on a Spanish TV show. But his recovery has gone better than expected: On Thursday, Lorenzo announced on his Facebook page that he would make a decision on whether to ride at Qatar on Monday, but after physiotherapy on Friday, he announced that he thinks he will be able to take part at Qatar.

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Just over a month ago today, Valentino Rossi vowed to stop talking about his future in the press. But like everyone who has vowed to give up smoking or lose weight at the start of a new year, Rossi has found that such resolutions can be incredibly difficult to maintain. For at the ceremony on Thursday night where Rossi was presented with the "Winning Italy Award" in recognition of his work in improving Italy’s public image abroad, Rossi was once again tempted into making statements on where he will be riding next season.

In response to questions about how much longer he will stay in MotoGP, the Italian living legend put the fears of MotoGP fans and organizers to rest: "I am again enjoying the sport and the desire to compete, so I think I will continue for some more years," Rossi told the press. Rossi could not avoid the question on all of Italy’s mind, either. When asked about a potential switch to Ducati, Rossi was very clear: "An Italian on an Italian bike would be nice, yes. But I think I want to stay with Yamaha, which is also a little bit Italian. I would feel like a traitor if I acted any other way, because I feel very good with them."

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Whenever fans talk of their dreams of being a world famous motorcycle racer, they have in their minds the image of travelling from circuit to circuit, and focusing on nothing but racing. Of course, life isn’t like that, and one of the duties of a factory World Superbike rider is to turn up at motorcycle shows, corporate PR events and a host of other occasions to help market the brand helping to pay their wages. James Toseland understands this, and performs this task admirably, taking advantage of the situation to practice his second passion, playing the piano, at such affairs.

Toseland is currently in Rome for the MotoDays exhibition, helping Yamaha to launch their brand new FZ8 naked bike. While he was there, our friends over at GPOne.com took the opportunity to catch up with him, and did a short video interview with the Sterilgarda Yamaha rider. In the interview, Toseland talks about the transition from MotoGP to World Superbike, his expectations of Portimao, and why so many British riders are in the World Superbike series. Here’s the video from GPOne.com:

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Since the rumblings began emanating from the machinations of Colin Edwards’, Hervé Poncharal’s, and Lin Jarvis’ closed-door meetings to figure out how to get Ben Spies and Tom Houseworth into MotoGP in 2010, and the subsequent announcement last Fall, one of the most popular ways to cast the story (and indeed, one of the few speculative avenues that doesn’t automatically involve Silly Season 2011) is to suggest that the tensions between Colin Edwards and James Toseland will somehow be amplified in the arrival of the superior abilities of Ben Spies. I realize magazines and newspapers need to manufacture material in the off-season to sell copies, and we who post on The Web need to draw traffic when potential advertisers don’t care that the sport is on hiatus. But I am here to tell you that this particular road is a dead end street. Headlines of “Tension at Tech 3”, “Monster Battle Brewing”, and “Trouble in Paradise” (a city in Texas, but not home to either rider), can be summarily ignored.

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There was much disappointment around the world when it was announced, shortly before the first round at Phillip Island, that the 2010 World Superbike season would not be shown live online on the World Superbike website, as it has been done in previous years. The reason was simple: TV companies – who had paid sizable sums to Infront Motor Sports to screen the races live – were fed up of losing their audiences (and therefore their advertising income) to the website of the company they had handed their money over to.

Fortunately, the World Superbike series can lend at least some succour to racing fans. For Infront has placed highlight reels of both World Superbike and the World Supersport race up on the World Superbike series’ Youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/sbk. So fans who have missed the races can at least get a taster of the action from Down Under before their local TV stations show the races – if they are being shown in those territories.

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After a long, cold, lonely winter, the World Superbike racing season is finally upon us again. With 26 machines on the grid, the series is down a bit in participation, but considering the depressed world economic climate, it could be a lot worse. Despite the drop in sheer numbers, there are seven manufacturers with factory (or the equivalent) teams. There has been some shuffling of  marques and talent on privateer teams, but participation is fairly strong on that level as well.

Reigning World Superbike Champion Ben Spies has abdicated his throne for the theoretically greener pastures of MotoGP and there are a crop of both familiar and new faces eager to claim his title. There doesn’t appear to be someone who is going to grab the series by the throat and make it his own in his rookie year like Spies did, but then no one could have predicted that at the beginning of last season either.

The Empire Strikes Back

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Valentino Rossi finished the second day of testing at Sepang in the same style he finished the first day: On top of the timesheets, with a comfortable lead over his closest rival Casey Stoner. The Italian smashed his existing pole record on a used tire early on the session, before going on to work on the electronics of his Fiat Yamaha M1. At the end of the day, Rossi pronounced himself very happy with the progress of the Yamaha, and even took time to try the Yamaha Test Team’s bike, setting the 15th fastest time in the process on a bike not set up for him.

Rossi finished nearly a quarter of a second faster than Casey Stoner, the Australian having also lapped under Rossi’s previous pole record. There was also good news for Stoner’s teammate, 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden. After struggling yesterday, Hayden improved his time by over 1.5 seconds, setting his best ever testing result on the Ducati. The Kentucky Kid had complained of a lack of strength from the arm pump surgery he had just a couple of weeks ago, but a day back on the bike was sufficient to sort those problems out too. Hayden took it a little easier than his usual marathon testing sessions, with 10 other riders doing more laps than the American.

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The new MotoGP regulations for 2012 have the MSMA caught on the horns of a dilemma: In the long run, the 1000cc formula should be cheaper than the current crop of 800s. In the short run, the switch requires that the factories design a new engine based on the new limitations imposed by the rules. With the factories still reeling after the global economic crisis has left their finances in turmoil, a significant investment to develop a brand new engine is not an attractive prospect at all.

Consequently, at the meeting the MSMA held at Sepang three weeks ago, the factories agreed to allow the 800cc bikes to remain in the class as a separate category for the foreseeable future. The 800cc bikes were to be given a 3 kilogram weight advantage over the 1000s, but were to be subject to the same fuel, engine limits and 81mm maximum bore restriction to be imposed on the liter bikes. This would allow the factories to get more value out of the 800cc bikes they have already poured so much investment into, and prevent them from having to persuade their management boards from dipping heavily into the rapidly-dwindling coffers to develop a new bike.

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Valentino Rossi continued his dominance at Sepang, picking up where he left three weeks ago and topping the timesheets at the end of the first day of testing at the Malaysian track. The Italian put in his fastest time early, and has spent much of the day working on the electronics, content with the work done on the engine and chassis at the previous Sepang test.

Casey Stoner was the second fastest man, and the only rider to get close to the Italian. Stoner has been testing a new carbon fiber swingarm on the Desmosedici GP10, as Ducati continues to work on incorporating the advantages the aluminium swingarm offers into the carbon fiber version.

Third and fourth fastest men were Andrea Dovizioso and Loris Capirossi, the two Italians throwing up a bit of a surprise. Dovizioso took half a second off his time from the previous test, the Repsol Honda team starting to integrate the data they collected three weeks’ ago into finding a strong setup for the new Honda RC212V. Dovi’s teammate Dani Pedrosa was less fortunate, suffering a slow speed fall that kept him off the track for a couple of hours, before returning and setting the 7th fastest time.

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Just three more days to go before the World Superbike season kicks off in earnest, and to further enhance your already over-stimulated anticipation of the new season, the Italian Superbike TV has another short video on their website. The video was shot on the second day of testing at the final WSBK test, and contains a brief summary (in Italian) of how the riders performed at Phillip Island. See all of the 2010 World Superbike season’s protagonists in action, and get ready for Sunday. Enjoy!

If there was any doubt that Ducati has set its sights on reclaiming the 2010 World Superbike title, then the last test of the preseason before racing starts in earnest will have put those doubts to rest. After allowing Leon Haslam and Suzuki top honors in the first session on Sunday, a Ducati has topped the timesheet ever since, ending the session with five bikes in the top six. Fastest over both days was Michel Fabrizio, the factory Xerox Ducati rider shattering Troy Corser’s race lap record on Monday morning, after the track had dried and before the wind picked up too strongly.

Photo copyright Andrew Gosling

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Results of the second and final session of testing for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island: 

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Results of Monday’s first session of practice for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island. The session was delayed due to overnight rain, which took a while to dry out: 

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The first day of testing for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island was a chance for Ducati to stamp their authority on the series they have so often dominated. The Italian factory tackled this challenge with gusto, putting five bikes in the top six of the morning test session, and taking three of the four top spots in the afternoon. It was not the factory bikes that took top honors, however: In the morning session, Xerox Ducati riders Noriyuki Haga and Michel Fabrizio had to cede that honor the the Alstare Suzuki of Leon Haslam, while in the afternoon, it was the turn of the privateer Carlos Checa on the Althea Racing 1098R, edging the factory bikes into 2nd and 4th.

Checa’s time in the afternoon was extremely impressive, just over a tenth off Troy Corser’s official lap record, and nearly four tenths of a second faster than the next fastest man Fabrizio. Leon Haslam is continuing his apparently trouble-free transition to the Suzuki GSX-R 1000, claiming a permanent spot at the top of the field, though the Englishman was half a second slower during the afternoon session. The two Xerox Ducati teammates are once again closely matched, raising the specter of a repeat of last year, when Fabrizio stole valuable points from Noriyuki Haga in the Japanese rider’s failed attempt to conquer the 2009 WSBK title.

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Results of the second session of practice for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island: 

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Results of the first session of testing for the World Superbike class at Phillip Island: 

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The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting of the Grand Prix Commission  - MotoGP’s rule-making body – was clear: To thrash out some of the difficulties arising from their previous decision to revert MotoGP to 1000cc. Their hope was that after this meeting, the main points of the rules would be clear to everyone involved, and manufacturers and privateers could go off and start working on the machines which they will contest the 2012 MotoGP championship with.

Sure enough, after the meeting, the FIM issued a press release containing the new regulations agreed by the GP Commission, and it should come as no surprise that a host of details remain to be sorted out. The changes noted in the press release do point to some fascinating developments. Here are the main points for the 2012 regulations, which we will go into in more detail below:

Technical Specifications for 2012 for the MotoGP class

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Each year, it seems, at least one title candidate manages to injure themselves in an accident and miss testing and preparation for the upcoming MotoGP season. In 2010, it appears to be Jorge Lorenzo’s turn – the Fiat Yamaha rider got unlucky in a low-speed motocross crash and fractured a bone in his right hand at the end of last week. At the time, Yamaha reported that they expected Lorenzo to be forced to miss the second test at Sepang due to take next week. 

Lorenzo returned to hospital for an examination yesterday, and though the injury and the surgery to fix the problem appears to be healing well, it may be more than just the Sepang test that Lorenzo misses. According to an interview with Hector Martin, Lorenzo’s media handler, on the official MotoGP.com website, the injury may not heal fast enough for Lorenzo to take part in the final test session of the year at Qatar, on March 18th and 19th. "At the moment there are serious doubts as to whether Jorge will be fully recovered for the Qatar test," Martin told MotoGP.com "We must wait and see how his injury and rehabilitation go after he has his stitches removed, which will be next Friday or Monday."

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Racing is rapidly approaching, and a spate of bike launches have taken place over the last week of so, few of which we have been able to give the coverage or publicity they deserve. Yamaha, however, have made our job extremely easy, providing photographs and video of both the MotoGP and World Superbike launches. Today was the turn of the 2010 Yamaha World Superbike team to unveil its livery. Sterilgarda remains as title sponsor to the team, and Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland have the task of taking up the mantle left behind by departing champion Ben Spies.

The launch also revealed some interesting changes to the 2010 Yamaha YZF-R1. Power is up by 8 horsepower compared to last year, with the benefits coming across the rev range, while the bike is also 3kg lighter. The radiator and lower fairing have been redesigned for better aerodynamics, while also increasing cooling. And the fuel tank has been simultaneously lightened and had its capacity increased. You can read more about the new R1, as well as find out about who and what Sterilgarda is exactly on the Yamaha Racing website. And you can judge the changes for yourself from the photos below:

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It is a truism that motorcycle racing fans love to collect items connected to their favorite sport. If your budget can’t quite stretch to a genuine FTR Moto2 bike, then Indianapolis Motor Speedway can help you out, while helping to do good. The legendary US racetrack is auctioning off a collection of various memorabilia for an excellent cause, the American Red Cross’ relief effort in earthquake-stricken Haiti.

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Jorge Lorenzo’s challenge for the 2010 MotoGP title suffered a minor setback this morning, when the Spanish star fractured his right hand in a motocross accident. Lorenzo was taken to hospital for treatment, where he underwent surgery to rectify the problem, having a titanium plate fitted in his hand. Lorenzo will miss the next test at Sepang at the end of the month, but should be fit in time for the following test prior to the MotoGP season opener at Qatar.

The press release shown below contains full details of the incident, but the accident reveals the problems faced by motorcycle racers. That racing is dangerous is universally acknowledged, but the very act of practicing machine control, only possible on some form of motorcycle or other, whether it be motocross, supermoto or track bike, exposes the rider to the risk of injury. At least the nature of Lorenzo’s injury mean that he will not miss any of the season.

JORGE LORENZO INJURES HAND IN TRAINING ACCIDENT

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo has undergone surgery in his right hand following an accident whilst training near his home in Barcelona yesterday, Thursday 11th February.

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With just over two weeks to go until the 2010 World Superbikes season kicks off at Phillip Island in Australia, the ever-assiduous staff at World Superbike headquarters have put together a video preview of the season to whet your appetite for the racing – as if that was necessary after a long cold winter. The video features a rundown of the teams and riders participating in the upcoming season, interviews with most of the protagonists, and highlights of the fantastic racing that made up the 2009 season.

So pour yourself a fresh beverage, pull up a chair and enjoy 25 minutes of World Superbike action. It’s very nearly time to go racing again. 

You can also watch this video in high resolution on the World Superbike Youtube channel.

MotoGP’s 2011 Silly Season – the period during which contracts are negotiated and hammered out for the 2011 season – got underway a little early. In fact, it got underway shortly after the 2010 Silly Season was over, some time around early September 2009, shortly after Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa signed one-year contracts with their current employers, Yamaha and Honda respectively. Their signings effectively meant that the contracts of Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner will all finish at the same time, at the end of the 2010 MotoGP season, leading to a feeding frenzy of speculation, rumor and argument over who will be going where for 2011.

Most of this speculation has surrounded Valentino Rossi. The Italian has been linked with a switch to Ducati, an extension of his Yamaha contract, a return to Honda, a career jump to Formula One with Ferrari, and even retirement to go race in WRC. Most of it has come from the ever-industrious Italian media, but Rossi himself has not been shy of using the media to his own ends on occasion. He has himself hinted both that he has offers from Ducati and that he will end his career at Yamaha, two seemingly mutually exclusive possibilities, as well as flirting cautiously with both Formula One and retirement. Any and all such pronouncements have been pounced upon by the press and sliced, diced and analyzed for any indication of what The Doctor’s true intent might be.

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The fact that Kevin Schwantz believes Ben Spies will win a race in his first season, as we reported over the weekend, should hardly come as a surprise, given Schwantz’ long association with the young Texan. Spies excellent times at the first test of the year at Sepang confirmed that the Texan is making the necessary progress towards that goal, but most observers regard it as a little too early to tell.

To get the view of Ben Spies’ team manager on the question, MotoMatters.com spoke with Herve Poncharal, and put Schwantz’ bold claim to the Frenchman. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 manager was much more cautions than Spies’ mentor and former world champion Schwantz. "Kevin obviously has a lot of confidence in Ben," Poncharal said. "Obviously you can never rule out the possibility of a win. Colin came very close to winning at Donington last year," Poncharal said, but the task ahead was not simple. "I really hope Kevin is right, but winning on a regular basis is not easy."

Before Spies can beat the Fantastic Four, he first has to catch them, Poncharal pointed out. "The first step is to stay with top four, then to try and beat them. But to stay with them is already tough," the Frenchman told MotoMatters.com.

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One of  the big questions MotoGP fans have this year is just how well Ben Spies will do in his first full season of MotoGP. The Texan has already impressed Europeans and outperformed the expectations of Americans by winning the World Superbike title at his first attempt, but so far, World Superbike champions have had a rather patchy record of success in MotoGP. Consequently, fans are fishing about for any data they can find from experts and former riders, to help them make their own minds up.

Knowing this, the excellent US-based video website OnTheThrottle.com cornered former 500 GP champion and racing legend Kevin Schwantz at the testing session for the AMA Pro Racing test at Fontana, and asked him for his opinion of Spies’ chances in MotoGP. Schwantz was pretty clear in his reply: "I think Ben will win a race in his first season for sure." Watch the full video for why he comes to that conclusion, and to hear what Schwantz has to say about the DMG series, his own plans for 2010 and the Red Bull Rookies.

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The news that MotoGP is set to change capacity and formula again for the third time in 10 years has caused as much concern as it has joy. Almost everyone concerned has welcomed the return to 1000cc, not least the riders, and many people also expressed the commonly-held opinion that the switch to 800cc was the worst thing to happen to the class. But many observers also pointed out that the change of formula, though aimed at cutting costs in the long term, meant yet more expenditure in the short term as the factories would be forced to develop a brand new engine once again.

That criticism is shared by the MSMA, the association representing the manufacturers in MotoGP. According to MCN’s extremely well-informed MotoGP reporter Matthew Birt, the MSMA is pushing for the 800s to get a reprieve in 2012. Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta told Birt that 2012 regulations will allow two separate formulas to run side by side, as in the first year of the MotoGP four strokes in 2002. Having invested so heavily in their 800cc machines, the factories could continue to run the smaller capacity bikes against the 1000cc bikes, with the liter bikes restricted to a maximum bore of 81mm and four cylinders, as announced in Geneva at the end of last year.

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Looking back at the two days of MotoGP testing at Sepang throws up only a few surprises. The Aliens continue to dominate, as ever, and Colin Edwards is still firmly in place as #5. Behind, the top 5, the picture is a little more interesting. Loris Capirossi’s strong outing on Thursday shows that the Suzuki can be fast, but the GSV-R has a long history of being outstanding in testing, yet falling short during the season. Whether it’s business-as-usual for Suzuki or a breakthrough will have to wait until the first few rounds have been run.

Ben Spies continues his methodical improvement, but with the Texan complaining of jet lag and telling reporters that he is still very much just learning, he should soon be edging Colin Edwards out of 5th spot and closing on the top 4. Spies is holding station with Andrea Dovizioso, the Italian improving but still looking for more pace.

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The rain that held off yesterday finally came to Sepang on Friday, disrupting testing during the morning and at the end of the day. The rain in the morning combined with the limit on engines to persuade most of the riders to sit in the garage, or restrict their laps to a minimum. The track started to dry out at lunchtime, and from then, all 17 MotoGP riders, along with a couple of Yamaha test pilots, got to work on their testing program. By the time the rain came around 5pm, it was Valentino Rossi who had set the fastest lap, finishing ahead of Casey Stoner and Rossi’s Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo. Dani Pedrosa completed the top four, the Aliens still clearly a breed apart in the MotoGP paddock.

While both Rossi and Stoner finished in the same positions as yesterday, both Jorge Lorenzo and especially Dani Pedrosa made a huge leap forward. Lorenzo jumped from 5th spot to 3rd, though he did not close the gap to his Fiat Yamaha teammate. Dani Pedrosa, on the other hand, closed the gap by over half a second, while working on the all-new Honda RC212V. Given that the bike has new Ohlins suspension, new electronics, a new chassis and a number of swingarms, there would appear to be plenty of room for improvement once the Repsol Honda team find the right setup for the bike.

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One of the most heavily-attended press conferences at Sepang was the Yamaha affair, at which Yamaha’s MotoGP group leader Masahiko Nakajima, Racing MD Lin Jarvis, team bosses Davide Brivio and Wilco Zeelenberg and the two stars of the show, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo faced questions from the assembled press. The subjects covered a lot of ground, from Wilco Zeelenberg’s first day on the job, to Yamaha Indonesia’s stepping up with sponsorship, to whether post-race burnouts are things of the past. But more pressing subjects were also covered, such as the end to data sharing between Valentino Rossi’s and Jorge Lorenzo’s sides of the garage, whether Yamaha thinks they can retain both their riders, and the two riders’ impressions of the new YZR M1.

All these and more are covered in the transcript of the press conference, which follows below, thanks to our friends over at Superbikeplanet.com: 

Q. To MN: Are you satisfied with the development of the M1?

Masahiko Nakajima: Difficult to say! It’s too early to say how the development is but so far, on the first day of the winter test, we have quite good results and we are quite satisfied.

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