NEWS

MOTOGP: LATEST INTRIGUE, GOSSIP AND RUMOUR

18/11/2009

Lorenzo sliding up the Donington tarmac after going too fast

By Edgar Jessop
Image by Paul Sturman

Spaceman Jorge Lorenzo has said that the only reason Valentino Rossi is worried about him is because he is fast. Well, duh. Rossi has never had a team-mate that has challenged him so closely. The Spaniard has beaten The Doctor seven times so far, while Colin Edwards only managed it four times, and Carlos Checa and Tohru Ukawa once each. In those 13 defeats, Rossi lobbed it and re-started four times...

Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner says the new firing order shoving his Desmosedici around the place is far more friendly and is allowing him to get out of corners faster. Nicky Hayden is also in favour of the 'big-bang' motor but not as enthusiastic, saying it has buggered about with weight transfer. There's no pleasing some people.

250GP wunderkind Marco Simoncelli got s baptism of fire at the Valencia tests, saying riding the Gresini Honda was much tougher than he thought it would be, ending the session a quarter of a second outside the top ten.

Toni Elias, meanwhile, thought that someone had nicked the motor out of his Moriwaki Moto2 bike because it was so slow. Well, yeah, it's a 600, what did he expect? And it isn't known yet whether he has done a deal to the ride the thing in Gresini colours yet.

Graeme Gowland did his Moto2 chances the power of good, taking a fourth-in-class at Jerez last weekend. As did Kev Coghlan, who won the Spanish Supersport Championship at the same meeting.

According to the fine fellows at motomatters.com, Ducati team boss Filippo Preziosi is in favour of a return to 1000cc engines, saying: "It's an easy way to have a higher number of riders on the grid, because you don't need the prototype engine, you can use some in-between engines. But I think the top riders will be the same, the top manufacturers will be the same." So there.