2009 Suzuki Tetap Pertahankan Capirossi dan Vermeulen

Jumat, 22 Agustus 2008

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Komposisi pembalap MotoGP Suzuki untuk musim depan tak akan berubah dari formasi sekarang yakni Loris Capirossi dan Chris Vermeluen.


Keduanya dianggap manajemen telah mampu membalap dengan baik di musim ini. Tapi meski posisi Capirossi aman namun dilain pihak Vermeulen juga diminati oleh team SUperbike Ducati Xerox yang akan mencari pengganti pembalapnya Troy Bayliss yang pensiun.

Di klasemen sementara Vermeulen menempati posisi ke-7 dengan 99 angka sementara Capirossi di peringkat ke-10 dengan 77 angka setelah kemarin di Brno naik podium untuk kalipertama di posisi ke-3.

2009 Suzuki Tetap Pertahankan Capirossi dan Vermeulen

Jumat, 22 Agustus 2008

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Komposisi pembalap MotoGP Suzuki untuk musim depan tak akan berubah dari formasi sekarang yakni Loris Capirossi dan Chris Vermeluen.


Keduanya dianggap manajemen telah mampu membalap dengan baik di musim ini. Tapi meski posisi Capirossi aman namun dilain pihak Vermeulen juga diminati oleh team SUperbike Ducati Xerox yang akan mencari pengganti pembalapnya Troy Bayliss yang pensiun.

Di klasemen sementara Vermeulen menempati posisi ke-7 dengan 99 angka sementara Capirossi di peringkat ke-10 dengan 77 angka setelah kemarin di Brno naik podium untuk kalipertama di posisi ke-3.

Casey Stoner reveals Brno bad luck

By Matthew Birt
MotoGP
21 August 2008 16:31
Reigning world champion Casey Stoner has revealed a cruel bout of bad luck prevented him from salvaging some points in last weekend’s Brno GP.

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The Aussie crashed out of the lead in the 22-lap race and was unable to rejoin despite efforts to get his factory Ducati GP8 going again.
But Stoner has revealed a stone jammed in a throttle buttefly was the reason why he couldn’t at least salvage a few points in the Czech Republic.
“I wasn’t meant to have that bike going again. There was a stone caught in the butterflies that could not be a more perfect shape to fit in there, “Stoner told MCN at the conclusion of a two-day test session in Brno.
“If it was another shaped stone - smaller or bigger - it would not have been a problem but it just perfectly jammed itself in there. It was a half-moon shape so that was it, race over.. You couldn’t go through that gravel trap and find the right sized stone again. I could have got back on and got some reasonable points.”
Stoner’s first DNF for Ducati in 30 races left him trailing series leader Valentino Rossi by a massive 50 points with just six races remaining.

Post-race press conference footage from Brno

Thursday, 21 August 2008
Coverage of Valentino Rossi, Toni Elias and Loris Capirossi´s thoughts in the aftermath of the Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky.

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motogp.com presents a special bonus video for fans this week, with the Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky post-race press conference in its entirety. Racewinner Valentino Rossi was joined by runner-up Toni Elias and third-placed Loris Capirossi as they completed their final duties of the day, with all three understandably in high spirits.
Capirossi explained how his condition had improved after some recent crashes, and how he was expecting the chance of more rostrum finishes in the remaining races of the year. Elias also talked about his resurgence, a consequence of a change in structure for the Alice Team and the introduction of some new parts.
However, the most notable quote came from World Championship leader Rossi, when quizzed on whether his extended advantage at the top of the classification was going to be enough to hold off challenger Casey Stoner.
`Six races with a rider like Stoner, who is fast in any conditions…50 points is not enough. But it is better than 25!´ grinned the five-time MotoGP World Champion.

Gravel stone stopped Stoner Brno restart

Thursday, 21 August 2008
A `perfectly-sized´ piece of gravel stopped Casey Stoner´s chances of rejoining the race at Brno.

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Casey Stoner´s chances of retaining his MotoGP World Championship in 2008 could come down to a piece of Czech gravel, with the Australian revealing the extent of his bad luck at Brno in post-race testing.
The Ducati Marlboro star had experienced a rare crash whilst leading the latest round of the series but, unlike at Laguna Seca where he was able to rejoin the race, his attempts at getting back into the fight for valuable points proved unsuccessful this time around. The determining factor? A souvenir from his slide into the gravel trap.
`It was a perfectly-sized stone that got stuck in the carboration,´ explained Stoner on the reasons for his having to park up the Desmosedici GP8. `You could search all the gravel traps in the world and you wouldn´t find one like it. We were just that unlucky.´
Stoner could at least leave Brno confident that he hadn´t lost his touch, with the fastest times of the post-race test and a solution to the cause of the crash itself. The big breakthrough came on the Tuesday, with the reigning World Champion believing that he will become ever more stable as a result.
`We made a big change which would have taken away the element of what caused the crash in the race. We´ve been leaning this bike over a long way, always scraping the footpegs. We took out that factor by changing the setup and the overall geometry.
`Now we can ride more on the bigger part of the tyre, which is safer and should give us more feedback,´ added Stoner in his post-test analysis.
`In any case, I´m a bit disappointed with the weekend but it is my only crash with a Ducati in a race. We´ve got to be pretty happy with how things have gone up to now.´

Kebahagiaan Ganda Kawasaki

TOKYO - Kegembiraan ganda tengah dialami pabrikan Kawasaki. Setelah Kawasaki Racing Team memastikan akan mendapatkan Marco Melandri musim depan, kini berita gembira lainnya menyusul. Si Hijau dikabarkan akan mempunyai tim satelit musim depan.

Adalah Jorge Martinez, bos Tim Aspar, yang mengaku tertarik menjadi tim satelit Kawasaki musim depan. Nama Martinez sebenarnya tidak terlalu asing di dunia balap. Pasalnya, ia juga telah mempunyai pengalaman di balapan MotoGP kelas 125cc dan 250cc.

Tak hanya itu, Italian newspaper Motosprint, Kamis (21/8/2008), juga melaporkan bahwa perusahaan telekomunikasi Spanyol mengaku bersedia menjadi sponsor utama bagi tim satelit Kawasaki itu.

Martinez sendiri berjanji akan menggunakan pembalap asli Spanyol. Saat ini dua nama yang dikaitkan dengan tim satelit Kawasaki itu adalah Toni Elias dan Alvaro Bautista.

Pasalnya, Elias memang menjadi pembalap Spanyol yang terbilang sukses. Bahkan di Sirkuit Brno lalu, ia mampu finis di urutan kedua di belakang Valentino Rossi. Sedangkan Bautista sendiri merupakan kandidat kuat jawara 250cc.(tok)

sourcekezone.com

Struggling Melandri signs new contract

'IT'S A BIG CHANGE FOR ME'


August 21, 2008

Marco Melandri will race for the Kawasaki MotoGP team in 2009.

Melandri joined Ducati at the beginning of 2008 but has had a poor season and is 15th in the standings following Sunday's Czech MotoGP'I hope to get good results in the last six races of 2008'
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He said: "I hope to get good results in the last six races of 2008 and after that I am moving to another team. I will ride for Kawasaki next year so it's a big change for me."

Melandri's agent announced in July 2008 the former 250cc World champion would be leaving Ducati.

Yamaha's Valentino Rossi, winner of seven World titles in all classes, leads the MotoGP standings by 50 points with 2007 World champion Casey Stoner (Ducati) second. - Reuters

Hopkins injured again.

John Hopkins sustains a rib injury at Brno, but is expected to race at Misano.
John Hopkins has more injury woes to contend with after hurting his rib in fall during the Czech Republic Grand Prix weekend, a problem that went on to force him out of the two-day test at Brno.
Hopkins has been at the behest of various problems this season but came to the latest round of MotoGP ready to put them behind him as the embarked on his comeback round having missed the last three races due to a leg injury.
However, while a couple of falls during practice don't appear to have aggravated the leg anymore, they have seemingly caused a further rib injury for the popular Anglo-American, forcing him to end his testing exercise after only a few laps.
As such, Olivier Jacque was called upon to complete a second day of testing aboard the Kawasaki Ninja, alongside Anthony West. Producing the ninth fastest lap of the day, 2.6secs behind pace setter Casey Stoner, the Frenchman was pleased with the progress made.
"The last two days have been very useful to us and we've gathered a lot of data. We firstly worked with our base chassis setting to see where we could make adjustments to improve the stability and balance of the machine. We also had a new swing-arm and some electronic components to test today, which have both brought interesting results.
"This track is quite grippy so it's difficult to see exactly where this puts us with regards to some of the other circuits, but I am confident that we've made many forward steps. We now need to spend time reviewing the data to assess fully everything we've evaluated in the last two days."
West meanwhile, whose career-best fifth place finish at Brno on Sunday appears to have not saved him the axe ahead of 2009, was the slowest of the 11 runners, but believes he has a more predictable bike beneath him now.
"I didn't test yesterday because Olivier was evaluating various different parts on my machine, however we have managed to achieve quite a lot during today's track time. We focused mainly on setting up the bike to suit a front tyre option that we've not used so much but has been put to good use by a few other Bridgestone riders recently.
Previously we've not been able to make this tyre work effectively, but with the changes in chassis set-up we've made, it is now a viable option for us to use. In the race this weekend I had to push hard every lap to be fast, but with the advances we've made at this test, the bike feels much more rideable. I'm now really looking forward to furthering our improvements next time out."

Nakano Puas dengan RC212V

Kamis, 21 Agustus 2008 - 08:00 wib

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BRNO - Kepercayaan tinggi sedang diperlihatkan Shinya Nakano. Pembalap San Carlo Gresini itu mengaku dirinya sangat optimis akan meraih hasil bagus setelah mendapat motor baru dari Honda.

Pembalap Jepang itu pun langsung menargetkan hasil bagus di enam balapan tersisa. Nakano juga mengaku siap tampil habis-habisan guna mewujudkan ambisinya itu. Terlebih, Nakano juga memperlihatkan grafik meningkat di sesi uji coba selama dua hari ini.

Nakano memang mengaku tampil lebih pede dengan motor RC212V baru dari Honda itu. Menurutnya, motor anyarnya itu juga sesuai dengan gaya membalapnya. Terbukti, di balapan Republik Ceska lalu, Nakano juga tampil mengesankan dengan motor barunya itu. Ia mampu finish diurutan keempat dibelakang Loris Capirossi.

Nakano dan Gresini Honda terpilih untuk mengembangkan motor balap Honda. Dia memupuskan harapan Nicky Hayden yang sebelumnya diperkirakan akan mendapat kepercayaan dari Honda.

"Hari ini kami mampu tampil meningkatkan performa RC212V, meskipun belum sempurna. Di trek kering kemarin dan hari ini kami mampu menambah kepercayaan diri dengan motor anyar kami. Saya mempunyai balapan bagus di Brno namun kami belum cukup waktu beradaptasi," beber Nakano seperti dilansir crashnet, Kamis (21/8/2008).

Selain menguji performa RC212V, Nakano dan timnya juga melakukan tes terhadap beberapa jenis ban dengan bantuan ahli dari Bridgestone langsung. Dalam tes di Brno kali ini Bridgestone membawa dua tipe ban.

Rossi Tinggalkan Kenangan Indah di Brno

Kamis, 21 Agustus 2008 - 08:00 wib

BRNO - Valentino Rossi akhirnya meninggalkan Republik Ceska dengan dada membusung. Pasalnya, di Sirkuit Brno, Minggu (17/8/2008) lalu, pembalap Fiat Yamaha itu mendulang poin sempurna.

The Doctor akhirnya meninggalkan kenangan indah di Brno setelah sebelumnya juga menyelesaikan tes selama dua hari dengan sukses.

Torehan yang dicapai pembalap kelahiran Urbino itu membuatnya unggul 50 poin dari pesaing terdekatnya, Casey Stoner yang dibalapan itu gagal finis setelah terjatuh. Di sesi uji coba selama dua hari itu, Rossi bersama Tim Fiat Yamaha lebih menitikberatkan pada bagian ban dan elektronik.

Hasil gemilang di Brno itu juga membuat Rossi semakin percaya diri menyelesaikan enam seri balapan MotoGP yang tersisa.

"Hari ini terasa menjadi hari yang panjang namun kami telah menemukan beberapa kemajuan di beberapa area yang sangat bermanfaat dan saya akan meninggalkan tempat ini dengan bahagia," ujar Rossi seperti dilansir crashnet, Rabu (20/8/2008).

Dalam kesempatan itu Rossi juga menegaskan bahwa selama tes dua hari di Brno, timnya telah membuat kemajuan dalam akselerasi motornya. Selain itu, Rossi juga menjajal beberapa komposisi ban Bridgstone.

"Tes ini sangat bagus untuk membuat kami memenangkan pertarungan enam seri yang tersisa," tambahnya.

Keyakinan yang sama juga ditunjukkan Manajer Tim Davide Brivio. Menurutnya, para teknisi Fiat Yamaha telah menemukan solusi terhadap beberapa masalah yang dialami pembalapnya.

"Kami telah menjalani tes selama dua hari dan setiap orang bekerja dengan keras, dan tentu dengan hasil yang bagus," ujar Brivio.

"Kami telah menjalani pekan yang lama di Brno namun balapan dan tes kami berjalan dengan sukses dan kami sekarang menatap ke Misano," tutup Brivio.