The Secretary of State for Spanish Tourism, Joan Mesquida, and the CEO of Dorna Sports, Carmelo Ezpeleta, have today announced an agreement for the promotion of Spain as a major tourism destination through the FIM MotoGP World Championship at a press conference at the Ministry for Industry, Tourism and Commerce.

The agreement, which is for three years up to and including the 2012 season, will utilise the international reach of the MotoGP. With circuits in four continents and millions of spectators across the world, the Visit Spain slogan will help to continue raising awareness of Spain as a widely known holiday destination.

In this manner, the Spanish riders competing in the three categories of the World Championship (MotoGP, Moto2 and 125cc) will reinforce the brand of Spain, not just on a sporting level but also in the field of tourism. Several riders were present at the presentation, including Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team) and the MotoGP rookies Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar Team) and Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki), as well as various riders who will compete in the Moto2 and 125cc classes in 2010.

As part of this agreement, the Ministry of Tourism will be the title sponsor of the Grand Prix of Japan, which will take place at the Motegi circuit on April 25th. Visit Spain will also have a presence through trackside advertising at various Grands Prix throughout the 2010 season, those being Silverstone (Great Britain) on June 20th, Sachsenring (Germany) on July 18th and at Indianapolis (USA) on August 29th.

Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta is extremely proud that Spanish Tourism has chosen MotoGP to promote Spain as a tourism destination across the globe. “For years, the three Spanish GPs, now four, have already served as an attraction to foreigners to visit Spain, and with this agreement we hope to continue to draw more people, not only to watch the races but to discover everything the country has to offer,” said Carmelo Ezpeleta.

The Secretary of State for Tourism Joan Mesquida also commented on the agreement with Dorna, which he views as an excellent global showcase for Spain. Mesquida highlighted the coverage of the MotoGP World Championship, which reaches more than 225 million households every year through the media. “This agreement allows us to offer everyone the chance to Visit Spain,” he said.

Source: motogp.com

You can already watch the poker match with Alvaro which was broadcasted last night.
Alvaro immediately charms everyone away, bringing the presenter a T-Shirt of his fanclub and admitting that he doesn’t really have a clue about poker. Angel Nieto has even less knowledge about the game, but that doesn’t keep the two from having a whole lotta fun playing it.

Here are all six parts.

MotoGP fans around the world will be able to view their favourite sport in the most incredible clarity in 2010, as the world’s premier motorcycle championship will broadcast in full HD for the first time. Whilst much of the track action over the last year has already been filmed by High Definition cameras, this is the first time that viewers at home will be able to experience the crisp quality of HD when watching the MotoGP race action.

HD has become a standard now for top level sports, and MotoGP is no exception. However, covering up to six kilometres of track, seventeen race bikes, the pit garages and helicopter shots with HD cameras has required years of planning and preparation from series organiser Dorna Sports.The biggest challenge has been the on board cameras, Dorna together with Gigawave are working to develop these extremely sophisticated cameras.

In 2010, RTL Club (Belgium), Eurosport (France), Sport TV (Portugal), Digisport (Hungary) and Viasat (Scandinavia) will all broadcast the MotoGP season in HD within Europe. The worldwide reach of MotoGP in HD will stretch as far as Speed TV (US), ESPN (Latin America), Globosat (Brazil), One HD (Australia), StarHub (Singapore), Sky (New Zealand), Al Jazeera (Middle East), ESPN Star Sports (Asia) and Supersport (Africa), with further HD broadcasters expected to come on board during the season.

“Working alongside the most recognised sports broadcasters worldwide and being one of the leading motorsports championships, we have a duty to stay abreast of all the emerging technologies which help us to capture the speed and adrenaline of MotoGP” said Manel Arroyo, Managing Director of Dorna.

Also, in a further exciting development, the evolution of the delivery of MotoGP in even more lifelike quality may not stop at HD. With 3D cinematography already being successfully pioneered in the world of cinema, the same technology is now poised to revolutionise sports broadcasting. Last year at the Red Bull US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca and in conjunction with the 3D and digital systems specialists Vince Pace, Dorna Sports carried out a successful trial of the latest HD 3D Fusion camera systems.

For 2010 the Pace team, led by John Bruno who was part of the Visual Effects team involved in the Academy Award winning Avatar film, plans to produce a documentary. This will feature images captured during the MotoGP season, and channels broadcasting in 3D such as ESPN and Sky have already shown interest in broadcasting such coverage of the sport.

Source: motogp.com

Big news – and we think, good news…
We’ve reopened our Fan Shop with a kicking new collection of fan gear and merchandise.
We’ve got all kinds of shirts and tops, bags, badges and more – cool clothes for both guys and girls (we’ve even got a bandana for dogs too!) – with funky graphics and a huge choice of colours and styles.

There will be more designs to come but we hope you like what you see.
As with our Fan Shop from years ago, the products are all managed by Spreadshirt who are great on quality and speed of delivery.
Some of the items aren’t cheap, we admit – but we think there’s a great range and we’ve done our best to keep the prices as low as possible overall.

We hope you enjoy the new gear and the new store, and that you’ll find some groovy funky fun clothing there to help show others your support for Alvaro.

Click here to go to the Fan Shop

It’s been announced this evening that Alvaro will be part of a celebrity Poker team alongside motorsport stars Angel Nieto and Nani Roma, playing a match that will be broadcasted live on Spanish TV. However, that announcement came a bit late since the match already started this afternoon…

In any case, results and highlight videos will certainly be soon available and we’ll let you know about how Bati fairs in the gambling world.

As a little taste of things to come you can watch a short video of Bati being interviewed about how luck also plays a big part in professional sport, what person he can identify himself with, how he feels before and during a race, who his biggest rival is, what kind of diet he has to follow, how he focuses before and during a race and more.
You can watch the video here.

At the last MotoGP preseason test in Qatar which concluded yesterday Alvaro presented a new helmet design which appears to be his official 2010 helmet. The design was – like the rest of this year’s Rizla Suzuki livery – created by Troy Lee.

The helmet features the same colours as the one we’ve already seen at the test in Sepang, but a very different style overall. Big yellow shapes on the top and back of the helmet and a yellow 19 on each side give a contrast to the base colour of Rizla blue while white and silver forms with the new trademark pink outlines create an overall very colourful impression.

The back of the helmet features the shadow of the new Bautista logo and a slightly revised version of the well-known devil mascot.

It is not clear yet whether this is indeed the official helmet design Alvaro will be wearing throughout the 2010 season and when it might become available for purchase. We will keep you updated.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has ended its final pre-season test session in positive spirits following a successful final night in Qatar.

Loris Capirossi shook off the sickness he suffered yesterday to put in a strong performance and take fifth place on the night. He recorded a quickest time of 1’56.195 from his 58 laps of the Losail circuit and had no reoccurrence of the ailment that caused him to end the test early on Thursday evening. Capirossi did a thorough evaluation of the new spec higher durability GSV-R engine, as well as testing a new chassis and various other new specification parts. His valuable data will now be analysed back in Japan to prepare the bike for the first round of the season early next month.

New-signing Alvaro Bautista made a huge improvement during the second part of the two-day night-test in Qatar by taking over a second off his previous night’s time. He covered the 5,380m lap of the Losail International Circuit a total of 71 times this evening and made advances to his performance and control on a MotoGP machine ahead of his race debut this coming April. Bautista’s best time from the session of 1’56.898 was good enough to give him 12th overall from the two-day test.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will be back In Qatar in three weeks time for the first round of the MotoGP Championship, which will be held under floodlights on the night of Sunday 11th April.

Alvaro Bautista:
“Today has been a lot more positive than yesterday, because on Thursday we had a lot of other things to do and never really got much done in the test. Today I could concentrate just on riding and during the first time out I felt more comfortable than at any time yesterday. I improved my lap-time by more than one second and also my riding was much better. We tried different settings for geometry and suspension, for both the front and rear of the bike and think that we have a good base set-up for the race already. At the end I tried to do a long run and did 15 laps, but after a full day riding I was a bit tired! I am happy because I am improving every time and I now know I am ready to race!”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“The first night here in Qatar was really tough for a number of reasons, but we’re pleased to have taken a significant step forward with both of the guys tonight. Suzuki has been working very hard to improve the consistency of the bike and without question there has been some progress in that direction. That said, we have still got a lot of work to do to close the gap, but to end the test with Loris in the top six and Alvaro the fastest of last year’s 250cc riders is a good sign – particularly as Qatar is a track that has never been too kind to us in the past!”

Combined laptimes Qatar Test

Pos Rider Session 1 Session 2 Lead. Gap
1 Casey Stoner 1:55.717 1:55.353 -
2 Valentino Rossi 1:55.402 1:55.860 +0.049
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1:56.811 1:55.879 +0.526
4 Ben Spies 1:55.954 1:56.779 +0.601
5 Nicky Hayden 1:56.855 1:56.115 +0.762
6 Loris Capirossi 1:57.099 1:56.195 +0.842
7 Jorge Lorenzo 1:56.838 1:56.504 +1.151
8 Randy De Puniet 1:56.588 1:56.504 +1.151
9 Colin Edwards 1:56.540 1:56.722 +1.187
10 Mika Kallio 1:56.923 1:56.767 +1.414
11 Aleix Espargaro 1:57.898 1:56.897 +1.544
12 Alvaro Bautista 1:57.960 1:56.898 +1.545
13 Dani Pedrosa 1:57.047 1:56.935 +1.582
14 Marco Melandri 1:57.605 1:57.222 +1.869
15 Hector Barbera 1:57.822 1:57.223 +1.870
16 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.888 1:57.251 +1.898
17 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.891 1:57.379 +2.026

Regular laptimes updates from the second day of testing in Qatar.

Laptimes at 19.05h local time

Pos Rider Fastest lap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Casey Stoner 1:55.922 - 8
2 Valentino Rossi 1:56.322 +0.400 7
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1:56.581 +0.659 13
4 Loris Capirossi 1:56.660 +0.738 8
5 Randy De Puniet 1:56.673 +0.751 5
6 Ben Spies 1:56.860 +0.938 15
7 Dani Pedrosa 1:56.935 +1.013 13
8 Colin Edwards 1:57.028 +1.106 14
9 Jorge Lorenzo 1:57.083 +1.161 15
10 Mika Kallio 1:57.098 +1.176 12
11 Alvaro Bautista 1:57.189 +1.267 12
12 Nicky Hayden 1:57.205 +1.283 10
13 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.365 +1.443 17
14 Hector Barbera 1:57.469 +1.547 20
15 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.712 +1.790 14
16 Marco Melandri 1:58.025 +2.103 12
17 Aleix Espargaro 1:58.230 +2.308 11

Laptimes at 8PM local time

Pos Rider Fastest lap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Valentino Rossi 1:55.860 - 21
2 Casey Stoner 1:55.922 +0.062 16
3 Loris Capirossi 1:56.195 +0.335 16
4 Jorge Lorenzo 1:56.504 +0.644 21
5 Nicky Hayden 1:56.561 +0.701 19
6 Andrea Dovizioso 1:56.581 +0.721 20
7 Randy De Puniet 1:56.673 +0.813 15
8 Ben Spies 1:56.860 +1.000 27
9 Dani Pedrosa 1:56.935 +1.075 24
10 Colin Edwards 1:57.028 +1.168 21
11 Mika Kallio 1:57.029 +1.169 22
12 Alvaro Bautista 1:57.186 +1.326 19
13 Aleix Espargaro 1:57.240 +1.380 30
14 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.365 +1.505 24
15 Hector Barbera 1:57.444 +1.584 31
16 Marco Melandri 1:57.607 +1.747 25
17 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.712 +1.852 20

Laptimes 21.05h local time

Pos Rider Fastest lap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Casey Stoner 1:55.353 - 34
2 Valentino Rossi 1:55.860 +0.507 36
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1:55.879 +0.526 39
4 Nicky Hayden 1:56.115 +0.762 34
5 Loris Capirossi 1:56.195 +0.842 26
6 Jorge Lorenzo 1:56.504 +1.151 34
7 Randy De Puniet 1:56.605 +1.252 28
8 Ben Spies 1:56.779 +1.426 32
9 Alvaro Bautista 1:56.898 +1.545 34
10 Mika Kallio 1:56.923 +1.570 40
11 Dani Pedrosa 1:56.935 +1.582 30
12 Colin Edwards 1:57.028 +1.675 25
13 Aleix Espargaro 1:57.121 +1.768 37
14 Marco Melandri 1:57.222 +1.869 31
15 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.251 +1.898 40
16 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.379 +2.026 31
17 Hector Barbera 1:57.444 +2.091 39

Laptimes 21.30h local time
Pos Rider Fastest lap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Casey Stoner 1:55.353 - 35
2 Valentino Rossi 1:55.860 +0.507 36
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1:55.879 +0.526 39
4 Nicky Hayden 1:56.115 +0.762 34
5 Loris Capirossi 1:56.195 +0.842 31
6 Jorge Lorenzo 1:56.504 +1.151 34
7 Randy De Puniet 1:56.605 +1.252 32
8 Ben Spies 1:56.779 +1.426 32
9 Alvaro Bautista 1:56.898 +1.545 34
10 Mika Kallio 1:56.923 +1.570 40
11 Dani Pedrosa 1:56.935 +1.582 30
12 Colin Edwards 1:57.028 +1.675 25
13 Aleix Espargaro 1:57.121 +1.768 37
14 Marco Melandri 1:57.222 +1.869 38
15 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.251 +1.898 41
16 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.379 +2.026 34
17 Hector Barbera 1:57.444 +2.091 39

Laptimes as of 22.25h local time
Pos Rider Fastest lap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Casey Stoner 1:55.353 - 35
2 Valentino Rossi 1:55.860 +0.507 36
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1:55.879 +0.526 46
4 Nicky Hayden 1:56.115 +0.762 34
5 Loris Capirossi 1:56.195 +0.842 35
6 Jorge Lorenzo 1:56.504 +1.151 34
7 Randy De Puniet 1:56.605 +1.252 35
8 Ben Spies 1:56.779 +1.426 34
9 Alvaro Bautista 1:56.898 +1.545 43
10 Mika Kallio 1:56.923 +1.570 44
11 Dani Pedrosa 1:56.935 +1.582 40
12 Colin Edwards 1:57.028 +1.675 34
13 Aleix Espargaro 1:57.121 +1.768 39
14 Marco Melandri 1:57.222 +1.869 48
15 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.251 +1.898 53
16 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.379 +2.026 41
17 Hector Barbera 1:57.444 +2.091 47

Laptimes at 22.55h local time
Pos Rider Fastest lap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Casey Stoner 1:55.353 - 41
2 Valentino Rossi 1:55.860 +0.507 36
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1:55.879 +0.526 53
4 Nicky Hayden 1:56.115 +0.762 41
5 Loris Capirossi 1:56.195 +0.842 38
6 Jorge Lorenzo 1:56.504 +1.151 34
7 Randy De Puniet 1:56.605 +1.252 48
8 Colin Edwards 1:56.722 +1.369 41
9 Mika Kallio 1:56.767 +1.414 53
10 Ben Spies 1:56.779 +1.426 43
11 Alvaro Bautista 1:56.898 +1.545 48
12 Dani Pedrosa 1:56.935 +1.582 50
13 Aleix Espargaro 1:57.121 +1.768 48
14 Marco Melandri 1:57.222 +1.869 54
15 Hector Barbera 1:57.239 +1.886 51
16 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.251 +1.898 57
17 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.379 +2.026 44

Laptimes at 23.20 local time
Pos Rider Fastest lap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Casey Stoner 1:55.353 - 50
2 Valentino Rossi 1:55.860 +0.507 51
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1:55.879 +0.526 56
4 Nicky Hayden 1:56.115 +0.762 49
5 Loris Capirossi 1:56.195 +0.842 42
6 Jorge Lorenzo 1:56.504 +1.151 40
7 Randy De Puniet 1:56.504 +1.151 55
8 Colin Edwards 1:56.722 +1.369 48
9 Mika Kallio 1:56.767 +1.414 62
10 Ben Spies 1:56.779 +1.426 44
11 Aleix Espargaro 1:56.897 +1.544 57
12 Alvaro Bautista 1:56.898 +1.545 55
13 Dani Pedrosa 1:56.935 +1.582 56
14 Marco Melandri 1:57.222 +1.869 55
15 Hector Barbera 1:57.223 +1.870 60
16 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.251 +1.898 65
17 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.379 +2.026 51

Final laptimes Day 2
Pos Rider Fastest lap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Casey Stoner 1:55.353 - 51
2 Valentino Rossi 1:55.860 +0.507 57
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1:55.879 +0.526 66
4 Nicky Hayden 1:56.115 +0.762 51
5 Loris Capirossi 1:56.195 +0.842 58
6 Jorge Lorenzo 1:56.504 +1.151 44
7 Randy De Puniet 1:56.504 +1.151 66
8 Colin Edwards 1:56.722 +1.369 48
9 Mika Kallio 1:56.767 +1.414 74
10 Ben Spies 1:56.779 +1.426 44
11 Aleix Espargaro 1:56.897 +1.544 64
12 Alvaro Bautista 1:56.898 +1.545 71
13 Dani Pedrosa 1:56.935 +1.582 56
14 Marco Melandri 1:57.222 +1.869 64
15 Hector Barbera 1:57.223 +1.870 74
16 Hiroshi Aoyama 1:57.251 +1.898 81
17 Marco Simoncelli 1:57.379 +2.026 56