A solid race by Alvaro who finished in 8th position by a whisker.
He began the race again with a mediocre start, losing a couple positions in the first laps and having to work his way back up. But he soon caught up with the guys in front, going as fast as the riders up to 8th and 9th position. With crashes of Marco Melandri and Casey Stoner everyone moved up a few places and Bati soon found himself fighting with Mika Kallio for 8th place. He spent several laps behind the Finnish rider to catch up with Simoncelli in front of them who was already about two seconds ahead, but constantly going slower. Finally Bati passed Kallio and took on the final pursuit on his own, quickly reeling Simoncelli in and then sticking to his rear wheel with still half the race to go. Alvaro clearly had the better pace and was close enough to pass, but after the frustrating ends to the last three races he instead bided his time, probably looking to attack in the final lap. In the end he didn’t take any risks and rather brought the 8th place home safely, his second best finish this season after 5th place at Catalunya. Well done, Bati.

Pos. Rider Team Time/Gap
1 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 47’31.615
2 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 +3.575
3 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team +6.812
4 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team +12.633
5 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team +21.885
6 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team +35.138
7 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini +36.740
8 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +36.825
9 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team +44.905
10 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar +51.368
11 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +55.386
12 Hiroshi AOYAMA Interwetten Honda MotoGP +57.903
13 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP +1’04.139

Not Classified
Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 10 Laps
Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 12 Laps
Casey STONER Ducati Team 21 Laps
Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 26 Laps

Rizla Suzuki completed most of its full test programme and acquired a large amount of data from Monday’s test at the Brno circuit before rain brought the day’s proceedings to a premature end.

Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista were joined at the 5,403m Czech Republic track by Alstare Suzuki World Superbike rider Sylvain Guintoli, who was called up to provide cover for the test if Bautista was unable to participate following his huge crash in Saturday’s practice.

Capirossi and Bautista were able to test many new and revised parts for the Suzuki GSV-R including two new chassis, new Ohlins forks and updated engine management programmes. Guintoli was able to complete three runs to get some data for his riding style early in the morning. The talented Frenchman was then scheduled to do a longer test run in the afternoon, but the rain intervened and ruined any chance he had of assisting with further evaluation of the GSV-R.

Rizla Suzuki will now assess the information from the test and hopefully be able to make some important steps and decisive changes in-time for the next round of the season at Indianapolis in America on Sunday 29th August. Guintoli will next be in WSB action on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 at Nurburgring in Germany on Sunday 5th September.

Álvaro Bautista:
“The test was very short for me, because I felt a lot worse than I did on Sunday during the race. Today we wanted to do a full comparison of two different chassis and we were able to at least do that. I noticed an improvement in the exit of the corner with the new one, the bike had more stability. We still need to test it further and find out what the true potential is, but overall it was a good test and hopefully with what we found we can make a big difference.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

After the Czech GP on Sunday the highly anticipated post-race test took place at Brno yesterday. It is the last official test for the MotoGP teams this season and with Suzuki currently struggling with their performance, they had a lot of new parts and configurations to test in order to try and catch up with the other manufacturers for the rest of the season.
Following his horrifying crash in Saturday morning’s free practice session, Alvaro didn’t ride his bike much during the test. Instead the team brought current World Superbike rider Sylvain Guintoli on board who shared the bike and the workload with Alvaro. Guintoli has extensive experience in the MotoGP championship and did his best to help the team get all the scheduled work done. Alvaro only rode 24 laps in the morning session – the least laps of all riders – and didn’t go out again for the afternoon session, to further recover from the back injuries he sustained.
The afternoon session was also cut short by rain, forcing all riders back into the pits and ending the day about three hours early. Not the best conditions for Suzuki to test everything they brought to Brno. New parts and adjustments they tested included a new fairing, a brandnew and a modified chassis, different forks, an aerodynamics package and some electronics changes. Due to Alvaro being injured most of the work again fell back on his teammate Loris Capirossi.

Pedrosa and Simoncelli were the only crashers during the test, both walking away unhurt, and Randy De Puniet sat the day out to give his leg some rest and not having any new parts to test anyway.

The fastest laptime of the day:

Pos Rider Bike Time Diff
1 Jorge LORENZO YAMAHA 1’56.269
2 Casey STONER DUCATI 1’56.844 0.575
3 Dani PEDROSA HONDA TEST 1’56.944 0.675
4 Valentino ROSSI YAMAHA 1’57.129 0.860
5 Dani PEDROSA HONDA 1’57.424 1.155
6 Colin EDWARDS YAMAHA 1’57.512 1.243
7 Andrea DOVIZIOSO HONDA 1’57.691 1.422
8 Loris CAPIROSSI SUZUKI 1’57.700 1.431
9 Ben SPIES YAMAHA 1’57.753 1.484
10 Nicky HAYDEN DUCATI 1’57.991 1.722
11 Hector BARBERA DUCATI 1’58.017 1.748
12 Marco MELANDRI HONDA 1’58.070 1.801
13 Marco SIMONCELLI HONDA 1’58.160 1.891
14 Aleix ESPARGARO DUCATI 1’58.612 2.343
15 Hiroshi AOYAMA HONDA 1’58.830 2.561
16 Mika KALLIO DUCATI 1’58.926 2.657
17 Alvaro Bautista SUZUKI 1’59.454 3.185
18 Sylvain Guintoli SUZUKI 2’01.474 5.205

Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista both crashed out of today’s Czech Republic Grand Prix at either end of the 22-lap race with both riders able to walk away uninjured from their respective incidents.

Bautista battled heroically for the whole 22-laps as he fought against the pain caused by yesterday’s huge high-side and the other riders on track. Despite starting from the back of the grid he caught the battle for eighth position before the half-way point of the race. Bautista was fighting with the group and as the last lap arrived he was close enough to challenge Marco Simoncelli. He made a strong passing manoeuvre in the last corner and although he got past Simoncelli he lost the front of the bike and also slid into the gravel – as Capirossi had done earlier. Bautista was visibly disappointed with the outcome of the race after such a brave effort had proved fruitless in the end.

Today’s Brno Grand Prix was watched by nearly 150,000 people at trackside and they witnessed Jorge Lorenzo provide another commanding performance on his Yamaha to win his seventh race of the season and strengthen his grip at the top of the championship.

Rizla Suzuki will remain at Brno for a full day’s testing tomorrow as they try to unlock the potential of the Suzuki GSV-R and put today’s frustrations behind them. The next round of the MotoGP World Championship will require another crossing of the Atlantic, as the field prepares to line-up for the Indianapolis Grand Prix in America on Sunday 29th August.

Álvaro Bautista:
“The crash was a big disappointment for me as I went to overtake Simoncelli, because at the beginning of race I didn’t know what my condition would be at the end and I was pleased that I felt strong enough to make the move. The first few laps were difficult because I’d only had about 40 minutes of dry practice all weekend and needed to get my reference points sorted out. The pain was horrible but I was able to start to push and in the middle of the race I was in the group challenging for eighth position, which was not too bad. After about half of the race my body started to tire and although I was pushing to the maximum, when I came up to other riders it was difficult to pass because I was at my physical limit. I would have liked to finish this race as this is now three consecutive races that I have failed to complete. The rest of the race was not too bad and compared to other riders my rhythm was good. I hope for the next race in America to make a complete weekend and continue with my progression in MotoGP.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“In sport you have to make your own luck, but it really feels like we need to go to a Church and have a word with someone who can maybe help us out a little bit! Absolutely nothing seemed to go right here at Brno and the most disappointing thing is that without question the bike and riders had the capability to challenge for a top-six position. Álvaro made a heroic effort, we have to remember that he was in great discomfort and had only spent about 45 minutes practice time in the dry compared to everyone else’s three hours. Once he found his rhythm the bike was working well, his speed was good and he’d clawed his way into contention for an excellent finish. His commitment to catching and passing Simoncelli on the last lap was obvious and he nearly made it happen, but asked a bit too much of the front tyre in the final left. It was extremely disappointing, but we have to respect a superb effort.
“The result today doesn’t reflect anywhere near our potential and we’re going to work positively at the test tomorrow and set our sights on realising the true capability of the GSV-R, Loris and Álvaro for the rest of the season.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

I-play, Oberon Media’s publishing division and the world’s leading multi-platform casual games publisher, today announced the launch of the MotoGP 2010 Game for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The only official game available on the iPhone for 2010, the fantastic 3D experience features the 17 MotoGP riders including Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, and comes with the official bikes and all 18 tracks which make up this year’s calendar. There are a host of other excellent features too which make this a must-have for the dedicated MotoGP thrill seeker.

Championship mode allows players to compete for the 2010 World Championship, with two camera angles giving amazing views and acceleration controls that replicate the lean angle of the bikes through accessible handling. Racing like a professional allows players to unlock all 18 circuits, and the game’s iPod library support function allows an individual soundtrack to be created.

“MotoGP is the world’s premier motorcycling championship and one of the most exciting racing series in motorsports,” said Tony Leamer, Vice President of Marketing at I-play. “Fans of the sport, championship series and racing alike will be impressed with the thrilling realism MotoGP 2010 brings to the palm of your hand.”

Dorna Sports S.L. Managing Director Pau Serracanta said: “The launch of the MotoGP 2010 Game for iPhone and iPod Touch is excellent news! Many of our fans are also users of these devices and we are confident this launch will be very well received by them. We have launched MotoGP console games on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii with great success in the past. With this new game we will be fulfilling the demands of our fans worldwide.”

The game is available now for $3.99/£2.39/€2.99 from the iTunes App store – click here for a direct link. To celebrate the launch of the game two replica Valentino Rossi helmets will also be given away on I-play’s Facebook page

A couple of news bits concerning Suzuki and their technical as well as professional future.

There will be one day of testing immediately after the Czech Grand Prix at Brno this weekend and Suzuki has brought quite a few new parts in order to improve their obvious current disadvantages on track. In fact, they have so much stuff to test that team boss Paul Denning already fears that the track time won’t be enough for them to get all the work done in only one day.

“We will bring so many new parts to Brno that we would really need more than one day. I assume the track time will be from 9 in the morning to 6 PM and during that time we won’t leave a minute unused, hoping that we can get through our whole task list. We definitely need to take a step forward. For my taste the Brno circuit is the wrong place to test at, because the flowing line is comparable to the Catalunya circuit. However, our bike shouldn’t go too bad there. And normally the temperatures are pretty high at this time of year as well.” Concerning the new parts that are up for testing, Denning explained: “We have important changes to test for the aerodynamics package. Those affect not only the speed, but also the handling when entering the curves. Additionally we have tests planned for the chassis, the swingarm and the ECU where we want to sort out the best parts.”

Looking further into the future, Denning revealed during the Suzuki anniversary celebration at Brands Hatch last weekend that Suzuki’s participation in the MotoGP championship for 2011 is definitely secured. Alvaro will be starting his second year with the team and Rizla seems almost certain to be the title sponsor again. With the possibility of Toni Elias joining the team in the coming season [see various Silly Season reports on that, we recommend the excellent summary on MotoMatters] it would also be desirable for Suzuki to get a big Spanish sponsor on board as well, supporting the potential All-Spanish lineup and giving them a few more opportunities than with only the reportedly meager funding coming from Rizla.

However, it is still not clear whether we will still see Suzuki in the championship in 2012 when the new rules come into effect. The reports are a bit contradicting on that matter. On the one hand the development department at Suzuki is apparently already working on the prototype for 2012, on the other hand the team itself didn’t get any official confirmation yet about the continued participation in the championship beyond 2011.

Source: Motorsport Aktuell

Rizla Suzuki riders Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista both had frustrating races at Laguna Seca today, but for very different reasons.

Bautista was yet again the victim of another incident as Aleix Espargaro knocked Suzuki’s Spanish rider out of the race at the start of the third lap. Bautista had already got into a good rhythm and had passed a couple of other riders before Espargaro’s intervention bought his race to an abrupt end for the second week in succession.

Over 51,000 people filled the hillsides around the Laguna Seca circuit to see Jorge Lorenzo record his sixth victory of the season and further strengthen his position at the head of the World Championship standings.

The whole MotoGP paddock will now have a short mid-season break, before re-grouping for the next round of the championship at Brno in the Czech Republic on Sunday 15th August.

Álvaro Bautista:
“I had a poor start because the bike wheelied too much and I lost some positions, but in the first couple of laps I felt good and was able to pass some other riders. I felt good on the bike and at the start of the third lap I passed Espargaro on the first corner and as I made the normal line to the second turn, which is two consecutive corners, he was in the middle of the last turn and hit me in the body and I crashed. This is very disappointing because I felt really very good and had been able to overtake other riders quite easily. It has been a bad start for me here in Laguna Seca, but we must make sure we keep the hard work going at the next races.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“It was obviously disappointing that Álvaro got tangled up with Espargaro and knocked off the track so early on in the race – especially as his potential had picked up so consistently over the course of the weekend. That’s the last two Grands Prix that have ended with him on the floor through no fault of his own – we just have to hope his luck changes very quickly.

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista made his very first racing visit to the Laguna Seca Raceway in America today and took on the task of learning this demanding circuit.

Bautista’s (P16, 1’25.031, 26 laps) only previous visit to the 3,610m California circuit was as a spectator and he found out just how difficult this track is on a MotoGP machine when he made his way out onto track for today’s practice session. He made big steps throughout the session – even though he was troubled by braking issues early on – and is positive that he will continue to improve as the weekend continues.

Today’s one-and-only practice session was conducted in very pleasant conditions with air temperatures at 24ºC. Australian Casey Stoner on his factory Ducati set the fastest time.

Rizla Suzuki has one more practice session tomorrow morning, followed by qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Sunday’s 32-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (21.00hrs GMT).

Álvaro Bautista:
“It’s a totally new circuit for me and a very difficult one to learn. It is so different from any other circuit because it is like a row of mountains – always up and down. Some corners are very difficult because you cannot see where they go, so you have to find very clear reference points for where to be and where to brake. It is difficult in one hour to learn all this, especially because I had a braking problem that caused me to lose about half the practice, so I never had the time I wanted out there. At the end I went a bit quicker and found the points I was looking for. After a good sleep tonight I think it will be easier to ride the circuit. The bike is working well, but I do have a bit of a problem exiting the corners as I’m going a bit wide, but we can certainly change that tomorrow. We will take things step-by-step tomorrow and learn the track, then get quicker in qualifying so we are ready for the race on Sunday.”

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Loris Capirossi and Alvaro Bautista will have access to three new factory Suzuki GSV-R engines this season, MCN can reveal.
MCN understands Suzuki has been given special dispensation to increase its engine allocation from six to nine in 2010 having encountered issues with the new mileage restrictions in MotoGP.

Riders were restricted to just six engines in 2010 as part of a cost cutting drive to counter the impact of the global economic crisis.
If a rider needs to use more than the six allocated engines the penalty is starting a race from pitlane ten seconds after the race has commenced.

But an agreement thrashed out during last weekend’s German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring will see the Japanese factory exempt from the current six-engine rule.
It is understood there was always an unwritten understanding between the factories that Suzuki would be allowed to request additional engines if it became apparent it could not manage to use just six in the 18-round world championship.
Less than halfway through the 2010 campaign and Suzuki is already moving close to using its allocation of six engines well ahead of its rivals Honda, Yamaha and Ducati.

Capirossi has already used four engines and will soon need to use two more with mileage high on the two he is currently campaigning.
One of his engines was withdrawn after qualifying for his home race in Mugello after a blow-up and his third engine has been raced in Mugello, Silverstone and Assen. He raced engine number four in Catalunya and Sachsenring last weekend.

Spanish rookie Bautista is in a dire predicament having already started to use his fifth engine after just eight races.
Two of his engines have also been withdrawn from the allocation leaving the former world 125GP with just one fresh engine for the remaining ten races of the season.

The new rule governing Suzuki’s allocation is expected to come in with immediate effect from this weekend’s American MotoGP race at Laguna Seca.

Source: MCN

Rizla Suzuki racer Loris Capirossi brought his Suzuki GSV-R home in 11th place during today’s German Grand Prix, whilst team-mate Álvaro Bautista was forced to miss the second half of a two-part race following a red flag incident.

Capirossi and Bautista were both battling for top-10 finishes during the first part of the race and the latter had just posted his fastest lap, before Randy de Puniet crashed on lap 10. Capirossi was in close vicinity to the accident but missed the falling rider, however Bautista was not so fortunate and had to take evasive action to avoid de Puniet, but couldn’t avoid the stricken Honda. The race was immediately red flagged due to de Puniet’s injuries and the three crashed motorcycles on the track – Aleix Espargaro was also involved in the incident. Sadly for Bautista and Espargaro they were unable to join the re-start, due to the regulations, and had to sit out the second part of the race.

Today’s incident filled race at Sachsenring was watched by 98,477 fans in warm but overcast conditions. They saw Spaniard Dani Pedrosa win from World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo.

Rizla Suzuki now immediately embarks on a transatlantic journey to Laguna Seca in California for the ninth round of the MotoGP World Championship to be held next Sunday.

Álvaro Bautista:
“It has been a bit of a disaster today. I didn’t start that well and I couldn’t get enough warmth in the right-side of the tyre early on. After the first few laps I managed to get a good rhythm and was able to stay with the group for top-10 positions. After nine laps Randy crashed and I had some riders in front of me and I couldn’t see where his bike was on the track, but when the other riders disappeared I saw the bike in front of me and I couldn’t do anything to avoid it, so I crashed. I then couldn’t get to the box with my bike, so I couldn’t start again. The regulation is the regulation, but in this case maybe there could’ve been an exception because I crashed because of Randy not for something I had done. We must continue learning, like we have done this weekend, because at the moment this is the most important thing.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“We knew that the potential had at least improved following Barcelona, but today was massively frustrating. In the first part of the race both the guys found a good rhythm and were able to race with the group from sixth place backwards. Álvaro had just set his fastest lap when the accident happened and whilst we respect the rule book completely, I would imagine there will be some careful discussion for the future, because with only 17 bikes on the grid it is definitely a problem for the show to have fit riders and good bikes sat in the pit after an incident like that when they should be out there racing.

Source: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP