Gustav Bernuar Note's

LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet sprang a surprise in the first MotoGP practice session for the Alice TT Assen, occupying the top spot on the timesheet with a 1’37.842 lap that came from out of nowhere late in the session.

For the majority of the hour-long run, Fiat Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo had resumed their inter-team tussle by trading fastest laps, but eventually the duo were usurped by flying Frenchman De Puniet and then Lorenzo by Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner –the rider with whom the leaders are tied on 106 points in the overall classification.

Just five-thousandths of a second divided De Puniet and Rossi, with Stoner a further three-hundredths down and Lorenzo only just unable to breach the 1’38 barrier. Trailing the early pacesetters were Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso & Dani Pedrosa and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards, all under half-a-second down on De Puniet.

Adjusting to the track in the first practice run, many riders took a trip into the run-off areas in their quest to find the limit of their 800cc machinery. However, only one rider came off his bike, namely Scot Racing’s Yuki Takahashi. The Japanese rider suffered a highside that left him shaken but apparently uninjured

source : motogp.com

After waiting since 2006 for a last lap victory pass in MotoGP, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo exchanged positions four times during a heart-stopping final lap in Catalunya, which ended with Rossi diving inside Lorenzo for victory at the very final turn.

It was a massive win for Rossi over his young rival and means that Rossi, Lorenzo and Casey Stoner have all won two races each this season - and are now all tied on 106 points at the top of 2009 MotoGP World Championship.

The Fiat Yamaha team-mates fought from the first turn to the last turn, Lorenzo converting his pole position into an early lead, while Rossi slotted his M1 into second.

Stoner was the only rider capable of sticking with the pair on Sunday, but when the inevitable tyre wear began around lap 9 of 25 the Ducati star began to quickly drop away.

Rossi took the lead from Lorenzo for the first time on lap 4, but was unable to escape and Lorenzo burst back past on the brakes into turn one at the midway point. Lorenzo had the better race pace on paper, but Rossi clung to the #99 before attempting to settle the race early by overtaking Lorenzo into turn one with three laps to go.

Both factory M1s were using the same hard front, extra hard rear tyres, but Lorenzo seemed to have a little more rubber left and - with Rossi’s rear wheel beginning to step-out under power - was certain to retaliate.

Lorenzo sliced across the front of Rossi along the home straight, but Rossi released the brakes, pulled his inside leg in and rode across the outside kerb to stay ahead.

With Spanish pride on the line, Lorenzo made an even firmer pass into turn one at the start of the final lap, gently trapping Rossi on the outside to ensure he couldn’t slip back past.

Rossi responded by throwing his M1 inside Lorenzo at Turn Four, only for Lorenzo to cut back underneath on the exit, and when the Spaniard took a defensive line into the left hander at the end of the back straight Rossi looked to have run out of options.

But the Italian’s body language made clear he wasn’t giving up and, after closing up to Lorenzo’s rear wheel, made a seemingly impossible pass by diving inside Lorenzo on the entry to the fast final turn.

It was thought to be the only pass at that turn in any of the three classes on Sunday, but worked perfectly. Lorenzo couldn’t use his superior corner speed and almost ran into the back of Rossi’s machine at the apex, before crossing the finish line just 0.095sec behind the Italian legend.

“It was to the last breath” said an elated Rossi after his 99th grand prix victory, which he dedicated to his crew chief Jerry Burgess, while Lorenzo masked his disappointment and confessed that Rossi “had been braver than him” at the final turn.

Both riders left the pit lane to soak up the applause of the fans before climbing the podium. They deserved it, after providing easily the best race of the 800cc era.

Joining them on the rostrum was an exhausted Stoner, who later revealed he had been getting steadily sicker all weekend. The Ducati star finished 8.8sec behind Rossi but held off Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso by just 0.052sec for his fourth podium of the year.

Dovizioso had been trapped behind fast starting team-mate Dani Pedrosa for the first six laps, then struggled to gain ground of Stoner once released and has now finish fourth in the last three races.

Honda’s last MotoGP victory came at the hands of Pedrosa at Catalunya last year, but the Repsol Honda rider needed pain killing injections just to ride this weekend after cracking a thigh bone at Mugello.

After losing out to Dovizioso, the home hero battled Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi before eventually finishing 2.3sec behind the GSV-R rider.

Colin Edwards had to recover from another bad start on his way to seventh for Monster Yamaha Tech 3, whilst Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), Mika Kallio (Pramac Ducati) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro) completed the top ten. It was Hayden’s best race result of the season, but far lower than he would have hoped for after sixth on Friday.

Sixth on the grid Toni Elias still hasn’t finished a MotoGP race at Catalunya after crashing from eleventh place on lap ten, while countryman Sete Gibernau, whose last Catalunya MotoGP race ended with a fractured collarbone in 2006, finished 15th on his comeback from another collarbone break.

Gabor Talmacsi’s surprise promotion meant the former 125cc world champion became the first Hungarian rider to race in a premier-class grand prix since Janos Drapal at the Czech GP in 1976.

Talmacsi, riding alongside Yuki Takahashi at Scot Honda, began the race 19th and last and finished 17th thanks to the retirements of Elias and Takahashi, who crashed on the first lap.

A one day test session, the first since the season began, will be held at the Circuit de Catalunya on Monday.

source : crash.net

An amazing head-to-head battle between Yamaha team-mates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo saw the Italian take a 0.095s victory at the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya.

Stunning last lap ends with Valentino Rossi diving inside Jorge Lorenzo at final turn!

In front of nearly 90,000 fans in Barcelona the reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi took a superb win, battling with his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo throughout the 25 lap MotoGP race to secure the win on the last corner.

Despite some slight cloud cover close to the Mediterranean coast, air temperatures of 40°C meant it was a draining experience for the premier class riders but Rossi and Lorenzo threw everything into their duel, with The Doctorexecuting a superb move right at the death to take maximum points.

Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) was on the podium again, to maintain his World Championship challenge, with the result leaving Rossi, Lorenzo and the Australian all tied on 106 points at the head of the standings – the Italian on top as the possessor of the most recent victory.

Stoner was absolutely exhausted after the race having worked extremely hard to fend off a strong challenge from Andrea Dovizioso. The Repsol Honda rider produced another consistent display to finish in fourth place for the third round in succession, having started in fourth on the grid, this time missing the podium by 0.052s.

Meanwhile, an excellent battle between Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and the brave Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) for fifth place eventually saw an Italian emerge in front of a Spaniard again, Capirossi crossing the line just over two seconds ahead.

With two-way fights for positions going on throughout the order, Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) used all his experience to overcome Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) for seventh.

Ducati riders Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) and Nicky Hayden crossed the line close together in ninth and tenth respectively, giving Hayden his best result of his first season with the Italian factory so far.

New MotoGP arrival Gabor Talmacsi had a better time in his very first premier class race than new Scot Racing team-mate Yuki Takahashi - who crashed out on the first lap – as the Hungarian gained experience coming home in last place. The unfortunate Toni Elías meanwhile was also unable to finish as his miserable home record continued.

source : motogp.com

Jorge Lorenzo’s excellent second season in MotoGP continued at his home GP on Saturday as he took pole at the Circuit de Catalunya, the Spaniard qualifying just 0.013s ahead of Valentino Rossi.

The MotoGP qualifying session at the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya concluded with home rider Jorge Lorenzo securing his third pole position of 2009 in sweltering heat close to the Mediterranean coast.

The Fiat Yamaha star pleased the crowd in his special edition Barcelona FC livery securing the top slot on the grid with a 1’41.974 time on the 28th of 29 laps, putting him just ahead of team-mate Valentino Rossi by a 0.013s margin.

Having never been off the podium in the premier class at Montmeló Rossi will be confident of maintaining that remarkable record on Sunday, though he knows he will have to be at his best to beat his talented young Spanish colleague.

Completing the front row is Casey Stoner as MotoGP’s current trio of form riders showed their strengths once again, the Australian Ducati Marlboro representative lapping just under a half a second down on Lorenzo.

Andrea Dovizioso is the ‘nearly man’ in the premier class at present and he missed out on the front row by just 0.168s on his Repsol Honda factory RC212V. Nonetheless the Italian will try to fight for the podium having just fallen short at the last two rounds.

In fifth place at his home track, not traditionally his strongest circuit, Toni Elías (San Carlo Honda Gresini) will aim to improve his poor Barcelona record from the middle of the front row, whilst Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) ended up sixth and might have done better had he not crashed towards the end of the session.

Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) has looked good so far this weekend and he qualified seventh, just in front of home hero Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) who also suffered a crash in the final moments – landing on his injured right hip, but not appearing to sustain any further damage as he walked away from the incident.

The top ten was rounded off by Englishman James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Finnish rider Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing), both northern Europeans doing well to deal with the ambient temperatures of 38°C.

source : motogp.com

Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo will go in search of his third pole position of 2009 on Saturday afternoon at the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya having topped the Free Practice 2 timesheet by a significant 0.674s margin.

With the air temperature already at 30°C and the ground temperature up to 37°C by 11am Lorenzo turned up the heat on his rivals with a superb 1’41.899 lap on the 27th of his 29 laps, well over a second faster than Friday’s best times. After the session Lorenzo declared himself more than happy with his rhythm on race tyres and the softer options he used to mark his pace-setting lap.

Second fastest was an improved Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), whilst in third place Lorenzo’s World Champion team-mate Valentino Rossi was nearly a second off the pace – albeit on race tyres.

Taking a big step forward ahead of his home race tomorrow – and following a slow start on Friday – Dani Pedrosa reduced his day one best lap by two seconds to place fourth, having taken on more painkillers before the session in his injured hip.

LCR Honda’s French star Randy de Puniet was fifth fastest again at one of his preferred venues, marginally quicker than veteran American Colin Edwards of the Monster Yahama Tech 3 team.

Whilst Edwards’ Tech 3 colleague James Toseland will be pleased to have lapped eighth fastest with around a second cut from his Friday pace, Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner slipped down to seventh as he could only improve slightly on his FP1 best effort.

Ducati riders Niccolò Canepa and Nicky Hayden completed the top ten.

source : motogp.com

After the first eight minutes of Friday free practice in Catalunya, nobody other than Fiat Yamaha team-mates Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo sat on top of the timesheets.

The pair alternated the top spot frequently during the hour; home hero Lorenzo making three P1 appearances and leading most of the session, but Rossi set the fastest lap on seven occasions, the last of which saw him bump Lorenzo from the top with five minutes to go.

Rossi and his crew had made a slight change to their base setting before they got started today and the reigning six time MotoGP world champion, who starts round six behind both Casey Stoner and Lorenzo in the points, was pleased with the results.

“We made some changes to our base setting here and already it feels much better to ride,” said the Italian, whose best lap was by 0.302sec quicker than Lorenzo. “This practice went very well for us, we were strong from start to finish and to be in first position feels good.

“We have found out some very interesting things, especially about my feeling with the bike, but we need to keep on working because there are still some parts that we want to make better for tomorrow.

“I am really happy to be able to ride the bike how I want to finally but there is still plenty more work to continue with to make sure we’re in the best possible shape for tomorrow afternoon and Sunday,” he added.

“It looks like we have found a better feeling for Valentino and this might help him to reach his potential,” confirmed team manager Davide Brivio. “Now we just need to work on fine-tuning it tomorrow.”

Lorenzo, who is carrying a special FC Barcelona livery this weekend in honour of the Champions League-winning club, had no major complaints about his M1 although there is still room for improvement.

“I always have a few doubts coming to each new track but today everything felt really good, my bike and my Bridgestone tyres,” said Lorenzo, presently four points behind Stoner and five ahead of Rossi. “I feel very comfortable and we can see that we have the potential to put on a really good performance here.

“We have a few things which we can improve so we will try to do that tomorrow but this is another good start for us. It’s very early to be making any conclusions about who will be fighting on Sunday though and for now we just have to stay focused. It feels great to be out in front of all my home fans here and I am really happy to have the FC Barcelona stickers on my bike!” he declared.

“We already have a good base-setting but we have identified one or two areas in which we can improve further still, especially in the hard acceleration,” revealed his team manager Daniele Romagnoli.

World Championship leader Stoner suffered a fall on his way to third for Ducati.

source : crash.net

The upcoming matches are the last friendlies for Lippi’s Italy and Casiraghi’s Under 21 who are preparing for the Confederations Cup and the Under 21 European Cup respectively, in the hope of interpreting a protagonist’s role.

The first to be on the field is the National team coached by Lippi who still has one friendly to play: this afternoon the team will be playing against Tshwane Eleven , a selection of players from Pretoria clubs. This will be the last friendly which will yield furthe indications for Lippi. The coach already received quite a few from the match against New Zealand especially from Vincenzo Iaquinta who is currently in a brilliant state of grace and who score twice. The most utilized bianconero at the moment is Nicola Legrottaglie who was on the field for the full 90 minutes both against the All Blacks as well as against Northern Ireland. The other Juventus players are urging to go: Buffon, Chiellini, Cannavaro and Camoranesi, with the latter having played for half an hour against New Zealand.

The first official appointment for the azzurri will on Monday 15th in Pretoria at 20:30hrs against the USA. The other matches are scheduled for Thursday 18th against Egypt and Sunday 21st against Brazil. The first two of each group will qualify for the semi-finals. Italy is in Group 2 while Group 1 includes South Africa, New Zealand, Iraq and Spain.

One will have to wait for one more day to support the Under 21 squad. Casiraghi’s azzurrini will be playing on Tuesday 16th against Serbia in Helsingborg where they will also play against hosts Sweden on the 19th and Belosrussia on the 23rd. Even in this case the first two of each group will qualify for the semi-finals. Group B includes Finland, Germany, England and Spain. All eyes set on Giovinco who had a great match against Denmark in the 4-0 victory as well as De Ceglie and Marchisio.

source : juventus.com

Just outside the entrance of the Lega Calcio, president Cobolli Gigli answered to the questions made to him by the journalists with regards to Juventus’ interest in Udinese midfielder Gaetano D’Agostino: «The deal is long – he said – but the hope is there. We must make the requests and the offers meet». According to recent rumours Udinese requested Giovinco as part of the deal but Cobolli stated: «Ferrara is very interested in Sebastian». The president was also asked whether Ciro was somewhat of a bet to him (just like Maldini’s definition of new Milan coach Leonardo) to which he answered that Ferrara is a certainty «even though - he added – there is always much to bet on when it comes to work». In conclusion, more about the transfer market with regards o a possible interest in Pandev: «He is a good player – he said – but if we were interested we would speak to Lotito and at the moment this has not yet happened».

source : juventus.com

Valentino Rossi began the Grand Prix of Catalunya weekend fastest in Friday free practice, during a session that saw a fall for MotoGP World Championship leader Casey Stoner, a surprise premier-class debut for Gabor Talmacsi and Nicky Hayden’s best session as a Ducati rider.

Reigning six time MotoGP world champion Rossi, pushed back to third in the points behind Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, chased team-mate Lorenzo for much of the session before slicing ahead in the closing stages.

The Fiat Yamaha star finished the hour 0.302sec quicker than home star Lorenzo with Stoner 0.598sec from the #46 for Ducati. Stoner suffered a lowside fall from his Desmosedici with 15 minutes of the hour remaining and had to finish the session on his spare bike.

Fourth in practice, and where he has finished the last two races, was Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso, with the satellite LCR Honda of Randy de Puniet just behind him after an impressive performance.

But perhaps the happiest rider in the top six was Hayden, who enjoyed by far his best session of the year so far by lapping half a second slower than team-mate Stoner.

Hayden is yet to finish a race higher than twelfth on the Desmosedici, something he will be aiming to change at round six - although it should be noted that the American was still 1.1sec slower than Rossi.

Loris Capirossi was the leading Rizla Suzuki rider in seventh with Colin Edwards eighth for Monster Yamaha Tech 3.

A surprise ninth place went to Scot Honda’s Yuki Takahashi, whose place on the MotoGP grid has been put in doubt by Talmacsi’s sudden arrival alongside him.

The Japanese rookie responded excellently by lapping in the top half of the field, while former 125cc world champion Talmacsi closed the gap to the top from six seconds at the halfway mark of the hour to 4.6sec by the finish as he unsurprisingly rounded out the 19 rider field.

The final place in the top ten went to Tech 3’s James Toseland, with Marco Melandri eleventh for Hayate and Sete Gibernau twelfth on his comeback from collarbone surgery.

Chris Vermeulen was 13th on the second Suzuki, with Dani Pedrosa, who cracked his thigh bone in a near highside last time out at Mugello, 14th at the end of day one. Pedrosa, who won last year’s race, was due to try a new chassis for his Repsol Honda during the session.

This weekend’s event is the first this year to feature dual compound rear slicks - harder on the right than the left - and also the first time that the extra-hard rear compound has been on offer.

source : crash.net & motogp.com

Fiat Yamaha has defended its decision to send Valentino Rossi out on a hard compound front slick, which looked to cost the Italian his eighth home Mugello victory in a row.

Starting fourth on the grid, the reigning six-time MotoGP world champion made steady progress in the wet opening laps, taking the lead on lap 8 of 23. Although soon passed by countryman Marco Melandri, Rossi was still holding a close second place when he pitted for his dry bike.

The top four riders at the time - Melandri, Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner - all pitted at the end of lap 10.

Stoner returned to action with medium compound slicks front and rear on his Ducati, while Lorenzo’s side of the Yamaha garage went for a medium front/hard rear combination. However, team-mate Rossi returned with hard compound slicks both front and rear.

The hard front slick had been the expected choice had the full race been run in the dry, but took much longer to build temperature on the damp track - while the reduced dry distance meant endurance wasn’t such a critical factor.

The end result was that Stoner got quickly up to speed, overtaking the three he had pitted with to sit second behind Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso - who had pitted two laps earlier - by the end of his ‘out lap’.

By contrast, Rossi dropped back to sixth and, although he went on to set the fastest lap of the race, on lap 21 of 23, victory was already out of reach and the 30-year-old had to settle for third position, 2sec behind Stoner and 1sec from Lorenzo.

“Of course I am disappointed not to win again in Mugello but seven times in a row is not so bad and the important thing is that I made it onto the podium,” said Rossi. “It’s a very special moment in Mugello, with all the fans below, and I would have been very sad to have missed that!

“It was a very hard race today and once again the weather was a problem for us, we’re very unlucky in these half-and-half races and I think this is my first podium in one.”

Rossi’s first lap out of the pits on slicks was a 2min 13.483sec - compared with 2min 6.761sec for Stoner and 2min 10.526sec for Lorenzo. Rossi admitted that the front tyre choice had been ‘a mistake’.

“In the wet we were very fast because we had found a great setting, but then when we changed bikes we made a mistake and chose a front tyre that was too hard, so it took me a long time to be able to put enough temperature on it and I lost a lot of time,” he confirmed.

“At the end I was able to ride better and I knew that I had to make it onto the podium, so I am happy for this.”

Rossi was the only rider in the top five to run a hard front tyre, but team manager Davide Brivio defended the decision.

“It is easy to say now that we could have done things differently, but we took a decision before the race based on the characteristics of our bike, on Valentino’s riding style and on our experience,” said Brivio. “You only know at the end of the race if the decision you took was the right one.”

Rossi has now slipped from second to third in the championship, but is still within nine points of new leader Stoner with Lorenzo just five points ahead.

“Of course after Le Mans [where Rossi finished 16th and last] this is a big improvement and these points are important because it’s very close between the three of us,” said Rossi.

The next best rider to run hard compound slicks front and rear was sixth placed Colin Edwards, whose Tech 3 Yamaha finished 24sec behind Stoner.

source : crash.net