Phillip Island WSBK Test Day 2: Biaggi Fastest Again

The weather finally turned halfway decent for a test, with the sun out and temperatures rising for the World Superbike test at Phillip Island in Australia. The improved conditions saw Max Biaggi once again top the - admittedly very limited - timesheets with a lap of 1'32.3, but 2010 World Superbike champion - out on an Aprilia bearing the #1 plate - was only a couple of tenths faster than both Yamaha's Eugene Laverty and Biaggi's Aprilia teammate Leon Camier. Slowest man of the day was Laverty's teammate Marco Melandri, but even Melandri was just three tenths off Biaggi's fastest .

Biaggi and Camier spent the day testing the 2011 Ohlins forks once again, as well as a new swingarm, fuel tank and engine update, aimed at smoothing power delivery. The pair also tested new Pirellis, though whether those tires will be ready for the season opener on February 27th remains to be seen.

The day was spoiled by a couple of crashes, both happily ending without serious injury. Marco Melandri crashed and hurt a finger, though that did not slow him down, while Leon Camier came away from his crash unhurt, only to suffer a bird strike, the Englishman hitting one of Phillip Island's ubiquitous seagulls at high speed. That incident was painful enough for Camier to call an early halt to the test, after Camier suffered swelling in his arm

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János Drapál Geoff Duke Boet van Dulmen Barry Ditchburn Colin Edwards

Rossi?s opinion of the Lorenzo negotiations

This quote comes from the Spanish language website elmundodeportivo.es. The message and the sentiment are clear: “You aren’t worth what I get paid Jorge”.
From elmundodeportive.es, translation by Fans.Moto.GP (Thanks!):
What Jorge is looking for seems presumptuous to me: Arrive at Yamaha, and in his second year ask that he be given the same treatment as me. [...]

Silvano Bertarelli Albert Bertholet Guy Bertin Franco Bertoni Juan Bertran

Sachsenring 2009 MotoGP race analysis

While the weather had produced torrential downpours thoughout the preamble to this GP, it stayed dry for the action in Germany. As the riders lined up on the grid, there was a real feeling of anticipation as Rossi and Lorenzo, so close through practice until that awesome final qualifying lap from Valentino, pulled up next [...]

Romolo Balbi Jean François Balde Mike Baldinger Alex Baldolini Mike Baldwin

Sachsenring 2009 MotoGP race analysis

While the weather had produced torrential downpours thoughout the preamble to this GP, it stayed dry for the action in Germany. As the riders lined up on the grid, there was a real feeling of anticipation as Rossi and Lorenzo, so close through practice until that awesome final qualifying lap from Valentino, pulled up next [...]

Dennis Ireland Fumio Ito Shinichi Itoh Bill Ivy Olivier Jacque

Caution: Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health

Pirelli (makers of the 2011 Pirelli Calendar) and the Italian arm of ad firm Y&R (the NY arm of Y&R did the Xerox/Ducati ad set) want you to know that smoking can be hazardous to your health. Playing off the Surgeon General warning labels found on cigarette packages, Pirelli’s new ads show a motorcycling protagonist full of gusto putting one of his Italian doughnuts to good use with a puff of smoke and a mighty ...

Pat Hennen Manuel Hernández Santiago Herrero Tom Herron Wilfred Herron

Ratthapark Wilairot Update: Conscious, But Not Yet Speaking

More news on the condition of Ratthapark Wilairot, who was seriously injured in a road traffic accident that killed the rider of the motorcycle the Thai Moto2 rider was a passenger on. News emanating out of Thailand, in both the Bangkok Post and the website StayOnTheBlack.com suggests that happily, Wilairot's condition is improving.

According to the reports, Wilairot is now conscious, though the Stop&Go rider is still unable to talk. Fears of brain damage appear to have been allayed, as though Wilairot is not yet capable of speaking, he has been able to communicate with the doctors by a primitive sign language, and answer some of their questions.

Wilairot usually lives in Spain, but had returned to Thailand to attend his father's funeral. Christmas Wilairot, himself a former motorcycle racer, died last week of liver cancer. The service for Ratthapark's father has been postponed, in the hope that Ratthapark will have recovered sufficiently to attend his father's funeral.

Jarno Boesveld Jean Paul Boinet Karel Bojer Juan Bolart Gerhard Boll

Phillip Island WSBK Test Day 2: Biaggi Fastest Again

The weather finally turned halfway decent for a test, with the sun out and temperatures rising for the World Superbike test at Phillip Island in Australia. The improved conditions saw Max Biaggi once again top the - admittedly very limited - timesheets with a lap of 1'32.3, but 2010 World Superbike champion - out on an Aprilia bearing the #1 plate - was only a couple of tenths faster than both Yamaha's Eugene Laverty and Biaggi's Aprilia teammate Leon Camier. Slowest man of the day was Laverty's teammate Marco Melandri, but even Melandri was just three tenths off Biaggi's fastest .

Biaggi and Camier spent the day testing the 2011 Ohlins forks once again, as well as a new swingarm, fuel tank and engine update, aimed at smoothing power delivery. The pair also tested new Pirellis, though whether those tires will be ready for the season opener on February 27th remains to be seen.

The day was spoiled by a couple of crashes, both happily ending without serious injury. Marco Melandri crashed and hurt a finger, though that did not slow him down, while Leon Camier came away from his crash unhurt, only to suffer a bird strike, the Englishman hitting one of Phillip Island's ubiquitous seagulls at high speed. That incident was painful enough for Camier to call an early halt to the test, after Camier suffered swelling in his arm

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Woolsey Coulter Peter Courtney Gary Cowan Kevin Cowley Simon Crafar

Melandri?s Shoulder Healing After Successful Surgery

This off-season would have been bumpy enough for Marco Melandri, moving from the Gresini Honda MotoGP team to the factory Yamaha WSBK squad, but he’s been suffering from a “big pain with no reason,” that forced him to go for a scan on December 17th, and then have surgery on his right shoulder. Originally, even the official WSBK site posted that it was a “false alarm,” as “a scan did not reveal anything.” However, the ...

Michael Doohan Bill Doran Stefan Dorflinger Andrea Dovizioso János Drapál

Laverty Fastest On Final Day Of Phillip Island WSBK Test

The rain that had been hanging over the World Superbike test for the first two days finally came on the third and final day. But the factory Yamaha and Aprilia squads were still lucky, with the rain only starting to fall late on Thursday morning at Phillip Island, before disappearing again in the afternoon, giving the riders a couple more dry sessions at the Australian circuitl. It was Eugene Laverty who made best use of the session, putting on a set of soft tires to set the fastest time, with a lap of 1'31.5. The Yamaha rider finished ahead of Max Biaggi, once again the fastest of the two factory Aprilia riders, while Laverty's teammate Marco Melandri matched the pace of Aprilia's Leon Camier,

The rain did not go to waste, however. Marco Melandri took the opportunity to get some time on the Pirelli rain tires, having no experience on the Italian rubber, after having spent his career in the Grand Prix paddock racing Dunlops, Michelins and Bridgestones. His teammate Laverty was the only rider to test the softer tires, the two Aprilia riders using the harder race tires.

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Tommy Robb Kenny Roberts Kenny Roberts Jr Raymond Roche Angel Rodríguez

Phillip Island WSBK Test Photos

There may only have been four riders at the Phillip Island World Superbike test - Max Biaggi and Leon Camier of the Aprilia team, and Eugene Laverty and Marco Melandri of Yamaha - but that was reason enough for our good friend Andrew Gosling of TBG Sport to go shoot a few snaps. As always, it was well worth the effort. Enjoy!

It's summer in Australia. This is what summer looks like in Phillip Island

Max Biaggi will be running the #1 plate on the bike and #3 on his helmet. Hope he's not overly superstitious

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Sylvain Guintoli  Werner Haas Silvio Habat Larbi Habbiche Ron Hackett