Yonny Hernández finishes third after a great race. Iván Silvá improves but fails to score any points Losail, 8 April 2012. Fantastic debut for the Avintia Blusens and Yonny Hernández in the top category of the world championship as he managed to score the first points for the team after he crossed the finish in the fourteenth position of the general ranking and in the third position among the CRTs. After he made an excellent start Yonny took the lead among the CRTs and kept it until Colin Edwards and his developed bike came along. After a few laps in second position he managed to withstand attacks from De Puniet on his Aprilia until the French rider made a mistake and lost a few positions. De Puniet managed to regain positions but failed to pass the Colombian rider on his BQR-FTR until lap 10 when he took advantage of his powerful motorbike. From then on Yonny rode consistently and fast maintaining a high pace which enabled him to cross the finish in third position ahead of much more developed motorbikes such as Aprilia. For his part, Iván gave a good performance after a bad start which took him down to the sixteenth position ahead of De Pasini and Ellison. A better result compared with the training practices but still insufficient to score any points. Raúl Romero (Team Manager MotoGP): “íf yesterday I was happy with the training practices results today I am even happier. Sincerely I think we have done a great job and surprised more than a rival. Yonny gave a great performance during the race scoring points and finishing third among the CRTs. It’s a great result. Iván experienced a few issues with the front wheel assembly but he improved compared with the training practices and is now really close to score points. Given the very short time we have had to work I think we have given our maximum. I would like to thank our technicians and mechanics who have done a perfect job throughout these months of hard work.” 68 Yonny Hernández (14º 44.00.157 + 1’15.943): “I am really happy. We have done a great job throughout the weekend and I hope we´ll be able to keep it up. Electronics still needs to be improved if we want to be more competitive in the final laps but I am truly happy with the result and the way the team has worked. I would like to thank all the members as well as my parents who have always supported me so I could make it here. I am motivated and convinced we’ll do better in Jerez.” 22 Iván Silvá (16º 44.27.541 +1´43.327): “Obviously it hasn’t been a good wekend. I haven’t been able to get a motorbike I could feel comfortable with and we have had a lot of issues with the front wheel assembly. I have given the mechanics a lot of work and I’d like to thank them for trying it all until the end. The most positive thing is that we managed to finish off the race and improved our results against the traning practices. I finished fifth among the CRTs and we nearly scored. It’s the first race and there are a lot more to come. Things can only go better in Jerez.” More, from a press release issued by Indianapolis Motor Speedway: MotoGP RACE REPORT: GRAND PRIX OF QATAR Lorenzo rallies to pass Stoner late for victory in exciting season opener INDIANAPOLIS, Sunday, April 8, 2012 Jorge Lorenzo passed reigning World Champion Casey Stoner with three laps remaining and held on for victory Sunday, April 8 in the Grand Prix of Qatar, the 2012 season opener in the MotoGP World Championship. 2010 World Champion Lorenzo, from Spain, rode his factory Yamaha to victory by .852 seconds over Dani Pedrosa, Stoner’s teammate at Repsol Honda. Stoner ended up third, 2.908 seconds behind Lorenzo. Yamaha Tech 3 teammates Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso finished fourth and fifth, respectively. 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden led the American contingent, finishing sixth on a factory Ducati after chasing a tough fight with Alvaro Bautista, Stefan Bradl and Hector Barbera over the closing laps. Ben Spies finished a disappointing 11th on his factory Yamaha, while Colin Edwards placed 12th on his NGM Mobile Forward Racing Suter-BMW and was the first finisher among the new Claiming Rule Teams (CRT) machines. 2009 Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner Lorenzo started from the pole but surrendered the lead to Stoner on Lap 3 of the 22-lap race. Stoner stretched his lead to nearly two seconds by the halfway point of the race. But Stoner was troubled in the second half of the race by painful arm pump severe cramping and pain in the forearms. Lorenzo chipped away at his lead every lap before making the decisive pass. The next race is the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, April 29 at the Jerez Circuit. The Red Bull Indianapolis GP is the 11th of 18 races this season, Sunday, Aug. 19 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. PODIUM FINISHER QUOTES JORGE LORENZO (Winner, Yamaha Factory Racing): “What an amazing race. I put everything I have, all my energy into the track. This victory is because I never gave up, kept pushing and trying. Casey was very strong at the beginning and opened a gap. Fortunately for us, he struggled at the end and dropped his pace where I could keep mine, so I managed to pass him. I am very grateful to Yamaha because they have made a big step this winter on the YZR-M1.” DANI PEDROSA (Second, Repsol Honda Team): “I’m very happy with this result because we have been able to turn around all the problems we had during the weekend. After a good preseason, we got here, and everything went wrong. I had flu and a fever. I crashed on Friday. Then the qualifying practice was a disaster. So it’s very good to leave here with this podium, even if I feel little bit sad because I thought I could win this race. I had it in my hands for a while. CASEY STONER (Third, Repsol Honda Team): “It wasn’t really the way we wanted to finish the race weekend here. The bike was working well for us. I definitely had the package and the pace to lead the field, which was really positive. However, I suffered from really bad arm pump. After three or four laps, I felt it, but it gradually got worse. I tried to pull a little gap from Jorge and Dani and put in the minimal effort possible to retain the gap and try and win, but as the race continued it got worse and worse and eventually the muscles had nothing more to give. I couldn’t hold onto the handle bars properly and it made things really difficult.” AMERICAN RIDER QUOTE BEN SPIES (Yamaha Factory Racing, 11th): “A tough race, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes. I tested my airbag twice this weekend; good to know it works well. We’ll go back to Jerez now and hopefully have the bike issue sorted. It was good that Jorge won. We can see the Yamaha is going well. We just had a big problem with chatter, so we have to work out what it was.” POINTS Riders: Jorge Lorenzo 25, Dani Pedrosa 20, Casey Stoner 16, Cal Crutchlow 13, Andrea Dovizioso 11, Nicky Hayden 10, Alvaro Bautista 9, Stefan Bradl 8, Hector Barbera 7, Valentino Rossi 6, Ben Spies 5, Colin Edwards 4, Randy de Puniet 3, Yonny Hernandez 2, Aleix Espargaro 1. Manufacturers: Yamaha 25, Honda 20, Ducati 10, Suter 4, ART 3, BQR-FTR 2. MotoGP SUPPORT CLASS WINNERS Moto2: Marc Marquez, Spain, Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol Suter-Honda. Moto3: Maverick Vinales, Spain, Blusens Avintia FTR-Honda. 2012 tickets: Tickets for the 2012 Red Bull Indianapolis GP MotoGP event, scheduled for Aug. 17-19 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, are on sale now at www.imstix.com , by calling (800) 822-INDY or (317) 492-6700 or by visiting the IMS Ticket Office at the IMS Administration Building at the corner of Georgetown Road and 16th Street between 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ET) Monday-Friday. Tickets for groups of 20 or more also are on sale. Contact the IMS Group Sales Department at (866) 221-8775 for more information. Information on camping at IMS during the Red Bull Indianapolis GP is available at www.imstix.com. Hotel package information can be found at visitindy.com/redbull. More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: Hayden sixth in Qatar Grand Prix, Rossi tenth At the opening round of the MotoGP season, the Ducati Team earned a sixth-place finish with Nicky Hayden and tenth place with Valentino Rossi. The American didn’t get a great start, but his performance improved steadily as the laps ticked down, and he came out on top of a hard-fought battle with Alvaro Bautista, Stefan Bradl and Hector Barbera to finish in sixth place. Having started from the twelfth spot on the grid after a difficult qualifying session, Valentino Rossi dealt with a number of problems but worked hard the entire race, eventually turning decent lap times. The racing department in Bologna and the Ducati Team engineers will continue to develop the GP12 in an effort to make progress for the next Grand Prix, which will take place in Jerez, Spain, on April 27-29. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 6th “I felt we had the potential to run with Dovizioso and Crutchlow, but considering my injuries and limited testing over the winter, I guess sixth is pretty good. I lost some positions at the beginning because I got hung up behind Spies and wasn’t very good on the brakes, but as the race went on, I managed my tyre well and got stronger. That group I was in was fighting hard, and I was happy to bring Bradl back and come out on top of that battle. We put some good points on the board, got some data and learned a lot from riding with other people. I’m excited for the season. I think if we improve some things, we have the potential to put up some good results. I’d like to thank the team, the sponsors and everybody back at Ducati for all their work, because we’ve clearly taken a step forward since last year.” Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 10th “Unfortunately, I lost a lot of time in the beginning because when I had new tyres with good grip, the rear pushed a lot, making it very difficult under braking. Then Barbera pushed me off the track and I lost five or six seconds. Otherwise, I could have stayed with that group. As the tyre became used and began to slide, I started to ride a bit better and to do better times, to the point that I matched my best time on the last lap. By that point though, it didn’t count for much.” Vittoriano Guareschi (Team Manager) “It was a challenging weekend for our team, but we can also look at some positive aspects as we continue to focus on working with the still-young GP12. Valentino had a difficult qualifying session, and he had problems in the race, particularly in the early laps with fresh tyres. We must learn how to solve this, because in the end he posted some good times. Nicky felt more comfortable during practice, and today he rode with great determination, scrapping with Bautista, Bradl and Barbera to win the hard fight for sixth place. We’ll compare the data and the information we gathered from both riders in order to improve our bike for Jerez.” More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing Team: Top ten for Redding and Kallio in Qatar season opener Doha, Qatar – 9 April 2012: The Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding took a solid sixth place finish in tonight’s Grand Prix of Qatar, the opening round of the 2012 Moto2 World Championship, with Mika Kallio just four places further back in tenth. Redding started tonight’s 20-lap race from 13th position on the grid, after a difficult qualifying session yesterday, but immediately set about making up places from the start. The Marc VDS rider maintained a consistent pace through the early stages, picking up places on every lap and eventually joining the group battling for the lead. Unable to close on the leading trio, Redding was involved in an intense battle with Di Meglio and Corsi for sixth place during the closing stages, eventually getting the better of his rivals to claim a creditable sixth place at the chequered flag. Kallio started one place behind his Marc VDS teammate after struggling to make up for time lost to a mechanical problem during Friday’s final free practice session. The 31-year-old Finn struggled to overcome front-end chatter issues from the start, but managed to make up places as the race progressed. A final push in the closing stages saw the Marc VDS rider take tenth place, a position he held to the finish line. The Marc VDS Racing Team now have a two week break before the next round of the 2012 Moto2 World Championship in Jerez, which kicks off with free practice on Friday 27th April. Scott Redding #45: 6th Position “That was a hard race, which was made harder by starting so far back on the grid. I made up as many places as I could on the opening lap then got my head down and just picked people off as they appeared in front of me. I got held up a bit behind Smith, who was pushing hard, which meant I’d run out of tyre when I eventually made it onto the back of the leading group. I had a good battle with Corsi and Di Meglio, but kept a bit in hand so I could pass them before the finish. I enjoyed the race, but it just shows how different things could have been if we’d qualified better yesterday.” Mika Kallio #36: 10th Position “I didn’t get the good start I was looking for and immediately I had a problem with front-end chatter. I tried to adapt my riding style to counter this, but pushing aggressively or riding more smoothly didn’t really make any difference. It got worse as the race went on and, even though I wasn’t pushing that hard, it felt like I was on the limit. In the end tenth was the best I could do, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. We came here with high expectations, which we didn’t manage to achieve. Now we must look to Jerez, for where we know after testing that we have a good set-up for the bike.” Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal “Starting from the fifth row of the grid was always going to make it tough for Scott and Mika tonight, but they fought hard for position in the race and both did well to break into the top ten here. Scott played it perfectly, progressing through the field quickly to join the back of the leading group. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to fight his way through to the front, but sixth place is the best start he’s made to a season in Moto2, so we’re pretty happy with that. Mika also did a good job to finish inside the top ten, after struggling with front-end chatter, and pick up his first championship points in the opening race. I’m satisfied to leave the first race with two top ten finishes and the points to go with them, but we need to make sure we don’t have the same qualifying issues next time out in Jerez.” More, from a press release issued by Team Thai Honda Gresini Moto2: NO POINTS FOR WILAIROT IN QATAR Rattapark Wilairot gave his best in tonight’s season-opening Grand Prix of Qatar but unfortunately it served for little, the Thai rider unable to perform to his full potential due to set-up problems that have dogged the team all weekend. The team now have three weeks to try and come up with a better solution ahead of the next race in Jerez, Spain. Ratthapark Wilairot (21st) “We knew it was going to be a tough race tonight but we set ourselves the target of making it to the end of the race, preferably in the top twenty or top fifteen if possible, because we need as much data as possible. I am very happy with the team, we are all working hard together but we just don’t have the bike at the moment. Hopefully we can have something better at Jerez.” Fausto Gresini “We knew it was going to be a tough race and we were right. Ratthapark gave his best and he deserves to have a better bike beneath him for the next race. We will work our hardest to give it to him and I am sure the results will come quickly.” More, from a press release issued by Team Federal Oil Gresini Moto2: DEBUT TO FORGET FOR GINO REA ino Rea’s lack of feeling for his Moriwaki Moto2 machine continued into his Grand Prix debut tonight, the British rider bravely battling to the finish despite the high risk of a crash. The team now face a race against the clock to produce a better machine ahead of the next round at Jerez. Gino Rea (26th) “I am very disappointed. It has been a tough weekend with many problems. We tried something different for the race but it didn’t help to be honest. Even at this pace it felt dangerous on the edge of the tyre and I was constantly close to a crash. To almost be on the floor on every lap is not right when you are this far from the front so we have work to do. We can see the problems on the data and the team are working really hard. Hopefully we can come up with something for the next race.” Fausto Gresini “We knew it would be a difficult race. Gino has been struggling all weekend and we have not seen his true potential here. We have to work hard to give him a better bike for the next races and when we do his performances will be much better.”Fausto Gresini “We knew it would be a difficult race. Gino has been struggling all weekend and we have not seen his true potential here. We have to work hard to give him a better bike for the next races and when we do his performances will be much better.” More, from a press release issued by Tech 3 Racing: Battling Smith claims hard fought top 10 in Qatar Tech 3 Racing rider Bradley Smith kicked off the 2012 Moto2 World Championship with a battling ride to ninth position after overcoming physical and mechanical problems in an exciting season opener at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. A fast start off the line immediately launched Smith into the top 10 from the fourth row of the grid and he commenced a stunning charge towards a group of eight riders dicing it out for the podium in the opening half of the race. But he was unfortunately unable to sustain his challenge when he suffere d a technical problem with the rear brake of his Mistral 610 machine on lap 12, which prevented him from entering corners with the same confidence. Smith also tired in the closing stages after producing a heroic effort to stay in contention for the top 10 after he was struck down by a bout of food poisoning overnight. He finished ninth and was only 10 seconds behind the winner and the 21-year-old is optimistic he will be fighting for the top six when the season resumes in Jerez on April 29. Xavier Simeon also had the pace to be battling inside the points-scoring places but he was thwarted by a mistake at the final corner on the first lap. Simeon briefly ran off track and dropped do wn to 25th place before he embarked on brilliant recovery that put him just 1.3s away from the top 15 at the end of the 20-lap race. Bradley Smith 9th 7 points: “I gave my absolute maximum out there tonight and I am really happy considering the circumstances to finish in ninth. It has been a tough winter while we have worked so hard to improve the Mistral 610 machine, so this top 10 gives me good motivation for the forthcoming races. The Tech 3 Team did a fantastic job and each time I went out on the bike we made a big step. The race was going well and I was having good battle with de Angelis when I lost my rear brake just after halfway. That meant I made a few mistakes and physically I was tired because of the food poisoning. I’m just glad I trained so hard in the winter because I was drained of a lot of energy by the sickness. To be only 10 seconds behind the winner is a decent result because after qualifying it looked like it could be 20. So we found half-a-second for the race and now I am looking to Jerez with a lot of confidence.” Xavier Simeon 17th 0 points: “I’m pretty disappointed because I made a good first lap and my goal was to finish in the top 10. I’m convinced if I hadn’t a mistake in the last corner during the first lap I would have reached this goal. I made a mistake while changing gear and went out of the track. When I came back I tried everything to climb back up the field but the pace was that close that it was really tricky. I never gave up and kept pushing at my maximum level and when I look at my lap time I know that I would have been able to finish in the points, so it’s a shame. I came to Qatar with high expectations and unfortunately I could not achieve them, so I hope to do a better job in Jerez.” Herve Poncharal Team Manager: “Moto2 has always delivered some incredibly exciting racing and I’m glad to see nothing has changed in 2012. I’m very pleased to see Bradley in full attack mode in a race again and he was very aggressive at the beginning. For the first half of the race he was in the leading group and we knew we would have a very good second half of the race because the Mistral 610 is really good on used tyres. But unfortunately Bradley was very sick during the night, so his physical condition was not perfect. He was completely exhausted after the race and I want to thank him for riding such a determined race when he wasn’t in peak condition. I think he had to potential to finish in the top six, which is ve ry important to see that we can be really competitive. I also feel sorry and at the same time happy for Xavier because he did a good opening lap but he made a small mistake. After that though he got his head down and managed to do very good lap times, so for sure without this mistake he would have finished in the top 15. I’m convinced that both guys have the possibility to show us a lot of very good performances this season and I’m really looking forward to the next race in Jerez.” More, from a press release issued by Bel-Ray: Bel-Ray Racing-Weekend Racing Wrap-Up April 9, 2012 The first round of the 2012 MotoGP series began this weekend at the Losail circuit in Qatar with the Bel-Ray sponsored Team Aspar in action. The Spain-based team competes in all 3 divisions of World Championship racing and fields two rider teams in each class. Team Aspar’s entry in the premier MotoGP class consisted of Randy DuPuniet and Aleix Espargaro. The Power Electronics Aspar riders had a difficult opening round of the 2012 season, with many unexpected setbacks, limiting their success. Both riders persevered through adversity and finished within the top 15 against the best MotoGP racers in the world. DuPuniet was 13th and Espargaro was 15th at the end of the race. Bel-Ray’s entry into the Moto2 class for 2012 consisted of the Mapfre Aspar racing team. Toni Elias and Nico Terol are the team’s riders in this highly competitive class. Competing within the Top 10 during the early laps of the race, Elias slipped back to a 13th place finish after struggling with tire grip as the event drew to a close. In his Moto2 class debut, Terol looked strong, but an over-exuberant charge through the pack saw him run-off track early and he was only able to recover for a 23rd place finish. The Moto3 class is the newest class in world championship classification for 2012. Replacing the 125cc class, Moto3, promises to be a competitive, exciting addition to the race day schedule. Hector Faubel and Alberto Moncayo are the Bel-Ray racers in the class aboard the Bankia Aspar team. Despite struggling all weekend with chassis handling problems, both racers were able to put in respectable rides in the inaugural race. Faubel scored a 12th and Moncayo scored a 14th place finish at the end of the race. The MotoGP series continues in Spain on April 29th.