MotoGP News - Vinales leads Quartararo in Assen MotoGP FP2
https://ift.tt/2Jcy20y Yamaha's Maverick Vinales topped the second practice session ahead of the Dutch TT with a lap just 0.011s shy of the Assen MotoGP lap record Motogp Motorcycle Racing News via MotoGP news - Autosport https://ift.tt/2uOa9Ei June 28, 2019 at 08:48AM
MotoGP News - Lorenzo to miss Assen MotoGP race after fracturing back in FP1 fall
https://ift.tt/2NgNiPl Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo will miss Sunday's Dutch TT at Assen after fracturing his back in a crash in the first free practice session on Friday morning Motogp Motorcycle Racing News via MotoGP news - Autosport https://ift.tt/2uOa9Ei June 28, 2019 at 08:18AM
F1 News - Austrian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton quickest in opening practice session
https://ift.tt/2xg7TbH Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton headed Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel in first practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. Hamilton was 0.144 seconds quicker than Vettel on one of the shortest tracks of the year but was on soft tyres while the German was on the slower medium. Vettel spent the session trying new parts on his Ferrari and was 0.017secs up on the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fourth quickest, ahead of Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly. Bottas has never been out-qualified by a team-mate at the Red Bull Ring and the Finn admitted at the start of the weekend that his hopes of challenging Hamilton for the title hang on his performances "in the next few races". He is already 36 points behind Hamilton after just eight races, six of which the Briton has won for his best ever start to a season. Vettel has also not given up hope of challenging for the title, but has admitted that Ferrari need to improve their car soon if he is to do so. Ferrari were trying again the new floor that was trialled last weekend in France but abandoned because it did not bring the performance expected. Ferrari say they were running the parts to try to understand why they did not work in France when they were expected to. The car also had some new aerodynamic fairings under the nose. Hamilton was one of a number of drivers to run wide and damage his car on the aggressive kerbs that are placed at some parts of the track. Hamilton damaged his front wing slightly at the last corner on his quickest lap. Renault's Nico Hulkenberg did much more damage at the penultimate corner, ripping off one side of his front wing on the yellow 'sausage' kerbs on the exit there. The German then smashed some other aerodynamic parts under the car as he rejoined the track on the exit of the last corner, littering the track with carbon-fibre debris. Hulkenberg's moment brought out a red flag and ended the session a few minutes earlier. Racing Point's Lance Stroll also had a moment, having a big sideways snap on the exit of Turn Four, but he managed to catch the car and avoid an accident. Behind the top six, McLaren's Carlos Sainz was best of the midfield runners in seventh, ahead of Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and the second McLaren of Lando Norris. Both Sainz and Toro Rosso's Alexander Albon will start at the back of the grid as a result of penalties for using too many engine parts after fitting upgraded engines. Hulkenberg is expected to join them when he takes the new specification Renault engine that Ricciardo fitted at the last race in France. #F1 via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6 June 28, 2019 at 05:45AM
MotoGP News - Lorenzo hospitalised after fast Dutch MotoGP FP1 crash
https://ift.tt/31WLnTl Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo has been taken to hospital following a fast fall in Dutch Grand Prix FP1, having reported pain in his chest and back Motogp Motorcycle Racing News via MotoGP news - Autosport https://ift.tt/2uOa9Ei June 28, 2019 at 05:17AM
MotoGP News - Quartararo tops Dutch MotoGP FP1 as Lorenzo crashes
https://ift.tt/2J9Plj2 Petronas SRT rider Fabio Quartararo narrowly beat Yamaha stablemate Maverick Vinales to top FP1 ahead of the MotoGP Dutch TT, as Jorge Lorenzo's session ended in a big crash Motogp Motorcycle Racing News via MotoGP news - Autosport https://ift.tt/2uOa9Ei June 28, 2019 at 04:47AM
Motorcycle News - Nought Tea – Royal Enfield GT 650
https://ift.tt/2XegDP7 During the press launch of the Royal Enfield 650 Twins, they announced plans to work closely with custom builders in 2019. Well, they’ve certainly kept their promise! To date, they collaborated on an impressive 12 custom projects with both workshops and aftermarket brands. Amongst them is an S&S performance recording breaking land speed racer and a Continental GT 650 drag bike that’s taking part in the Sultans of Sprint race series. This latest project was created as part of another special collaboration with one of Enfield’s closest partners, Harris Performance. Using their extensive, race proven knowledge Harris have created their own interpretation of a Royal Enfield 650 cafe racer. Motorcycles via Return of the Cafe Racers https://ift.tt/2M9riRb June 27, 2019 at 07:27PM
Motorcycle News - MO Tested: Pirelli Angel GT II Tire Review
https://ift.tt/2ZSVaYB It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden a motorcycle on the streets purely for the fun of it. Sure, I spend several hours a week carving up the local canyon roads of Southern California near my home, but this is more a means to stay sane. Routine therapy. I also usually take a motorbike to run errands around the city, but to be fair, soaring through swarms of Los Angeles traffic can sometimes feel like you’re flying a military sortie over a battlefield that’s full of soldiers who have forgotten what they’re fighting for, no longer care about the cause, and just want to make it home alive. This is not using motorcycling to unwind, this is using a motorcycle to survive. That’s why I got excited when I was told that my upcoming trip to Southern Italy to test liter-bikes and Pirelli tires for Motorcycle.com would include a day dedicated to just riding the hills and byways of a quaint seafront town called Forza di’ Agro, in Sicily. The assignment was to give a proper wringing of Pirelli’s newest Angel GT II Sport Touring tires under real world conditions, then give my impressions. I was picked up at my hotel by the head of Pirelli’s tire development, Salvo Pennisi, and driven to Pirelli’s hidden warehouse where they stash all their testing motorcycles. Salvo, myself, and a handful of other riders from Pirelli’s testing staff, suited up in our street gear, and chose which bike we’d like to ride, from a selection of machines all equipped with their Angel GT II rubber. Given first pick, I immediately nicked an unassuming 2019 KTM 1290 Superduke GT that seemed patiently waiting there on its kickstand like a confident thoroughbred racehorse, equally content to either hang out in the barn with the other horses, find a little filly to take a nap next to, or be taken out to stretch his legs for all that his breeding was worth. Let’s do that, Duke! Salvo led the way, I followed in the P2 position. Now, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of riding modern motorbikes around the roads of Europe, especially with locals, and especially in Italy, it doesn’t take long when doing so to realize that one of the driving forces behind our much adored Ducati, BMW, Aprilia, KTM, and other manufacturers to keep building higher-performance, more competent, extremely capable sporting motorcycles, is to meet the demand by their customers. Many street riders, outside of stuffy countries, ride these top-shelf inventions the way they were intended to be ridden; very very well. Experienced riders, in my experience, do not live to go as fast as humanly possible at all times, on the street. They instead opt for the most efficient strategies to get them from point A to point B. Sometimes this allows for some higher velocities, sometimes this encourages a course of action which is slower and smarter. But efficiency is the name of the game, and Salvo and his boys are skilled motorcycle riders. There is little in this world more enjoyable to me than riding among good riders. It’s happened to me several times around the world, and there’s no mystery as to why we can find capable riders all over the world; we share the same motorcycles and tires. One awesome trait about the Sport Touring segment, and their respective tires, is they are arguably the most versatile products offered to the motorcycling world. With 17″ wheels, huge torque inside their reliable engines, comfortable seats some decent wind protection – while at the same time offering nimble maneuverable chassis – it’s no wonder the “GT” or Grand Turismo class of bikes are growing in popularity. On this day, the sun was out, the sea was transparent, altitudes varied, and the old village reflected palettes of orange, blues, yellows, beige and browns. The fastest bits of our ride were beautifully fast, the slow bits stopped us dead in our tracks for several minutes. Queuing in Sicily, whether on foot or road, seem mere suggestions. But, nobody seems to care, no one gets uptight, they just all funnel into an open hole and eventually everyone gets through. What’s your rush? It’s a beautiful day. As our Grand Tour continued, the Pirelli Angel GT II simply blew me away with how well it accomplished so many different tasks. When the air temperature was hot, and we went carving up some seriously twisty hillsides, the tires had very good side grip. When we went tearing down expressways, the chassis and the bars remained stable, even when the road surface became bumpy and erratic. Under hard braking and trail-braking, I was given great feedback and confidence in the front-end. When maneuvering at slow speeds, around tourists who were walking down the cobblestone streets in Forza di’ Agro, the KTM dropped in and flicked around them with ease. We stopped a couple times, once for an espresso and again to walk around the oldest parts of the town. Salvo gave me some great history lessons on Sicily, the most memorable moments being that seemingly every single empire, big or small, had invaded or tried to occupy Sicily at one time or another, but the Sicilian people were stubborn and eventually kicked them all out. Another bit of trivia; Forza di’ Agro served as the backdrop for several scenes in The Godfather trilogy films. Still looks the same today. By this point, I’m starting to love motorcycling again, for all the right reasons. Next, we headed over to the Pergusa short circuit testing race track to put a couple laps on the Angel GT IIs. In a short amount of time, the outside air temperatures dropped drastically and it actually started to rain heavily. Being a good guest tester, I immediately took to the track with the same KTM and Angel GT IIs I had abused all day on the roads. As I exited the pit lane for the first time ever, and in the wet, within three corners I was dragging my knees. Quite incredible, really. I’ve been around a long time and have ridden on countless bikes, tires, and race tracks, but I don’t ever recall riding on a single set of tires that could do so many different things, so well, in one complete package. Usually, our tires either last a long time with low grip, or they’re awesome in the rain but suck in the dry. Or, give us an insane amount of grip, but last about as long as a tank of racing fuel. Whenever I used to mount up the stickiest rubber I dared on my 1000cc sport bikes used for training purposes when preparing for an upcoming road race, I could typically get all of about 400 miles on a rear tire before it went bald, riding on “live” public canyon roads. 400 miles. And, if I couldn’t always source out a lot of them for free, they’d start costing me about $275. Each. That’s real money for four days of street use. Reportedly, the tire life expectancy for a set of Angel GT IIs approach and often surpass 10,000 miles before a rear tire change is required. This isn’t a fair comparison between apples and apples, but for sure it speaks to the question of, “What do we really need our tires to do?” And, how good do they need to perform in the dry before we discount all of the other benefits a good set of Sport Touring tires can now bring; like high-mileage and good wet performance just in case we get caught out in a downpour far away from home? We are very simply living in a new era of high-quality motorcycling, and these latest leaps and improvements have come in a relatively short amount of time. The Angel GT IIs are offered in the most popular 17-inch sizes, which means they’ll fit on most sport bikes as well as sport tourers. There’s even one 19″ front option, if you’re into that kind of thing. A little white paper info, the new Angels have been given an updated profile to promote linear behavior during lean transitions, updated compounds (dual on the rear, single on the front) to promote good sportiness but also offer high mileage in the centers, and a new tread pattern that is virtually identical to the race intermediates used in World Superbike. For what it’s worth, I liked the way the tires looked on all of the bikes; the tread pattern, the fonts, logos and stamps on their sidewalls, and their overall shape. These tires reek quality. High-mileage tires are slightly heavier compared to pure hyper-sport tires, hence the higher mileage and increased durability. Pirelli also offers a heavier-duty “Type A” variant for bigger touring bikes which aim to get loaded up with extra-heavy gear, etc. Sport touring bikes are the new hybrid between pure sport and, well, touring. They’ve kind of crept up on me, now in my older age (I’m closing in on 50). Maybe I no longer need to be such a snob, who’s only interested in the fastest way through a series of corners. But to rediscover what motorcycling used to be, and can be again. Fun! Sharing a day or more with good people all riding their own bikes is genuinely half the fun of motorcycling. Everyone’s in a great mood, there’s oxygen in the lungs, you’re all getting a bit of exercise, and most of our daily troubles are whisked away for that moment of adventure and camaraderie. In parting, this is the kind of story you might hear when you set out to unearth imaginative new ways to gather miles atop a usable motorcycle. I thought this was hilarious: Salvo, the Pirelli development team boss, tells me a recent tale through a strong Italian accent, “Every Monday following a MotoGP race, and for several hours, half the office would debate how awesome Valentino Rossi was, the other half would counter with the opposite.” ‘He is his own biggest fan!’ ‘He’s the greatest of all time!’ ‘The commentators speak of no one else, no matter where he is on the track!’ ‘I’ll fight any man that speaks badly about Vale!’ ‘Yamaha needs to give the ride to someone else!’ ‘The sport owes everything to him!’ ‘He’s too old!’ Salvo continues with a smile, “So, I had to start regulating Mondays following every grand prix. Employees could only speak about Valentino Rossi from 8am to 8:30am, then that’s it. Get it out of your systems, then there will be no more mention of him. Back to work.” Ah, motorcycling.
The post MO Tested: Pirelli Angel GT II Tire Review appeared first on Motorcycle.com. Motorcycles via Motorcycle.com https://ift.tt/2Std7JO June 27, 2019 at 05:28PM
Motorcycle News - New Ducati Panigale V4 Spy Shots Leaked
https://ift.tt/2Ye8giO Despite the fact Ducati has hit it big with the Panigale V4R this year, racking up numerous World Superbike victories with Alvaro Bautista (and, let’s be honest, likely the 2019 WSBK title), it appears as though Ducati isn’t done with the Panigale V4, as these spy photos Motorcycle.com has received would indicate. From these lo-res photos it looks like the Panigale in question here is the V4S – or some variation of it. The major indicator being the fairing shape and its lack of cutouts or heat extractors, as seen on the top-shelf V4R. This would mean we’re dealing with the 1103cc version of the V4. The setting is clearly a track test, and judging by the large number 1 on the front and side number plates, either Ducati is already getting cocky about the 2019 WSBK title or is honoring its past WSBK triumphs. We’re going to guess it’s the latter. While it would be easy to dismiss these photos as one of the many Ducatisti simply changing the graphics on their Panigale V4 and hitting the track, something seems… different here. The obvious one being the rider fully decked out in Ducati gear – a strong indication this is an official Ducati test of some sort. Apart from the special livery, other notable tidbits we can see include magnesium wheels, Öhlins suspension (hard to tell whether they’re electronic or not from these photos), and possibly a taller windscreen. Digging into the MO conspiracy machine, a little math tells us it’s been 25 years since Ducati’s favorite Brit, Carl Fogarty, won his first WSBK title. A quarter century is a notable milestone, and what manufacturer doesn’t like celebrating milestones? Peeking at the photo of the rider on track, and maybe it’s just me, but it seems as though those are Foggy’s distinctive piercing eyes glaring through the clear faceshield. Could this be an anniversary model? If so, expect something special – and rare – to come soon. Of course, we’ll have more information as it becomes available. The post New Ducati Panigale V4 Spy Shots Leaked appeared first on Motorcycle.com. Motorcycles via Motorcycle.com https://ift.tt/2Std7JO June 27, 2019 at 04:58PM
F1 News - F1 teams to blame for dull races, says Formula E boss Agag
https://ift.tt/2KJFmUv Formula 1 teams should have no say in the governance of the sport, says Formula E founder Alejandro Agag. Mercedes have won all eight F1 races in 2019, with six wins for Lewis Hamilton and two for Valtteri Bottas. After a start-to-finish win in France, Hamilton put the blame on the sport's bosses and former F1 leader Bernie Ecclestone for the unexciting races. Agag said: "What happened in Formula 1 is the fault of the teams. It isn't the responsibility of the FIA or promoter." The Spaniard, who is also the chief executive of the all-electric Formula E series, added: "The only way for Formula 1 in the future to have a healthy championship is to get the teams out of the governance completely. "The teams have their own interest, which is completely legitimate, but they shouldn't be allowed to introduce that interest into the equation. "The teams should let [motorsport's governing body] the FIA make the decisions, together with the promoter. "If I were Chase [Carey, F1 chairman], I would be looking at this saying, 'Oh my god, how do I fix this? I own the circus but I cannot change the order of the show." After Sunday's win, five-time world champion Hamilton, who has won the past four F1 races, said: "Don't point fingers at the drivers, we don't write the rules. "We have nothing to do with money shifting, all that kind of stuff. You should put the pressure on the people at the head, who should be doing the job. "This is a constant cycle of Formula 1 for years and years, even before I got to F1, and it's because the way Bernie had it set up and the decisions they were making back then and it's the same now. "Until that management structure changes, it will continue to be the same." Hamilton leads the F1 championship by 36 points over Bottas with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel a further 40 points behind before this weekend's race in Austria. AnalysisAndrew Benson, BBC chief F1 writer Alejandro Agag is admired for the relative success he has made of Formula E in a relatively short time, but his analysis of the political situation in Formula 1 leaves something to be desired. It is simply untrue to say: "What happened in Formula 1 is the fault of the teams. It is not the responsibility of the FIA or the promoter." The single biggest issue in F1 at the moment is that it is a two-tier championship in which only three teams can have a hope of winning, and one of those three - Mercedes - is doing a better job than the other two, Ferrari and Red Bull. The two-tier championship has arisen out of an inequitable split in the prize fund, which disproportionately rewards the top teams. This, as it happens, was created by the man who used to be Agag's opposite number in F1, Bernie Ecclestone. Back in 2011, Ecclestone encouraged Ferrari and Red Bull to split from a teams' union that was causing him problems by offering them much more prize money. Mercedes did a separate deal which entitled them to similar money if they achieved long-term success. Which they now have. Ecclestone's problem was that the system he set up with the intention of giving himself more power actually played into the teams' hands, increasing the influence of, particularly, Mercedes and Ferrari. On this, Agag has a point. One can also point the finger at the expensive and complex hybrid engines for exacerbating the situation. But Ferrari's is now at least as good as Mercedes' so it's hard to see that as the main issue. Agag is right that something needs to change. And that is being addressed at the moment. A budget cap has been agreed for 2021, and teams and the authorities are discussing rule changes that will hopefully improve the racing. It is true to say that the teams are involved in this, and not everyone necessarily thinks that's a good idea - Lewis Hamilton said only last weekend he felt the teams should not be involved, for example. But the fact is that it has always been that way in F1, and the sport is so complex that it would be unwise to exclude them completely. #F1 via BBC Sport - Formula 1 https://ift.tt/OHg7x6 June 27, 2019 at 12:27PM
MotoGP News - Vinales: No Lorenzo Catalan GP crash sanction sets MotoGP precedent
https://ift.tt/2KKxB0K Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales says Jorge Lorenzo avoiding punishment for his multi-rider crash in the Catalan Grand Prix will "open the window" for identical incidents to happen. Motogp Motorcycle Racing News via MotoGP news - Autosport https://ift.tt/2uOa9Ei June 27, 2019 at 12:13PM |
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