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Showing posts with label Ducati. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ducati. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Misano Adriatico Grand Prix Preview

There will be no rest for the Fiat Yamaha as they return to Europe and Marvellous Misano despite having just finished a punishing weekend's race in the searing heat of Indianapolis.

As for the Ducati Marlboro Team, they will return home this weekend looking up to put on a good show for the local crowd at Misano and make up for a rather disappointing race last year, which Casey Stoner missed through illness whilst Nicky Hayden was taken out by another rider in the first turn.

The MotoGP riders will be back on board in less than four days time for the twelfth round of the season at Misano Adriatico on Italy's eastern seaboard. It will be another 'home' race for the Fiat Yamaha Team, as it lies just a few hundred kilometres away from their Italian base, and both championship leader Jorge Lorenzo and his team-mate Valentino Rossi will be planning on a big weekend at the Italian party town.

Misano lies just 30-kilometres away from Valentino Rossi's hometown of Tavullia, where the 31-year-old legend grew up and where he still lives today.

The Misano Adriatico circuit was built at the start of the seventies and has since undergone a series of modifications that have altered both the length as well as the layout and updates and upgrades of pit facilities and paddock. The current layout of the track which was switched from an anti-clockwise to clockwise in 2007 when MotoGP returned after 16-years of absence, looks straightforward but is far from it.

The twelfth round of 2010 season will be a race to be remembered as Rossi is hoping to give the fans a good show as it will be his last race for the Fiat Yamaha Team at his hometown circuit.

"Of course it's my home race and it's near my house so it's always very special to race there, in front of all my fans. I have won there the last two years but this year we come in slightly different circumstances. Still, we will be trying our hardest and I really hope I can give the fans a good show", Valentino Rossi.

Valentino Rossi still holds the lap record at Misano which he set in 2009 on his Fiat Yamaha with a best time of 1 minute 34.746 seconds.

In 2009, Valentino Rossi won the MotoGP race with a total time of 44 minutes 32.882 seconds with Jorge Lorenzo coming in second, just 2.416 seconds behind Rossi and Dani Pedrosa completing the top three finishers 12.400 seconds behind Rossi.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Valentino Rossi and Ducati

Nine-times World MotoGP Champion, Valentino Rossi, seals the deal with Ducati, after signing a two year agreement to race with the "Rossa" of Borgo Panigale in the Ducati Marlboro Team from 2011.

The arrival of Valentino Rossi in Ducati opens a new and exciting chapter in the Italian factory's sporting history and indeed, of the whole World MotoGP Championship. The opportunity of the lining-up both an extraordinary rider and character is considered by Ducati to be a huge value to the whole Ducati MotoGP Project.

Fillipo Preziosi, Ducati Corse General Director, expressed that he sees Valentino as a great fan of motorcycles and so, it has always been a pleasure for him to listen to Vale's opinions.

He added that until the end of the 2010 Valencia GP, Rossi will remain as a competitor, one so great, that have always given special values to Ducati's victories, but, as soon as Rossi rides the Ducati for the first time, they will continue to work together on every single detail that will develop the bike better in order to fully unleash its huge talent.

"Working with Valentino is one of the most exciting things for every engineer and it's good to know we will have this great opportunity next season", he added.

The Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd, announced Rossi's part from the company at the end of this season hours after the Czech Republic Grand Prix yesterday. They have announced that Valentino Rossi has played a huge part in Yamaha Racing's history and Rossi will remain as an important part of Yamaha's heritage.

On behalf of the Yamaha Motor Group, Managing Director Lin Jarvis of the Yamaha Motor Racing, conveyed the company's sincerest gratitude for the amazing seven years that Rossi and Yamaha had spent together.

In 2004, Rossi joined the Yamaha Racing Team, during that moment, Yamaha was still struggling in road racing after eleven seasons without a single championship victory.

"There have been so many wonderful experiences and victories and we are very proud to have been able to make history together. Whilst we regret Vale's decision to move on, at the same time we fully respect his decision to search for a new challenge and we wish him the very best for 2011 and beyond.", he added.

Rossi quoted that it is very difficult to explain in just a few words what a great relationship bond that has been bonded between Yamaha and himself in the past seven years. He added that many improvements and things have changed since that far-off time in 2004, but definitely, the M1, has changed.At one time, 'she' was a poor middle-grid position MotoGP bike, derided by most of the riders and the MotoGP workers.

"Now, the moment has come to look for new challenges; my work here at Yamaha is finished. Unfortunately even the most beautiful love stories finish, but they leave a lot of wonderful memories, like when my M1 and I kissed for the first time on the grass at Welkom, when she looked straight in my eyes and told me 'I Love You!'", he added, in his handwritten manuscript (in Italian).