MotoGP

Six engineers from the Monster Energy Yamaha team will miss the French MotoGP which will be held this weekend at Le Mans. This comes after one of the engineers tested positive for the disease as the team confirmed on Thursday. In a statement, Yamaha said, “Yamaha Motor Co Ltd and Yamaha Motor Racing Srl regret to announce that six Yamaha MotoGP group engineers, including YZR-M1 project leader Takahiro Sumi, will be unable to attend this weekend’s Grand Prix de France.” According to the MotoGP outfit, Yamaha staff normally stay in Andorra – a small state near France and Spain – in between races, but one of the engineers contracted the virus, meaning they will miss the race in France. The engineer’s test was confirmed positive on the Tuesday, just before the team were due to make the trip to Le Mans. The factory team also said that the other engineers had tested negative and that another test was done 24 hours later to “double-check the first test results.” Arrangements for replacement engineers for the team are currently being made, whilst the six members will remain in contact with the team via a remote communications system, the team confirmed. The Japanese manufacturer has said that they will “review the situation next week” to find out if the engineers will be able to return at the race in Aragon on 18th October.

Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP riders Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi were like kids in a candy store today at the Portimão MotoGP Official Test. The pair had a blast riding YZF-R1 bikes to get familiar with the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP test rider Jorge Lorenzo also attended today’s sessions, riding the YZR-M1. His mission is to collect valuable MotoGP data ahead of the Grande Prémio de Portugal, held from 20 – 22 November. Today’s Portimão MotoGP Official Test was a special outing for Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP riders Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi. Both riding Yamaha YZF-R1s, the team-mates used two sessions from 09:00-13:00 and 14:00-17:00 to get familiar with the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. Their main goal today was to get acquainted with the unique lay-out of the Portuguese track, ahead of the Grande Prémio de Portugal, the final round of the 2020 MotoGP World Championship, held from 20-22 November. The circuit has 15 corners overall (nine right, six left) and is characterised by many elevation changes and is therefore often referred to as a ‘high-speed roller coaster’, which is both thrilling for the riders and a technical challenge for the mechanics. “The track is different from what we are used to, because of the changes in elevation, and most of the corners have blind entries.” Maverick Vinales said. “But overall I felt really good. It’s the kind of track that I like, because you need a lot of flow and corner speed. I already had a good feeling with my standard street bike and I think it will be even better when I’ll ride with the MotoGP bike, I’ll be even faster.” “The track looks amazing and it’s a lot of fun to ride. The biggest challenge here are wheelies.” “We will have to work hard on this because there’s a lot of changes in elevation and we need front contact, so we will have to change the bike a bit, for sure. The last corner here is amazing, I love it. I expected the track to be longer, it’s actually quite short, but I like it.” he added. “Riding here is very interesting, because the track is beautiful and technically quite difficult. It’s a very strange track because of the many elevation changes.” 9-time MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi said. “But it’s beautiful and the asphalt is good, it has good grip. You can enjoy it a lot when you’re riding here. It looked more difficult on television, a bit more tricky, but in real life it’s good.” “There are three or four points that are a bit scary, because you have big jumps. It will be difficult to keep a MotoGP bike in contact with the ground there, but in general it’s a very sweet track to ride, so I like it.” the 41-year-old added, “It was also a good day for a test here, because we had good conditions, which is important when you’re getting familiar with a new track.” Today the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP duo were joined on track by Yamaha Factory Racing Test Team’s Jorge Lorenzo, who was riding the YZR-M1. His mission is to collect MotoGP data for the Factory Team, so they can hit the ground running when they start the final MotoGP round on 20 November 2020. “Of course it’s not easy to start riding a MotoGP bike again after a nine-month break. Tomorrow we are going to play with the settings some more to see if we can improve and make a big step. The track is wonderful. It’s unique, compared to other tracks it has a lot of elevation changes, and that’s a lot of fun to ride. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a good feeling, and we can get more work done.” Lorenzo said. Lorenzo will continue his testing programme tomorrow on the second day of the Portimão MotoGP Official Test, whilst Viñales and Rossi will now travel to Le Mans for the Grand Prix de France, held this weekend.

Stefan Bradl was joined by his teammate Alex Marquez in Portugal for the first MotoGP test at the Portimao circuit, both riders familiarizing themselves with the new track. The Algarve International Circuit will debut on the 2020 MotoGP World Championship calendar as the final round of the series, November 20 to 22. Ahead of its debut, MotoGP test riders are running across two days to sample the new circuit on MotoGP machines. Stefan Bradl has previous experience of the track, having raced the Honda CBR1000RR in World Superbikes there in 2017 but today offered a first chance to ride the Honda RC213V at the Portuguese venue. The test provided Bradl a chance to refresh his memory of the track and begin to work on finding a base setting for the RC213V ahead of the season finale. Stefan ended the day with a best time of 1’41.726. Alex Marquez joined Bradl on track, riding the Honda RC213V-S, to familiarize himself with the layout of the demanding circuit. The laps completed by Alex will help to give the rookie an initial direction to follow with bike setup and allow him to spend more time refining the setting of his Repsol Honda RC213V when the race weekend begins. After enjoying the dramatic elevation changes and a roller coaster layout of the track, Alex now turns his attention back to racing.  “It was a good day, good weather at a nice track with a good layout and new tarmac – it was nice to try it. The Honda RC213V-S was really nice to ride, everything was nice!” Marquez said. “The layout is quite difficult, but I think the rider will be able to make a lot of difference here. I’m looking forward to returning here on the MotoGP bike at the end of the year, I think it will be an interesting race.” “But right now, my attention is back fully on Le Mans.” he added. Bradl will spend another day with the RC213V at the Portuguese track before heading to Le Mans for round 10 of the MotoGP World Championship. Alex is already on his way to Le Mans, motivated to continue adapting to the MotoGP class. “It was a great day today with the weather, pretty much perfect conditions,” Stefan Bradl said. “We followed our test plan after the track condition improved. This was an advantage to having a lot of riders there, the circuit was cleaned quite fast. The circuit is a great challenge, but you can really enjoy it with a MotoGP bike, the elevation changes are great,” he added. “We were fast and completed our test plan for today and have a few runs tomorrow before heading to Le Mans.”

Petronas SRT rider Fabio Quartararo says he ‘can’t replace’ Valentino Rossi as he will be taking his current seat at Petronas SRT for the 2021 MotoGP season. Quartararo says that switching to Yamaha factory team in 2021 would simply mean he is taking Rossi’s bike. The 9-time world champion was announced to be joining the Malaysian outfit in a one-year deal, that was announced last weekend. Yamaha made a move to sign Quartararo as their vacant seat is getting very keen attention from Ducatti on the 2019 rookie sensation as Rossi’s original plans were to assess his performance in the opening rounds before making a decision on where to base his career in the future which triggered him being ruled out of the Ducatti works team. Quartararo’s deal with Yamaha to ride beside Maverick Vinales will last for two years, running through to 2022. In an interview Quartararo said that he was pleased with Yamaha for believing in him for its future back in January, but also feels that nobody can touch Rossi’s place. “I was quite surprised because we make the choice quite fast in the beginning of the year,” Quartararo said when asked if Yamaha signing him over Rossi was a boost to his confidence. “Even the end of last year. But it was good. I’m really happy that Yamaha believes in me for the two next years in their team…So, will feel strange to have the bike of Vale, not the place, the bike. “So, I’m really happy, but we need to keep focusing on this year to be in a position to face the grands prix. For me, I can’t replace him because Valentino is Valentino. I’m taking his bike, of course it will be a new bike.” “But I’m not taking his place. His place is still there because he made history with Yamaha. I think they spent close to 10 years together, So, for me, the place of Valentino nobody can touch it and I’m just taking his bike, and his place will be there forever.” Valentino Rossi will be receiving full factory support and also machine specifications with Quartararo and Vinales at Petronas SRT for the 2021 MotoGP season. He had also pushed to have his crew move with him to the new team but after holding several talks with the team, he will be only be able to move with crew chief David Munoz, rider coach Idalio Gavira and data analyst Matteo Flamigni. The 41-year-old’s deal with Petronas SRT will be lasting for only one year contrary to the 1+1 he had originally requested with Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis explaining last weekend that this was a result of technicality in that the Japanese outfit doesn’t have a deal in place with MotoGP or SRT past 2021.

Fransesco Bagnaia will be joining Jack Miller who is his current teammate at Pramac, at the Ducatti factory team for the 2021 MotoGP season. Bagnaia will be replacing Andrea Dovizioso for a year-long deal. Bagnaia has been in a race with Avintia’s Johann Zarco to secure the vacant Ducatti seat, after Dovizioso announced that he will be leaving the team at the Austrian MotoGP which was held last month. He is the 2018 winner of the Moto2 grand prix and has been impressing for the Ducatti satellite team, Pramac in this year’s MotoGP. 2019 was his debut year in the MotoGP series although he didn’t make his first appearance at the Andalucian MotoGP at Jerez after suffering an engine failure while he was running second in the final laps of the race. Bagnaia had also missed three races after he sustained a knee injury in the first practice for the Czech MotoGP, but he would later return and secure his first podium at the San Marino MotoGP. He would also dominate the Emilia Romagna MotoGP which followed the San Marino GP, but experienced a crash later on in the race. Ducatti had been making preliminary talks with the 2017 and 2018 rider Jorge Lorenzo but they later made it clear that they would be putting their main focus on hiring a young rider to complete their 2021 riders line-up. Bagnaia was the top choice for the spot over Johann Zarco, as his recent strong performance in MotoGP was very impressive. “My MotoGP debut was not easy, but at Ducati, they never questioned me: they gave me all the support and confidence that a rookie needs and they let me do experience in 2019,” said Francesco Bagnaia. “I listened to them, I trusted them, together we learned to know each other and understand each other, and now we form a great team. “They taught me a method of work that allowed us to take away some nice satisfactions and I think that’s just the beginning. “Today I am the happiest person in the world, for me, it is a dream come true: being an official Ducati rider has always been my ambition, and I succeeded together with all of those who had always believed in me even when things did not go well.” Johann Zarco, who had secured an impressive pole position and podium finnish on the Czech GP, riding on the 2019 based bike was also considered though as he secures one of the vacant seats at Pramac, and will be riding a new fully factory supported Ducatti Desmosedici GP21 for the next season. Joining him at Pramac will be current Moto2 KTM rider Jorge Martin , who is the 2017 Moto3 champion as he chose to leave the Austrian manufacturer to join Ducatti to chase his dream to race in the top class of motorbike racing. “Jack Miller and Pecco Bagnaia have shown this year that they can take advantage of the potential of our Desmosedici GP bike and have earned this opportunity,” added Ducati CEO Claudio Domenicali. “Their transition to the official team from the Pramac Racing Team, where they both grew up, is proof of the efficient collaboration that binds us to the team of Paolo Campinoti, which I would like to thank. “I am sure that next year his team will be able to make the most of the talent of the two new riders Johann Zarco and Jorge Martín.” Enea Bastianini-who is battling for the ’20 Moto2 championship-looks to be heading to Avintia to replace Zarco, most likely on a GP20 after he confirmed several weeks ago that he had secured a move into the premier class with Ducati. His team-mate looks to be between either the incumbent Esteve Rabat-who has first dibs on the seat due to the funding he brings to the team-or intermediate class points leader Luca Marini, who has reportedly held talks with both Avintia and Ducati alongside half-brother Valentino Rossi.

Yamaha Factory racer and superstar Valentino Rossi admits that his chances for a MotoGP Championship win have already been closed after crashing in the Catalan Grand Prix. The 9-time championship winner was second before the crash happened. In the early phases of the race Valentino Rossi found himself second after Franco Morbidelli(SRT Petronas Yamaha) made a mistake at the first corner. His position would however not last for long as he crashed at Turn just two laps later. Rossi was only 26 points away from the championship lead ahead of the Catalan Grand Prix, but the rider is now 50 points further from the championship lead as he got a second consecutive DNF and the third in the 2020 MotoGP Season. “In order not to despair, we have to think that it was a good weekend anyway, that I rode well, that I enjoyed myself and I could play for the win,” Rossi reflected on the Catalan Grand Prix. “We are following a very interesting road with the setting of the bike, so even if the championship is closed for me, there are great reasons to be fast from now to the end of the year. “As long as the math doesn’t say it, it’s not over. But unfortunately, I have already made three zeroes and I fell twice in a row due to my mistakes. Then the bike broke down in the first race, so it’s difficult. “But there are still many races and we will have to try to be fast, if I can ride like this, I can go fast on all sides.” Rossi admitted that he made a mistake by not paying attention to the temperature on the left side of his front tyre as he went around Turn 2 and was instead focussed on reducing the gap to the Catalan MotoGP winner and Championship leader Fabio Quartararo. “We start very, very smooth at the beginning, we had a good pace and I tried to ride very sweet on the front tyre and rear tyre, because I know, like everybody, at the end of the race we will suffer,” he added. “But anyway, we had a very good pace and we stayed at front, but I don’t push too much there. “Franco did a mistake at Turn 1, so from that moment I push because I don’t want to take too much disadvantage to Fabio. “I wanted to try and stay close to him because I know especially Suzukis at the end are very strong. “But I did a mistake. Looking at the data it’s a really, really similar to the lap before but with this temperature I need to pay more attention on the left.”

Fabio Quartararo returned to the lead of MotoGP Championship after winning his first race since July in the Catalan Grand prix as Andrea Dovizioso crashed on the first lap of the race. The race started as Franco Morbidelli held onto his pole position ahead of Pramac’s Jack Miller. As the riders raced towards the first two turns, Danilo Petrucci experienced delayed acceleration from turn to which forced Johann Zarco who was behind him to slow to avoid Petrucci’s Ducati which was ahead. Avintia’s Zarco later made contact with Dovizioso taking both of the Ducatti riders out of the race. Valentino Rossi who was at the front, was able to take on Jack Miller at Turn 5 and was now chasing down after Franco Morbidelli who was the race leader. Jack Miller on the other hand, made a mistake as he was approaching Turn 10 almost knocking out Valentino Rossi. Fabio Quartararo was able to weave between the two bikes to take the third position. Franco Morbidelli had made half a second gap over Valentino Rossi in the earlier stages of the race as the top three Yamaha riders were distancing away Jack Miller. At the start of the sixth lap, Quartararo was able to pass Valentino Rossi at the first corner and after three laps Rossi came to re-take his position from Quartararo at the same corner. Franco Morbidelli was riding very close to Quartararo but his hope for a victory vanished when he almost crashed twice as he approached Turn 1 on lap 14. Quartararo later settled in the third position behind Valentino Rossi. Rossi’s gap to the race leader Fabio Quartararo was just six tenths of a second as he put a fight for his 200th MotoGP podium in his 350th MotoGP start, but his hopes quickly eluded from him when he slid off at Turn 2 crashing and was out of the race. Franco Morbidelli took over the second position but his rear failed him in the final stages of the race making Joan Mir and Alex Rins on their Suzukis bypass him. Joan Mir was later able to take the second position from Franco Morbidelli at Turn 1 in the last lap. The Suzuki rider put on a fight as he closely followed Quartararo who was over 3 seconds in the lead, and as they approached the chequered flag the gap was just below a second. Mir’s teammate Alex Rins on the sister Suzuki was able to come up from the 13th position on the grid and achieve a podium finish after completing the race third. This was the first double-Suzuki podium finish since Misano 2007. Franco Morbidelli held onto the 4th positions just 0.545 seconds ahead of Pramac’s Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia who finished the race 5th and 6th respectively. LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami closely followed the Pramac duo on seventh place. Danilo Petrucci on his works Ducatti finished 8th as Maverick Vinales finished in a disappointing 9th place on his Factory Yamaha. Maverick Vinales also had a challenging afternoon after being kicked out of the points at 16th as he was overtaken in the first lap after a poor start, he however benefited from the crashes which pulled out the riders who were ahead. The Yamaha rider would afterwards take on LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow and finish the race 9th as Crutchlow rounded the points at 10th. KTM’s Brad Binder, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, the Honda of Alex Marquez, Iker Lecuona(KTM Tech 3) and Avintia’s Tito Rabat finished later taking position 11 to 15 respectively. Fabio Quartararo’s third win in the 2020 MotoGP Season now puts him 8 points ahead in the championship lead as Suzuki’s Joan Mir takes second position in the championship after four podium finishes. Maverick Vinales is 18 points down in 3rd as Andrea Dovizioso is fourth with 24 points behind. Valentino Rossi is 50 points behind putting his hopes for a championship win down.

Franco Morbidelli got his maiden pole position in the Barcelona MotoGP qualifying session on Saturday afternoon as he lead a Yamaha 1-2-3 lead for the Catalan Grand Prix. Andrea Dovizioso only managed to get the 17th position in the qualifiers. It was a tight race between all the four Yamaha riders at the close of the Q2, with Morbidelli leading Fabio Quartararo and Valentino Rossi who was confirmed and announced by the Petronas Yamaha SRT to be their rider for the 2021 MotoGP season. Rossi had set an early pace with 1m 39.881s but it was quickly taken by Maverick Vinales recording 1m 39.655s. Morbidelli the took over the top spot with 1m 39.110s while his teammate Quartararo was 7th after making an error at turn 10. As the session had only few minutes to go, the Yamahas were proving their dominance in setting fastest lap times with Quartararo making the benchmark time of 1m 39.008s. However Morbidelli challenged the time after recording 1m 38.798s to claim his maiden pole for the MotoGP class since his Moto2 season in 2017. Fabio Quaratararo went for one final lap as the chequered flag came out but was unable to better his second position, with Rossi coming up in the front row for the first time this season. Jack Miller(Pramac Racing) ended up the session as the best of the Ducattis coming 4th after setting a record of 1m 39.225s earlier on in the Q2 on the soft tyre after having to use the other in Q1. Maverick Vinales came 5th in the time rankings while Avintia’s Johann Zarco came in sixth. His former teammate Pol Espargaro completed the session 7th on the KTM. Joan Mir on the Suzuki closely followed Espargaro coming 8th while Danillo Petrucci(works Ducatti) and Brad Binder on the KTM finished 9th and 10th respectively. LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami only managed 11th which was an improvement from Q1 as Miguel Oliveira closely followed in 12th place on the KTM Tech 3 after crashing earlier on at Turn 10. Andrea Dovizioso had a tough time in both Q1 and Q2 and could only produce 1m 40.109s which only placed him at the 17th position. He will be starting Sundays race beside Cal Crutchlow(LCR Honda) who was 16th despite his injury and Repsol Honda’s Alex Marquez who was 18th. Alex Rins will be starting 13th on the grid ahead of Pramac’s Francesco Bagnaia and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Franco Morbidelli who is the San Marino MotoGP winner emerged the first in the Barcelona MotoGP FP2 which was held in Catalunya as he was able to beat KTM and Ducatti. Morbidelli’s teammate Fabio Quartararo who was the pacesetter in FP1 encountered problems before the start of the FP2 session. The two Petronas SRT Yamaha bikes topped in the overall timesheets of the Friday’s Catalunya Free Practice session for the Barcelona MotoGP. Franco Morbidelli was top overall recording a time of 1m 39.789s after beating Quartararo’s FP1 time by six tenths of a second. Ensponsorama racing’s Johann Zarco closed in on Franco Morbidelli’s time managing to get his time in the 1m 39s bracket. Brad Binder(KTM Factory racing) came in third closing the top three pacesetters on Friday. Many riders were able to get faster lap times in FP2 than FP1. Morbidelli, Binder and Suzuki’s Alex Rins were able to set the pace in the FP1 after Fabio Quartararo. Monster Energy Yamaha’s Maverick Vinalez and Valentino Rossi were also able to improve their lap times in FP2. Pol Espargaro(KTM Factory racing) completed in 4th place in the overall rankings. The champion leader Andrea Dovizioso(Ducatti Team) ended up 6th in FP2 after being 2nd in FP1. After setting the pace in FP2, Morbidelli was then down at Turn 10 – unhurt – with 24 minutes to go as the San Marino GP winner sat just over a tenth off teammate Quartararo. Before Morbidelli crashed, Zarco crashed at Turn 5 rider okay with Repsol Honda Team’s Stefan Bradl also crashing unhurt, the German biting the dust at Turn 2. The wind was up and was playing a factor with tyre temperatures, making it tricky for the premier class in the second session of the weekend. In the mid part of the session, a lot of the riders were trying to get some race pace work done with the timesheets not really changing much. With 14 to go, eight tenths covered the top 11 Alex Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) improving in FP2 to jump up to just outside the top 10. Zarco then came back out on his second GP19 machine and was able to go quicker, slotting in just ahead of Alex Marquez to make it 12 riders within a second heading into the final 10 minutes of FP2 cue the time attacks. A few soft Michelin tyre lap times came in but it was still Quartararo who held P1, thanks to his FP1 time. Mir and Rossi went close with the Spaniard sitting just 0.010 off Quartararo’s pace, as two Hondas then rose to the fore in FP2 and on the combined times. Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) and Alex Marquez went into the top five after stringing great laps together, but the goalposts were about to be moved significantly. Rookie Binder finished FP1 down in 21st position as he attacked the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the first time on a MotoGP machine. But, clearly, it hadn’t taken the South African too long to work out how to tame the RC16 beast in Barcelona Binder blitzed his way to P1 with a 1:40.008 to stretch four tenths clear of the field. Nakagami completed the top five on the combined times after finishing FP1 just outside the top 10 in P11, the Japanese rider sits just ahead of Quartararo who encountered issues when coming out of pitlane to start his time attack. The 21-year-old was unable to get out and dropped to P6 after sitting as the fastest rider in FP1, but remains safely in the top 10 for now. In form Mir finishes 7th despite improving his time from FP1, Pol Espargaro and Alex Marquez rise into 8th and 9th respectively after finishing FP1 in 16th and 20th marked improvement for the two Spaniards. 10th went the way of Rossi, The Doctor slips two places from FP1 but holds onto the final provisional automatic Q2 spot ahead of Saturday’s action. Dovizioso didn’t improve his FP1 time that was good enough for P2 this morning, the Italian slipping to 15th in FP2 as both he and teammate Danilo Petrucci who sits P22 failed to go quicker in the afternoon session.

Fabio Quartararo, Andrea Dovizioso, Joan Mir and Maverick Vinales are the top four in the 2020 MotoGP standings and also fill the top four in the Catalunya MotoGP FP1. The top four in the 2020 MotoGP World Championship standings filled the leading positions as the Catalunya MotoGP which kicked off in Spain with Fabio Quartararo the quickest over Andrea Dovizioso. As is becoming a frequent occurrence for the Frenchman in his second season of MotoGP, Quartararo was in fine form out of the box on the Petronas SRT Yamaha to take control early on at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya before steadily chipping away at his own benchmark. Eventually posting a best of 1min 40.431secs on his final revolution, it placed him four tenths up on championship leader Dovizioso, who enjoyed arguably the best start to a race weekend this year in second place. Coming into the weekend unclear of whether his inconsistent Ducati would have pace, the Italian made full use of trailing Joan Mir before going on to play best of the rest to Quartararo. Mir endured an eventful start to his weekend, suffering an unusual crash early on at the tricky downhill Turn 5 left-hander which, though low speed, sent his Suzuki GSX-RR somersaulting through the gravel trap. Undeterred, he returned to track later to post the third fastest time, ahead of the fourth rider to currently sit within four points of the top in the standings, Maverick Vinales. Local hope Aleix Espargaro fired in a quick late lap to climb to fifth on the Aprilia, ahead of Franco Morbidelli, Alex Rins and Valentino Rossi. Making his first FP1 appearance since Styria despite injuring his ankle on Wednesday as Cal Crutchlow hit the ground running with a solid run to ninth position on the LCR Honda, while Miguel Oliveira rounded out the top ten. Save for Dovizioso, it was a disappointing start to the weekend for Ducati broadly with Johann Zarco its next best representative in 13th, while Misano standout Pecco Bagnaia and Jack Miller were 15th and 18th respectively. It was also a low key opening for KTM beyond Oliveira, with Iker Lecuona 14th, after crashing late on at Turn 2 ,Pol Espargaro and Brad Binder 13th, 16th and 21st respectively.

Rossi says he will be taking three of his current crew members at Yamaha to Petronas for 2021 MotoGP season. This comes as he prepares to announce his new deal before the end of the 2020 MotoGP season. The three current crew members that will be joining Rossi for the 2021 MotoGP season include crew chief David Munoz, data engineer Matteo Flamigni, and rider coach Idalio Gavira. This means that the current veteran Southern Hemisphere major crew members Alex Briggs and Brent Stephens, won’t be working with him in 2021 for the first time since he made his premier class debut in 2000. Valentino Rossi’s new petronas deal is expected to be announced officially on Thursday and the 7-time world champion also announced that the new contract signing will be formalised later in the Barcelona MotoGP weekend. “Like I said last week, we tried to sign during the weekend [at the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna] because between the two races at Misano we fixed all the details,” said Rossi. “The situation is very clear, I will race with Petronas next year, but the contract is long and we’re in no hurry. “During this weekend, I will sign it and I will continue next year with Yamaha and Petronas, and we’ll let you know as soon as possible!” He also brushed off the latest delay as simply being due to all parties taking their time in ensuring that the deal is perfect before pens are finally put to paper. “Sometimes in MotoGP we sign the contract for next year too early and sometimes you’re already thinking of next season before the current one is over. Step by step, everyone is signing a lot earlier – for example, we sign a lot earlier than Formula One,” he added. “I agreed with Yamaha and with Petronas from Jerez, but because we are OK we haven’t made the deal in a hurry. It’s an important contract so there are things to fix: the technical details, the bike, the team. “In general we’re not in a hurry and I’m happy.”

Valentino Rossi will be anouncing his move to Petronas Yamaha SRT this week at the Catalan Grand Prix. The deal has been very much anticipated after it has been delayed for weeks, after the announcement was expected to be made in the Austrian Grand Prix. A series of meetings have been going on between Yamaha boss Lin Jarvis, Petronas Yamaha CEO Razlan Razali and Valentino himself in the last couple of weeks trying to get to an agreement on the deal, but finally the deal has been confirmed and it will be announced on Thursday at the Barcelona circuit. The final details of the contract were being put in place last week as the MotoGP events took place at the Misano Circuit for the San Marino and Emilio Romagna MotoGP. With Rossi being in his homeground and the other parties being at the same venue, it was easier to have face-to-face talks as Razlan Razali confirmed on social media. Valentino Rossi signed a year-long contract for 2021 with the Yamaha satellite team which is based in Malaysia. The contract does not last for just one year as there are speculations that Rossi may be looking for retirement, but because all the contracts will be coming to an end for the satellite team as they will be preparing for reorganisation for the 2022 MotoGP season. The deeper details of the contract are yet to be known, with the specification of his new bike and how much of his current crew will be joining him at Petronas SRT Yamaha which have seemed to be very difficult to come up with an agreement in the talks. On the other hand, some of Fabio Quartararo’s crew are looking forward to move with him from Petronas Yamaha to Factory Yamaha, and some of the straight personnel swap has been put in place to ease the transition between the two teams for the two riders. This could in turn open the door for the long waited VR46 Yamaha MotoGP team to join the grid for 2022. That’s an idea reinforced by rumours that the Petronas SRT squad is unhappy with its current status as a Yamaha client team while many of its independent rivals are becoming an increasingly key part of their respective factory set-ups. It’s not the first time a Yamaha satellite team has felt that way. Tech3 boss Herve Poncharal admitted in an exclusive interview after his team’s first win with KTM at the Styrian Grand Prix that he’d wanted more from Yamaha. Having moved to KTM in search of a closer factory relationship, he admitted that he thought Yamaha was moving in that direction with Petronas – but it seems according to The Race’s sources within the team that progress has been more limited than it appears from the outside. “When we were with Yamaha it was coming, they were starting to understand,” said Poncharal. “You always feel a little like you’re a weight on your factory – ‘oh we’re concentrating on the top guys, leave us alone, but they realised when I left them that they lost something they needed.” “Of course, Razlan stepped in and they did very well. He’s got the support of a huge sponsor, they picked up the right riders, and if you went to Yamaha now and told them that an independent team is a weight, they would disagree.” Should Petronas SRT decide to look elsewhere, there is a strong option available for it in the shape of Suzuki. Having admitted that it’s all but necessary to have a satellite squad for 2022 in order to further speed its rapid development, Suzuki has also hinted that its plan would be to field four identical machines instead of two different specifications as Yamaha currently does.

Maverick Vinales took first win of the 2020 MotoGP season after Francesco Bagnaia who was the race leader having a late crash giving the Yamaha rider victory in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Vinales had struggled from pole position in the first Misano race last week due to a wrong tyre choice, but it was later rectified in approach to a new set-up in practice meaning he was much stronger from the race start on Sunday. The 25-year-old Yamaha rider took the lead from the fast-starting Pramac’s Jack Miller around Turn 4 on the opening lap and was able to create half a second gap, as Miller’s hopes of a podium quickly faded and he would drop out of the race on lap eight after experiencing an engine issue. Bagnaia on the sister Pramac bike was the rider following Vinales closely by lap two, with the Italian rider finding a way through on lap six at Turn 4 when Vinales on the Yamaha ran wide. Bagnaia later opened up a lead of over seven tenths, by harnessing the power of the Ducatti and the grip from the rear soft tyre. This gave the rider the edge to widen the gap to over a second a few laps later. With KTM’s Brad Binder behind, chaos ensued after crashing at the Carro hairpin around Turn 14 on the second tour having just moved into the podium places. Moments earlier, Valentino Rossi on the Factory Yamaha fell back from the top eight at Turn 4 and eventually pulled out having only completed 12 laps. Bagnaia’s gap held stable between 1.4s and 1.6s as he lead the bikes, as Maverick Vinales comfortably closing the gap behind to the Pol Espargaro on the Factory KTM and Petronas Yamaha SRT with Fabio Quartararo. Though the gap had come down to 1.1s by the start of lap 21, Bagnaia still looked in control until he crashed going through the Turn 6 left-hander.  This released Vinales into a dominant lead to the chequered flag to become the sixth different winner in 2020 and move right back into championship contention.  The battle for second was very tight in the closing laps as Factory KTM’s pol Espargaro was experiencing problems with his soft rear tyre fading due to wear. Fabio Quartararo tried to close in on him on the Petronas Yamaha but the race concluded as he took 4th behind Espargaro. Suzuki’s Joan Mir closed in on this pair having started from 11th and overtook Quartararo in lap 23 at Turn 1 for third, before taking the second position from Espargaro at Turn 4 on lap 24. Quartararo followed him through at Turn 4, but was hit with a long-lap penalty on the final lap for exceeding track limits too many times. The Petronas rider did not take the penalty loop and was hit with a three-second time penalty at the chequered flag, dropping him to fourth and promoting Espargaro to the podium being third. Miguel Oliveira came through from 15th on his Tech 3 KTM to complete the top five ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Marquez, who took his best result of the year on the works Honda in seventh. Andrea Dovizioso holds a one point lead over Quartararo in the standings after finishing down in eighth, with just four points now covering the factory Ducati rider, Quartararo, Vinales and Mir. San Marino GP winner Franco Morbidelli recovered from early contact after Aleix Espargaro crashed into him to finish ninth, with Danilo Petrucci (Ducati), Avintia’s Johann Zarco, Alex Rins (Suzuki) and Aprilia’s Bradley Smith claiming the final points. Tech 3’s Iker Lecuona crashed out of sixth in the latter stages, with Avintia’s Tito Rabat also crashing and joining Rossi, Bagnaia, Miller, Binder and Aleix Espargaro on the sidelines.

It was a tight first practice session as Fabio Quartararo led the Petronas SRT for a 1-2 lead in the inaugural Emilia Romagna MotoGP at Misano. This is the third time that the MotoGP has returned to the same circuit for a Grand Prix following the Tuesday tests. Franco Morbidelli in the sister Petronas Yamaha bike had set the earlier pace recording 1m 33.194s but KTM’s Pol Espargaro took over the lead moments later recording a lap time of 1m 32.390s. Morbidelli was not present in the Tuesday’s test due to stomach problems as later on shot to the top barely 15 minutes gone in the practice session recording 1m 32.365s in the timed lap, the 25-year-old would then go ahead to better his lap in the final 15 minutes recording 1m 32.224s. Ducatti’s Andrea Dovizioso later on went to snatch the lead from Morbidelli in the 6 final minutes recording 1m 32.152s on the soft tyres. The Ducatti rider had been struggling in the San Marino race weekend but the change in the bike’s set up seems to have done the magic. Dovi’s time was the benchmark briefly as Joan Mir in the Suzuki GSX-RR took the lead recording a lap time of 1m 31.926s. Quartararo later took on the Suzuki as he recorded 1m 3.889s and finished the session with 1m 33.721s lap. Franco Morbidelli opted for the hard tyre as the session was coming to a close and made a lap that was just 0.090s slower than Fabio Quartararo as KTM’s Pol Espargaro coming third as the session came to an end, despite his efforts coming on top briefly in the closing stages. Suzuki’s Joan Mir was pushed to fourth as Miguel Oliveira on the Tech 3 KTM closely followed in fifth. Takaaki Nakagami took the sixth position on the LCR Honda. Ducatti’s Andrea Dovizioso 1m 31.152s lap time got him the seventh position as Avintia’s Johann Zarco with his updated Avintia chassis took the 8th slot. Maverick Vinales who took the pole position at the San Marino GP took the 13th position though he didn’t participate in the final stages of the time attack. His teammate Valentino Rossi ended up 17th as he also did not go for a fast lap later on. Suzuki’s Alex Rins had a near miss at turn 5 and avoided crashing but 10 minutes later, a crash was inevitable at the Quercia corner around turn 8. The 24-year-old Suzuki rider took the 16th position as KTM’s Brad Binder and Pramac’s Jack Miller finished 14th and 15th respectively.

Maverick Vinales says he needs Yamaha to react urgently on his grip woes on the track after having a struggle in the San Marino Grand Prix last weekend. The Yamaha Factory rider went ahead to smash the Misano record lap to take the pole position as there were very high expectations to be the biggest threat to the victory following the perfect practice sessions. This however did not happen as Vinales dropped out of the podium battle finishing 6th which was 5.3 seconds later than the Petronas Yamaha winner Franco Morbidelli. There was speculation that Vinales troubles were due to his choice of being the only rider to run a hard rear tyre. The Tuesday’s test at Misano favoured the 25-year-old rider as he topped saying it was the ‘best of the year’, the excess of Michelin rubber on track made a very huge contribution to his success on the test. With this he urged Yamaha to find a solution allowing him to have the same feel of grip as the Moto 2 Dunlop rubber on Sunday afternoons. “I need to be quicker, so then the damage is less… So, if I’m a bit quicker in the practices, I’ll be a bit quicker in the race. We will try our maximum. For sure it’s not an easy point for us because we suffer a lot all the time on that.” Vinales said after he was asked on how he will handle the race weekend. “But I want a reaction from Yamaha. I want them to provide me with the best, because we came from Saturday to make a lap record in qualifying, from being a beast on track, and then we were a little kitty on the track. It’s something strange. I take it with humour because it’s the only thing I can do.” “On the test I felt good, honestly I felt incredible on the bike. We rode fast because at the end of the day I rode in 1m32s-low with a lot of laps on the tyre as the rhythm, which is good.” The Yamaha Factory rider continued “As we know when there is Michelin rubber, there is good grip. I can do whatever I want with the bike. But when there is no grip, it is difficult to ride” Maverick Vinales also tested the new exhaust and the carbon fibre swingarm as well as some additional settings which will be run in the Emilia Romagna MotoGP this weekend. His teammate Valentino Rossi will also be testing the new modifications on his bike.

Yamaha recently brought out its new modified exhaust for its for its YZR-M1 MotoGP bike at Misano race test, confirming the delivery of the predictions of modifications for the bike that Neil Spalding who is the MotoGP race technical guru had predicted two weeks ago. Yamaha had experienced a series of engine failures at the two opening events at Jerez which had been caused by faulty valves as the team tried to change engines so as to get the maximum out of the bike, but this has lead to rev restrictions have been minimised by 300rpm for the Yamaha riders as they struggled in Brno and Red Bull Ring last month. Yamaha’s problem can be however rectified by using a new and longer exhaust system, changes were evident on the bikes of Maverick Vinales and Valentino Rossi. “Yamaha definitely cooked some of their engines right at the start of the year, and that damaged the valves, but sealed engines mean they’re not allowed to change those valves. So they’ve got to run the rest of the year with those engines and now they’ve got to find a way to put them under less stress.” Neil Spalding explained. “The only way to do that is to reduce the maximum revs and then try and build all of the equipment on the outside of the sealed engine to try and help that engine make its best power lower down the rev band. “That is typically going to include modified throttle bodies inlet lengths and most critically a new exhaust system with longer primary pipes and a longer overall length to help the engines make better power at lower rpm.”