In Moto2 category, Marc Marquez took his second victory of his Moto2 debut season in the tricky conditions at Assen, ahead of Kenan Sofuoglu and Bradley Smith. The reigning 125cc Champion won the race, climbing 6 places, in a display of spectacular riding. Both Sofuoglu and Smith lead the field throughout the race, battling with Spanish star Márquez and Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing), who made it up to second position before crashing out with only 4 laps to go. Mike di Meglio (Tech 3) was also an early front runner until he crashed out as well.

And in the 125cc race, Maverick Viñales (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team) won. The race didn’t go the distance, as it was red-flagged at the end of lap 15 because of the rain which had started to fall. As two thirds of the race distance had been covered, full points awarded as of positions at lap 14. Luis Salom was second and Sergio Gadea third.

The next race is the Italian Grand Prix in Mugello. This was where Rossi had suffered his crash last year. He would be eager to make ammends, as it seems like he is getting to grips with his Ducati. Stoner is now 28 points ahead of Lorenzo in the Championship while Dovizioso remains third, but is now only nine points behind the Spaniard.

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Tim TT Assen 2010

Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) mastered the rain at the Andalusian circuit to take his fourth victory in the Moto2  series. Joining him on the rostrum were Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) and Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project). Lüthi took the early control in the race and was on course for his first win in Moto2, until the Italian rider passed him for the lead and pulled a large advantage. His winning margin was 7.850s. Building on the second place the Speed Master rider achieved in Losail, Iannone takes the lead of the 2011 World Championship after scoring 25 points for the win. The race started in damp conditions and then more rain fell throughout the race leading to a slippery and difficult circuit.

Nicolas Terol led the way to score another 25 points, in the 125 cc category. Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) and Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) were the other podium clinchers. It looked set to be a Bankia Aspar one two until Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar) after battling with his team mate through out the race, fell on the last lap in his 150th Grand Prix start and eventually finished 11th. Terol claimed his 11th successive podium with this victory and his seventh win of his 125cc career. It was a happy day for two British riders with Danny Kent (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) and Taylor Mackenzie (Phonica Racing) crossing the line in fourth and fifth. But, Mahindra Racing’s Danny Webb was taken off on a stretcher after a fast crash whilst fighting for the points.

But for the single mistake, this might have been the doctor’s first win on the Ducati. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) was one place away from the rostrum, taking fourth position. Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team) was sixth, Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing) seventh, and Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) eighth. Spanish Moto2 World Champion Toni Elías (LCR Honda) brought his bike home in ninth place with the final place in the top ten going to Rizla Suzuki’s John Hopkins. Lorenzo’s victory propels him to the top of the MotoGP Championship standings with a tally of 45 points, nine points clear of Pedrosa in second. Stoner would feel like he should have been leading the table now, as he was set for another top finish. He, and everybody else, would have a chance to set things right when the racing returns after the Easter break.

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Gran Premio bwin de España 2010

Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) roared to victory in the Moto2 category, having started the race from pole position. He was  rarely challenged throughout the race, and eventually won by a big margin of 4.330s. Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) grabbed the second spot on the rostrum and gained his 14th podium of his career. Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) finished third, Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) was fourth, and Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing) fifth. After a poor start from the front row, reigning 125 World Champion Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) found life more difficult on his Moto2 race debut and crashed out in the first part of the 20-lap race.

Nicolas Terol (Bankia Aspar) repeated his 2010 heroics at the Losail International Circuit, as he stormed to victory from pole position. Terol was never headed from the start and made an early getaway, winning by a large margin of 7.710s. The fight for the podium was hotly contested amongst a group of four riders, but it was Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) making his 100th Grand Prix start, who clinched second place in the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, taking his sixth podium in 125cc. The fight for the final podium position was fierce, but it went to the experienced rider Sergio Gadea (PEV-Blusens-SMX Paris Hilton). Danny Webb of Mahindra Racing just missed out on the points, as he finished 16th.

The riders had observed a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the Japan earthquake ahead of the MotoGP race. Also, the late Shoya Tomizawa was honoured on Saturday with the unveiling of a memorial plaque at the circuit, in which he had won last year. Though the pole-sitters won the race in all three categories, the races were all incident-filled. It was a wonderful start to the new season, and we can look forward to some high quality racing in the coming few months. Next stop is Spain’s Jerez circuit, in two weeks time.

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Commercialbank Grand Prix Of Qatar 2010

Here’s a look at the final tally of points, at the end of the 2010 MotoGP World Championship. Valentino Rossi’s absense from a good number of races due to injury, Casey Stoner’s inability to find a good setup on his bike until very late into the season, and Dani Pedrosa’s inconsistency made the job very easy for Jorge Lorenzo to clinch the championship. However, the season did have it’s fair share of good racing. Next season, Rossi moved to Ducati, and Stoner moves to the Factory Honda team. With this Lorenzo becomes the lead rider for the Yamaha team, and joining him is the talented young American Ben Spies. It would be an interesting battle within the team Honda, with Stoner, Pedrosa and Dovisiozo fighting each other for supremecy. It should be a much more closer battle next season.

Mahindra Racing’s official bike, the GP125 took to the track for the first time in its corporate colours at the final day of testing at a predominantly wet, windy and cold Estoril circuit in Portugal. The GP125, designed and built by Mahindra’s own Italy-based Engines Engineering, ran for only a handful of laps in its silver and red livery before the team switched back to plain black for testing duties. After the Jerez test, the team were able to verify that good progress has been made with the engine delivering strong and tractable power, whilst identifying other areas for development on the bike to propel it to the front of the grid.

The WTR-Ten10 Racing partnership is structured on a three-year basis, and will continue into the new Moto3 class in 2012 and also has intentions to compete in the Moto2 category in the future. Racing in the tracks at Coimbatore and Chennai in the Indian Championship to the hallowed venues of Europe is nothing short of a revelation for the 18-year-old Sarath Kumar. Sarath himself knows that it is not going to be easy, but he is ready for the challenge. Ten10 Racing Team Principal, Ramji Govindarajan, said: “I’m extremely excited by the opportunity we have been afforded through the WTR Team. We’ll be the first Indian team with an Indian rider to participate in the World Championship. This will be a great learning experience and this WTR-Ten10 Racing Team project is a very important milestone in the history of Indian sport. We would like to thank Mr Castellucci and his team for approaching a team from India, and I am confident that this partnership will be competitive and produce a lot of new talent from India and Italy.”

It’s clear that India is saying ‘Namaste’ to MotoGP. India features quite prominently in the motorsport map now. Hope it won’t be too long, before we get to hear the Jana Gana Mana at the race tracks around the world. That’s the occasion every motorsport addict in the country is waiting for.

In Moto2, Karel Abraham, the Cardion ab Motoracing rider, took his first-ever GP win, as Andrea Iannone and Julián Simón completed the podium with the latter sealing runner-up spot in the Championship. It was a fantastic race from start to finish and Iannone shot into the lead early on, with a number of riders battling for positions at the front of the race. Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) – who became the youngest ever rider to make 50 GP starts – and World Champion Toni Elías (Gresini Racing Moto2) were amongst those as they traded moves. After many moves and exchanges of positions it came down to the final lap and the tension peaked when Elías clipped Iannone’s rear wheel and crashed out. Abraham capitalised and slipped through into first position amid the drama, holding it to cross the finish line 0.522s ahead of Iannone with Simón just six-hundredths behind in a breathless finale.

In the 125cc discipline, Bradley Smith took his first win of the season, in which fourth position for Marc Márquez was more than sufficient for the 17 year-old to be crowned 2010 125cc World Champion. Taking a 17-point lead into the race Márquez knew that a calm and measured approach would be the key to wrapping up his first title, and immediately after the start of the race the order settled. Smith took the lead, with Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar) – Márquez’s only title rival in the final round – and Márquez following behind. With two laps to go Espargaró went through on Terol and the duo swapped positions once again, all the while Smith leading comfortably at the front. Finally, the Brit took the chequered flag almost three seconds clear for his first win of 2010. Completing the top ten were Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo), Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX), Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) – in his 100th GP – Efrén Vázquez (Tuenti Racing), Randy Krummenacher (Stipa-Molenaar Racing) and Luis Salom (Stipa-Molenaar Racing).

This completes the 2010 MotoGP Championship. The title race was a foregone conclusion, once Lorenzo started leading the championship and Rossi missed a number of races due to injury. Lorenzo’s final points tally of 383 is also a new record for the most points scored in a single season in the MotoGP class. His win was also the first at Valencia for Yamaha in the 800cc era. Next season, let us hope that there are more title contenders, and potential race winners each weekend, and we get a much closer championship battle. Until then, ride safe!

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GP Generali De La Comunitat Valenciana 2009

The Moto2 event was edge-of-the-seat stuff, as Stefan Bradl took the win from Alex Baldolini by a margin of just 0.068s.  The duo had battled closely in the final stages of the race. At just over 2.7s further back another fantastic battle played out behind the duo and it was Alex de Angelis who took third place. For the JiR Moto2 rider it was his third successive top-three result and came after a hard fight with a host of others for the coveted final podium step. Already-crowned Moto2 World Champion Toni Elías (Gresini Racing) failed to finish a race for the first time this season after crashing with 11 laps to go when running in eighth position.

And then, the 125cc contest was phenomenal to say the least, as we saw the original race red flagged, Championship leader Márquez re-start from the back of the grid after crashing on the sighting lap and then ride to victory ahead of title rival Nico Terol. Thus, he took his tenth victory of the season, and opened up a 17-point lead at the top of the 125cc World Championship over Nico Terol with just a single round remaining. On the final lap the pair swapped the lead a number of times, Márquez eventually getting his nose in front and crossing the line 0.150s ahead of Terol, with Bradley Smith taking third place.

The final race is at Valencia in a week’s time, which will bring to an end, the 2010 MotoGP season. That would also be the last time we would see Valentino Rossi on a Yamaha, and Casey Stoner on the Ducati, as the two have already announced contracts with other manufacturers for 2011. Rossi has declared he would like to leave the team with a win, but his team mate might have other plans. Join us as we find out how this battle goes, and also who would be crowned the 125 cc World Champion.

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2009 Portuguese Grand Prix

Alex de Angelis took his first victory in the Moto2 class at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix, leading his JiR Moto2 team bike across the finish line ahead of Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) and Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up). The San Marinese rider started from pole position and recovered from a start which saw him drop to fourth position to slowly enter the battle for the lead. A strong finish to the race saw De Angelis win by a margin of 2.172s as he followed up his first podium of the year last time out in Malaysia with a first victory of 2010. 2010 World Champion Toni Elías (Gresini Racing) came out on top in an engrossing contest for seventh position, ahead of Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2), Alex Debón (Aeroport de Castelló-Ajo) and Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) who completed the top ten.

Marc Márquez’s ninth win of the season stretched the Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider’s lead at the top of the 125cc World Championship standings to 12 points, as he triumphed from pole position at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix. Taking the chequered flag 6.062s clear of the rest of the field having opened up an early lead Márquez finished well ahead of title rivals Pol Espargaró and Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar), who had competed closely for the remaining two podium positions during the race. Espargaró eventually finished just over five seconds clear of Terol however as the Tuenti Racing rider put in a strong final stage of the race. In a tight battle for fourth position which required a video finish between Efrén Vázquez and Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) the Tuenti Racing edged his British competitor, with Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX) close behind in sixth.

The MotoGP result lifted Stoner into third in the Championship standings ahead of Rossi, and with the Italian and his Spanish team-mate’s podium finishes Fiat Yamaha also secured the Team Championship for 2010 with two rounds remaining. The next round is at Portugal, in two weeks time.

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Australian Grand Prix 2009

Toni Elías secured the inaugural Moto2 World Championship title with fourth position in the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, as Roberto Rolfo took victory. Roberto Rolfo was also celebrating as he took the race win. Stepping onto the podium for the first time this season was Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) who challenged Rolfo for the win late on, with Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up) completing the rostrum after a marvellous duel with Gresini Racing’s Elías. Pole man Julián Simón, who was the only man who could prevent Elías from confirming the title, did not enjoy a good start as he dropped to seventh and his race got tougher. Completing the top five was Alex Debón (Aeroport de Castelló-Ajo), with top-ten results for Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing), Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing), Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP), Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) and Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2).

Marc Márquez won from pole position at Sepang to take over the leadership of the 125cc Championship by three points. The Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider led home a podium which was completed by Pol Espargaró (Tuenti Racing) and Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar), the latter of whom he deposed from top spot in the fight for the 2010 World Championship. It was the usual group of early frontrunners who contested at the head of the race in the opening stages, with a tactical battle unfolding in which Terol led by just over a second after the first lap. However Márquez, who was desperate to not allow his rival to pull away further, proceeded to make determined headway as he passed Espargaró and Bradley Smith to move into second and lock onto Terol. The battle of wits continued and each of the trio of Terol, Márquez and Espargaró all led at one point as first position continued to swap hands. With six laps to go Márquez began to turn the screw and opened up a gap of almost a full second over Espargaró, setting a fastest lap of the race in the process. From there the 17 year-old remained calm and controlled, eventually crossing the finish line 2.341s clear of Espargaró, with Terol just over a second further back. Márquez now tops the standings on 247 points, with Terol second on 244 and Espargaró third on 235 with three rounds remaining.

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Malaysian Grand Prix 2009

In the Moto2 category, Toni Elías took his seventh win of the campaign. He, thus, moved even closer to the inaugural  Moto2 World Championship title. Julián Simón placed second with Karel Abraham securing his first ever podium finish in third position. Elías and Simón broke away from the rest, and swapped lead a number of times over the course of the race, in what was an intense battle for the race win. The battle for third place was also fought as intensely between Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2), Yuki Takahashi (Tech3 Racing), Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team).

Marc Márquez took victory from pole position in the 125cc segment. Like Toni Elías, it was his seventh win of the 2010 season. Current championship leader Nico Terol finished the race in second position – thus the gap between the two in the points table has come down to a mere 6 points. Bradley Smith rode a lonely race to finish 3rd. Pol Espargaró was 4th and Alberto Moncayo (Andalucia Cajasol) completed the top 5.

In the absence of the injured Dani Pedrosa, Lorenzo’s lead at the top of the Championship was extended to 69 points. Stoner remains in third, with Dovizioso leapfrogging Rossi into fourth. It is doubtful whether Dani would take part in the next round too, and so the 2010 MotoGP Driver’s Champion is as good as decided. However, the rest of the rounds would be no less exciting, as the MotGP riders would never stop pushing the limits of their machinery and pushing each other. That itself, is a spectacle – whether a world championship is at stake or not. So, now its over to Sepang, Malasia in a weeks time.

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Grand Prix of Japan 2009