[badri]

After a long hiatus, MotoGP action kicks off tomorrow with the first test in Sepang. This is a private test where all the big teams are participating. The test started yesterday with test riders. Today, the test riders continued and Casey Stoner joined them.Tomorrow all the biggies will hit the track. Looking at the weather, it is likely that they will hit a damp track.

At the post race test in Valencia, few things stood out.

1. Maverick Vinales was fast on Yamaha from the word go and was fastest in the test. Very impressive performance! Later at a private test in Sepang, he was apparently fast again.
2. Jorge Lorenzo was immediately quick on Ducati on day one but couldn't manage a competitive time on day two when he was testing the GP17.
3. Andrea Iannone was very fast on the Suzuki and placed his new bike in 4th position.
4. Tech 3 rookies Johann Zarco and Jonas Folger were very impressive and finished ahead of regular riders like Redding, Bautista, Barbera etc.
5. KTM's were expectedly slow but improved with each outing.
6. 2016 Champ Marc Marquez was faster than everyone except Vinales. But the big news is that Honda is finally using a "Big Bang" engine after years of sticking to the "Screamer" configuration. Big Bang is supposed to deliver power in a smoother manner and save tyres.

Off the (MotoGP) track, Marquez won the Superprestigio 2016 by beating Toni Elias and American flat track star Brad Baker. Looks like he can win in any motorcycle race he wishes to participate in!

Not to be left behind, Valentino Rossi won his fifth Monza Rally Show!

2017 seems to be a cracker of a season. Marquez may be the title favorite but Rossi will give him a tough fight. Vinales and Lorenzo can win a couple of races for sure but the title fight will mostly be between 99 and 46.

[Cyborg]

Originally Posted by badri

2017 seems to be a cracker of a season. Marquez may be the title favorite but Rossi will give him a tough fight. Vinales and Lorenzo can win a couple of races for sure but the title fight will mostly be between 99 and 46.

Thanks for the update Badri!

I hope you are more or less right. For the more part, I hope Rossi finally wins his 10th GP title overall . Since Vinales has hit the ground running with a new bike, never know how much of a thorn he could become in Rossi's side. As long as its clean, may the better man win.

Cannot wait for the season to kick off in Qatar on 26th March.

Cheers

[badri]

Originally Posted by badri

title fight will mostly be between 99 and 46.

Oops. It's 93 and 46

[badri]

Lorenzo is at track but will not test tomorrow. He is there to interact with Stoner and Pirro. Official test starts on Monday.

[badri]

Some interesting videos from Off Season

Marquez takes RC213V to the ski slopes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6bP7dfhQwI

Rossi Vs Daniel Sordo @ Monza Rally Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrXtsF9AQkE

Lorenzo's "World Champions by 99" Museum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpceNwwwwn0

[badri]

At 1.00PM on day one of official test in Sepang, Stoner tops the time sheets followed by Dovi and Vinales. Lorenzo is languishing in 21st. Rossi is in 10th. Rain is expected shortly.

[Porschefire]

Interesting watch - Jarvis interviews Rossi and Vinales.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-32WwgYAD8Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkMT5hU6zSI

[Amey Kulkarni]

Motogp Enthusiasts,

The Racing season to flag-off at Qatar this month on 26th March' 2017.

The Doctor (VR 46 Yamaha) is my personal favorite however, Marquez (Honda 93), Vinyales (Yamaha 25), Lorenzo (Ducati 99) and the new entrants KTM duos (Pol Espagaro 44 and Bradly Smith 38) to be watched out for this season.

Link - http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2017/0...nfirmed/218151

FIM_Grand_Prix_World_Championship_2017_final_calendar_23_January.pdf


Cheers,
Amey

[Amey Kulkarni]

Day 1 test results from Qatar are out!

Rossi upto a slow start! Dovizioso 04 on Ducati leading the way and the young Vinyales 25 doing pretty good with the New Yamaha and the crutchlow 35 on LCR Honda looks promising to complete the top 3.

[VR/46_Chet]

With the final test over and just over a week left for the season to start, I'd like to highlight a few points:

1. Having topped all 4 pre-season tests, Maverick Viñales is clearly THE man to watch out for in the 2017 season. Young, fast and confident not just allows one to keep up with the leading group, it wins races.

2. The factory Ducatis have improved on laptimes, with Andrea Dovizioso ending in P2 and Jorge Lorenzo in P4.

3. Little Man Dani Pedrosa has clearly found form yet again, ending in P3.
Hope for him to have an injury-free season this time. Definitely a man with a lot of potential, he has always been competitive in the past, but has always injured himself to the extent of missing races and then jumping down on points.

4. The first four are split within two tenths of a second with Maverick Vinales at 1:54.330, Dovizioso (+0.071), Pedrosa (+0.139) and Lorenzo (+0.189).

5. Good going for Pull&Bear Aspar and Octo Pramac Ducati considering Alvaro Bautista and Scott Redding achieved P5 and P6 respectively.

6. Jonas Folger and Johann Zarco seem ready for their debut appearance, separated by one tenth of a second at P7 and P9.

7. Cal Crutchlow suffered more on day 3, finishing at P8. Like Dani, Cal too has been there since a long time and really has a serious potential to win. It has always been the team / mechanics that have kept him from winning. I really hope to see him on a factory bike one fine day.

8. Marc Marquez rounded the top 10, with 3 crashes though.


Setting laptimes and winning races are two completely different things. I believe the 2017 season will give us more winners and distinct podiums.

Note: For those who have struggle connecting to Tensports Live, search for streams on websites like totalsportek, motorsports-stream etc. The quality isn't really good but it is better than missing races.

8 days to go! Cheers!

[Amey Kulkarni]

Motogp to flag-off end of this week.

It is going to be one nerve-wracking nail biting season with many riders switching motorcycle teams.



Cheers,
Amey

[badri]

Four official tests swept clean by Vinales seems to have changed the predictions in his favour.

GPone.com did an interesting survey asking riders (current/past), team owners etc to predict. Marquez still seems to be favourite but Vinales is pretty close. Rossi is a distant third.

https://www.gpone.com/en/2017/03/20/...the-title.html

[nkrishnap]

Originally Posted by badri

Four official tests swept clean by Vinales seems to have changed the predictions in his favour.

GPone.com did an interesting survey asking riders (current/past), team owners etc to predict. Marquez still seems to be favourite but Vinales is pretty close. Rossi is a distant third.

https://www.gpone.com/en/2017/03/20/...the-title.html

The test and surveys can only give that much information. Its a matter of fact that the master of Sunday will be the ones to rule the points table.

My bet is in this order.

1. Marquez
2. Rossi
3. Vinales/Pedrosa
4. Lorenzo/Iannone

I may be completely off. But whats wrong in taking a guess

[shyn]

A little something I quickly made on the phone that shows the race start times in IST. Hope I've done the math right.


Original schedule by http://www.foxsports.com/motor/schedule?circuit=7

[badri]

This is one very very very lucky guy!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDbw...layer_embedded