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Phillip Island WorldSBK Round Up: Will The Ducati Whitewash Continue?

By Steve English | Tue, 04/Mar/2025 - 14:53

There is no better setting for Round 1 of the Superbike season than Phillip Island. With the Bass Strait dominating the horizon it offers a truly unique setting. It also all but guarantees that we’ll have classic battles with the drive to the line, a slipstreaming battle separated by thousands of a second...it was just a shame that Nicolo Bulega didn’t get the memo.

Toprak threatens to walk away from WorldSBK

As ever the WorldSBK paddock is centred around Toprak Razgatlioglu. Last year it was for his stunning championship winning upset. This year it’s because the Turkish star is upset.

Coming to Australia it was clear that BMW would be on the back foot. A late change, mid-January, in the regulations saw them unable to capitalise on their former Super Concession status and upgraded chassis parts. The change in regulations was small but incredibly significant; a manufacturer developing a new bike can only use Super Concessions if they are still eligible. In the past BMW would have been able to continue to use the upgrades with their new homologation.

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Buriram MotoGP Round At Risk After 2026

By David Emmett | Mon, 03/Mar/2025 - 14:53

Reports coming out of Thailand suggest that the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, which hosted the opening round of the 2025 MotoGP season and is set to repeat that in 2026, may lose its spot on the MotoGP calendar from 2027 onwards.

Newin Chidchob, president of the Chang International Circuit, posted on his Facebook page that he had been informed by the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT) that the Thai government would not extend the contract they have with Dorna to host a round of MotoGP.

However, SAT governor Dr Kongsak Yodmanee told Thai newspaper The Nation that they were still in contract negotiations with Dorna Sports S.L. over a possible contract extension, and that no decision had been made.

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Buriram MotoGP Sunday Race Notes, Part 1: Masterclass

By David Emmett | Mon, 03/Mar/2025 - 00:14

A couple of decades ago, when Valentino Rossi was at the height of his powers, Rossi's crew chief Jeremy Burgess was interviewed. Burgess explained that if he was shown a photo of Rossi riding, he could identify what lap Rossi was on.

Is this some kind of weird superpower? Not really. Burgess was looking at Rossi's position on the bike, and dozens of tiny telltale signs of how he was adapting his riding to the bike and tires as they changed during race, as the fuel tank emptied and the tires wore and degraded.

If you have the kind of intimate knowledge of a rider's talent and habits that a crew chief does, you can spot those subtle changes. Or if you are an ex-rider and have been watching a particular rider for a long time, you can pick up on those signs too.

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Buriram MotoGP Saturday Sprint Race Notes: A New Order, A Rising Star, And Why The Race Was Processional

By David Emmett | Sat, 01/Mar/2025 - 22:32

We are off and running. The first points in the 2025 MotoGP season have been handed out, and we have a championship. So far, it is running pretty much as it did last year: three Ducatis on the podium and a race that was spaced out and predictable pretty much from the start. But that didn't stop the Saturday Sprint race at Buriram from being interesting, if not exciting to watch.

The atmosphere more than made up for the lack of on track action. The grandstands were once again packed with enthusiastic and loud MotoGP fans, vindicating Dorna's decision to start the season in Buriram instead of Qatar. That may not suit European broadcasters - a 9am CET start time is less attractive to TV audiences than either 3pm for a race in Europe or 6pm for Qatar.

(And yes, I am aware that the 3pm Buriram time is much more convenient for viewers in Australia, and to an extent on the West Coast of the US. The trouble is, TV audience sizes in those countries are nowhere near what they are in Spain, Italy, France, and the UK.)

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Buriram MotoGP Friday Round Up: Yellow Flags And Fast Brothers

By David Emmett | Fri, 28/Feb/2025 - 20:23

It's Only Friday, as the riders like to say to hype-hungry journalists after the first day of practice. That is of course true, but this It's Only Friday has brought a whole ream of fascinating stories to follow. It is far too early to be drawing conclusions for the rest of the season, but so far, 2025 looks a lot less like 2024 than we feared.

Yes, Ducati is still clearly the strongest manufacturer. The Márquez brothers topped the timesheets on Friday, Gresini's Alex beating Lenovo's Marc by half a tenth of a second. And in terms of pace, Ducatis are looking strongest as well: Marc Márquez was running 1'29.9s on old tires, teammate Pecco Bagnaia 1'30.0s.

But there are signs the other factories are catching up. There are as many Aprilias in the top 10 and directly through to Q2 as there are Ducatis (three). All five manufacturers are straight through to Q2. There are two Hondas in the top ten, Joan Mir an impressive sixth fastest. And Pedro Acosta is both quick over a single lap and running just a tenth or two off Pecco Bagnaia's pace on used tires. It has been very interesting day indeed.

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Buriram MotoGP Thursday Round Up: Handling The Heat, And Returning From Injury

By David Emmett | Thu, 27/Feb/2025 - 22:28

Normally here I would be writing about the characteristics of the track, what to watch out for, where the passing opportunities are, and what the challenges are. But the opening round of MotoGP is at Buriram, where we had a test two weeks ago, and a race at the end of October last year. So I would refer you to those, as the track hasn't changed since then.

One thing that has changed is the heat. At the test, the temperature was in the low 30s °C. Hot, but bearable. This weekend, the temperature is expected to hit 38°C. Those will be some of the hottest temperatures MotoGP riders have faced perhaps since they stopped running Qatar during the daytime.

The heat will be brutal, though the fact that humidity will be low - forecast to be around 20% - means that wet bulb temperatures (used to measure the ability of humans to prevent overheating and suffer serious health consequences) will be within a safe range. Temperatures will be punishing, but survivable.

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Jorge Martin Set To Miss Argentina As Well As Buriram MotoGP Rounds

By David Emmett | Thu, 27/Feb/2025 - 11:56

Jorge Martin is set to miss the first two rounds of the 2025 MotoGP season. Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola confirmed to media in Thailand that the Spaniard's wrist and scaphoid need more recovery time before he will be able to race.

The reigning world champion fractured the radius, scaphoid and other wrist bones in his left wrist in a training crash. Martin had been riding a supermoto bike for the first time since breaking a metacarpal bone in his right hand in a highside at the Sepang test. A highside on the supermoto bike saw him fracture the bones in his left wrist, as well as in his left ankle.

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2025 MotoGP Season Preview - The Subplots Are What Make The Story

By David Emmett | Wed, 26/Feb/2025 - 22:37

In many ways, the 2025 MotoGP championship promises to be one of the more interesting in recent years. Perhaps not the most closely contested - the general consensus among fans and pundits alike is that you can take your pick of whether it will be Pecco Bagnaia or Marc Márquez who ends up lifting the 2025 MotoGP crown - but behind the title fight, there are some fascinating developments to watch out for.

We may as well start with that title battle. The dominance of Ducati was so great last year that it is hard to imagine anyone other than Marc Márquez or Pecco Bagnaia walking off with the title. Despite the fact that they are sticking with their GP24 engine - a little more on that later - both Bagnaia and Márquez showed pace during the test, Márquez' race simulation at Buriram almost fast enough to win a sprint race.

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KTM Restructuring Plan Accepted By Creditors - Must Pay €548 Million By May 23rd

By David Emmett | Tue, 25/Feb/2025 - 13:48

KTM have taken the biggest hurdle on the way back from insolvency. At the hearing held by the insolvency court, the administrator Dr. Peter Vogl announced that a majority of KTM's creditors had accepted their plan to repay 30% of the debt and continue as a going concern.

Under the plan, KTM AG will have to pay 30% of the debts, a total of €548 million, by May 23rd this year. The creditors agreed to have the remainder of the debt written off. In addition, KTM have secured another €50 million in funding from Pierer Mobility shareholder Bajaj Auto to restart production from the middle of March this year.

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Jorge Martin Breaks Left Wrist, To Miss Buriram MotoGP Opener

By David Emmett | Mon, 24/Feb/2025 - 18:16

Jorge Martin has suffered a further setback to the start of his career with Aprilia. The reigning world champion has fractured a number of bones in his left wrist in a training accident. He is to miss the opening round of MotoGP at Buriram after surgery.

Martin was already recovering from breaking his right hand in an early crash at the Sepang test. The Spaniard has now also fractured his left radius and scaphoid. The scaphoid is a particularly troublesome bone to break, as it takes a very long time to heal, having little blood flow.

Martin is set to have surgery to fix the scaphoid and radius on Tuesday. There is as yet no schedule for his return to racing.

A statement from Aprilia appears below:

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Recent comments

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