Tuesday February 2, 2010
Eyes of motorcycle racing world on Malaysia this week
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will be in the eyes of the motorcycle racing world this week with the first official MotoGP test of the year followed by the unveiling of the Petronas Yamaha MotoGP team for the new season at Sepang Circuit on Thursday.
The eagerly awaited first on-track action of the 2010 season takes place tomorrow with the participation of the MotoGP test riders. The following day, the 17 riders, who will contest in the championships, will check out their bikes.
The field will hope to get to grips with the evolving prototypes they will ride on in the coming season, starting in April.
Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi (pic)
and Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who was the runner-up last season, will work on the new version on their M1 bikes, which they first tested in the post-season at Valencia last November.
Rossi, who sealed the world championship title at Sepang last year, had commented on his satisfaction with the new throttle and speed of the 2010 machine after the test.
Rossi and Lorenzo will fly in tomorrow for the official team launch, which will be taking place at the Sepang Circuit for the first time. Another factory pairing in Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso will also be eager to see how their new bikes shape up.
Pedrosa targeted improved stability on the RC212V and Dovizioso is looking forward to seeing how electronic and chassis developments will adapt.
LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet is also excited at the prospect of the new machine, which he expects to be closer to the factory prototype.
Ducati unveiled the Desmosedici GP10 earlier this month and factory riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden will enjoy the benefits of a redesigned engine. Rizla Suzuki will see how the GSV-R on which they have been working hard throughout the winter to make it more competitive than last season fares for MotoGP veteran Loris Capirossi and rookie lvaro Bautista.
Another experienced and rookie combination will be San Carlo Honda Gresinis’ Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli while 250cc world champion Hiroshi Aoyama will be astride a MotoGP bike for the first time on the RC212V of the Interwetten Honda MotoGP.
The 2010 season, which will be making stops in 18 countries, begins in Qatar on April 11. Malaysia will be host the 14th leg on Oct 10.
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Eyes of motorcycle racing world on Malaysia this week
