MotoGP Updates

2021-08-08 11:36:31 MotoMatters.com
2021 Styria Moto2 Warm Up Result: Lowes Sets Sail
Results: Open / Comment

2021-08-08 10:56:17 MotoMatters.com
2021 Styria Moto3 Warm Up Result: Acosta Fastest On Wet Track
Results: Open / Comment

2021-08-08 03:53:48 MotoMatters.com
Styria MotoGP Saturday Round Up: Meaningless Practice, Holeshot Devices, Track Limits, And The Curious Case Of The KTM Rider Announcement
It has been a fascinating day of thrilling action at the Red Bull Ring. Records have been broken, riders have pushed the limits of their bikes, and the fans – back in full force at last – have added some of the atmosphere that has been missing during the long Covid-19 pandemic. There was elation and heartbreak, a sensational pole in MotoGP, and above all, glorious Austrian summer weather.

Yet it all lacked a sense that it stood outside reality, had no bearing on the actual racing, nothing to do with MotoGP. Perhaps that is the illusion of a return to racing after such a long summer break, the longest in recent history. But more likely, it is because while the fans lapped up the action under the sunshine, we all knew that whatever happened on Saturday is likely to be undone by the weather gods on Sunday. If it rains tomorrow – and it almost certainly will, though the question of when, how heavily, and for how long is completely uncertain – then what happened on track today will be forgotten. On Sunday, it all starts from scratch again. Open / Comment

2021-08-07 23:32:18 MotoMatters.com
2021 WorldSSP Championship Standings After Race 9, Most, Czech Republic
World Supersport standings after the first race in Most:
Round Number:
6
Year:
2021 Open / Comment

2021-08-07 23:32:14 MotoMatters.com
2021 WorldSBK Championship Standings After Race 11, Most, Czech Republic
World Superbike standings after the first race at Most:
Round Number:
6
Year:
2021 Open / Comment

2021-08-07 22:51:59 MotoMatters.com
2021 WorldSSP300 Championship Standings After Race 7, Most, Czech Republic
WorldSSP300 standings after the first race from Most:
Round Number:
6
Year:
2021 Open / Comment

2021-08-05 11:57:57 MotoMatters.com
Valentino Rossi To Announce His Future At Styrian GP
Dorna and the Petronas Yamaha team have announced that there is to be an exceptional press conference at 16:15 local time in Austria. While no further information was given, the obvious conclusion is that he will announce his plans for the future at that press conference.

What that future is predictable, though not certain. It is most likely that Rossi will announce he will be retiring from the sport at the end of this year. He insisted earlier this year that he would make a decision in the first half of the season based on his results, and with only two tenth places as his best results, that would point heavily toward the idea of him retiring. Open / Comment

2021-08-05 03:55:03 MotoMatters.com
Styria MotoGP Preview: Danger And Opportunity In The Austrian Alps
If it's scenery you're after, the Red Bull Ring, or Spielberg, or Zeltweg – choose your favorite name for the Austrian circuit – is hard to beat. Mugello maybe? The Italian track sits in a valley, rather than being set up against the lower slopes of a mountain, but Spielberg wins on the mountain backdrop behind it.

Phillip Island, perhaps? The Bass Strait makes for a stunning setting, but is it more dramatic than the Austrian Alps which frame the Red Bull Ring? The weather will change just as quickly as both, storms brewing in the mountains as rapidly as they are blown in off the Southern Ocean at Phillip Island. One minute the sun is shining, the next the heavens have opened.

In Spielberg, that can be a problem. The track is dangerous at the best of times, but a downpour at the track makes braking into Turn 1 a lottery. In previous years, the rubber left by cars at the first corner turned it into an ice rink when it rained. The circuit has addressed that in recent years by scrubbing out the rubber left by the cars in the braking zone. But concerns remain. Open / Comment

2021-08-04 21:12:45 MotoMatters.com
Guest Blog: Mat Oxley - MotoGP’s greatest paradox: why isn’t Moto2 racing closer?
Moto2 riders use the same engine, tyres, software, fuel, oil and gearbox, so why is the racing more spread out than MotoGP and Moto3?

Dorna’s big push over the past decade has been writing technical regulations that shrink the gap between the best and worst motorcycles, thereby creating thrilling racing that gets hundreds of millions of people turning on their televisions

The premier MotoGP class features many such rules – 81mm bore limit, spec tyres, spec electronics, a relatively high minimum weight limit and so on.

Moto3 is even stricter, with the same tyres, same electronics and engines randomly allocated to riders to prevent factory teams gaining an advantage. Open / Comment

2021-08-04 16:30:59 MotoMatters.com
Paddock Pass Podcast Episode 225: After The Break - Looking Ahead To The Styrian MotoGP Round
On the eve of MotoGP's return to action at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, the latest episode of the Paddock Pass Podcast looks over a few of the news stories in the run up to the race and at what we can expect from the Styrian Grand Prix. After a quick update on what we all did during the summer break, Adam Wheeler, Neil Morrison and David Emmett get down to examining the state of the championship.

The crew start off with a look at where the protagonists stand going into the second half of the season, and how the back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring might affect Fabio Quartararo's championshp lead. We discuss who we think will shine at the Red Bull Ring, and just how competitive the Yamaha can be. We discuss the impending return of two veterans, with Dani Pedrosa returning as a wildcard for KTM for one race, and Cal Crutchlow replacing Franco Morbidelli for the next three rounds in the Petronas Yamaha team. Open / Comment