Tagged: Lukas Pesek

Qatar Grand Prix Qualifying Practice 1, times and results: Espargaro leads, with Iannone second

The first in the new type of qualifying has ended with Aleix Espargaro pulling out a pretty special lap to make it through to QP2. Ben Spies made a valiant effort, but was clearly sore from his crash in FP4, and lacking confidence in the front end of his Ducati. On the other side of the Pramac garage though Andrea Iannone was beaming and lapped 0.052 behind Espargaro to get a chance to prove his mettle in QP2.

It’s not only Spies who’ll be disappointed either; Randy De Puniet only managed to get within 0.400 of his teammate Espargaro’s time. So fast was Espargaro that only two more riders got within a second of his. These were rookie Lukas Pesek, who looked impressive on the Ioda-Suter CRT, and Yonny Hernandez, a fan favourite who always gives 100%.

Next up is QP2 to decide the front four grid rows.

QP1 results:

Pos. Rider Team Time Lead. Gap Prev. gap
1 Aleix ESPARGARO Power Electronics Aspar 1’57.151
2 Andrea IANNONE Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 1’57.203 0.052 0.052
3 Ben SPIES Ignite Pramac Racing 1’57.440 0.289 0.237
4 Randy DE PUNIET Power Electronics Aspar 1’57.551 0.400 0.111
5 Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project 1’57.926 0.775 0.375
6 Yonny HERNANDEZ Paul Bird Motorsport 1’58.058 0.907 0.132
7 Hiroshi AOYAMA Avintia Blusens 1’58.263 1.112 0.205
8 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1’58.271 1.120 0.008
9 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1’58.361 1.210 0.090
10 Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project 1’58.486 1.335 0.125
11 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1’58.755 1.604 0.269
12 Hector BARBERA Avintia Blusens 1’58.806 1.655 0.051
13 Bryan STARING GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1’58.912 1.761 0.106
14 Michael LAVERTY Paul Bird Motorsport 1’59.572 2.421 0.660

MotoGP CRT Sepang test times, 3-4 February: Day 2

How do you make a test schedule that’s already been affected by machine problems worse? Add some rain. And that’s exactly what happened to the CRT teams in the second day of testing at Sepang.

The good news for Danilo Petrucci is that he ended up on top of the timing sheets. The bad news was that he only managed 4 laps and his time of 2:23.456 was almost 17 seconds slower than his time from day 1, due to wet weather. When the teams go testing they need to test the bikes to the max, not run around 17 seconds off their best pace. He had plenty of electrical problems too, meaning team mate Lukas Pesek got the valuable Magneti Marelli ECU on his bike, and managed 19 laps. He’s been out of GP racing for a couple of seasons and needed time on track to get used to the bike. Wet time is better than no time, but he still needs to adjust to the unusual slick Bridgestones,

Hector Barbera finally got to ride his bike a bit, the team remedying his wiring loom issues in the afternoon, and in 20 laps he was half a second off of Petrucci. His teammate, Hiroshi Aoyama, decided against risking further injury to his recovering wrist on the slippery track and sat out the session.

Colin Edwards and Claudio Corti both managed to get some laps under their belts (hooray!), managing eight and seven respectively. Edwards had a torrid time, ending up last, some 6.5 seconds off the pace. Both machines had problems with the setup of the spec ECU.

Next up on the testing schedule, the CRT teams are joined by the other MotoGP teams at Sepang. If the weather’s good, everyone might just get some work done for a change!

Day 2:

Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Prev. Gap Lead. Gap Laps
1 Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project 2:23.456 4
2 Hector BARBERA Avintia Blusens 2:23.973 0.517 0.517 20
3 Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project 2:24.023 0.050 0.567 19
4 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team 2:24.027 0.004 0.571 7
5 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team 2:29.973 5.946 6.517 8

MotoGP riders and teams 2013

This year there are 24 riders in MotoGP, and here’s a quick run down of who’s in what team and what bikes they’re running. For a more detailed summary, head over to my MotoGP rider profiles 2013 page.

Yamaha Factory Racing: Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 

Jorge Lorenzo, Spain
DOB: 4th May 1987, 2012 position: 1st, Bike number: 99

Valentino Rossi, Italy
DOB: 16the February 1979, 2012 position: 6th, Bike number 46

Repsol Honda Team – Bike: Honda RC213V

Dani Pedrosa, Spain
DOB: 29th September 1985, 2012 position: 2nd, Bike number: 26

Marc Marquez, Spain
DOB: 17th February 1993, 2012 position (Moto2): 1st, Bike number: 93

Ducati Team – Bike: Ducati Desmosedici GP13

Nicky Hayden, USA
DOB: 30th July 1981, 2012 position: 9th, Bike number: 69

Andrea Dovizioso, Italy
DOB: 23rd March 1986, 2012 position: 4th, Bike number: 4

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1

Cal Crutchlow, England
DOB: 29th October 1985, 2012 position: 7th, Bike number: 35

Bradley Smith, England
DOB: 28th November 1990, 2012 position (Moto2): 9th, Bike number: 38

Go&FUN Honda Gresini (Gresini Honda) – Bikes: Honda RC213V (Bautista), FTR Honda (CRT, Staring)

Alvaro Bautista, Spanish
DOB: 21st November 1984, 2012 position: 5th, Bike number: 19

Bryan Staring, Australia
DOB: 1st June 1987, 2012 position (FIM Superstock 1000): 4th, Bike number 67

LCR Honda MotoGP – Bike: Honda RC213V

Stefan Bradl, German
DOB: 29th November 1989, 2012 position: 8th, Bike number: 6

Pramac Racing Team – Bike: Ducati Desmosedici GP13 

Ben Spies, USA
DOB: 11th July 1984, 2012 position: 10th, Bike number: 11

Andrea Iannone, Italy
DOB: 9th August 1989, 2012 position (Moto2): 3rd, Bike number: 29

Avintia Blusens (BQR) – Bike: FTR Kawasaki (CRT) 

Hector Barbera, Spain
DOB: 2nd November 1986, 2012 position: 11th, Bike number: 7

Hiroshi Aoyama, Japan
DOB: 25th October 1981, 2012 position: MotoGP 25th (1 race), World Superbikes 18th, Bike number: 8

Power Electronics Aspar – Bike: Aprilia ART (CRT)

Aleix Espargaro, Spain
DOB: 30th July, 1989, 2012 position: 12th, Bike number: 41

Randy De Puniet, France
DOB: 14th February 1981, 2012 position: 13th, Bike number: 14

Cardion AB Motoracing – Bike: ART Aprilia (CRT) 

Karel Abraham, Czech Republic
DOB: 2nd January 1990, 2012 position: 14th, Bike number: 17

Paul Bird Motorsport – Bikes: Aprilia ART (CRT, Hernandez), British designed PBM Aprilia-powered bike (CRT, Laverty) 

Yonny Hernandez, Columbia
DOB: 25th July 1988, 2012 position: 17th, Bike number: 68

Michael Laverty, Northern Ireland
DOB: 7th June 1981, 2012 position (British Superbikes): 5th, Bike number: 70

Came IodaRacing Project (IODA racing) – Bike: Suter BMW (CRT)

Danilo Petrucci, Italy
DOB: 24th October 1990, 2012 position: 19th, Bike number: 9

Lukas Pesek, Czech Republic
DOB: 22nd November 1985, 2012 position: Rode in championships including IDM German Superbikes and IDM Supersport, Bike number: 52

NGM Mobile Forward Racing – Bike: FTR Kawasaki (CRT)

Colin Edwards, USA
DOB: 27th February 1974, 2012 position: 20th, Bike number: 5

Claudio Corti, Italy
DOB: 25th June 1987, 2012 position (Moto2): 14th, Bike number: 71