We welcome back our regular round-up of the lesser-reported news from the MotoGP paddock, courtesy of Toby Moody, our man on the spot with what’s hot and what’s not in MotoGP, Moto2 and 125cc.
Sharp Bradl makes mark
German Stefan Bradl won the opening Moto2 race of 2011 having broken his duck in the middle class at Estoril last year. It means that the former Red Bull KTM Junior 125 team rider has now won two of the last three races with two different chassis, Suter and Kalex. With Kalex only having started making bike chassis in 2006 after a couple of guys had time on their hands following Opel's pull out of the DTM, it's a fairytale story. They’d better engineer some better locks on their workshop in Bavaria before other teams start knocking down the doors to get those Kalex chassis!
Making a fist of it
Marc Márquez had a true baptism of fire in his first Moto2 race, the 125cc champion qualifying in second position but fluffing the start. Soon, though, he was cutting through the field just as he did when he won the Estoril race last year after starting from the back of the grid. Wheel-to-wheel with the tough guys like Alex De Angelis and Scott Redding, he was doing pretty well until he went looping off with a big highside from which he was lucky to walk away, hitting his head with his fist in frustration. I’ve since learned that it wasn’t frustration but actually a dawning that the old guys in the garage were probably right before the race when they told him to play it a bit cooler than some of those 125 barnstormers of last year, keep out of the way of the more experienced loons and get it to the finish. Next time Marc…
Toby Moody
Hell for leather
Red Bull Rookies Cup runner-up from 2010 Danny Kent (pictured on-track, top) faced a tricky poser with his leathers only scheduled to arrive on the Saturday, begging the question of what was he going to wear for the first two days of practice. Well, fortunately for him, his team-mate Jonas Folger is about the same size, so he slipped into his spare set. Unbeknown until the pre-season 125 group photo was taken was that someone making the graphics for Folger’s leathers had unfathomably put ‘BullRed’ as the logo on his back. Quite how that got through the system has yet to be deciphered, but at least Jonas had something to put on in time for the photo.
A fine display from Taylor
British rider Taylor McKenzie is another to graduate from the Red Bull Rookies Cup into 125cc Grand Prix, with the Ongetta squad. His dad Niall, former works rider in 500cc with Honda and Yamaha, was in attendance under the floodlights and loving it, although the tables were turned from the regular weekday routine as it was Niall cleaning visors and running errands. One small touch on the back of Taylor’s new helmet for 2011 was a red Hawk jet as flown by the UK Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows display team. Why? Well, because an ex-Red Arrows pilot is helping Taylor out with a bit of sponsorship. How cool is that?
Toby Moody
Hamashima re-tyres from F1
Tyre talisman Hirohide Hamashima was a welcome arrival in the paddock with Bridgestone. Sure, he's been to many races before to have a look around, but Hamashima-san was then in charge of Bridgestone's F1 project – now he’s in MotoGP, and he only has to take on board half the amount of tyres.
Think of a number and take it away
Bike numbers were always going to be scrutineered in the run-up to the weekend after some very dodgy digits in years past. Scott Redding fell foul, having to remove his new star logo from inside his 45, much to the annoyance of the team and Scott's designers. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Marc VDS Racing Moto2 team, Finn Mika Kallio had a cool number – literally, as you’ll see from this picture. That’s what you get coming back from the depths of the Finnish winter.
Toby Moody
An emotional day for Aoyama
Hiroshi Aoyama was moved the most during the build-up to the MotoGP race when a minute's silence was observed to remember those who lost their lives in Japanese earthquake and tsunami. “When we had the minute's silence at the front of the grid before the race for the tragedies in Japan, I felt really emotional,” said Hiro. “On behalf of my countrymen, I want to say thank you to everybody who has shown their support during this sad time.” Hiroshi was disappointed not to have done better to honour the memory of his compatriots afterwards: “I had a tough race because of the start. Randy De Puniet crashed in front of me and I lost precious ground on the group. Then I got my pace together and recovered positions, but it was a shame, because I wanted to have a good race tonight.”
Part and parcel
Honda are assessing the situation on spare parts for their bikes across MotoGP for the third and fourth races into the season after suppliers reported difficulties caused by the paralysis in the manufacturing industry in Japan since the March 11 quake. Shukhei Nakamoto of HRC has said that they could source parts in Europe if necessary.
Toby Moody
One for the album
Dakar Rally 2011 winner Nasser Al-Attiyah was again a visitor to the biggest motorsport event in his home country. Nasser is the most successful motorsport athlete from the Middle East after taking victory in Buenos Aires in his VW Touareg in January. It was unusual to see him out of his overalls and team gear, for the first time I saw him in more traditional dress, so I took the above picture for the record...
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