MotoGP – Donington Preview

MotoGP is making their last visit to Donington for the near term with the British round moving to Silverstone next year. Championship leader Valentino Rossi has five top class wins at Donington and a fourteen point lead over Jorge Lorenzo. Casey Stoner trails Rossi by twenty eight points and he’s still suffering from a stamina sapping illness, but the 2007 World Champion has won the last two Donington rounds.

The Honda bikes of Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso and Toni Elias have had an improved chassis at the last few rounds, and the two Repsol riders were testing a new engine at the Sachsenring. Pedrosa was strong enough to finish in third place at Germany, but both he and Dovizioso had tire problems.

Jorge Martinez has been trying to put together a MotoGP team for many years without any luck. Now it looks like Martinez will realize his dream in 2010 with either Ducati (80%) or Honda (20%). Martinez is pushing for a two bike team, and is hoping that Alvaro Bautista will be one of his riders.

Jorge Lorenzo’s contract with Yamaha is up for renewal at the end of the year, and he is making salary demands that are greater than what Yamaha is offering. The Spaniard has said that he has received offers from all of the manufacturers, and if he does decide to leave his current team it seems more than likely that he would be going to the Honda factory team.

After two solid races and qualifying fourth at Germany it looked like Nicky Hayden finally had a handle on how to ride the Ducati, but a bad start pushed him to the rear and he had to settle for an eighth place finish. The Kentucky Kid had another problem prior to last weekend’s race when he came upon a slow rider in the wet. MotoGP has video of all the wet weather crashes at last weekends round.

Qualifying Times – Rossi quickest

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