Stoner Hero at GP Zero

Casey Stoner ignored his still-crocked wrist to demolish the field in the mock qualifying session at the Jerez MotoGP test, dubbed "GP Zero", and strolled off with the prize: a ludicrously quick baby BMW.

The Aussie is still having trouble with that wrist, which is taking a long, long time to heal fully after an off-season operation. This didn't stop him wrestling the new carbon-framed Ducati round to a stunning "pole position" though. He still hasn't completed a race distance for ages, but it seems very sensible to hold off that kind of punishment for as long as he possibly can. They don't give out points for race distances in testing. An incredible lap from Stoner to win the Beemer, so don't bet against him taking his second world championship.

Valentino Rossi had to settle for second place on his FIAT Yamaha, but the (arguably) Greatest Of All Time is still looking good for another title challenge. I wouldn't bet against him either.

Loris Capirossi was the surprise 3rd place finisher. Maybe the Suzuki's pre season testing pace will hold up in the season this time. The second Rizla Suzuki bike was Chris Vermeulen in 5th, so this might be Suzuki's year. Maybe.

In between the two powder blue bikes was Rossi's young team-mate, Jorge Lorenzo. 4th was a decent result for the Spaniard as he continues his adaptation to Bridgestone tyres.

Finland's Mika Kallio finished an excellent 6th on the satellite Pramac Ducati. He's the rookie that everyone is talking about this year, and is already on the pace. Definitely one to watch.

New factory Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso won't be too chuffed with 7th place. However, he's still better off than his team-mate Dani Pedrosa, who didn't show up at all, still crocked after various injuries and operations. Dovi might well out-pace his teeny team leader this season. It'll be very interesting to find out.

Thankfully free from the evil sponsorship of Equatorial Guinea's dictator, Sete Gibernau took his satellite Dodgy Builder Ducati to a very respectable 8th place. He was still complaining about his dodgy shoulder, which has been dodgy for ever and ever and ever. A lot of head-shaking for Sete, then. After retiring, why on earth would he return and throw himself to the MotoGP wolves again? Who knows, but he seems to be doing alright so far.

Little hang-off-the-bike nutcase Toni Elias brought his satellite-but-factory Gresini Honda to a half-decent 9th place. Not bad going, but Toni is so unpredictable it's impossible to tell if he'll have a great season or a terrible one.

Colin "Excuses" Edwards finished 10th on the satellite Tech 3 Yamaha. Not all that brilliant considering that the Tech 3 machines are thought to be very close to factory spec. Still, the Texan ex-WSBK champ was upbeat. Will he have yet another season to forget? Hmmm, I dunno.

Nicky Hayden had a mediocre session, finishing just 11th on the second factory Ducati, outpaced by two satellite machines. I seriously doubt that Nicky can adapt to the insane Bologna Bullet. That bike can only be ridden quickly by a certain little Aussie who doesn't know what all the fuss is about. The only way I can see for the Kentucky Kid to get back to the sharp end of the grid is if Dorna bring back the 990's, which is what every single MotoGP fan and most riders want. But that will only happen after aliens land on the White House lawn and persuade Mr Obama to invade Spain and force Dorna to see sense. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Marco Melandri amazingly finished faster than several people, taking 12th on the Kawasaki. Uh, no, the uh, Hayate. Yeah. An extremely impressive showing from Marco, since the "Hayate" is such an awful formerly-green machine. So maybe riding the Hayate won't be Hari-Kiri for Melandri after all. Hopefully the likeable Italian can return to his old form and snag a great ride for next year. Simply getting into the top ten on that bike would impress the hell out of everyone.

Randy de Puniet took 13th on the Playboy LCR Honda.  (Yes, Playboy. Presumably they got the bunny sponsorship because Randy de Puniet spends so much time admiring rabbit burrows in gravel traps.) He was joined by fellow Honda satellite riders Yuki Takahashi and Alex de Angelis in 14th and 15th. Those satellite Hondas look like being rubbish this year, but keep an eye out for those guys in the wet and in their home races. You never know.

James Toseland took 16th fastest on the second Tech 3 Yamaha. Recovering from a massive highside earlier on in pre-season testing at Malaysia, he suffered a massive highside during the GP Zero session. The Englishman was briefly knocked out in the nasty high-speed crash, suffering a concussion and causing the session to be red-flagged. It doesn't look like being Toseland's year.

Niccolo Canepa was the last of the regular riders, finishing 18th on the second Pramac Ducati. As a former Ducati test-rider, Canepa was supposed to be good on the bike. Well, that's looking pretty dubious. He has an Italian passport though, so he'll be OK.

So overall, what do we take away from GP Zero? Well, It looks like another Stoner versus Rossi battle for the championship, and it's impossible to tell which one of them will come out on top.

BSB Back on ITV

A lot of fans weren't happy when the British Superbike Championship's TV coverage moved from the Freeview terrestrial station ITV4 to the subscription satellite station British Eurosport 2. However, this year it looks like a pretty reasonable deal has been struck that should satisfy more of the viewing public.

Live coverage of the British Superbikes and many of their support races will continue to be shown on British Eurosport 2, letting the hardcore fans have their fix. However, there will now be a BSB highlights show on ITV4 on Saturday afternoons. Although people tend to prefer live coverage, an action packed series like BSB is ideal for highlight shows, as there will be utter mayhem for the entire program. It also broadens the audience back to the millions who can access ITV4 on Freeview. The highlights will also be shown mid-week (and presumably mid-night) on the main ITV1 station.

Sounds like good news to me.

WSBK Qatar: Spies Double - Oh, Heaven!

Ben Spies continued his breathtaking dominance of the World Superbike series by taking pole position and winning the double at Qatar, but Noriyuki Haga kept his championship lead with a pair of second place finishes.

Race One

Max Biaggi made his customary lightning start on the V4 Aprilia, with Noriyuki Haga's Xerox Ducati slotting into second place. Polesitter Ben Spies could only manage 4th place into turn one on his Yamaha, with Jakub Smrz impressively slotting his privateer Ducati into 3rd in front of the Texan. Shinya Nakano on the second Aprilia was keeping Spies in sight, and there was soon a battle for 3rd between Nakano, Smrz and Spies, with the Texan struggling to pass his rivals. 

Biaggi's Aprilia was very quick in a straight line, certainly quicker than Haga's factory Ducati, as the Japanese contender was just a tad too slow to slipstream past the late-braking Roman Emperor. Spies woke up and dispatched Nakano and Smrz, who suffered a big highside shortly afterwards. The American had now woken up and was travelling faster and faster, slipstreaming past Haga then passing Biaggi for the lead on the same lap, at two-thirds of race distance.

Behind the leaders, Nakano's Aprilia was in 4th place, which he would hold to the end of the race. Ten Kate Honda's Carlos Checa came through the pack into 5th, but couldn't quite hunt down his old MotoGP rival. It was an encouraging race for Shane Byrne on the underfunded Sterilgarda Ducati, taking a very respectable 6th after a pair of DNF's in Australia, while Tom Sykes on the second Yamaha Italia machine continued his learning process with 7th.

Back at the front, Spies got his head down and reeled off some fast laps that the following pair just couldn't keep up with, stretching out a 1.8 second lead by the end of the race. Biaggi and Haga, who have never really seen eye to eye, battled closely for 2nd place. Using his Ducati's superior handling, Haga made an excellent entry onto the straight, and managed to slipstream past Biaggi's Aprilia to nick 2nd and relegate the Italian to 3rd place.

Overall it was a fairly unexciting race, largely due to the Losail circuit's dull, F1-esque design. Ben Spies was shockingly quick on a track that he has never raced on before, while the usual suspects of Haga and Biaggi rounded out the podium. The Aprilia was especially impressive for a brand new bike, taking 3rd and 4th places and holding its own on the endless start-finish straight. One of the biggest disappointments was Max Neukirchner, who struggled for pace all weekend on his Suzuki and ended up with a DNF, despite being fastest down the straights at 200mph.

Read the rest of my review of the Qatar round of the World Superbike championship at Motorbikesport.com

Suzi Perry - Get Well Soon

Sometimes we all take bike racing too seriously, and something brings us back to earth with a jolt. The BBC's MotoGP presenter Suzi Perry was rushed to hospital recently, and needed emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. A message on her website suziperry.com states that thanks to the medical staff she is now recovering from the operation, but is devastated by the loss of her baby.

I'm sure we'd all like to wish Suzi a swift recovery from her surgery, and offer our deepest sympathy for her loss.

WSBK: Haga and Spies Ease to Victories at PI

It was all change at Phillip Island, as old boy Noriyuki Haga won the first race of the season, while new boy Ben Spies took pole position and a victory.

There has been incessant chatter about Ben Spies. He won the AMA Superbike championship at a canter, but that was just a two horse race anyway. Our ex-colonial cousins insisted the quiet young Texan was the real deal, but the only way to settle the argument was to let him loose in a proper championship like World Superbike. Riding the new "big bang" Yamaha, Spies took pole position with a blistering lap. The doubters now knew that Spies was seriously speedy, but would he be a great racer, or just a much taller version of Dani Pedrosa, quick only on an empty track?

In Race One, we only got to see Spies race for two corners before he was punted off. Haslam and Biaggi sat up, and Spies on the outside ran out of road in the exact place where Pedrosa hopped off at the last MotoGP round on the Island. Spies, however, stayed on the bike. Keeping an eye on his gap from the leader showed that he remained 23 seconds back from first place right to the chequered flag. In other words, he was lapping at race leading pace. So he was quick, and didn't throw in the towel despite being way out of the points.

Up at the front, it was the kind of classic World Superbike race that Phillip Island always seems to produce. There was a small amount of carnage, with BMW rider Ruben Xaus punting Ten Kate Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari out of the race, and Shakey Byrne falling off his Sterilgarda Ducati all on his own. The race for the lead was frantic, with a big freight train of bikes led by Haga (who had started 13th) on the Xerox Ducati  and Max Neukirchner (who started 14th!) on the Alstare Suzuki. Punching above their weight, the likes of Leon Haslam (Honda) and Regis Laconi (Ducati) were mixing it with Michel Fabrizio's factory Ducati and Johnny Rea's Ten Kate Honda.

It all came down to a last lap thriller between Haga and Neukirchner, the Ducati being faster on the twisty bits and the Suzuki being a missile down the straight. The German looked like he might have the race won, but he lost time saving a big highside on Lukey Heights, letting Haga sneak past into MG. The Japanese star won the race by 3 hundredths of a second from the German, with Suzuki hero Yukio Kagayama taking the final podium spot.

Race Two started better for Spies, as he outrageously went round the outside of Max Biaggi's Aprilia to snatch the lead after a couple of corners. Right, so that's the questions about his racecraft answered then. It was interesting to watch Spies race at the front. Despite being a gangly guy with knees and elbows sticking out all over the place, he hangs all the way off the bike like tiny Toni Elias.

The battle for the lead involved Spies and Haga, who quickly sliced through the field from his lowly grid spot. The pair swapped the lead a couple of times, rarely separated by more than a couple of bike lengths, until finally the American put the hammer down and pulled out a bit of a gap in the last 2 or 3 laps. Haga couldn't respond, and despite the Ducati's red glare, Spies crossed the line to win his 2nd ever World Superbike race, in his first ever race meeting at Phillip Island, on the radical new Yamaha.

Biaggi, who seemed to be heading for a podium spot, slowed a bit towards the end, and nearly tangled with Haslam and Laconi on the last lap. The Roman Emperor got a taste of his own medicine as he had to run off the track to avoid his rivals. Laconi was deeply impressive on his privateer Ducati, but he lost out on 3rd place to Leon Haslam. It was an incredible result for the Pocket Rocket, giving the Stiggy team a podium in only its second race in the Superbike class and destroying their fellow Honda runners, the all-conquering Ten Kate team.

Overall, what did we learn? Haga has taken to the Xerox Ducati team like a frog to red wine, Aprilia are quick, BMW still have work to do, Regis Laconi is back, and the Haslam-Stiggy combination works a treat. But the big news is this:

There's a new Texan winning in WSBK. And this one's quiet.