J'entame ce topic prématurément à cause d'une triste nouvelle.
Et pas seulement pour Thirob...Longueur: 4.801 m. / 2,983 miles
Largeur: 15m
Virages à gauche: 6
Virages à droite: 8
Ligne droite: 762 m. / 0,473 miles
Construction: 1997
Modifié: 1997
- Les pilotes d'essais du HRC,
Shinichi Ito et
Kousuke Akiyoshi, seront présents à Motegi. Un effort de Honda pour rendre hommage au peuple japonais. Ito courra pour le HRC, tandis que Akiyoshi sera abrité chez LCR.
[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir cette image]Kousuke Akiyoshi
Avec les motos des titulaires, cela ne fera
pas moins de 14 Honda MotoGP présentes dans les box. D'où les sortent-ils et ne les reverra-t-on pas l'année prochaine dans les teams privés?
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Abraham devrait être présent...
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Capirossi, blessé, non...
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Takaaki Nakagami, leader du All Japan J-GP2 sur sa Honda du team HARC-PRO, remplacera
Claudio Corti chez Italtrans, celui-ci refusant de se rendre au Japon...
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Julian Simon sera également absent, mais pour cause de blessure. Il ne sera pas remplacé et seul Jordi Torres sera du voyage... A propos de Simon, il abandonnerait le team
Aspar pour passer chez BQR, dont le team manager n'est autre que Ricard Jové, son agent... Plus de deuxième Ducati Aspar en MotoGP?
- Le staff technique d'
Alex De Angelis reste à la maison. Les mécaniciens de l'ingénieur Pietro Caprara n'iront pas à Motegi et y seront remplacés par ceux de TSR, le constructeur du châssis de la Motobi.
Gianluca Montiron, le team manager du JiR, lui, y sera présent.
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Miguel Oliveira quitte le mondial 125! Le jeune pilote portugais a reçu une lettre de licenciement du team Machado, sans aucune explication, le vendredi du week-end d'Aragon, magré un contrat portant jusqu'à fin 2012. Il a reçu plusieurs propositions pour finir la saison mais seulement de la part de teams de "seconde zone" et ces propositions l'auraient lié contractuellement pour 2012... Miguel arrête don sa saison et reviendra en 2012.
Miguel Oliveira: “This weekend I felt that something strange was going on. By Thursday afternoon I had not received the team’s travel plan, which meant I had to travel by car to the circuit of Aragon, in order to arrive on time. My mechanics were surprised that I just arrived at the circuit on Friday morning, but I never expected to get the termination of my contract sent by letter the same day, without any of the leaders of Team Machado telling my anything.”
2011 aura finalement été une saison moralement très difficile à digérer pour Miguel qui arrive en mondial accompagné de son "jumeau" de la moto, Maverick Vinales.
Tous les deux sortis du CEV (avec 2 points d'écart), ils poursuivent en mondial avec leurs teams respectif de CEV, mais n'est pas BQR (et ses années de mondia qui veut.....
Maverick enchaine les podiums et joue le championnat, alors que Miguel ne peut que regarder son pote monter dans la hiérarchie sans pouvoir le suivre; très dur pour l'ego d'un gamin de 16 ans qui depuis qu'il âge de 9 ans partage les victoires (un coup à toi, un coup à moi) avec Maverick !
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Brad Binder remplacerait
Miguel Oliveira qui, lui, a déjà tourné la page en essayant la Moto3 Honda du team
Monlau sur le circuit d'Albacete les lundi 26 et mardi 27 septembre aux côtés de la très jeune
Maria Herrera (remarquée en CMV préGP); une piste pour l'année prochaine?
- Sauf retournement de situation de dernière minute, les pilotes du
team Mahindra seront présents au Japon, mais avec des mécaniciens japonais à la place de la petite structure italienne qui gère le team pour le compte du géant Indien...
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Francesco Mauriello a également décidé de s'abstenir...
Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium, Hard. Rear (asymmetric): Soft, Medium
The MotoGP circus travels to Japan on 2 October for round 15 of the championship at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit near Mito and Utsunomiya, just a few hours’ drive from the Tokyo headquarters of Bridgestone Corporation. The original date was set for 24 April but the natural disasters and subsequent crisis in Japan forced the postponement so the event now lies one week before an overseas back-to-back pair of races on Australia and Malaysia.
The date change puts the race at the same time of year as it was held last season, the first weekend in October, so the weather conditions are expected to be similar – around 25 degrees Celsius ambient. This means that the tyre compound options are unchanged, but with the addition of the third soft compound front slicks, although the rear asymmetric slicks have been modified slightly.
Compared to last year the left shoulders of the rear slicks are now one step softer for improved warm-up and safety in the opening laps, in response to rider feedback. The Medium compound rear has a soft compound left shoulder whereas the Soft compound rear uses Bridgestone’s extra soft rubber in the left side. This season the extra soft compound rubber will be used at a total of eight Grands Prix.
The 4.8km Motegi circuit features four long and fast straights, and its layout is characterised by hard acceleration followed by heavy braking. This places the emphasis on front tyre stability and a strong centre section, and good traction from the rear tyre. With eight right-handed corners and just six lefts, warm-up performance from the left side of the rear tyres is particularly important hence the use of softer compounds this year to improve rider safety in the early laps and in the instance of cold conditions.
The fastest and most committal corner of the circuit is turn six, the 180 kmh 130R, which leads into a fast and flowing left-right section through which absolute confidence in the bike and tyres is critical.
The MotoGP field will turn-out at Motegi in force, with the addition of two more bikes from Honda supplied for HRC test riders Shinichi Ito and Kosuke Akiyoshi. Ito will compete as a HRC wildcard, whereas Akiyoshi will ride alongside Toni Elias for the LCR Honda squad.
Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department
“There has been much talk about Japan this season because of the events earlier in the year but I am honoured and proud to see so much support for our nation and for the Japanese GP within the paddock. Motegi has always been an important event for Bridgestone and one at which we have reached many milestones so I am looking forward to going, enjoying what I hope will be a great race, and doing what we can to show our support for Japan.”
Hirohide Hamashima – Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division
“Being held at the same time as it was last year, at the start of October, we can expect the conditions at Motegi to be similar and therefore we have not revised our tyre options this season, but we have made one change based on rider comments. We have made the left shoulders of the rear asymmetric slicks one step softer, meaning that we are also using our extra soft compound for the first time at this circuit. This will give the riders improved warm-up performance and safety around the left-handers, which are fewer than the rights, in the opening laps, like they asked for.
“We saw in Aragon that warm-up performance was very good and tyre wear was relatively high, but Motegi is cooler and the surface less abrasive so durability should be better. Motegi has a stop-and-go nature featuring some heavy braking and hard acceleration points which traditionally tend to bunch the field and provide close racing, like last year’s thrilling battle between Valentino and Jorge. There are eight rights and six lefts but many of the corners are quite tight and slow and this staccato nature places a lot of emphasis on braking stability from the front tyres and edge grip from the rears.”
Dunlop heads to Motegi for the Japanese Grand Prix, the fourteenth round of the 2011 Moto2 Championship, held on September 30 – October 1.
The Japanese Grand Prix is something of a homecoming for Dunlop with the brand part-owned by Japanese company Sumitomo Rubber Industries. All Dunlop’s Moto2 tyres are produced, however, at Dunlop Motorsport’s factory in Birmingham, England.
Dunlop will bring the front tyre allocation of the
717 hard compound which has been used at all rounds so far this year. The
medium compound reverts to the
753 as used for all rounds prior to Sachsenring this season.
For the rear, the
6838 medium/hard and the
4924 hard compounds will be brought. The 6838 is the same compound as used successfully at Motegi in 2010, whilst the 4924 is a new compound – replacing the 6770 from last season.
“Motegi is a stop-start track, all slow corners with no real high speed challenges so you basically need a good balance with mechanical grip and good stability,” explains Dunlop Motorsport’s Moto2 co-ordinator, Clinton Howe.
“The stability from the tyres is important as the riders are either standing on the brakes or accelerating hard so they don’t want a tyre with a lot of movement in it.
“In terms of the track surface, Motegi can be abrasive, but because of the slow nature of the turns the tyres do not get punished too much.
“There is more of a challenge with the temperatures, as these can range from pretty cool in the morning to quite hot and humid in the afternoon, however we’ve previously found that the track is typically around the 30-35˚C region which is the sweet spot for tyre performance.
“If it rains it’s one of the hardest tracks on front wet tyres, due to the nature of the braking demands, and the heat build-up. We see shape change in the centre of the front wet tyres, but the sides are perfect. The centres almost overheat, so a drying track is the worst scenario.”
The fourteenth round of the Moto2 World Championship at Motegi starts with practice on Friday September 30, followed by qualifying on Saturday and then the race at 12:15 local time on Sunday October 1.
VENDREDI:06:15 - Essais des 125cc (55mn) LIVE
07:10 - Essais Moto GP (1h) LIVE
08:10 - Essais Moto2 (1h) LIVE
09:10 - Essais des 125cc (50mn)
13:15 - Essais Moto GP (35mn)
13:50 - Essais Moto2 (40mn)
18:00 Master of Endurance (55mn)
18:55 - Essais des 125cc (45mn)
19:40 - Essais Moto GP (45mn)
20:25 - Essais Moto2 (35mn)
23:30 - Essais Moto GP (45mn)
SAMEDI:06:00 - Qualifications 125cc (55mn) LIVE
06:55 - Qualification GP (1h5mn) LIVE
08:00 - Qualifications Moto2 (1h) LIVE
09:00 - Qualifications 125cc (30mn)
11:30 - Qualification GP (50mn)
12:20 - Qualifications Moto2 (45mn)
DIMANCHE:03:30 - Qualifications Moto2 (30mn)
04:00 - Qualification GP (30mn)
04:30 - Qualifications 125cc (30mn)
05:00 - Course 125cc (1h15mn) LIVE
06:15 - Course Moto2 (1h45mn) LIVE
08:00 - Course MotoGP (1h15mn) LIVE
09:15 - Course 125cc (45mn)
10:00 - Course Moto2 (45mn)
10:45 - Course MotoGP (1h)