British MotoGP rider switches to four wheels for day

Yamaha rider Toseland, who crashed out on the first corner of the first lap in last Sunday’s British MotoGP, visited the Williams factory last week, where he had a go in the team’s F1 simulator. How did he do? Read on…

MotoGP world champion booed at Donington

Casey Stoner is a hard rider to love. He speaks in a monotone whine, he lacks charisma, he rarely smiles, and he’s Australian. It’s the perfect recipe for unpopularity, at least in Britain.

So when Stoner won Sunday’s British round of MotoGP, not everyone was happy. He received a mixed reception on the podium, with boos as audible as the cheers.

“What do they want? Are they here to watch racing? It’s not the right way to come to a race track,” Stoner said after the race. “It’s nice to see people here in good numbers but not if they’re here for the wrong reasons.”

Ducati looking strong at Donington

Reigning world champ Casey Stoner set the pace in the first practice session for this Sunday’s British MotoGP. The Aussie has slagged off the Donington Park circuit in the past, but that didn’t stop him setting the quickest lap on Friday morning run, a 1:28:979.

Rookie Alex de Angelis clocked the second fastest lap of the session in his final outing of the first session, but was still half a second off Stoner’s time.

Local boy James Toseland is under huge pressure to perform in front of home fans, but he couldn’t match Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Colin Edwards, who set the third-fastest time of the morning. Andrea Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden and Chris Vermeulen completed the top six, with Toseland (7th) and Valentino Rossi (8th) the only other riders within a second of Stoner’s time.

What we discovered in Mugello

1. All of the grid girls were called Alice. Apparently.

2. Valentino Rossi’s brilliantly eye-catching helmet put off all of his rivals, as we suspected it might. Not that we’d ascribe Rossi’s victory to his helmet alone, but it sure helped.

Hollywood actor shows up with son at Mugello

The stubbly half of Team Brangelina made a surprise visit to Mugello on Sunday, for the Italian MotoGP. The Bradster - that’s what he lets us call him - turned up hidden beneath a hat, and with six-year-old son Maddox in tow. Like his dad, little Maddox was wearing shades and sporting ear plugs - probably to drown out the noise of inane questions from the world’s press.

It was quite a PR coup for MotoGP, which rarely attracts as many celebs as F1. You can watch a video of Pitt at Mugello here: LINK

More pics of Brad after the break…

Italian legend to wear helmet decorated with his own face

Is this the most brilliant helmet in the history of motorsport? The short answer is yes, it mos’ definitely is. Rossi will wear the special-edition Aldo Drudi helmet, which sports a disturbingly, distractingly large image of his own excited face, in tomorrow’s Italian MotoGP. We hope it catches on in F1 - would make races much more exciting.

More photos of the helmet below:

Meet Casey Stoner’s childhood sweetheart

Casey and Adriana began dating as teenagers after she asked the Aussie rider to sign her stomach at the Australian GP in 2003. She was just 14 at the time; he was 17. Of course, they didn’t have sex until she was 16. Of course.

Grid Crasher sees who endured a China crisis

Five winners:

1. Valentino Rossi The Doctor is back again, after a seven-race winless streak - ah, we never doubted him. The Italian maestro hardly put a wheel wrong in Shanghai, and is deservedly the new bookies’ favourite for the title. Great to see him back on the podium’s top step.

2. & 3. Charlie Cox & Steve Parrish The BBC’s MotoGP first-class commentary duo continue to entertain, inform and excite – they complement each other so well. We’d like to see them involved somehow in the Beeb’s F1 coverage next season.

Yamaha bucks rider several feet into the air

This could have been, so much worse, had Lorenzo landed on his neck or head. As we reported in the post above, he was very lucky to escaped with a chipped ankle bone and bruising.

Valentino Rossi, who is Lorenzo’s team-mate at Yamaha, didn’t like what he saw from the garage: “Mama mia, I have to ride that thing too?” That said, Lorenzo is on Michelin tyres, whilst Rossi uses Bridgestone – and this incident looked like it might have been tyre-related.

MotoGP championship co-leader breaks ankle, doubtful for Sunday

Shanghai, China: Ouch, that’s gonna hurt in the morning. This great photo shows Jorge Lorenzo parting company with his Yamaha during the first practice session for this Sunday’s China MotoGP. The 20-year-old Spaniard, currently riding high in the Grid Crasher Power Rankings, fractured a bone in his left ankle and suffered severe trauma and bruising to parts of his right ankle and foot as a result of the high-side accident, which occurred at the exit of the first corner.