A provisional calendar for the 2012 FIM MotoGP World Championship has been released today, and the schedule is as follows:
Date, Grand Prix - Circuit 15 April, Qatar* - Doha/Losail 29 April, Spain (STC) - Jerez de la Frontera 6 May, Portugal (STC) - Estoril 20 May, France - Le Mans 3 June, Catalunya - Catalunya 17 June, Great Britain - Silverstone 30 June, Netherlands** - Assen 8 July, Germany (STC) - TBC 15 July, Italy - Mugello 29 July, United States*** - Laguna Seca 19 August, Indianapolis - Indianapolis 26 August, Czech Rep. - Brno 16 September, San Marino & Riviera di Rimini - Misano 30 September, Aragon - Motorland 14 October, Japan - Motegi 21 October, Malaysia - Sepang 28 October, Australia - Phillip Island 11 November, Valencia - Ricardo Tormo – Valencia
* Evening Race ** Saturday Race *** Only MotoGP class STC (Subject to the contract) TBC (To be confirmed)
Nice to see common sense has prevailed, unlike this year, putting Laguna and Indy one after the other, without a race in between. Would have made more sense to have them back to back though, but you cant win them all!
We're not going back to Sachsenring? Am I just behind on news? I don't tend to follow MotoGP news just tune in for the races and even then I usually don't have commentary on when watching it.
Shame, I liked Sachsenring. I guess that is a problem a lot of tracks are having at the moment though. Be interesting to see which track they end up at.
Dani Pedrosa leads first Aragon practice session for Honda
Friday, September 16th 2011, 09:01 GMT
Dani PedrosaDani Pedrosa grabbed the top spot at the end of the opening MotoGP free practice session at Aragon.
Pedrosa's Honda team-mate Casey Stoner had looked untouchable at the front for much of the morning as his early 1m50.806s lap put him half a second clear of the Spaniard and over a second ahead of everyone else.
But a flurry of late improvements saw Stoner reeled in and toppled. Jorge Lorenzo was first to beat the championship leader with a 1m50.7s lap on his Yamaha, before Pedrosa came through with first a 1m50.4s then a 1m50.281s to put himself nearly half a second in front of his rivals.
Lorenzo and Stoner remained second and third, with the world champion the only man in the top five not on a factory-spec Honda as Gresini's Marco Simoncelli and works team rider Andrea Dovizioso took fourth and fifth.
Randy de Puniet put in several rapid laps on the Pramac Ducati and was as high as third for a while before jumping back up to sixth having been shuffled down the order.
The works Ducatis were seventh and eighth. Nicky Hayden was 0.2s quicker than Valentino Rossi, who tried a revised version of the GP11 with a partially aluminium frame in the second half of the session. His best time - 1.395s down on Pedrosa - came on the latest specification bike.
Ben Spies was back in 11th on the second works Yamaha, behind Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Gresini Honda), but had been in the top three before all the last-minute quick laps.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m50.281s 2. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m50.730s + 0.449s 3. Casey Stoner Honda 1m50.806s + 0.525s 4. Marco Simoncelli Gresini Honda 1m50.893s + 0.612s 5. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m51.091s + 0.810s 6. Randy de Puniet Pramac Ducati 1m51.376s + 1.095s 7. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m51.418s + 1.137s 8. Valentino Rossi Ducati 1m51.676s + 1.395s 9. Colin Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha 1m51.826s + 1.545s 10. Hiroshi Aoyama Gresini Honda 1m51.859s + 1.578s 11. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m51.911s + 1.630s 12. Hector Barbera Aspar Ducati 1m52.016s + 1.735s 13. Alvaro Bautista Suzuki 1m52.224s + 1.943s 14. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m52.580s + 2.299s 15. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 1m53.158s + 2.877s 16. Toni Elias LCR Honda 1m53.440s + 3.159s 17. Loris Capirossi Pramac Ducati 1m53.842s + 3.561s
Second practice session cancelled 16 September 2011 first free practice results
After encountering yet more technical problems, organisers at MotorLand Aragón have been left with no option but to cancel the second MotoGP practice session on Friday afternoon. A power cut had resulted in a two-hour delay which finally became an official cancelation when issues persisted.
The 45-minute session should have started at 2:10pm local time (BST +1), although a delay of ten minutes was called for when a substation located outside the circuit appeared to malfunction. After generators also failed to provide a solution, Race Direction and pit buildings were back in action for a rescheduled start at 4:10pm.
However, as more problems beset organisers, the decision came to call off the second session. This means Dani Pedrosa’s morning lap time of 1:50.281 stands as the fastest of the day, heading Jorge Lorenzo and championship leader Casey Stoner.