Lorenzo souffle la pole à Rossi au Japon / Lorenzo on pole after dramatic shootout with Rossi

Les deux candidats au titre MotoGP™ 2015 partiront côte à côte dimanche au Twin Ring Motegi, sur une première ligne que complète Márquez.

            

Séparés de quatorze points au classement général et voués à se livrer un duel qui pourrait durer jusqu’à la dernière manche de la saison 2015, les pilotes du team Movistar Yamaha MotoGP, Jorge Lorenzo et Valentino Rossi, ont assuré le spectacle en qualifications au Grand Prix Motul du Japon, dont la pole position est revenue à l’Espagnol, auteur d’un nouveau record du circuit en ayant été 0.081s plus rapide que Rossi. 

                

Premier pilote à s’attaquer au chrono, Lorenzo avait prévu trois runs et a réussi à reprendre l’avantage devant Rossi, brièvement passé en première position, en fin de séance. Le nonuple Champion du Monde manquait de peu ce qui aurait été sa 52e pole en catégorie reine et n’a été en tête de la grille que trois fois depuis début 2010. 

Lorenzo s’assurait quant à lui sa quatrième pole de l’année et une position idéale pour tenter de reprendre le plus de points possible à son rival lors de la course de dimanche, la première des quatre dernières épreuves de l’année. 

Affaibli suite à une récente opération de la main gauche, Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) n’a pas pu rejoindre les pilotes Yamaha sous la barre des 1’44 mais sera lui aussi présent en première ligne après avoir fini à 0.426s de Lorenzo.

               

Un peu moins rapides que le Champion du Monde en titre, Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati), qui avait eu la pole au Motegi en 2014, son coéquipier Andrea Iannone et Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) se retrouveront en deuxième ligne tandis que la troisième réunira Aleix Espargaró (Team Suzuki Ecstar), Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) et Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3), qui était tombé le matin et a chuté deux fois en qualifications.

              

Les deux pilotes issus de la Q1, Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) et Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS), seront respectivement onzième et treizième sur la grille, de chaque côté de Pol Espargaró (Monster Yamaha Tech3). 

             

Les Français Loris Baz (Forward Racing) et Mike Di Meglio (Avintia Racing), qui a détruit l’une de ses motos dans une lourde chute le matin, partiront quant à eux 23e et 24e.

Cliquez ici pour accéder aux résultats.

               

Jorge Lorenzo came out on top in an epic duel with his teammate and title rival Valentino Rossi to take his 4th pole of the season.

Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo enjoyed an incredible duel with Rossi during the 15-minute Q2 session, eventually coming out on top by just 0.081s. The Spaniard, who has topped every session so far at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan, ended up setting the fastest ever lap by a MotoGP™ bike around the 4.8km Twin Ring Motegi despite the cloudy and cool conditions (Track temp. 25˚C). Lorenzo set a 1’43.790 on his final flying lap, knocking over seven-tenths off Andrea Dovizioso’s 2014 Pole Record (1’44.502). The man who trails Rossi by just 14 points in the standings utilised a two-stop strategy after experiencing some front-end issues on his first run.

Rossi knew he had to put in a good qualifying performance to not let Lorenzo get away at the front during Sunday’s race, after Lorenzo has led from flag to flag during his 6 wins this season. The Italian managed to take over a second off his best time in practice to start from second on the grid in only his fourth front row start of the season and best Qualifying performance since Assen. It was also the first time the Movistar Yamaha team have managed a 1-2 in Qualifying this season and the two teammates were the only ones to break the 1'44 barrier.

               

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez (+0.426s) impressed despite riding with a broken bone in his left hand to finish third fastest. It is the 13th time this season the reigning MotoGP™ champion has been on the front row.

The Ducati Team duo of Andrea Dovizioso (+0.532s) and Andrea Iannone (+0.646s) were next up in fourth and fifth respectively as they made use of an extra set of aerodynamic winglets on their GP15’s and the extra soft tyre. It was Dovizioso’s best qualifying performance since the Catalan GP, while Iannone showed no ill effects of his re-dislocated shoulder to start from the second row for the sixth time this season.

                

Marquez’s teammate Dani Pedrosa (+0.792s) will start from the back of the second row after improving his time best time from practice by over 1.3 seconds in Q2. It is the third consecutive time that the Spaniard has lined up on the second row of the grid this year.

Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Aleix Espargaro was seventh as he also benefitted from the extra soft tyre, ahead of Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) on the leading Satellite bike in eighth. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith will start from 9th, despite crashing twice during the session. The Brit went down at turn 5 and the turn 12 after also crashing in FP3, but still managed to complete 5 laps in the session.

            

Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) completed the top ten after making it through from Q1 along side EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Scott Redding, who will start from 12th.

Wildcard Katsuyuki Nagasuka (Yamaha Factory Racing Team) will start from 15th, with Hector Barbera on the Avintia Racing Ducati the leading open class rider in 18th. Aspar MotoGP Team’s Eugene Laverty and Nicky Hayden will start from 20th and 21st respectively as just 0.092s separated the teammates.

E-Motion IodaRacing Team’s Alex De Angelis had earlier brought out the red flag in FP4 as he crashed heavily between turns 9 & 10 and was airlifted to Dokkyo Hospital for treatment.

              

Check out the full MotoGP™ Qualifying results; the 24-lap race kicks off 14:00 local time in Motegi on Sunday.

ASIAN LE MANS SERIES Fuji : Nakano/Leutwiler (Race Performance) s’imposent !

                              

Le premier round de l’Asian Le Mans Series 2015/2016 a vu la victoire de la ORECA 03R/Race Performance partagée par Shinji Nakano et Niki Leutwiler à l’issue des 70 tours de course.

L’écurie suisse a vite pris l’avantage face à la concurrence pour l’emporter devant la McLaren 650S GT3/Clearwater Racing de Rob Bell, Mok Weng Sun et Keita Sawa qui rafle par la même occasion la classe GT sur une McLaren dont le remontage s’est terminé jeudi suite à une sortie de piste en GT Asia Series.

La Ligier JS P3 n’a pas manqué son entrée en compétition avec un premier succès, qui plus est avec le David Cheng Racing, créé tout récemment. Le tandem David Cheng et Ho-Pin Tung ont terminé à la troisième place à un tour de la LM P2 victorieuse. “La Ligier JS P3 a montré de bien belles choses pour sa première course” a indiqué Ho-Pin Tung à l’arrivée. “Nous n’avons pas rencontré le moindre problème avec une auto toute neuve et un team qui disputait sa toute première course. La stratégie de ne disputer la course qu’avec un seul train de pneus était la bonne. On espère maintenant que les ADESS-03 seront au rendez-vous sur les prochaines courses pour plus de compétition dans la catégorie LM P3.” 

Sans roulage durant les essais, la ORECA 03/Eurasia Motorsport pilotée par Tristan Gommendy, William Lok et Tack Sung Kim n’a pu faire mieux que 10ème malgré un bel envol de Gommendy qui a pris les commandes dès le départ. Un problème de batterie n’a pas permis de concrétiser.

Les débuts de l’ADESS-03/Team AAI se sont soldés par un beau début de course où Masataka Yanagida a pointé un bon moment à la 4ème place avant d’être retardé. La voiture soeur a connu plus de soucis durant la première partie de course. Le Team AAI va maintenant poursuivre les essais avec ses LM P3 qui manquent encore de roulage.

En GT, Spirit of Race est monté sur la deuxième marche du podium avec sa Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 devant la BMW Z4 GT3/Team AAI #92 et les Audi R8 LMS ultra ARC Bratislava et Absolute Racing. Sans concurrence, la Porsche 911 GT3 Cup/KCMG de Ip/Ried/Munro s’est imposée en GTAm.

Le prochain rendez-vous se tiendra le mois prochain à Sepang.

Le classement de la course est ici

Wunderlich - open road 2015

Yamaha SR500 – Auto Fabrica

Auto Fabrica of North East London are fast becoming the place to go if an ultra-clean custom is what you desire. Run by brothers Gaz and Bujar, they have been creating tasty rides for a few years now. With technical backgrounds in design, and also offering an aqua blasting service, it is no wonder their finished products are clean in every way. The end result are motorcycles that look like the sort of prototypes manufacturers might have come up with for their respective classic machines, with a level of fit and finish you don’t often see.

So when this old bruised and battered Yamaha SR came into the shop it not only required a full customisation but also complete restoration first to meet the lofty standards that Auto Fabrica set. There is little point beautifying an old machine that is going to break down on its first outing so the boys set about performing a full overhaul that would give their Italian client the reliability to match the look he desired. The bike was pulled down to the bare frame which has new seat rails welded in place along with a new rear hoop, there is also extra bracing for improved handling and new seat and fender mounts to improve their fit. Before the frame was ready for a fresh coat of colour all tabs and brackets that were not going to be used were removed and hard edges rounded off.

With an uncompromising Scrambler look the ultimate focus, the gaudy cast wheels that came with the SR were never going to cut the Hot English Mustard. So a set of aluminium rims have been used in their place and stainless spokes have been laced to standard SR hubs. The ultra-aggressive rubber comes in the form of Maxxis MAXXCROSS IT hoops that are a street legal dirt tyre that still provide exceptional grip on tarmac, so much so that KTM use them on a variety of applications. Keeping the rubber planted to any surface are overhauled front forks and a set of new rear shocks with progressive rate springs. A cross drilled front disc uses a braided brake line and the rear drum provides important stopping power, particularly on loose surfaces where a firm hand will fold the front over.

The look that Auto Fabrica achieve is always ultra clean and this build is no different with the right mix of raw metal, paint and leather. The standard tank was straightened and given a new rear mount before being coated in a custom blue with small black AF logos and a blacked out filler cap. The seat is covered in a tan leather that perfectly matches the overall colour palette of the build and features their signature triangle at the back in grey felt. To ensure the theme flows the grips utilise the same leather only in a thicker hide and hand stitched for durability. Keeping mud flung by the aggressive rubber away from rider and bike are custom fenders front and rear finished in a matte black so that they seamlessly blend into the overall design.

The torquey single cylinder that is common to all SR variants is often treated only to a pod filter and new pipe but Auto Fabrica always take their builds that one step further. The engine was completely stripped down and aqua blasted giving the engine a uniform industrial look in the raw metals natural matte silver. To make the most of the bolt on modifications the bore now holds an oversized piston from Wiseco with the head receiving new valves and valve seats. Replacing the asthmatic factory carb is a Mikuni VM36 that not only drastically improves throttle response but gives a nice horsepower boost. Exhaling duties come in the way of a hand bent stainless pipe that feeds into a one-off hand-made rear muffler and you’ve got an SR lump that not only sounds great but has plenty of grunt.

Steering the beast are a set of braced scrambler bars with wide grip location for maximum leverage on any surface. The stock controls and levers are in place but look brand new thanks to aqua blasting that extends to the master cylinder, switchblock and throttle housing. Lighting is typical scrambler with a small headlight and fender mounted tail light, but 21^st century LEDs in the smallest of sizes provide a minimalist approach to turn signal duty. A Motogadget mini speedo is neatly mounted to the top yoke while a removable smart phone holder with stylish leather straps sits on the bar clamps if desired.

The third bike in a build of Yamaha SR Scrambler projects by Auto Fabrica known as Type 7 this particular bike is designate Type 7b and as Gaz describes “Overall we wanted to create a simple and elegant bike with some nice modern colour and trim details, the performance is an added bonus which means the client can enjoy the bike in either London or his resident city Milan”. When you consider Gaz and Bujar have only had Auto Fabrica operating for a few years, it’s scary to think just how good their future builds will be.

via PIPEBURN