MotoGP Features

The ongoing attempts by Ducati to obtain more grid slots for 2004, for Neil Hodgson and one other rider, appears to be reaching a successful conclusion with an announcement possible as early as next month.

Speaking at the pre-event press conference in Germany, Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi both gave announcements regarding their future with Honda, Rossi commenting on his contract negotiations and Biaggi his race machinery.

Sympathy is certainly not a word used frequently when Max Biaggi ever discusses the fortunes of his bitter rival Valentino Rossi, but it was on Max?s agenda after the events at Donington last weekend.

Sources in the Italian press are indicating that former four-times 250cc world champion Max Biaggi will be given a full factory Honda RCV - as ridden by arch-rival Valentino Rossi - from the Czech Grand Prix onwards.

The television companies were happy, the 75,000 crowd understood what was going on and Sete Gibernau took full advantage of the situation.

Located in the beautiful Tuscan hills, Mugello boasts a sequence of undulating medium to high-speed corners combined with a straight where even the former 500 two-strokes were capable of producing an outright top speed of 315kmh.

This Sunday at Le Mans the MotoGP competitors will be competing for the honour of winning the landmark 600th premier-class Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Tohru Ukawa might knows he's popular, but even the mild mannered Japanese rider would be surprised to learn that around 320 million people cheered as he suddenly appeared underneath the elbow of Brazilian Alex Barros in Jerez.

After losing out to Sete Gibernau in Africa two weeks previously, World Champion Valentino Rossi proved his doubters wrong with a dominate display in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, beating nearest rival Max Biaggi by 6secs.

Following the tragic events at Suzuka three weeks previously, MotoGP regrouped in Africa with the loss of Daijiro Kato at the forefront of everyone's minds.

It's easy to forget just what grand prix motorcycle riders are all about. You can become very blas? while enjoying the usual banter in a busy media centre, or watching on television from thousands of miles away.

Remember the build-up to the race in Suzuka last year? It was the first grand prix for the new 990cc four-strokes, and questions flowed throughout the weeks before the historic race....

Eddie Lawson was undoubtedly one of the greatest motorcycle racers of modern times, claiming four 500cc world titles and 31 Grand Prix victories while racing for three different manufacturers.

Wayne Rainey will forever be remembered as the three times world champion whose career was brought to a tragically early end by a paralysing crash at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix - while chasing his fourth world crown.

With the off-season well and truly upon us, Crash.net felt it was time to look back on the careers of some of the Motorcycle Grand Prix greats - and where better to start than with multiple World Champion Mick Doohan, still involved in the sport as General Manager of Racing for Honda.

For many years the island 130km west of Melbourne in Australia was know throughout the world as the home of the Penguin Parade.

No wonder Antonio Cobas is smiling - at last his West Honda Pons team are starting a grand prix on a level playing field.

It was a thrilling two-part Brazilian race that concluded not only the 16 round 2001 MotoGP 500 World Championship, on November 3, but the era of the two-stroke only GP500s as well - with the MotoGP premier class opening up to 990cc four-strokes for 2002.

The star letter in one of the world's leading car racing magazines last week was from a fan singing the praises of excitement generated watching the Czech Republic MotoGP Grand Prix on television.

As MotoGP races into the 21st century, famous road circuits that were once graced by the early pioneers in the fifties and sixties are no longer on the grand prix schedule.

On a blisteringly hot summers day in Spain two passionate sportsmen met to compare notes and have some fun. Two men consumed by the same desire for perfection in their chosen dangerous professions and the tools of their trade, two very different motorcycles.

When Alex Hofmann lines up on the grid at the Sachsenring riding the NSR West Honda Pons machine this Sunday, ask any German if a rider from their country has ever won a 500cc grand prix race.

Carlos Checa is now arguably the number one Spaniard in the Moto GP class after 1999 500cc world champion Alex Criville moved to the d'Antin Yamaha team, then failed to appear at all in 2002.

Even the most conservative of Japanese allowed themselves a little smile after the race at Suzuka - and none more so than Honda Racing Corporation President Suguru Kanazawa.