KTM

Scott Jones took too many fantastic photographs at the Sachsenring, so many that we've had to split our review of them over two days. Double the quantity, double the pleasure, and what better way to get 2010 started?

Wheelies whatever the weather

Colin Edwards takes the art of looking through the corner to the extreme

Best helmet of the year for Niccolo Canepa

The weather at the Sachsenring was best described as changeable

Another day, another set of beautiful photographs taken by MotoMatters.com snapper Scott Jones. That weekend saw the weather play a major role, with race day finally drying up and producing three great races, including a scintillating MotoGP contest. Relive it all again in glorious color:

Valentino Rossi had things well under control in Germany

Still probably the best looking bike on the grid

58, the number of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brother

The Red Bull Rookies Cup provided some of the most entertaining racing of the year for spectators attending the European MotoGP rounds, but given the nature of the competitors, that was to be expected. Having thirty-odd teenagers with hyperactive hormones and no fear of death all racing for glory on identical bikes is a recipe for both spectacle and disaster. Fortunately, the skill these young boys and girls displayed helped avert disaster in most cases, leaving just the spectacle to enjoy. My personal favorite moment was at Assen, watching the Red Bull Rookies head into the final GT chicane eight abreast, none of them with any intention of giving ground to each other.

Unfortunately for people who weren't at the races, or couldn't follow the races live on the Red Bull Rookies website, there was little coverage on live TV. That appalling error has now been remedied, with the online broadcaster VBS has put together an eight-part series covering the 2009 Red Bull Rookies Cup. You can watch all of the episodes over on the VBS website, or watch the trailer or the first episode below.

Trailer

When KTM announced they would be withdrawing from the 250cc class at the end of last year, it was generally put down to the bitterness felt by the Austrian factory over the way the Moto2 class was forced through. That announcement was followed shortly by both the onset of the global financial crisis, and a string of very poor financial results by KTM. Since then, KTM has been gradually screwing back its involvement in two-stroke road racing, including withdrawing support from the US Red Bull Rookies series, causing that class to collapse before the start of the season. Earlier this month, when the 2010 Red Bull Rookies Cup was announced, the press release made no mention of KTM, and the Red Bull Rookies web site states that the bike the rookies will be using next season is the Metrakit Pre GP 125.

Good news for aspiring MotoGP champions. The Red Bull Rookies Cup is to be run again in 2010, giving teenagers between the ages of 13 and 16 a chance to race at some of the finest racetracks around the world on motorcycles close to Grand Prix spec, with professional coaching and under the watchful eye of some of the great names in the sport. The fact that the current 125cc Grand Prix field contains a number of riders who came up through the program such as Johann Zarco and German sensation Jonas Folger is proof enough of the value of the program, and this season's top riders Sturla Fagerhaug and Jakub Kornfeil have made their Grand Prix debuts as wildcards.

The selection process is set to be much stricter this year, as the level of entries has increased each time the program is run. The rising quality of entrants is a result of the increasing popularity and name recognition of the series, and it is becoming one of the best ways into the MotoGP championship. As a result, applicants will need to have proven experience on high performance motorcycles. This does not necessarily mean that they must have road racing experience; any form of motorcycle racing experience will do, or some other form of participation in high-speed motorcycle activities.

The Red Bull Rookies cup is open to boys and girls born between January 1st,1993 and March 31st, 1997, though exceptions will be made for those born within a year of the entry dates under exceptional circumstances. Applications need to be submitted by September 20th, 2009, via an online entry form which can be found on the Red Bull Rookies website. The entries will be judged by a panel of experts including KTM's race team director Harald Bartol, Austrian racer Gustl Auinger, former 125 and 250 racer Raul Jara and the former team manager of the WCM 500cc and MotoGP racing team, Peter Clifford.

Valentino Rossi walked away from Donington Park smiling

Donington Park, first lap madness

Gabor Talmacsi's Honda wastes fuel in an aesthetically pleasing way

The men in orange hand Elias his trashed bike back

The Ducatis gambled and lost

The Repsol Posse

The Red Bull Rookies produced great racing, as ever

Bradley Smith, flying the flag

MotoGP, brought to you by these people

Yet more photos from Scott Jones, this time of the rain-soaked qualifying session. The conditions may have been horrific, but this did not deter either our intrepid photographer or the subjects he was shooting.

Jorge Lorenzo. He's supposed to be injured, but he refuses to let that deter him.

Niccolo Canepa, before Nicky laid the Kentucky Smackdown on him

Usually, underwater conditions suit Chris Vermeulen, but a bruised hip was working against him

After the cold drizzle of Le Mans, MotoGP hit Mugello under a sweltering Tuscan sun. The heat met with no complaints, however, as everyone in the paddock is sick to death of the wet weather which seems to follow them wherever they go.

As the bikes took to the track, Valentino Rossi did his best Casey Stoner impression, being fastest out of the gate, and staying on top for the first 20 minutes of the session. At that point, the rest of the Fantastic Four started to catch up, and leapfrogged each other for the lead. First Casey Stoner took the top spot, then with 32 minutes left Jorge Lorenzo took back the fastest time for the Fiat Yamaha team, only for Stoner to take it back again 5 minutes later.

With a quarter of the session left, Valentino Rossi reasserted himself atop the timesheets as Master of Mugello, but his team mate refused to be impressed. The young Spaniard took top spot again with 11 minutes to go, smashing the race lap record in the process and cracking into the 1'49s. Lorenzo then continued to set a string of lightning fast laps, eventually running three laps inside the 1'49s.

Valentino Rossi was left down in 2nd spot, just under 2/10ths off his Fiat Yamaha team mate, but capable of about the same kind of race pace. If The Doctor planned a spot of psychological warfare at Mugello, by coming out fast and trying to dominate practice, he ended up hoist by his own petard, coming up against a truly remarkable Jorge Lorenzo. But Rossi always has something special at the Tuscan track, so no doubt he'll be even faster tomorrow.

The Red Bull Rookies Cup has been set up as a breeding ground for talent, and with Marc Marquez and Cameron Beaubier currently doing well in the 125cc championship, is proving to be exactly that. The only problem for fans who are keen to find out about the stars of tomorrow is that the races are not screened anywhere.

Red Bull have recognized that, and will be showing the races live online on the Red Bull Rookies Cup Website. The first race will be shown online today at 4:15pm CEST. The races so far have always proved to be incredibly close and some of the best racing of the weekend, so they are well worth checking out.

The fates have been incredibly cruel to the MotoGP series since the 2008 season ended. First, a manufacturer withdraws, then a flurry of rule changes hastily enacted in a bid to cut costs in response to the financial crisis received widespread criticism, and finally, the first race of the season has to be postponed due to rain - in the desert, of all places. Of course, much of the blame for this misfortune can be firmly laid at the door of governing body of the series, the Grand Prix Commission: The switch to 800cc made the bikes radically more expensive; The rule changes were discussed and agreed within a matter of a few weeks, leaving the suspicion of not being fully thought through; And though it may not rain in the desert, Qatar has a wet (well, damp) season too, and running the race at night means that even a small amount of rain can cause the race to be postponed.

But the events at Motegi on Saturday are arguably beyond the power of Dorna to control. Rain had been forecast for Saturday, but that so much water would fall that rivers would start flowing across the track is an unusual event indeed. In the end, Race Direction waited for an hour to see if the weather would improve, and when it didn't, it canceled qualifying. A wise move, all things considered, as the occupants of the safety car sent out to examine the track declared the circuit too dangerous to even drive around, let alone try to ride a motorcycle at race pace on.

Practice at Motegi commenced earlier today for the MotoGP series, starting under cool and cloudy conditions. The combination of the cold temperatures and rain expected on Saturday and possible on Sunday meant that most of the teams sent their riders out on the hardest of the compounds that Bridgestone had brought to the track, as this is the tire which is thought will last race distance. The 45 minute session - the proposed return to one hour is yet to be agreed, with lap totals not settled yet  - was once again dominated by Casey Stoner from the start, but the Australian Ducati rider didn't have it all his own way.

Throughout the session, Valentino Rossi whittled away at Stoner's lead, taking over top spot after the flag had fallen. But Rossi's margin was only very small, just 0.056 seconds, though it remains to be seen just how sensitive a blow the loss of top spot is to the Australian.

Yamaha and Suzuki were clearly the bikes to have, with Jorge Lorenzo taking 3rd, while Suzuki men Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi took 4th and 6th respectively, sandwiching Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards between them. James Toseland recovered some of his form, ending the day in 10th spot, slowly getting his confidence back.

Marco Melandri was once again the surprise package, setting the 8th fastest time on the Hayate / Kawasaki. If the purpose of the Hayate's form is to impress upon the Kawasaki bosses the magnitude of their mistake in pulling out of MotoGP, then Melandri's performance so far has to be rated a success.

The waiting really is over for MotoGP fans, as the MotoGP bikes finally took to the track at Qatar to compete in earnest. First blood in the 2009 campaign went to Casey Stoner on the Marlboro (and at Qatar, it really is a Marlboro) Ducati, a fact that shocked absolutely nobody. As ever, Stoner was fast from the moment he rolled out onto the track, getting down into 1'57 territory within ten minutes, and slashing a further 0.8 seconds off his time with 12 minutes of the session left. 

For a long time, Stoner's advantage seemed insurmountable, but in his final run, Valentino Rossi closed the gap from a second to get to within 0.4 of a second, with the potential for more if he hadn't run into traffic on a very fast lap. Though four tenths is a sizable gap, Rossi will feel he is at least in touch with Stoner, and with two more sessions to go, and no qualifying tires to distort the grid, the reigning world champion will be confident of staying with Stoner away from the line.

Third fastest man in the opening session of 2009 was Colin Edwards, the only other rider capable of getting within a second of Stoner, and looking as strong here as he looked last year during practice. Rossi's Fiat Yamaha team mate Jorge Lorenzo makes it three Yamahas in the top four, Lorenzo 1.2 seconds behind but with more likely to come.

The session threw up plenty of surprises. Such as Alex de Angelis in 5th, for example, but de Angelis also showed his Mr Hyde by running wide into the gravel during the session, a harbinger of what is to come, perhaps. An even bigger suprise was Mika Kallio finishing 7th, after having been as high as 5th earlier in the session. Though we've only had one 45 minute session of practice to judge him by, Kallio's single fast lap at the IRTA test at Jerez could possible be the rule rather than the exception.

After testing previously at Estoril, the Red Bull Rookies took over the track from the MotoGP riders at Jerez on Monday and Tuesday. The tiny Japanese rider Daijiro Hiura had dominated in Portugal, but at Jerez, it was the turn of the - in Red Bull Rookie terms - veteran rider Sturla Fagerhaug to take the top spot, two tenths of a second ahead of Spaniard Daniel Ruiz, with Hiura half a second off Fagerhaug's time of 1'52.223. With the times they set today, Fagerhaug and Ruiz would have been ahead of the last two official 125 World Championship riders, and 5 seconds behind Julian Simon's best time of 1'47.318.

The original 24 riders have had their numbers swelled by a few riders jumping over from the canceled US series, including American's Benny Solis, Jake Gagne and Australian dirt track ace Josh Hook. All 27 entries will race 8 races this year, at 6 MotoGP rounds, making their debut at the first European round of MotoGP back at Jerez on the first weekend of May.

Red Bull Rookie Times: 

The news that KTM was testing a KERS system for their 125cc race bikes was something of a eureka moment for those who follow any form of motorsport. If there is one place that a KERS system makes sense, it is on a small capacity motorcycle - the relatively small power gain available through KERS is of more use to a bike which starts off with relatively little power to begin with. It was obvious that KERS on a 125cc bike is an absolute no-brainer.

That very realization that KERS was a no-brainer has proven fateful for the system. In a meeting of the Grand Prix Commission held today, the body ruled that the KERS system as it was being used by KTM should be declared illegal under the current wording of the rules, which state that the bikes must be "propelled by an internal combustion engine." 

This point could be argued either way. The KERS system obtains its energy from the speed lost during braking, speed gained as a result of the internal combustion engine. But it is unarguably a supplemental system, which of itself does not operate using the principle of internal combustion. Long and expensive lawsuits could have been fought over this, such is the vagueness of the rules.