Motourage

The first day of the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal was a less fortunate one for the Moto2 riders than it was for their contemporaries in 125 and MotoGP, who enjoyed two dry free practice sessions. The afternoon outing for the intermediate class was hit by rain showers that were only light but heavy enough to spoil the riders’ plans. Only sixteen Moto2 riders took to the track in the afternoon, with conditions not appropriate to draw any real conclusions on setup.

In the Mapfre Aspar box Julián Simón preferred not to ride this afternoon while his teammate Xavi Forés opted to complete twelve valuable laps as he continues to get to grips with a circuit he barely knows. Simón finished up fifteenth on the time sheets, but the Spaniard’s position in no way reflects his true potential, having lapped among the pacesetters throughout the majority of the morning session before struggling on a hard tire. Forés was also some way down the timesheets as he grappled with the complexities of the Estoril layout and the rookie is hoping for better weather tomorrow as he looks to close the gap.

Julián Simón, 15th, 1.43.155 (12 laps):
“This morning I had a good feeling with the bike. The position doesn’t look good but that’s circumstantial because of the fact we switched to a hard tire at the end of the session and couldn’t improve our lap times. I was up there from the start this morning and our pace is good. The only thing that didn’t work was the hard tire but it was important for us to rule it out. I think the Valencia test was good for us. Hopefully the weather stays good so we can continue to work on the set-up in the dry. If it rains we will have to just do our best to get a feeling for the wet conditions and get a good grid position for the race. It wasn’t really raining this afternoon but the track was too wet for slicks and too dry for wets so we preferred to stay in.”

Xavi Forés, 32nd, 1.44.253 (29 laps):
“I spent the morning session getting used to the track because I hardly know it. My intention was to complete as many laps as possible and get behind some fast riders to get my lines. At the end the position is quite far down but I was on the same tire all session and I made gradual improvements, which is another positive. It was a shame about the rain this afternoon because I would have liked to work more on learning the track, especially T4, and tried new things. We didn’t go too badly in the wet apart from a little setback with the front tire. We’ll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow but I’d like to get more experience in the dry because I’m sure it won’t rain on Sunday.”

FTR Moto and the FIMMCO Speed Up Team completed a hat-trick of victories in the Moto2 World Championship as Andrea Iannone scored his third runaway win of the year in Sunday’s 12th round at the inaugural Motorland Aragon, Spain Grand Prix.

Ianonne scored a decisive win at Motorland Aragon

The Italian rider recorded his fifth pole position of the year before leading the 21-lap race from start to finish and finishing more than six seconds clear of Julian Simon of Spain. Gabor Talmacsi gave the FIMMCO Speed Up Team further cause for celebration as the Hungarian took a first podium finish of the year with third place on his M210.

Iannone commented: “We’ve had two difficult races before Aragon so this is perfect for the team. It’s very satisfying to get pole position and to win and the best reward I can offer the team for their work.”

Iannone’s victory leaves him third in the World Championship with five races remaining, four points behind Simon in second place while Talmacsi moved up to sixth place after his podium finish. Karel Abraham finished in 18th place on the Cardion AB Motoracing’s M210 while Alex Debon – still suffering with an injured shoulder – finished 22nd on the Aeroport de Castello-Ajo Team M210.

Luckless wild card Kev Coghlan was forced out of the race on the opening lap after impressing with the fourth fastest time in Friday’s practice and eventually qualifying in 13th place.

“It’s great to see Andrea get a victory to add to those at Mugello and Assen,” said FTR’s Steve Bones. “He’s regularly shown the promise but different circumstances have delayed the third win until now.

“For Speed Up to get two FTR M210s on the podium is fantastic, Gabor has been tremendously consistent all season, and Sunday’s third place could well lead to him challenging for a first victory soon. It was disappointing for Kev Coghlan and the Monlau guys; a fuel starvation issue was enough to end their hopes of what would probably have been a top 10 finish.”

Bones concluded: “The feedback from the riders regarding the new parts they tested and raced at Aragon was very positive and development will now continue before the teams head off for Japan, Malaysia and Australia next week.”

Team Blusens by Queroseno Racing

Team Owner: Raul Romero
Team Manager: Ricard Jove
Chief Technicians: Josep Oliva and David Thomas
Rider: Dani Rivas

The BQR Moto2 project began at the end of the 2006 racing season. The Würth/BQR Honda 250 team had just finished a 15^th-place 250cc season with current AMA Team Hammer rider – and Motourage favorite – Mártin Cárdenas. Team owner Raul Romero and then-manager Kino Contreras began development of a four-stroke MotoGP engine. Both Romero and Contreras understood that the days of the 250cc two-stroke class were numbered; however, they entered into their new experiment with little insight into the future of the GP support class.  BQR, which had been mating its chassis with 250cc Honda engines for several seasons, came on board at the beginning of the project, and its two technicians – David Thomas and Josep Olivia – have been instrumental in its coordination.

In February, BQR became the first team to unveil a Moto2 machine

BQR had originally planned to enter the MotoGP World Championship in 2011; however, the early announcement of the Moto2 class and significant successes in testing allowed the team to unveil the first Moto2 bike back in February and field a Moto2 prototype at the 2009 CEV Buckler Spanish Road Racing Championship.  In November and December, Julián Simón and Mike Di Meglio tested in Valencia onboard a machine loaned to Team Aspar by BQR. The teammates consistently lapped at the top of the sheets for those riders onboard true Moto2 machines (Ant West lapped on rebadged Stiggy Honda CBR600 Supersport bike).  No official word yet, but there are rumors circulating that Aspar may decide to run BQR-supplied chasses due to the pullout of Aprilia from Moto2.

If you’d like a quick listen of how the new Moto2 bikes will sound, here’s a short clip of the BQR Moto2 bike in action at Jerez.