Fabio Quartararo ended the post-Czech Grand Prix MotoGP test at Brno fastest of all by 0.012 seconds from Yamaha stablemate Maverick Vinales. The Petronas SRT rider set the early pace, as he evaluated different suspension components, and Quartararo fired in a 1m56.225s lap in the opening hour of the test. Brno race winner and current

Long-time Moto2 squad Kiefer Racing has been informed it will not be granted a slot on the grid for the 2020 season. The German team downsized from two bikes to one at the start of the 2018 season, following the tragic loss of team co-founder Stefan Kiefer on the eve of the 2017 Sepang weekend.

The MotoGP Czech Grand Prix could have been like “tenpin bowling” if it started with all riders on slick tyres on a partially wet circuit, said Pramac rider Jack Miller. A heavy downpour around 20 minutes before the race at the Brno circuit was originally due to start left the track wet, though the circuit

Franco Morbidelli and Joan Mir have both pointed the finger at Johann Zarco for causing them to crash on the opening lap of MotoGP’s Czech Grand Prix. Morbidelli and Mir were first-lap casualties at Brno, with both the Petronas Yamaha rider and Suzuki runner tumbling at Turn 4. The incident was the result of contact

MotoGP Czech Grand Prix winner Marc Marquez says he “pushed 100% from the beginning” as he was “afraid” of an attack from Yamaha duo Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo. The Honda rider eased to his sixth win of 2019 by a margin of 2.4 seconds over Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso in the Brno event, which was

Marc Marquez and Alex Rins have both been summoned by MotoGP race direction over their run-in during qualifying at the Czech Grand Prix on Saturday. The incident in question occurred in the second 15-minute session, when Rins aggressively passed Marquez at Turn 7, which nearly sent the latter into a crash. Marquez re-passed the Suzuki

Marc Marquez says the risks he took during a drying MotoGP Czech Grand Prix qualifying to take pole left Honda management “angry” with him. Marquez was the first rider to switch to slicks on the drying Brno surface midway through Q2, and went on to equal five-time 500cc champion Mick Doohan’s record tally of 58

Johann Zarco says qualifying third for MotoGP’s Czech Grand Prix made him feel like he “still has the ability” amid a largely miserable debut season at KTM. Zarco has endured a torrid first half of the 2019 campaign, but took advantage of wet conditions in qualifying at Brno by topping Q1, and then securing KTM’s

MotoGP is set for an expanded 20-race calendar in 2020, with the returning Finnish Grand Prix joining the existing 19 races for next season. A draft 2020 calendar is expected to be circulated among teams in the coming days, and while it is not final, it is set to be the longest in the world

Valentino Rossi says the Yamaha MotoGP engine that failed in second practice for this weekend’s Czech Grand Prix at Brno was ‘old’. Smoke started pouring from Rossi’s factory M1 midway through FP2 on Friday afternoon, causing the seven-time premier class champion to cruise back to the pits and switch to his number two bike. He

Cal Crutchlow says LCR Honda MotoGP team-mate Takaaki Nakagami “doesn’t deserve” machine parity with the other factory HRC riders next season as his results this year do not justify it. Nakagami admitted on Thursday ahead of the Czech Grand Prix weekend that talks between himself and Honda over a ’20 deal had stalled, as the

Yamaha MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales say they are not prepared to write off the rest of the 2019 season, despite plans to test a 2020 prototype at Brno on Monday. Yamaha is expected to run an early version of its 2020 engine during the traditional post-race test at the Czech venue as

Johann Zarco says he is now more accepting of his situation at KTM and aims to “better control” his emotions in the second half of the 2019 MotoGP campaign. The double Moto2 champion’s debut campaign aboard the RC16 has been a miserable experience, with just one top 10 finish and a lowly 16 points scored

The final places on the 2020 MotoGP grid have yet to be secured, as talks between Jack Miller and Pramac, and Takaaki Nakagami and LCR stalled over the summer break. Both are on deals that expire at the end of this year, but are more than likely to remain where they are currently as no

MotoGP team boss Lin Jarvis says Yamaha is better at responding to the specific needs of its riders than rival marque Honda, despite Marc Marquez’s success aboard the RC213V. While the development of Honda’s 2019-spec RC213V has been largely determined by five-time champion Marquez, Yamaha gives its factory riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales more

The Avintia MotoGP team has announced it has retained Tito Rabat for the next two seasons, ending speculation that the 2014 Moto2 champion could make a World Superbike switch. Rabat joined the Avintia team last season, but had his season cut short by a horror leg injury sustained in a crash during a wet practice

The form of privateer MotoGP rookie Fabio Quartararo has acted as “stimulation” for team-mates Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, believes factory Yamaha team boss Lin Jarvis. Quartararo, 20, has scored three pole positions and two podium finishes at Barcelona and Assen respectively in his first nine MotoGP races with the Petroinas SRT Yamaha team. Why

Valentino Rossi has gone more than two years without a victory, and the nine-time world champion’s opening half of the 2019 campaign has been his worst in the MotoGP era. Difficulties finding a comfortable feeling with the 2019 Yamaha have led to a run of results devoid of any podiums since the third round and

With pretty much all factory MotoGP contracts through to the end of 2020 secured last year, it was initially expected this year’s ‘silly season’ would be a tame affair. Until recently, it seemed all there would be to talk about would be a few midfield names potentially making team moves and a handful of Moto2

Yamaha MotoGP boss team boss Lin Jarvis says he expects no “conflict” with Valentino Rossi over the timing of Italian legend’s eventual retirement. Rossi is under contract at Yamaha until the end of 2020, but has gone more than two years without winning a race and has suffered a poor run of recent form. The

Andrea Dovizioso believes Ducati’s MotoGP rivals have made more progress with their bikes in 2019 than his manufacturer has. Dovizioso, who scored four wins on his way to second place in the standings in 2018, sits 58 points behind Honda’s points leader Marc Marquez at the midpoint of the ’19 campaign. The Ducati rider took

Honda MotoGP rider Jorge Lorenzo will miss the next two races in the Czech Republic and Austria after the back injury he sustained in the Netherlands failed to heal sufficiently. Lorenzo suffered a fracture to his back in a crash during the first practice session for the Dutch TT weekend, which ruled him out of

Honda MotoGP test rider Stefan Bradl says Jorge Lorenzo can take the development of the RC213V in a “new direction” when Lorenzo returns from injury. Bradl was speaking while filling in for the injured Lorenzo at the Honda factory squad earlier this month at the Sachsenring, where he finished 10th – matching the result he

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez believes Yamaha riders Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo will be his main competition in the second half of 2019, rather than the Ducati line-up. Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso has been Marquez’s main title rival since 2017, and Dovizioso is second in the standings after nine races in ’19, 58 points behind

The bump at Silverstone’s Brooklands corner that Daniel Ricciardo highlighted as something that could make MotoGP riders “pretty angry” was already known about before the Formula 1 weekend. Silverstone underwent a complete resurfacing this year after the previous asphalt laid in 2018 deteriorated substantially and a lack of drainage led to the cancellation of a

Ducati MotoGP sporting director Paolo Ciabatti has accused his Honda counterpart Alberto Puig of misinterpreting his statements in order to manufacturer controversy. Ciabatti was referring to Puig’s interview given to El Confidencial, in which the Spaniard attacked Ducati for implying that its recent MotoGP success would have been impossible without five-time premier class champion Marc

LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow claims the 2019 MotoGP title fight “finished four races ago” in favour of Marc Marquez, who he says is riding ‘better than ever’ this year. Marquez was near-untouchable in the first half of the season as, apart from crashing out from a dominant lead at Austin, he finished every other

Andrea Dovizioso says Ducati will be more competitive in the coming MotoGP races, but says this still won’t be enough to “even start thinking” about challenging championship leader Marc Marquez. After finishing fourth in the Dutch TT at Assen, Dovizioso could manage no better than fifth in Sunday’s German Grand Prix, behind factory teammate Danilo

Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi says he can’t blame his age for his recent MotoGP slump, pointing out he was “already old” last year when he finished second at the Sachsenring. Rossi struggled to a disappointing eighth place in last weekend’s German Grand Prix from 11th on the grid, while factory Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales finished

Honda team boss Alberto Puig has hit out at comments made by Ducati which suggested the Japanese marque has only built its MotoGP challenger for Marc Marquez. Marquez has won five of the last six premier class titles aboard the RC213V, and is well on course for his sixth in 2019 after a fifth victory