Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. New factory Ducati MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci set the pace on the penultimate day of 2018 testing at Jerez ahead of team-mate Andrea Dovizioso. Petrucci leapt to the top of the timesheets at the start of the final hour of running, becoming

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Ferrari Driver Academy head Massimo Rivola is leaving the Italian Formula 1 team to join the Aprilia MotoGP squad. An Aprilia spokesperson confirmed Rivola’s move to Autosport, although it is not yet clear how Rivola will fit in with the Gresini-run operation’s

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro has been ruled out of the final MotoGP test of 2018 at Jerez after being hospitalised with gastritis, and will be replaced by test rider Bradley Smith. Espargaro contested the first ’19 pre-season test in Valencia last week, and

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller says he “can’t believe” his new 2019 Desmosedici is just two years removed from the bike he used in MotoGP this season. Miller rode a 2017-spec Ducati for his new team Pramac this past campaign, finishing 13th

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. After agreeing a deal to sponsor Yamaha’s new satellite MotoGP team, Petronas is aiming to emulate the success it has enjoyed in Formula 1 with Mercedes. When given the opportunity, Petronas’ bosses didn’t hesitate and went for it in MotoGP. Entering the

Suzuki rookie Joan Mir believes MotoGP bikes suit him much more than Moto2 machinery after his first tests. Mir, the 2017 Moto3 champion, was picked up by Suzuki after just a single season in Moto2 – in which he was sixth in the championship but did not win a race. Is Mir MotoGP’s new Marquez?

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Alvaro Bautista will rejoin Ducati’s factory MotoGP line-up for this week’s two-day Jerez test. Bautista has moved across to Ducati’s World Superbike project after losing his seat with the satellite Nieto Ducati team in MotoGP, getting his first experience of the marque’s

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Aleix Espargaro says new Aprilia MotoGP team-mate Andrea Iannone will find it difficult not to become frustrated during his first season with the manufacturer. Iannone moves to Aprilia for 2019 after two up-and-down years at Suzuki and rode the RS-GP for the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Former KTM MotoGP rider Bradley Smith says he was “positively surprised” by the behaviour of the MotoE bike when he sampled it for the first time in Jerez on Friday. Smith is one of a number of riders with premier class experience

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Ducati MotoGP test rider Michele Pirro will skip next week’s Jerez post-season test as he undergoes surgery on his injured shoulder. Pirro joined factory Ducati pair Andrea Dovizioso and Danilo Petrucci for this week’s Valencia test, but only completed a limited number

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valentino Rossi says he is not fully convinced by the new types of engine Yamaha brought to MotoGP’s post-season test at Valencia, as his pace was “not fantastic” with either unit. Yamaha brought two different types of engine to this week’s post-season

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. New Aprilia MotoGP recruit Andrea Iannone said he expected the RS-GP bike to be “worse”, but has still identified areas to make improvements. Iannone joins Aprilia from Suzuki for 2019 and made his debut with the Italian manufacturer in the two-day post-season

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales ended MotoGP’s post-season test at Valencia on top, eclipsing Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez in the final hour of the second day. Vinales, who set the pace on the opening day, had a rare crash in the middle

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The 15-year-old who took a Moto3 win on his series debut last weekend has been tipped as a certain future MotoGP star by top riders. Turkish rider Can Oncu won the 2018 title in the Red Bull Rookies Cup junior series that

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Petronas Sepang Racing Team rider Franco Morbidelli felt like he was “riding on butter” in his first test outing with the Yamaha MotoGP bike. Last year’s Moto2 champion Morbidelli, who finished as the top rookie in the premier class aboard a Marc

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. KTM’s new MotoGP signing Johann Zarco admitted he was left with mixed feelings after being “a bit slow” in his first run with the RC16 bike in Valencia testing. Zarco, who has been a regular frontrunner in the premier class in his

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Ducati’s new factory MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci said his first day testing with the team in Valencia was “very emotional” and felt like “the first day at school”. Petrucci, who spent four years at Ducati’s satellite team Pramac, is replacing Jorge Lorenzo

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales was fastest on the rain-shortened opening day of the MotoGP post-season test in Valencia, while Jorge Lorenzo finished 18th on his Honda debut. The track was wet when the session began and riders remained in the pits for the

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Yamaha MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales believe they were on course for a one-two finish in the Valencia Grand Prix, before Vinales crashed and the race was stopped. Pace in the wet was an obvious weakness of the 2017-specification YZR-M1,

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Last weekend at Valencia, MotoGP bade farewell to Dani Pedrosa, a rider once considered to be the only one able to dethrone Valentino Rossi, and the greatest to never win a premier class title. Pedrosa made his world championship debut in 2001

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. MotoGP champion Marc Marquez and his new Honda team-mate Jorge Lorenzo have both confirmed that they will not be fully fit in time for the Valencia post-season test. Marquez crashed in both qualifying and the race during the Valencia season finale, walking

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valentino Rossi called crashing while fighting for victory in two MotoGP races in a row a “sh*t emotion”. Despite starting the Valencia Grand Prix only 16th, Rossi scythed his way through the field early on and was part of a three-bike fight

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Marc Marquez said his bold tyre choice for the MotoGP season finale at Valencia was his “first big mistake” of the 2018 campaign. Marquez, who had sealed his fifth MotoGP title with three races to spare, had been on the podium on

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Both Moto2 and Moto3 will use a MotoGP-style two-part qualification system from the 2019 season. Since 2013, the premier class has divided qualifying into two separate sessions – Q1 and Q2 – and used practice times to determine which rider takes part

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. KTM rider Pol Espargaro has described his Valencia MotoGP podium charge as “unreal” after recovering from a “wild highside” crash in the first part of the race. Espargaro, who had his sights set on KTM’s best MotoGP finish after qualifying sixth, was

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller has expressed his frustration with how long it took MotoGP race direction to stop the wet race in Valencia, labelling the situation “a joke”. Miller was among the 11 riders to hit the ground in the first

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso emerged victorious in a stop-start, attrition-heavy 2018 season MotoGP finale at a wet Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. Dovizioso passed long-time leader Alex Rins twice – once before the 40-minute red-flag stoppage and once after – en route

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Valentino Rossi says he was “very uncomfortable” riding his Yamaha MotoGP bike in the dry at Valencia, as he struggled to a low-key 16th on the grid. Rossi missed out on an automatic Q2 spot after he only took 13th place in

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Marc Marquez was happy to have “saved” his qualifying in Valencia by placing fifth as the MotoGP champion overcame lingering shoulder pain from a mid-session crash. Marquez, who earlier identified his left shoulder as a “weak point” and is set to have

Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Vinales fought through Q1 to take pole position in a scintillating final qualifying session of the 2018 season in Valencia. Vinales had come close to dropping out in the first segment, but would instead prevail in an close