WITH NICKY Hayden the latest to lose one of his six allocated engines and Suzuki rider Loris Capirossi already up to his fourth, Honda is way ahead in the engine-life figures, with factory riders Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso still using the same two with which they started the season.
New-for-2010 rules mean each rider gets six engines for the 18-race season, now one-third completed. Engines are sealed, and added to the allocation the first time they leave pit lane. Any rider requiring an engine beyond this number must start the next race from pit lane, ten seconds behind the rest.
Hayden’s engine failure came during practice. It did not blow up, but “it suddenly lost power, so I shut it off and rolled back to the pits,” he said. The engine was withdrawn from the allocation, so that Ducati can now strip it and investigate what went wrong.
According to team chief Vittoriano Guareschi, the engine had reached the end of its planned life, after more than 1,600 km. But most teams believe that a mileage of 2,000 km per engine is the minimum needed to be sure of reaching the end of the season.
Capirossi was the only rider to exceed the five-engines-for-nine-races introduced as a pilot scheme last year, and the Rizla Suzuki rider is heading the same way. His fourth engine came at the last round at Silverstone, while an engine that failed at Mugello has been withdrawn from the allocation.
Stoner heads the list of those with three engines allocated, and also has one withdrawn … it was damaged in his first-race crash at Qatar. Barbera has also lost one engine, but only because it had competed 2,000 km, according to his team.
Other Ducati riders on their third engine, by routine, are Kallio and Espargaro.
All Yamaha riders except the absent Rossi have also deployed a third, as per schedule; while satellite Honda riders Aoyama, de Puniet and Melandri are in the same position.
Only the Repsol Hondas and satellite rider Simoncelli are still on the first two, allocated at Qatar. “Our engines can do more than 2,000km, without losing power,” HRC technical director Shinichi Kokubu told GP Week.
