glimpse of the old Nicky who won the title in 2006.“I’m pretty happy, but I’m not jumping up and down yet,” he said.The engine is the fabled pneumatic-valve-spring V4, oft-delayed replacement for the steel-spring motor he and Pedrosa have been using

before, in only his second time on the Rizla Suzuki after 30 odd laps at Valencia last year, he had impressed observers by consistently gaining speed and confidence at a track he’d never seen before, but somewhat disappointed himself by placing 17th

MOTOGP MEDICAL guru Claudio Costa came under fire after misdiagnosing a life-threatening injury to Swiss 125 rider Randy Krummenacher. The 18-year-old KTM rider, with a best of third place last year, was training on his mountain bike on the weekend

manager (to American 125 rider Steve Bonsey), and he did not rule out a possible return, even during this season. The team has been in negotiation for more than a year now with an American group, F1-Maxx, planning a triple-header sponsorship programme

THE RUMOUR mill has riders moving around all over the place, with substance to at least some of the stories.Ducati will be looking to replace the extraordinarily disappointing Marco Melandri, and candidates include Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies

VISORDOWN BROUGHT you news last week that Marco Melandri’s place in the Marlboro Ducati squad was under threat and that MotoGP veteran Sete Gibernau was set to replace the lacklustre Italian.The likelihood of this happening is now almost a reality

mistake in the race, you should lose time, but here and Assen and some other places you can just run off the track, kind of like the Superbikes were doing at Monza last week, and pull right back on in the middle of the racing line, or in the middle of a

-forces are much stronger in an F1 car, both in braking and lateral G in cornering. Casey Stoner broadly agreed. “In 2003 when I slightly broke my collarbone after breaking it earlier, I had to do 10 push-ups to show I was strong enough. “But maybe