MotoGP team boss Gresini passes away after battle with COVID-19

Fabio Quartararo was Yamaha's leading rider for much of the 2020 season, with his three victories keeping him in the lead of the championship until the Aragon Grand Prix when a front tyre pressure issue dropped him to a career-worst 18th.From that point, Quartararo's title hopes quickly evaporated and he ended the campaign eighth in the standings.Yamaha's hopes of the constructors' ...Keep reading

The 2021 season will be SRT's third in the premier class, with the Yamaha satellite team in its short tenure already a six-time race winner.Last year, Morbidelli won three times on his way to runner-up spot in the championship, and ended up just 13 points behind title winner Joan Mir.For 2021, SRT welcomes nine-time grand prix world champion Rossi to its ranks, after the Italian legend ...Keep reading

The six-time MotoGP podium finisher joins the factory Honda squad from KTM in 2021, but will have just five days to get to know the RC213V in March before the opening round in Qatar.Espargaro should have had two days on the Honda at a post-season test at Jerez last November to have his first experience of the bike, but this outing was scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic.He also lost a ...Keep reading

Remarkably, 2021 will be Rossi's 26th season in the grand prix racing - having made his full-time 125cc debut in 1996 - and his 22nd in the premier class.Rossi's scorecard in MotoGP is legendary, the Italian amassing seven world titles, 89 race victories, 55 pole positions and a total of 199 podiums.The latest of those podiums came last season in the baking heat of the Andalusian Grand Prix at ...Keep reading

Marquez has been out of action since his aborted comeback attempt at the Andalusian Grand Prix last July, just days after an operation on the right arm he broke in the opening round of the 2020 campaign.Having undergone a further two operations since, Marquez is finally showing signs of recovery and hasn't ruled out racing in the Qatar GP on 28 March - though won't be present at the pre-season ...Keep reading

This will be Pramac's 19th season in the premier class as a standalone team (it did race in 2004, but in conjunction with the Pons team) and its 17th as a Ducati satellite squad.With Jack Miller and Francesco Bagnaia stepping up to the works Ducati team in 2021, Pramac will field a totally new line-up for the first time since 2013.Double Moto2 world champion Johann Zarco steps up from ...Keep reading

Mir ended a 20-year title drought for Suzuki last year when he won the 2020 MotoGP crown with a race to spare, having amassed one grand prix victory and a total of seven podiums.Suzuki has been MK Dons' title sponsor since 2014, and to celebrate Mir's championship win, the League One side will run a one-off shirt when it faces off against Oxford United this weekend.Fans will be able to win ...Keep reading

Marquez broke the humerus in his right arm in a crash in the latter stages of the opening round of the 2020 season and wouldn't race again following an aborted comeback attempt at the Andalusian GP.Following a second operation to fix the plate inserted into his arm during his first surgery - which broke when he opened a patio door at his home - Marquez's recovery proved slower than expected ...Keep reading

Gresini was taken ill with COVID-19 just before Christmas and was hospitalised on 27 December in Imola, before being transferred to a specialist COVID care ward in Bologna.On Tuesday, the Gresini team announced the Italian had lost his two-month battle with COVID at the age of 60.Dorna Sports' CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta led tributes to Gresini, stating on Tuesday morning: "I'm deeply saddened by ...Keep reading

The Honda rider broke his right humerus in a crash during last July's Spanish Grand Prix, and has been out of action since making an aborted comeback at the following week's Andalusian GP having just undergone surgery.Marquez has had two operations since, the latest in December - where he underwent a bone graft - finally pointing his recovery in the right direction.His third operation was ...Keep reading

HRC's 2021 factory launch event signalled Marquez's first public appearance in Repsol colours since aborting his comeback from a broken arm during last July's Andalusian Grand Prix.Marquez will be joined by 2013 Moto2 world champion Espargaro, who joins from a four-year stint with KTM from 2017-2020 and marks HRC's third different factory team rider in as many years.Honda reported two ...Keep reading

Marquez was extracted from his Marc VDS Moto2 contract and placed at the factory Honda squad for 2020 after triple MotoGP world champion Jorge Lorenzo announced his retirement during the final race weekend of 2019.Despite an initially difficult start to his rookie season, Marquez would turn into one of Honda's leading lights, scoring the Japanese marque's only podiums with a brace of seconds ...Keep reading

The 2019 Moto2 world champion stepped up to the factory Honda squad in 2020 and was meant to partner his six-time title-winning brother Marc Marquez before he was ruled out of the campaign through injury after the Spanish Grand Prix.Alex Marquez would score Honda's only podiums of the season with a brace of seconds in France and Aragon.The younger Marquez brother had to field constant ...Keep reading

The double 125cc world champion and veteran MotoGP team boss was hospitalised with COVID-19 on 27 December, with his time in a specialist care unit in Bologna nearing two months.Gresini was placed in a coma early in the new year, but was brought out of it in January as his condition showed signs of improvement.An update towards the end of January from the Gresini team noted his condition ...Keep reading

The COVID-19 pandemic has already forced MotoGP to alter its plans for the start of the 2021 season, with the Argentine and US Grands Prix postponed and a second Qatar race added, as well as round three now taking place in Portugal.February's Sepang test was also cancelled due to the escalating virus situation in Malaysia.Despite the pandemic entering a second wave of infections across ...Keep reading

Morbidelli is the only one of Yamaha's four riders in 2021 not to have factory-supported current-spec machinery, with the Italian remaining on the lesser 'A-spec' M1.This is despite winning three of Yamaha's seven grand prix victories last year and finishing the campaign as its top rider in second place in the standings, 13 points off title-winner Joan Mir and four places clear of Maverick ...Keep reading

Vinales enters his fifth season with the factory Yamaha squad in 2021 coming off the back of a largely difficult 2020 campaign.Though a winner at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Vinales only scored two further podiums and ended up sixth in the standings as the leading 2020 M1 rider - with Franco Morbidelli on the lesser 'A-spec' Yamaha just 13 points from the title in second.Vinales in the ...Keep reading

Three-time MotoGP race winner Quartararo steps up to the factory Yamaha squad from Petronas SRT for this season in a straight swap with SRT-bound Rossi.During their seven years together at the factory Yamaha squad, Rossi and Lorenzo developed a fierce rivalry, which led to a wall being erected in the garage to split their teams and culminated in a bitter fallout while contesting the 2015 ...Keep reading