Tuenti HP 40 Moto2’s Pol Espargaro2013 Qatar Moto2 ChampionshipThe Moto2 Championship, which replaced the former 250cc two-stroke class in 2010, will enter its fourth year in 2013, the action getting underway this weekend with the Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar at Losail International Circuit in Doha.
The Moto2 class, which uses 250cc, four-stroke Honda-spec engines, has not had a double-champion yet, with Toni Elias (Moriwaki) winning its debut year, Stefan Bradl (Kalex) in 2011, and Marc Marquez (Suter) last season. And with Bradl and Marquez both in MotoGP, the only rider that could possibly become a double champion is Elias, who will compete aboard the Blusens Avintia Moto2 machine in 2013.But the early favorite and biggest threat to everyone in Moto2 is Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaró. The Spaniard has been extremely fast throughout the preseason, leading the final test in Jerez by almost a half second ahead of Aspar Team’s Nicolas Terol.Besides Terol, the other big contender will be Espargaro’s compatriot Julian Simon aboard his Italtrans Racing Team Kalex. Also expect Marc VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding and Italtrans’ Takaaki Nakagami to be podium contenders.The NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team lines up with a strong package this year, as it fields four riders on a Speed Up chassis in the shape of Alex De Angelis, Simone Corsi, Mattia Pasini and Ricky Cardús. Having shown glimpses of good pace throughout testing and a raft of data to share, the team is one to watch as the championship gets underway. Interwetten-Paddock’s Tom Lüthi, who last year was leading the race for a period, has not recovered from his big crash in the Valencia test, and is replaced by returning Sergio Gadea.The field also sports some promising rookie prospects, most notably 2012 Moto3 World Champion Sandro Cortese, who lines up with his newly formed Dynavolt Intact GP team on-board a Kalex, and Tech 3 Racing pair Danny Kent and Louis Rossi. And with a newly enforced minimum combined bike and rider weigh of 215kg for 2013, the narrowly aligned class is only going to get even more exciting.The racing gets underway Thursday at Qatar with the first free practice Thursday.2013 Qatar Moto2 on TVSPEED TV will broadcast Qatar Moto2 at 11 p.m. EST Sunday, April 7.
Hello everyone and welcome once again to Motos and Friends, the weekly podcast brought to you by Ultimate Motorcycling. My name is Arthur Coldwells.
Motos and Friends is brought to you by Yamaha. You can check out the amazing YZF-R7 at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com. The YZF-R7 is an amazing supersport machine that is comfortable too!
In this week’s first segment, Editor Don Williams takes the smallest BMW ADV bike on an urban adventure in Los Angeles. The BMW G 310 GS is a full size motorcycle with a modest engine, so of course we wonder if it is a little too underpowered and might struggle. Don put it through its paces and gives us his take.
In the second segment, Neale Bayly and Kiran Ridley have returned from the Ukraine to Paris where Kiran is based.
Kiran is an award winning photojournalist, and as an accomplished documentarian, he has covered stories as diverse as drug smuggling around the Mexican border, to the devastation of the Australian Bush Fires, to the tragedy of the Mediterranean migration crisis. Neale and Kiran reminisce about their motorcycle adventure in the Ukraine, and their observations and experiences with the incredibly resilient people of Ukraine, who have been put through such brutal hardship.
