MotoGP: Pedrosa joins the casualty list in Sachsenring after FP3 Crash

After Jorge Lorenzo’s heroics in Assen it was inevitable that his practice crash on Friday would lead to a withdrawal when he was pictured instantly clutching his shoulder.

However in a crash in FP3 that could kick the championship race wide open Dani Pedrosa took a tumble and immediately grabbed his arm, being a little on the delicate side and having already endured five operations on his left collarbone and had two relatively recent breaks to it in Motegi in 2010 and Le Mans in 2011, he is currently on his way for further tests in Chemnitz Hospital.

The most shocking element of his crash was when he hit his head – with enough force to rip the visor from his helmet.

While hoping for a speedy recovery for one of the main title contenders here’s an image of the damage to Pedrosa’s helmet, posted by his Factory Honda team…

Get well soon Dani – damage to Pedrosa’s Arai which did such a good job of protecting his head in his FP3 crash at the Sachsenring, Germany.
Image via Repsol Honda at Twitter, editorial use only

…and an image of the crash, a free video of the accident is now available at MotoGP.com for all registered users…

Pedrosa in the air after his highside on a slow lap of the Sachsenring
Image credit to MotoGP.com on Twitter @motogp ediorial use only, under fair use act

Video:Dani Pedrosa trains a tortoise for charity?!

Dani Pedrosa goes against the norm by showing his sense of humour for charity.

MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa has become the latest celebrity to give up their time to raise money for Spanish bank La Caixa’s Obra Social la Caixa campaign (for Save the Children).More at their website, La Caixa Foundation – http://obrasocial.lacaixa.es/

Pedrosa’s video clip gives us his take on Aesop’s fable ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’ and sees the often serious racer in a comic role as the trainer to the tortoise.

Fellow countryman and MotoGP star Jorge Lorenzo has also made a short for the campaign – Jorge and the Dragon – viewable here:

http://youtu.be/mjxWM19OMxc

Here’s Pedrosa’s extremely entertaining clip in full:

MotoGP: Honda gain Marquez sponsor Estrella Galicia for 2013

MotoGP: Honda gains Marc Marquez’s sponsor Estrella Galicia for 2013 season

HRC announce long term sponsor of Marquez as a new partner for the teams 2013 campaign

 

Spanish beer company Estrella Galicia have been announced by Honda as a new sponsor for the team for the forthcoming season. Their alcohol free line, Estrella Galicia 0,0 has been a sponsor to Marc Marquez for the last three years and makes the move up to join him in MotoGP at Honda.

Having a Spanish sponsor ties in neatly with the 2013 rider line up at the Japanese factory as it is the first time they have run two Spaniards at Repsol Honda since Alex Crivillé and Sete Gibernau in 2000 with Dani Pedrosa being joined by rookie Marquez.

Estrella Galicia will also become the official beer in HRC’s hospitality.

It is the third season in which Estrella Galicia 0.0 will present in the MotoGP World Championship, supporting Marc Márquez throughout his career, including winning the Moto2 World Championship last season.

They were also responsible for the team that ran rookie of the year Alex Rins and Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira in Moto3 in 2012 along with Alex Marquez, younger brother to Marc, who rode wildcard races for the team and was also sponsored by the beer brand at Monlau Competicion for whom he won the Moto3 Spanish Championship.

The first images of the riders wearing their new leathers with Estrella Galicia 0,0 logo will be available on the 24th January, after the team’s official presentation in Madrid, where Pedrosa and Marquez will unveil the 2013 RC213V bike, and it’s new livery.

 

MotoGP: Japanese manga – revisited !

After the AirAsia 2012 Japanese Grand Prix poster was unveiled and racing fans around the world had drooled at the awesome manga art they were using to promote the race, one question popped into the concious of the masses – where was Ben Spies?

Was the poster predicting his departure? Is he not popular in Japan? Are his Elbowz really tricky and technical to draw?

Apparently not as both Ben Spies and his fellow A.W.O.L. poster buddy Stefan Bradl have a starring role on this dvd cover for the Japanese volume 5 press pack:

(Image originally posted to Twitter via @fujiran. Image property of the original artist,  MotoGP.com and Dorna.)

Being a huge Japanese culture and Manga fan I thought it would be great to share some more MotoGP manga art!

In case you missed it here’s the Japan grand prix poster that caused all the original interest:

… and the link to the original again: http://www.motogp.com/en/photos/2012/Grand+Prix+of+Japan+2012+1

MotoGP: Laguna Seca – Rossi gets a lift from Hayden !

Laguna Seca saw some very fast crashes in the race, a feature of the race weekend, one of which ended Valentino Rossi’s chance of a top ten finish. As Stoner celebrated a hard won victory on a soft tyre gamble, with Lorenzo and Pedrosa a distant second and third and the rest of the pack even further behind, Rossi’s team mate and sixth place finisher on the Ducati Desmosedeici, Nicky Hayden came to his aid and gave him a lift home!

The American can be seen wearing his special ‘Easy Hayden’ helmet in his home Grand Prix, for a detailed image check out my previous post:

https://survivalofthefastest.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/haydens-awesom…eca-helmet-5-2/

Picture taken by me via MotoGP.com coverage by BBC sport.