Estoril, Portugal

The Hungarian round of MotoGP has been troubled from the start, and doubts have hung over it ever since the end of 2008, when it became clear that the Spanish/Hungarian construction conglomerate building the circuit was having trouble completing the track. The 2009 Hungarian round was first pushed back from the spring to September, before being canceled altogether, and the debut planned for September 2010.

Even that has proved too much, though. Rumors that the round would be canceled altogether emerged earlier this week, after the Hungarian Development Bank MFB refused to underwrite a loan over doubts over the financial viability of the project and allegations of corruption. Without that bank guarantee, the project was effectively dead in the water, and cancellation of the Hungarian round of MotoGP was just a matter of time.

The one place that everyone wants to be at a MotoGP race is in the paddock. Simultaneously, it is one of the most difficult places to get into, as, quite simply, Dorna does not sell passes into the paddock. The usual way - other than in a professional capacity, or working as a marshal - is to purchase a VIP package through one of the very few specialist travel companies authorized to issue paddock passes, such as our friends over at Pole Position Travel.

But now, MotoGP's (and MotoMatters.com's) official charity organization Riders For Health are providing an extra route into the paddock. Today, the charity announced that they will be auctioning off pairs of paddock passes for each of MotoGP's 18 races this season, with the money raised going towards Riders' outstanding work providing primary health care in Africa. If you want to get into the paddock and have a chance of meeting your own personal hero (be it Valentino Rossi, Bradley Smith or even Jerry Burgess), then read the press release below carefully, and dig deep for Riders.

Exclusive MotoGP paddock pass auction for Riders

The first round of extra testing for MotoGP's bumper crop of rookies has concluded, with Alvaro Bautista wrapping up a three-day test at Estoril in Portugal. The young Spaniard put in over 200 laps at the circuit, eventually lapping consistently in the 1'38.5s, according to the Suzuki press release. That pace would have put him around 12th place in the race, despite the conditions being cooler and less favorable. Bautista did, however, have a large number of laps to achieve that time, far more than the riders did during the race weekend.

Perhaps of more significance for Suzuki's overall effort was Japanese test rider Nobuatsu Aoki, who tested alongside Bautista at Estoril. The Japanese veteran spent time working on developing the bike ready for the 2010 season, testing a long list of parts which Loris Capirossi had started to test in the post-race event at Valencia. The test was doubly important to Suzuki, as it gave them a chance to test at a circuit outside of their usual testing facilities in Japan.

The reduction in testing has been a double-edged sword in MotoGP, allowing costs to be cut on the one hand, but punishing the six rookies due to enter the class for the 2010 season. With so many rookies coming, the factories - or at least one of them - have been keen to bend the rules to help the incomers adapt to MotoGP. The request for more testing for the rookies faced a lot of opposition, and up until this morning, it looked like it would be denied.

Once in the Grand Prix Commission, held at Valencia this afternoon, things swung the other way. At the request of Suzuki, the MSMA put the request to the Permanent Bureau (consisting of Dorna CEO and FIM president Vito Ippolito), bypassing the Grand Prix Commission, and the Permanent Bureau approved one extra test to be held at Estoril in the middle of November. This was a compromise proposal, as the MSMA had initially requested one extra test for the rookies, plus one day extra prior to the three official MotoGP tests to be held at Sepang and Qatar in February and March of 2010. The Permanent Bureau rejected the extra day of testing for the rookies at the three official tests, but allowed two days of testing at Estoril.

Casey Stoner returned to the MotoGP paddock at Estoril amidst a blaze of the publicity he so obviously loathes. The eyes of the motorcycle racing world were upon him, and the question was just how would he hold up once he got back on the bike?

The answer was emphatic: remarkably well, actually. The 2007 MotoGP World Champion taking a podium at his first attempt, comfortably beating both Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa, and only a broken footpeg preventing him from running with Jorge Lorenzo and challenging for victory. After the race, Stoner spoke to the press about the race, his time away, and some of the criticism he has faced, and as so often, he had some fairly pithy things to say about the press and his critics. A transcript of what he said follows below:

Q: You said yesterday after practice, you knew the problem was gone. Was there no point in the race that you worried?

Casey Stoner: No, because this morning in warmup I went out and did some laps, and because it had been so consistent over the past five races, in my head I knew that I was going to get to that point and go, OK that's it, I'm buggered again, I have to come in. And then I felt just that little bit of tiredness come on, but it didn't increase. So I was just like, that's it, it's gone, it's finished, and so we continued through the warm up competitively, and still set my quickest lap at the end and we knew we were rid of it then.