Aleix Espargaro

With the highest-profile moves all officially confirmed, MotoGP's Silly Season is starting to run out of steam. The big surprises are out of the way, and we are left with just over half the seats still unfilled. But even for the unsigned rides, names have already been penciled in, some rather more firmly than others. 

The two big names still waiting to put their signatures under contracts are surely Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa. Lorenzo's Brazilian manager is said to be playing hardball with Yamaha, trying to extract the best possible conditions out of the Japanese factory now that the sales powerhouse Valentino Rossi has left Yamaha to go to Ducati. Rumors of a 14 million euro salary demand are unconfirmed, but with Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica likely to take on sponsorship of the Yamaha squad, Lorenzo might be expected to earn that in sponsorship by allying his selling power to the Telefonica brand.

The press office of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway continue to do an outstanding job, collecting the following notes and quotes from the riders in today's MotoGP race. For quotes from the podium riders, see the separate news item.

MotoGP POST-RACE NOTES:

The industrious folks in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway press office have done part of our job again, collecting quotes from fifteen of the seventeen MotoGP riders for tomorrow's MotoGP race. Even better, they came up with a selection of fascinating statistics from today's qualifying session as well. Here's the official IMS press notes and quotes:

MotoGP QUALIFYING NOTES:

On Monday morning, Jules Cisek had a final chance to take some photos during the Brno test. He had to be quick, though, as he was soon chased out of pit lane by overly officious security guards.

Pramac - because Ducati's don't necessarily have to be red

Nicky Hayden's wrist was sore, but he had work to do, so he got on with it

Still crazy after all these years: Italian veteran Loris Capirossi

Yesterday, we discussed who is going where in the factory teams in MotoGP. For the most part, those deals are either public, or really badly-kept secrets. Today, we'll look at the situation among the satellite teams, a situation which is much, much less clear-cut than the factory squad, in part because the factory deals have not all been announced yet. The number of changes are suprisingly few, reflecting in part the problems in MotoGP. As costs rise, the cost of being competitive is growing, and more importantly, the cost of failure is increasing as well.

As a consequence, teams are not willing to take chances on unproven but promising talent. The learning curve in MotoGP is now so steep - electronics, bike setup, but most especially tires - that it takes half a season to start to get your head around the class. Limited testing has made the situation much, much worse, raising the penalty for rookies entering the class even further - the scrabbling around for substitute riders for Valentino Rossi, Hiroshi Aoyama and Randy de Puniet illustrating the case perfectly.

Back earlier than expected from a broken tibia, but The Corkscrew is tough on Rossi's shoulder and leg

The Corkscrew holds bad memories for Casey Stoner. Didn't stop him from being fastest on Friday though.

Laguna Seca is a tough track on rookies, with so much to learn. MotoGP veteran Loris Capirossi showed his Rizla Suzuki teammate Alvaro Bautista the fast way round.

The search for a replacement MotoGP rider, which seemed so difficult for Valentino Rossi and Hiroshi Aoyama, has not been so complicated for Randy de Puniet's replacement, it seems. Last night, we reported on rumors that Roger Lee Hayden was to replace the Frenchman on the LCR Honda at Laguna Seca, and this morning, it appears that the news has been confirmed. The extremely well-connected Italian site GPOne.com is reporting that the the youngest of the three Hayden brothers has been confirmed as De Puniet's replacement for the Red Bull US GP in Monterey.

Hayden was an obvious choice to replace De Puniet at Laguna, as he had several key factors working in his favor. Firstly, he has experience on a MotoGP bike, although that experience is from 2007, when he rode a wildcard Kawasaki at Laguna, finishing 10th on his first time on the bike. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, Roger Lee knows Laguna Seca like the back of his hand, having ridden it in the AMA for so many years. This is a crucial factor in selecting the American, as any former 250 or current Moto2 riders drafted in are unlikely ever to have seen the track, as the junior classes have never accompanied MotoGP to California since the series returned there in 2005, for reasons of cost.

Nicky Hayden, undeterred and still sporting a faux-hican

Alvaro Bautista got the factory ride he wanted. And more

Andrea Dovizioso has had an extraordinary season in 2010

MotoGP's next rock star: Marco Simoncelli

With MotoGP now one third through its 18 race season, the effect of the engine-life regulations - restricting each MotoGP rider to just 6 engines throughout the entire season - is starting to become clear. The latest engine information list - assembled by IRTA and MotoGP Technical Director Mike Webb, and distributed (if you can call it that) by Dorna - provides an interesting perspective on the impact the regulations are having, and how the factories have approached the problems posed by limited engines.

The clear winner that emerges from the list is surely Honda. Of their six riders, three (Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, and San Carlo Gresini's Marco Simoncelli) have used just two engines, and not had to have a third engine officially sealed. Dovizioso and Simoncelli have distributed their races equally, with three races on each of the two engines, while Dani Pedrosa has four races on his number 1 engine, and just two on his number 2 engine.