Andrea Dovizioso

Defending titles is not easy. In the last twenty years, only Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi have managed to win successive championships, despite both Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner winning twice. Why is it so hard? A lot of reasons. Nothing motivates a rider, a team or a factory like losing. Winning a championship requires a lot of hard work and talent, but also a smattering of luck, and at some point, luck runs out. Winning a title means always looking forward, eyes on the prize, while defending a title means looking back, at everyone out to get you. All these things combine to make winning the second title in a row much, much harder than winning the first one.

Jorge Lorenzo found this out the hard way in 2011, when he faced an unleashed Casey Stoner on the Honda RC212V. And now, after his second title in 2012, he's learning exactly the same lesson again, this time at the hands of Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez on the Honda RC213V. At Le Mans, all of the above factors came together, working against Lorenzo to drop him down the field, and move him from just four points to seventeen points adrift of the new championship leader, Dani Pedrosa.

What happened? First and foremost, the Hondas happened. Dani Pedrosa rode a brilliant race to take his second win in a row. It was arguably one of the best races of his career: getting a fantastic start, managing the wet conditions brilliantly, and putting in a number of hard, precise attacks to gain positions. His pass at Garage Vert to take the lead for the final time was one of particular beauty: jamming the bike precisely inside Dovizioso on the first of the double right handers, holding the tighter line, then taking a clear lead through the second. From that point he was gone. Since the Sachsenring last year, Pedrosa has won nine of the last fifteen races, a strike rate of sixty percent. That's the kind of batting average you need to win a title.

Press releases from the MotoGP teams and Bridgestone after an exhilarating French Grand Prix in Le Mans:

Press releases from the MotoGP teams and Bridgestone after qualifying for tomorrow's French Grand Prix at Le Mans:

So far, so good. That seems to be the story from the first day of practice at Le Mans. A full day of dry weather - except for the last few minutes of FP2 for the Moto3 class, where the rain turned briefly to hail, only to blow out again as quickly as it came - means that everyone had a chance to work on their race set up. With the top four separated by just 0.166 seconds, the top five are within a quarter of a second, and Alvaro Bautista, the man in ninth, is just over seven tenths from the fastest man Dani Pedrosa.

A good day too for the Hondas. Dani Pedrosa was immediately up to speed, as expected. Marc Marquez was also quick in the afternoon, which was less expected. Unlike Jerez and Austin, this was the first time he rode a MotoGP machine at Le Mans, and getting used to hauling a 260 hp, 160kg bike around the tight layout of the French track is a different proposition to riding a Moto2 bike with half the horsepower here. He took a morning to get used to the track, asked for a few changes to the base set up inherited from Casey Stoner, and then went and blitzed to second in the afternoon, 0.134 seconds off his teammate.

More important than Marquez' speed is his consistency, however. In the afternoon, he posted seven laps of 1'34, which looks to be the pace to expect for a dry race. Only two men did more, Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo having posted nine laps at that pace, with both men also consistently a tenth or two quicker than the Spanish rookie.

Press releases from the MotoGP teams and Bridgestone after the first day of practice at Le Mans:

Press release previews from the MotoGP teams and Bridgestone ahead of this weekend's French Grand Prix at Le Mans:

Ducati Corse issued the following press release, after factory riders Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden joined Michele Pirro and Franco Battaini of the Ducati test team at Mugello. The test team were at the Italian circuit for a three-day test, which ended today.

Ducati Team completes setup test at Mugello

Fresh off of last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix and Monday’s post-race test at Jerez, Ducati Team riders Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden were back on track Wednesday and Thursday, this time at Mugello. As the Tuscan circuit is one of the team’s selected test tracks, this was an opportunity to carry out important setup work with the Desmosedici GP13, with an eye toward the Italian Grand Prix, set to take place at Mugello 31 May - 2 June.

Thanks to perfect weather conditions—similar to those that accompanied last year’s Grand Prix at Mugello—the team was able to take full advantage of the planned day and a half of track time, with Dovizioso riding 42 laps on Wednesday and 54 on Thursday, and Hayden turning 29 and 60, respectively. Both riders rode with hard and soft versions of the Bridgestone tyres that will be used at the GP.

Press releases from the MotoGP teams after the one-day test at Jerez:

Press releases from the MotoGP teams and Bridgestone after Sunday's spectacular race at Jerez:

Press releases from the MotoGP teams and Bridgestone after the first day of practice at Jerez:

The MotoGP paddock is assembled in all its splendor at Jerez, and it is positively bulging at the seams. Shiny new hospitality units (very shiny, in the case of the Go&Fun Gresini unit) now pack the paddock, the existing units larger and new units added, causing the paddock to loosen its belt and expand into the adjacent car park, sequestering part of the area previously reserved for team and media cars. Under a bright blue Andalusian sky, it really is looking at its most appealing.

The expanded paddock makes you understand why IRTA decided to ban Moto2 and Moto3 riders from having their motorhomes in the paddock, all of them now expelled. The riders themselves are less impressed. "It was nice to have somewhere you could zone out during the day, and relax," Scott Redding said of the change. Sitting in the hospitality and watching the world go by was very pleasant, but still left him on his guard, he explained. Private quiet time was gone.

And it also removes part of the socialization process which young riders used to undergo, with the Moto2 and Moto3 men wandering around the paddock chatting to team members and other riders, everyone getting to know each other, and catching up on the latest news and gossip. It was part of what made the paddock feel like a village; a small Italian village, high in the mountains, with an inexplicably male-dominated population. The Moto2 and Moto3 riders added much to the fun of the place, spending most of their evenings challenging each other to wheelie competitions on mountain bikes and scooters. The paddock loses much with the change, feeling more like a workplace than a community.

Press releases from the MotoGP teams ahead of this weekend's race at Jerez:

Better luck in Jerez? Jorge Lorenzo couldn't stop the Repsols in Texas

You could have become very rich betting that the entire Moto2 grid would make it through turn 1 in one piece

Stefan Bradl sparks it up with his elbow

Repsol Paso Doble

That the two riders on the race billboards at COTA should use the colors of the Spanish flag seemed fitting somehow

Up the hill and into the first corner. They all made it, in all three classes

Marc Marquez, speedway style

Yellow & Chrome

It was ten years on Saturday since Daijiro Kato died. The paddock remembered