Hector Barbera

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 Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix has unleashed a veritable avalanche of official press releases about the future of the sport. The latest release is from the Aspar team concerning the extension of their contract with Ducati for 2011, but the release also hints at further developments in the future. The press release mentions Jorge Martinez' desire to field a two-man team on Ducatis for the 2012 season as well, which would appear to contradict rumors linking Aspar to Aprilia. 

For rumors in the Spanish and Italian press have linked the Aspar to a deal with Aprilia to race a heavily modified version of their RSV4 bike in MotoGP in 2012, entering under the guise of a CRT team. Such a suggestion is plausible given Aspar's strong historic connection to the Noale factory, having raced and won many titles for Aprilia in the 125 and 250cc championships. However, given Aspar's strong ties to the Italian manufacturer, the chances of the Grand Prix Commission granting Aspar CRT status should he apply to race Aprilias seems rather slim. A deal with Ducati to race factory prototypes seems a much more likely chain of events.

ASPAR TEAM AND DUCATI TO CONTINUE IN 2011
Excellent relationship between Spanish team and Italian factory leads to fresh deal

Hiroshi Aoyama's rookie season in MotoGP has not been easy. The last ever 250cc World Champion entered MotoGP in a brand new team on a satellite Honda and had spent his time slowly getting up to speed, all the while struggling with a wrist problem. Then, just as the Interwetten Honda rider seemed to be getting to grips with the new class, fate dealt him a cruel blow in the form of a Sunday morning cold-tire highside at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Aoyama fractured his T12 vertebra, and was out for at least three months.

Rejecting surgery, Aoyama decided to let the fracture heal naturally. Speaking to MotoMatters.com at Brno on Saturday, Aoyama explained that the alternative would have been to have the vertebra above and below fused together, and though that would have allowed the Interwetten Honda rider to return to action more quickly, it would also have permanently restricted his range of motion, complicating the process of learning to ride. Aoyama's decision not to have surgery was vindicated two days later, when the Japanese rider tested the Interwetten Honda RC212V once again, and immediately set times faster than Alex de Angelis, the rider who had been drafted in to replace Aoyama during his absence.

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.

While Yamaha celebrated the fans, Rossi celebrated his entourage, with a special helmet with photos of his friends and crew

Nicky Hayden had pimped his faux-hawk with some fancy racing stripes

Yamaha? Ducati? Back to Honda maybe? Jerry Burgess ponders his future

Jorge Lorenzo groks the internet. So do the 500 people who posted their photos on his bike through the Fiat On The Web initiative

Out of the shadows rode a hero: Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Ben Spies

Dani Pedrosa lost out in the Repsol Honda battle, finishing behind Andrea Dovizioso on Friday

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.

Road Rash, 2010 Style: 41 Moto2 bikes head through the first chicane

Let joy be unconfined: Texas gets it done for Tech 3

Marc Marquez runs through a lap of the track in his mind as he waits on the grid

One day after the last-lap thriller of a Spanish Grand Prix, the MotoGP riders were back on track for a one-day test at the Andalucian track, the first of two scheduled for the season. As on Saturday during qualifying, it was the Repsol Honda of Dani Pedrosa which was fastest, finishing ahead of the Fiat Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. Differences were small, however: the top 12 riders finished inside 1 second, and just 1.5 seconds covered the entire field.

The riders had plenty to test. Yamaha were testing minor chassis modifications, some electronics and a revised engine which provides improved acceleration, which both Rossi and Lorenzo declared a slight improvement. Lorenzo spent a lot of time working on his starts, which have so far been his weak point, while Rossi also found some setup changes which solved a rear grip problem.