Michael Laverty

Rating The MotoGP Riders Mid-Season - Part 2: From Stefan Bradl to Mike Di Meglio

Submitted by David Emmett on

Today, we continue our look at how the MotoGP riders stack up so far. Yesterday, we reviewed the top eight in the championship, from Marc Marquez to Andrea Iannone. Today, we pick up where we left off, reviewing the bottom half of the championship standings. We start with Stefan Bradl, and work our way down to Mike Di Meglio, yet to score a point in the series.

Pos.

Rider

Bike

Championship Points

Marks

9

Stefan Bradl

Honda RC213V

56

6/10

Since winning the Moto2 championship in 2011, hopes have been high for Stefan Bradl. The German started well, but never quite lived up to his promise in his first year in MotoGP. He showed improvement in 2013, scoring his first pole and podium, but again fell short, never returning to the podium after his second place at Laguna Seca. 2014 has been much of the same: flashes of real potential, but never really following through with results.

Bradl's best chance of success came at his home Grand Prix at the Sachsenring. Starting from the front row, Bradl's team gambled on staying on the grid and changing his bike from a wet to a dry set up. A dropped spacer meant they ran out of time to change fork springs, and Bradl's chances of a strong result at home collapsed along with his soggy front suspension.

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Assen Pit Stop Analysis: Who Won And Who Lost?

Submitted by David Emmett on

With the win at Assen, Marc Marquez brought his tally for the season up to eight, and a clean sweep of the races so far. After the race, many fans remarked on Marquez' remarkable pit swap strategy, jumping straight from one bike to the other without touching the ground, rather than hopping off one and onto the second bike, as the other riders on the grid do. It looks spectacular in photos, such as this one tweeted by Marquez himself, though if you watch the video from MotoGP's Youtube channel, it's clearly more of a hop than a leap.

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2014 Mugello MotoGP Sunday Round Up: A Race To Remember Under The Tuscan Sun

Submitted by David Emmett on

One circuit, three races, all of them utterly different in nature. The wide, flowing layout with a long straight, fast corners, and multiple combinations of turns present very different challenges to Grand Prix racing's three different classes. For Moto3, escape is impossible, the race coming down to tactics and the ability to pick the right slipstream. In Moto2, it is possible to get away, but it's equally possible to chase an escaped rider down. And in MotoGP, the fast flicks make it possible to both defend attacks and launch your own counter attack. Mugello is a wonderful circuit, and it served up a spectacular portion of racing on Sunday.

We had expected Moto3 to be the race of the day, as it has been every Grand Prix this season. It certainly did not disappoint, but by the time the last few laps of the MotoGP race rolled around, we had forgotten all about Moto3. The Moto3 race was fantastic entertainment, but the MotoGP race at Mugello was one for the ages. The kind of race that fans will bring up over and over again, one to go along with Barcelona 2009, Laguna Seca 2008, even Silverstone 1979.

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2014 MotoGP Rider Line Up

The 2014 MotoGP rider line up:

Manufacturers: 
Aprilia
Ducati
Honda
Kawasaki
Yamaha
FTR
People: 
Aleix Espargaro
Alvaro Bautista
Andrea Dovizioso
Andrea Iannone
Bradley Smith
Cal Crutchlow
Dani Pedrosa
Danilo Petrucci
Hector Barbera
Jorge Lorenzo
Marc Marquez
Pol Espargaro
Scott Redding
Stefan Bradl
Valentino Rossi
Claudio Corti
Karel Abraham
Leon Camier
Nicky Hayden
Broc Parkes
Colin Edwards
Hiroshi Aoyama
Mike Di Meglio
Michael Laverty
Race Series: 
MotoGP

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PBM To Field Michael Laverty And Broc Parkes In MotoGP In 2014

Submitted by David Emmett on

One of the two final missing pieces of the 2014 MotoGP line up has been filled in. Today, the PBM team announced they would be back in MotoGP next season, with a two-rider team and additional help from Aprilia. The two riders will be Michael Laverty, who rode for Paul Bird's PBM team in 2013, and Broc Parkes, who has spent most of his career racing in World Supersport and World Superbikes.

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