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[Frontrunner]

All rides in MotoGP are all comfirmed for 2013 surprisingly before the new year is even here, 24 bikes on the grid but really its only 12 riders that we will see, 6 of which are factory bikes and the other 6 are satellite bikes, the other 12 are CRT bikes which will be deep in the background.

Factory bikes: 6

Factory Yamaha team:
Jorge Lorenzo ESP
Valentino Rossi ITA

Repsol Honda:
Dani Pedrosa ESP
Marc Marquez ESP

Ducati Team:
Nicky Hayden USA
Andrea Dovizioso ITA

Satellite bikes: 6

Tech 3 Yamaha :
Cal Crutchlow GBR
Bradley Smith GBR

Pramac Ducati:
Ben Spies USA
Andrea Iannone ITA

LCR Honda/HRC:
Stefan Bradl GER

Gresini Honda:
Alvaro Bautista ESP

CRT bikes: 12

Forward Racing (FTR-Kawasaki)
Colin Edwards USA
Claudio Corti ITA

Power Electronics Aspar (ART)
Randy de Puniet FRA
Alex Espargaro ESP

Avintia Blusens (FTR-Kawasaki)
Hiroshi Aoyama JAP
Hector Barbera ESP

IodaRacing (Suter-BMW)
Danilo Petrucci ITA
Lukas Pesek CZE

Paul Bird Motorsport (PBM-Aprilia)
Michael Laverty GBR
Yonny Hernandez COL

Cardion AB (ART)
Karel Abraham CZE

Honda Gresini CRT (FTR-Honda)
Bryan Staring AUS

[vlad]

Marques FTW! Nice to see Iannone there too. I wonder if Dovi will get used to Ducatti soon enough. He was amazing on Yamaha.

[Frontrunner]

Testing times from Sepang, only put factory and satellite riders on the list

Pedrosa- Honda 2m00.100
Lorenzo- Yamaha 2m00.429
Rossi- Yamaha 2m00.542
Marquez- Honda 2m00.636
Crutchlow- Yamaha* 2m00.734
Bradl- Honda* 2m01.003
Bautista- Honda* 2m01.502
Smith- Yamaha* 2m01.931
Hayden- Ducati 2m02.110
Dovizioso- Ducati 2m02.227
Iannone- Ducati* 2m02.864
Spies- Ducati* 2m03.002

Satellite riders mark with *

[scotty]

I thought Spies had left MotoGP?

If Pedrosa doesn't win the title this year... massive fail, unless he gets injured and misses races, then no excuses.

Hoping Crutchlow can get a bunch more podiums this year and maybe challenge for a win one time (although i doubt it'll happen).

I'm going to pay more attention to CRT this year cause i think that'll be where the close racing and championship battles are to be found.

[Frontrunner]

Spies manage to do a deal with Pramac Ducati last year while still riding for Yamaha, though i won't expect much from any Ducati rider once again. The title fight will probably be between Pedrosa and Lorenzo, and maybe throw Rossi in there too, But Pedrosa will probably be the red hot favourite going into the season.

[scotty]

After suffering the first two win-less seasons of his premier class career with Ducati, his switch back to Yamaha produced an instant jump up the timesheets at Sepang in early February.

Rossi said he felt revitalised by his return to the top of the timesheets.

"I'm relieved [and] very happy with the way the first test [went]," he told Motosprint.

"I said I wanted to understand if I'm still a top rider. I had my own doubts too.

"I'm there already, with the strongest riders in the world, the ones at the top of their careers.

"I feel I'm born again. I'm not far off."

The 33-year-old admitted however that he no longer enjoyed an advantage over the rest of the field in terms of race preparation and strategy.

"The race, side-by-side fighting, has always been one of my strong points. Unfortunately however, due to the way MotoGP has gone, this is less and less important compared to some time ago," he explained.

"There is almost no more strategy involved, but just pure speed. [Previously] you could win races despite being perhaps a bit slower than your rival: there was more room to invent something.

"Let's say that it's an advantage I used to have in the past that has become a lot less important now.

"I've [also] taught a lot to the riders who have come after me [to] take care of every detail in order to arrive at the race in the best possible condition.

"So, the end result is that I don't even have that advantage anymore."

While he admitted to losing some of his past primacy, Rossi insisted that he had surrendered none of his pace or bravado through age.

Asked whether entering his 30s had dimmed any of his faculties, he replied: "I read somewhere that 'experience' is the name one gives to his own errors. It's a nice sentence, and it's very true.

"You don't lose much in terms of not being aggressive, or not being able to ride at the limit anymore because of fear.

"You try to risk a bit less at difficult times, for example when it starts to rain and you're on slicks. Here the recklessness of a youngster who has never crashed seriously offers an advantage.

"Having gone through that and crashed in those conditions, perhaps only unconsciously I remember that and my brain tells me to be careful.

"Maybe that's what you lose but, as for the rest, in my opinion I've lost nothing."

Love him or hate him, MotoGP needs a quick Valentino right now. And for that same reason i'm going to miss Casey Stoner greatly this year. I don't dislike Pedrosa but if he has a free ride to the title on that Honda this season it'll be a travesty.

[AK86]

Think Rossi will be back on song this year now back home at Yamaha, shame Stoner has now retired but will still be a great battle for title !

[Albenarth]

Anyone going to a MotoGP race this year?

I was hoping to go to one, but none are convenient to my schedule / location.

It's a pity that Estoril isn't on the calendar for the May Weekend, like last year.

[andrew]

What a race!

Rossi is an absolute legend!

No one seems to care too much about Lorenzo winning!

[oaba09]

Lorenzo just showed why he's the best rider in motogp right now....pure dominance!
Rossi is back!!!!

It's great to be a yamaha supporter LOL


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[andrew]

Just imaging what could have been if Rossi hadn't run wide early on or hadn't got held up in qualifying. This season's going to be epic.

[racechick]

Woo hoo!! Rossi is back and suddenly Moto GP becomes a whole lot more interesting and exciting.

[oaba09]

Props to marquez for giving rossi a tough fight....I see a little bit of rossi's style in marquez....This will be one hell of a season!!!

[racechick]

Yes Marquez is also a joy to watch. Rossi rates him highly.

[Frontrunner]

This Marquez is just going to better in years to come, Pedrosa will not have it his own way at Honda with this kid as his team mate, It also seems once again that Honda has the top speed advantage and Yamaha has better stability in the corners at this early stage. Overall a entertaining start to the season.