MotoGP Features

When Alex Hofmann lines up on the grid at the Sachsenring riding the NSR West Honda Pons machine this Sunday, ask any German if a rider from their country has ever won a 500cc grand prix race. The answer almost certainly will be that no German rider has won a premier class race - but they would be wrong.

In an era when the likes of Giacomo Agostini, Phil Read and Barry Sheene were making all the headlines a certain Edmund Czihak won the 1974 West German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.

Carlos Checa is now arguably the number one Spaniard in the Moto GP class after 1999 500cc world champion Alex Criville moved to the d'Antin Yamaha team, then failed to appear at all in 2002.

The day of reckoning arrives at Suzuka on Sunday with the four-strokes late-crashing the two-stroke MotoGP party that has been going on unchallenged for almost three decades.

The 2001 season saw the continuation of Italian dominance in the 500cc World Championship. Valentino Rossi stormed his way to the title, showing little compassion for his competitors and allowing no-one to doubt his supremacy. He became only the third rider in history to score more than ten wins in a grand prix season.

The last time Sito Pons felt this happy about his work was back in 1989 when he won the second of his World 250cc Championships.

Twelve years later, the same glow of success radiates from the face of the general manager of the West Honda Pons team, and it is no wonder, because the GP500 team have proved themselves the undisputed best in the business and that's almost as good as actually riding that 250cc Honda to a second successive championship in 1989.

All the facts and stats about the Motegi circuit in Japan, which is to hold the next MotoGP.

For the third time in the space of five short months the MotoGP teams cross the Spanish border on Sunday to compete in the last European race of the season, just outside the delightful city of Valencia. So what is it with Spain and MotoGP?

Such is this love affair that the sport is second in popularity only to football with the motorcycle mad Spanish public - even Formula One cannot compare with the two wheel stars in this part of the world.

The next couple of weeks should tell us much about the dawn of a new era for the MotoGP 500cc class. In Estoril this weekend or at the latest in Va

West Honda Pons teammates Alex Barros and Loris Capirossi have spent the last four weeks since the German Grand Prix very differently; Capirossi's

The tight and twisty nature of the Sachsenring lends itself to close racing, partially because it's rather short length - only just scraping in on

Following consultation with Dorna Sports, FIM President Francesco Zerbi has announced the pre-calendar for the 2002 Road Racing World Championship.