French Grand Prix Weekend - TV Schedules

Basically a Eurosport listing, with the exception of the *live* MotoGP race on BBC2...

Friday May 15th

12:00 - *LIVE* - Eurosport2
The practice session for the 125cc French Grand Prix

12:45 - *LIVE* - Eurosport2
The French Grand Prix MotoGP practice session

14:00 - *LIVE* - Eurosport2
The 250cc French Grand Prix practice session

18:30 - Eurosport
The French Grand Prix MotoGP practice session

22:00 - Eurosport2
The French Grand Prix MotoGP practice session

......................................................................

Saturday May 16th

12:00 - *LIVE* - Eurosport2
The qualifying session for the 125cc French Grand Prix

12:45 - *LIVE* - Eurosport2
The MotoGP French Grand Prix qualifying session

14:00 - *LIVE* - Eurosport2
The 250cc French Grand Prix qualifying session

16:30 - Eurosport2
The MotoGP qualifying session for the French Grand Prix

......................................................................

Sunday May 17th

09:30 - Eurosport2
The French Grand Prix warm-up session

09:45 - *LIVE* - Eurosport2
The 125cc French Grand Prix

11:00 - *LIVE* - Eurosport2
The 250cc French Grand Prix

12:30 - *LIVE* - BBC2
The French Grand Prix at Le Mans

15:30 - Eurosport2
The MotoGP French Grand Prix

......................................................................



Source: MindTheZap

Juanjo Update - 1st Place In 80cc Race At Jerez

Congratulations to our young Talaveran friend Juanjo Nuñez on his excellent victory at the Circuito de Jerez at the weekend; romping home first in his 80cc race.
Also, as a member of the new Alvaro Bautista Fan's Club, he did the honours of taking to the podium in the new Fan's Club shirt and cap over his race kit in respect to his, and our, hero.
Top work Juanjo!
Congrats on the victory - and kudos on your podium style! :-)

Alvaro Quotes Ahead Of Le Mans

"I've never been on the podium at Le Mans so hopefully I can keep up the good form I've started the season with and it would be nice to get this particular monkey off my back. I feel highly motivated after Jerez because it was a fabulous race in which we proved that we are ready to take on anybody in a head to head battle.
Hopefully the weather is good to us in practice so that we can work on the bike because Le Mans is a twisty circuit that tends to suit the Hondas. We have to work really well on the chassis if we want to compete with them. Le Mans is a circuit that features a lot of direction changes, and you need a really sweet handling chassis so that you can get through the corners well."

Icons Ahoy!

Not desktop icons this time, but icons of the "web" variety - nice, crafted graphics for you to use as avatars on forums and blogs.
And they're not by me either.
So all kudos to... stv21 on the Sonrisa de Talavera blog for this set and also to ruushki for this set.
Both artists go way beyond Alvaro so you'll find some other MotoGP, motor sport and even entertainment figures in these collections.
As ever with this kind of thing, do pay attention to any requirements for crediting and sharing - or not sharing - their work.

One Man And His Fans

Just a reminder of that very special bond between Alvaro and his fans - and let's be honest, most of the crowd in general!

Great to see the new Fan's Club already very visible too :-)

Jerez GP - Alvaro Quotes

2nd Álvaro Bautista:
"This second place tasted like victory for me. Obviously I know that first is always better, but we were really battling out there at 100%. Before the race I wasn't sure of what my race pace would be like, not knowing if I could keep up, as during the practice sessions I couldn't find the right pace.
In the warmup we worked on the setting and found a new configuration that I really liked, and when I saw the crowd I knew that I had to leave any excuses behind me and go for a good result. Jorge told me to remember 2007 just before I went out, and the motivation worked. At the end of the race I tried to take the victory, but it was a pity that Hiroshi is so fantastic on the brakes. I tried to do it later but it wasn't possible, he was at the limit.
We finished second but it is almost a victory, and I learnt that we will never back down."

Jerez GP - Alvaro Comes Home 2nd In Major Heart Stopper

Well, even though he wasn't on the top step of the podium, Alvaro Bautista still looked pleased as punch today at Jerez where he came home second behind Hiroshi Aoyama in the 250cc Grand Prix.
It was a real ding-dong of a battle between the two of them in the closing laps, having shaken off Barbera and Simoncelli.
The cheering of the fans clearly got to Bati and he made big efforts to go and acknowledge them all across the main straight once he was off his bike, having already taken massive applause elsewhere around the track.
He really seemed on the defensive in the closing stages, his bike not nearly looking as sharp as the Honda which was - in the capable hands of Hiro - very very good indeed.
A great race. Not the best result. But still somehow a very positive day - and Alvaro's reaction and conduct showing why he's just the kind of guy you want to support - as cheerful and graceful in defeat (after a great, fair and hard battle) as he is in victory.
Nice work Alvarito. Nice work... :-)


Here's the results...

Pos | Rider | Bike | Time

1. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 45m08.805s
2. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia + 0.132s
3. Marco Simoncelli Gilera + 2.706s
4. Hector Barbera Aprilia + 2.769s
5. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 17.946s
6. Mattia Pasini Aprilia + 17.950s
7. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia + 26.288s
8. Jules Cluzel Aprilia + 26.472s
9. Roberto Locatelli Gilera + 27.646s
10. Raffaele de Rosa Honda + 32.369s
11. Mike di Meglio Aprilia + 32.617s
12. Shoya Tomizawa Honda + 34.241s
13. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 36.889s
14. Hector Faubel Honda + 37.237s
15. Ratthapark Wilairot Honda +1m16.786s
16. Imre Toth Aprilia +1m25.509s
17. Bastien Chesaux Honda + 1 lap
18. Aitor Rodriguez Aprilia + 1 lap
19. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia + 1 lap
20. Valentin Debise Honda + 1 lap


Retirements:

Axel Pons Aprilia 22 laps
Ivan Maestro Aprilia 18 laps
Alex Baldolini Aprilia 10 laps
Alex Debon Aprilia 9 laps
Karel Abraham Aprilia 3 laps

Jerez GP - Qualifying: Alvaro Bautista Quotes

4th Álvaro Bautista 1.43.451 (20 laps):
"It was very blustery this afternoon and it made it difficult to hold your line in the corners, but it was the same for everybody. We tried a few changes to the engine setting but the results were not what we'd hoped for and I couldn't get out of the corners well.
I just tried to stay focused on getting the most out of my Aprilia and qualifying as high up the grid as possible. The front row is important and tomorrow we'll go back to the setting we had yesterday, which we know works perfectly well.
There were a lot of fast guys out there today but we'll have to wait and see how the race develops. Obviously the Spaniards will be giving everything because we all want to win. It will be a close race and whoever wants to win it will have to be prepared to fight all the way. Hopefully it goes right to the wire and it would be great if we had an all-Spanish podium."

Jerez GP - Qualifying: Alvaro 4th

Alvaro Bautista lines up on the front row of the gird in 4th position for tomorrow's Spanish 250cc Grand Prix at Jerez.
Ahead of him are Alex Debon on pole, and "Dumb & Dumber" as they are known in some parts - Hector Barbera and Marco Simoncelli.
Alvaro's starts haven't been great this season, and for once you almost hope he does drop back a bit to allow any craziness up front to sort itself out. (Ideally in the gravel somewhere...)
Preferably though, all will be well following some possible engine issues today and he can just get straight on with the job.

Here's the top ten from Qualy...

1. Debon (Aprilia) 1min 43.028sec
2. Barbera (Aprilia) +0.289sec
3. Simoncelli (Gilera) +0.348sec
4. Bautista (Aprilia) +0.423sec
5. Cluzel (Aprilia) +0.493sec
6. Aoyama (Honda) +0.563sec
7. di Meglio (Aprilia) +0.764sec
8. Luthi (Aprilia) +0.836sec
9. Faubel (Honda) +0.863sec
10. Talmacsi (Aprilia) +1.030sec

Suerte Alvarito!!! :-)

Jerez GP - Friday FP Times

1 Alvaro BAUTISTA Mapfre Aspar Team 1'43.429
2 Hiroshi AOYAMA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1'43.538 0.109
3 Thomas LUTHI Emmi - Caffe Latte 1'43.949 0.520
4 Mattia PASINI Team Toth Aprilia 1'44.062 0.633
5 Gabor TALMACSI Balatonring Team 1'44.278 0.849
6 Karel ABRAHAM Cardion AB Motoracing 1'44.368 0.939
7 Mike DI MEGLIO Mapfre Aspar Team 250cc 1'44.385 0.956
8 Marco SIMONCELLI Metis Gilera 1'44.398 0.969
9 Hector BARBERA Pepe World Team 1'44.466 1.037
10 Alex DEBON Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens 1'44.632 1.203
11 Roberto LOCATELLI Metis Gilera 1'44.909 1.480
12 Ratthapark WILAIROT Thai Honda PTT SAG 1'44.918 1.489
13 Lukas PESEK Auto Kelly - CP 1'44.930 1.501
14 Hector FAUBEL Valencia CF - Honda SAG 1'45.138 1.709
15 Jules CLUZEL Matteoni Racing 1'45.194 1.765
16 Raffaele DE ROSA Scot Racing Team 250cc 1'45.315 1.886
17 Shoya TOMIZAWA CIP Moto - GP250 1'45.585 2.156
18 Alex BALDOLINI WTR San Marino Team 1'45.749 2.320
19 Vladimir LEONOV Viessmann Kiefer Racing 1'48.381 4.952
20 Imre TOTH Team Toth Aprilia 1'48.506 5.077
21 Axel PONS Pepe World Team 1'48.559 5.130
22 Bastien CHESAUX Racing Team Germany 1'49.161 5.732
23 Aitor RODRIGUEZ Milar - Juegos Lucky 1'50.168 6.739

Out of limit time
53 Valentin DEBISE FRA CIP Moto - GP250 Honda
76 Ivan MAESTRO SPA Milar - Juegos Lucky Aprilia
54 Toby MARKHAM GBR C&L Racing Honda

Juanjo Update - Madrid Open Extremeño Championship

(*Above: Juanjo in the wet at Albacete)

After the first two races of the Mediterranean Cup, and currently carrying two points, our Talaveran friend Juanjo Nuñez is now preparing for his next race day - May 10 in the Madrid 80 cc Open Extremeño Championship.
Despite training/testing conditions that have been far from ideal (mainly due to the wet) Juanjo has been progressing well, and is clocking times pretty close to those of the best European 80cc riders.
It's good news and bodes well for the races ahead.
Suerte Juanjo! :-)

And here for information are the dates coming up, courtesy of Juanjo29.com...

CAMPEONATO DEL MEDITERRANEO
24th May - Montmelo

CAMPEONATO DE MADRID OPEN EXTREMEÑO
10th May - Jerez
21st June - Almeria
20th September - Guadix
11th October - Portimao (Portugal)
6th December - Albacete

BatiFans Is Tweeting / Twittering / Whatever...

For those of you who live your lives on the cutting edge of technology, you may be interested to know that BatiFans is now also on Twitter - where, rather than simply replicating what we do on the forum and our blogs, we can be found 'behind the scenes' as it were; generally thinking out loud, telling you what we're up to as the CREW of the BatiFans.com Fan Forum (on and off topic), and knocking out the odd interesting link.

Twitter's not the be-all and end-all... far from it, but we know that it's a way that people keep up with activity in ways different to stuff like our forum, or on Facebook. And as such it makes sense for us to be there and help spread the word about Alvaro Bautista (and of course BatiFans.com) ever further.
To see our profile and tweets, and to add us to your 'Follow' list, simply click here to hop across to Twitter...

Alvaro Looks Ahead To Jerez

"After the win in Japan I'm feeling happy, strong and confident about going to Jerez this weekend and picking up another good result. I hope that there can be a group of Spanish riders running at the front and putting on a good show for the home supporters. Discounting Qatar, where our performance was severely affected by the conditions, I think we've started the championship well and I'm convinced that all the set-up work we did in the winter will help us be competitive from Friday. Whatever happens, racing at Jerez is always special, I don't know why but feeling the support from the fans in every corner somehow brings out the best in a rider and helps you to win."

And don't forget there's thousands and thousands and thousands of us elsewhere too, cheering you on Bati!!!
Buena suerte!
:-)

British Eurosport TV Schedules - Spanish GP, Jerez

As ever I only recommend Eurosport coverage for MotoGP - especially of course in 250cc and 125cc (although I could change my mind if we have that totally gash commentary team from last weekend on again...). Accept no substitute for Toby and Julian though - and no substitute for committed coverage on the lesser categories.
As such, here's the main scheduling for this weekend's Spanish GP at Jerez for those of you in the UK...


Friday May 1st

01/05 12:00 (*live) Eurosport2
The 125cc practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix

01/05 13:00 (*live) Eurosport2
The MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix practice session

01/05 14:00 (*live) Eurosport2
The 250cc practice session for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix

01/05 17:00 (*repeat) Eurosport2
The MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix practice session

................................................................

Saturday May 2nd

02/05 12:00 (*live) Eurosport2
The 125cc qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix

02/05 13:00 (*live) Eurosport2
The Spanish Grand Prix MotoGP qualifying session in Jerez, Spain

02/05 14:00 (*live) Eurosport2
The 250cc qualifying session in Jerez, Spain

02/05 17:00 (*repeat) Eurosport2
The MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix qualifying session

................................................................

Sunday May 3rd

03/05 09:30 (*live) Eurosport2
The Spanish Grand Prix warm-up session

03/05 10:00 (*live) Eurosport2
The 125cc race in Jerez, Spain

03/05 11:15 (*live) Eurosport2
The 250cc Spanish Grand Prix from Jerez

03/05 14:00 (*not live) Eurosport2
The MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix

................................................................


Source: mindthezap.tv