Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team's Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi successfully signed off their testing program at the second official IRTA test today, securing first and twelfth place respectively in the combined standings.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP ended the Phillip Island MotoGP Official Test with positive findings today. With the importance still firmly set on bettering tyre life and improving their race pace, Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi completed the third and final day of testing taking first and eleventh place respectively in today's timesheets and first and twelfth in the combined standings.

This morning, Viñales was once again on the attack in the early stages of the eight-hour session. Making the most of his YZR-M1's nimble character at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit he dropped the best time of the test, a 1'28.549s on lap 13, within the first hour to slot into first place in the rankings with a margin of 0.294s.

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Yamaha MotoGP riders Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi carried out their testing programme in a positive fashion today. Despite challenging track conditions, the teammates took second and fourth place respectively in the time sheets on the second day of testing at the Sepang International Circuit whilst working their way through a list of new items.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi were back in action today at the Sepang International Circuit for the second of the three track days that mark the start of 2017 MotoGP racing activity. They continued to work through a number of different testing materials, taking second and fourth place respectively in today's time sheets.

The riders had to be patient at the start of the eight-hour session. Damp track conditions made for a four-hour wait before they could put their 2017 Yamaha YZR-M1s to the test.

Once the track had dried sufficiently, Viñales was keen to head out and continued his hunt for the perfect set-up. He soon found a good rhythm and he comfortably began to chip away at his time. After one and a half hours he posted a best lap of 2.00.646s to temporarily take over the top of the standings before the pace of the other riders picked up.

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In the World Superbike Championship Johnny Rea is still the man to beat and I do think he has a slight psychological advantage over Kawasaki team-mate, Tom Sykes. Chaz Davies was dominant on the Ducati in the second half of last year – if he can carry on where he left off he’ll be fighting for the title too.

It will be really interesting to see how Chaz Davies new team-mate, Marco Melandri, goes after a year out of racing – he’s either going to be superb or absolutely nowhere.

Honda have new CBR1000RR Fireblades and former MotoGP rider Stefan Bradl joining 2006 MotoGP world champion, Nicky Hayden. I think the motorcycle will take a few rounds to get going but should be great once it’s been developed.

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I’m excited about MotoGP 2017, mainly because there have been changes we haven’t see the like of in years. Chief among them has to be Jorge Lorenzo moving from Yamaha to Ducati. It’s going to be fascinating to see what he can do on the Ducati.

Marc Marquez is obviously going to be in the mix but Honda should have taken more of a chance on their second rider, but they love Dani Pedrosa.

Valentino Rossi will be desperate to secure a tenth world title but he’s got a very fast Maverick Vinales alongside him. There’s a chance these two could fall out, although Valentino Rossi doesn’t always fall out with his team-mates.

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The Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team proved to be a force to be reckoned with during this year's Dakar Rally. With team member Adrien Van Beveren winning the rally's final stage while locked in a fierce battle for an overall podium result, together with Yamaha France supported stage one winner Xavier de Soultrait Yamaha Racing riders remained strong contenders for top honours throughout the 39th edition of the prestigious annual event.

Living up to everyone's expectations as possibly the toughest event that has ever taken place in South America, the 2017 Dakar Rally tested competitors' physical and mental stamina all the way to the finish line in Buenos Aires. Featuring a week's racing in the high altitude of the Bolivian uplands, weather conditions ranging from torrential rain to scorching heat the 8,818km adventure proved to be an extremely tough challenge for all competitors and team crews.

Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team's Adrien Van Beveren was Yamaha's best performing rider at the end of this grueling two-week-long race through Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina. Demonstrating the potential of his WR450F Rally machine the Frenchman climbed to third in the overall standings on stage five of the rally, holding on to his position inside the top three for the following four stages. Involved in a fierce battle for the final podium all the way until the last stage, Van Beveren eventually claimed fourth overall just 48 seconds behind third placed Gerard Farrés.

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In 2015 KTM announced officially that they would be joining the master class of MotoGP racing in 2017 season. The KTM RC16 was unveiled to the public at the Austrian Grand Prix in August 2016 and after a full year of private testing, it was time for the KTM team to measure the progress made in actual race conditions. A wild card entry at the last race of the season in Valencia would determine the level against the competition and expose weak points to be addressed over the winter stop before joining the MotoGP paddock full time.

The KTM RC16 MotoGP machine, with development rider Mika Kallio at the controls, cam a bit short of the expectations put on the project. He was some 3 seconds behind the fastest time on the first day of practice. The earlier test that KTM did at that circuit had suggested a smaller gap to the front; Kallio was almost a full second faster in similar conditions.

Solving rear grip issues that they had not encountered a few weeks earlier helped some but the gap to the front-runners was a significant 2.6 seconds in qualifying. Fast riders going faster (Jorge Lorenzo dropped 0.6 second from his previous lap record) and problems that materialize with no sensible explanation is what you get when you go racing.

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With the first of twelve gruelling stages of the 2017 Dakar Rally kicking off today, the Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team quartet of Hélder Rodrigues, Adrien Van Beveren, Alessandro Botturi and Rodney Faggotter are all-set and ready to begin their battle for top honours in this two-week-long adventure in Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina.

For all Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team members the 2017 Dakar Rally adventure officially started as soon as they landed in Asunción a few days back. Meeting up with their teammates, mechanics and team personnel they immediately started preparing themselves for the biggest and toughest rally in the annual calendar.

Spending a significant amount of time testing their WR450F Rally bikes outside Paraguay's capital, all four Yamalube Yamaha Official Rally Team riders made the necessary final adjustments in order to gain optimum confidence on their racing machines ahead of the race.

The pre-run to the race came to a close with a very busy Sunday, where team members went through administrative and technical checks, attended the final pre-race briefing and then rode their Yamaha machines through the starting podium in front of Asunción's historical Palacio de Lopez presidential palace.

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While Yamaha was generous enough to let its three-time champion Jorge Lorenzo hop over to the Ducati garage for the Valencia test, it has restricted him from speaking to the press about his new team and motorcycle.

But while JL99 kept silent, there wasn’t much left to be said seeing him and ex-rival and now team-mate Casey Stoner discussing matters, a smile plastered on their faces all along. Understandably, it was Jorge Lorenzo’s first time on a Ducati that had everyone on the edge of their seat.

The cameras were all trained on him as the readied to take out the Ducati GP16, and he didn’t disappoint. Lorenzo was third fastest on Day 1, and eight fastest on Day 2, which was when he tried out the new Ducati GP17. While Jorge Lorenzo familiarized himself with the Ducati Desmo, team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was tasked with the duty of carrying out development work, which he did, trying out a new engine with smoother power delivery.

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The fourth and final round heard the roar of Malaysians as Muhd Habibullah (#27 Gabit) takes the FIM Asia Supermoto Championship 2016 for both Open International and Asian Class. He is the first and only person to win at both classes against 21 top international riders from 18 countries. The Asian Class podium was followed by Khairi Zakaria (Hairi) and Mohd Al-Amirul Ashshahid (Gaban) who took the first and second runner-up respectively. A grand gala dinner was arranged after the race in celebration of the successful campaign.

Upon completion of four heated rounds in four countries across two regions namely Australia in September, Indonesia in October, the Philippines in November and Malaysia in December, Gabit said that the race played a significant role in elevating the industry’s standard. “Before the race was founded, it was tough to look for an avenue to compete internationally and expand our skills. While the local races and other small scaled regional races played a role in pushing the boundaries, competing on a global scale will open our eyes to skills, rivals and competition we have not encountered.

Riders from Asia has proven to be as competitive as other international riders. We believe that this championship will be the footstep for us to improve our skills and spearhead the Supermoto scene,” he added. Gabit concluded his winning speech with a chant of Malaysia Boleh.

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It was mathematically possible but no one expected that the MotoGP championship would be done and over at the Japanese round at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit, not even Marc Marquez himself. With three races to go he sealed the issue with a win as his two rivals. Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, both slid off their Yamaha YZR-M1 chasing a disappearing Honda RC23V – mounted Marc Marquez.

The celebrations after he crossed the line where not choreographed on that day, his mind set on keeping up the fight. Okay, the t-shirts were ready (there is someone who is paid to take care of that and I bet there was some digging for boxes after Lorenzo’s demise during the race) but it was his younger brother Alex Marquez and a friend that were trackside on the cool-down lap to congratulate him and give him the gold helmet that Shoei had ready to mark his title, the third one for him in MotoGP.

The way he managed his season was a complete turn-around for Marc Marquez. In 2015 he failed to finish in six races, his do-or-die attitude getting the better of him too often. With the pre-season testing not going too well for the Honda riders, the change of the electronic package mandated by the new rules hurting them more than most, it was a different Marc Marquez that showed up at the first race of 2016.

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