Three weeks following the initial test of the season at the Sepang International, competitors will arrive back to the Malaysian circuit to work on developments of their prototypes, with the World Championship year beginning in Qatar on April 11.

Due for three days from February 24th - 26th, the opening day will be for test racers only, the remaining 2 days giving valuable time for the squad competitors to further customise their 2010 machines.

Valentino Rossi began the initial test with the only sub-2’01” lap of the testing on his M1, the Fiat Yamaha hero and reigning World Champion will be working again on fresh modifications for his bike. His colleague Jorge Lorenzo will not be testing as he is still recovering from a hand injury incurred in a training session.

Casey Stoner was satisfied with his fresh engine of the Desmosedici GP10 with the Ducati Marlboro sqad, along with colleague Nicky Hayden, the pair will continue to focus on finding their comfort areas. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was pleased with his RC212V following the initial test, as was colleague Andrea Dovizioso.

Rizla Suzuki will have their fresh GSV-R machine for Loris Capirossi and Álvaro Bautista still to be tested, and Monster Yamaha Tech3 duo Ben Spies and Colin Edwards will work to build on a happy opening test for their M1 engines. Pramac Racing’s Aleix Espargaró and Mika Kallio will test again on the GP10, with Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) still persisting with the RC212V.

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Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden have been working hard on the modifications of the fresh Ducati Desmosedici GP10 prototype at Sepang recently, and they will add to the evolution of the new engine in Malaysia later this month.

The bike has incurred some major amendments, and Ducati Marlboro Team Manager Vittoriano Guareschi explains these changes.

“The bike has many new things,” says the Italian. “The biggest difference is the engine: the new engine is a big bang, whereas the Ducati engine has been a screamer for the past three years. Another important change is the seat support – this is completely new and is stiffer compared to last year, which is much better for the feeling. It’s possible to understand the rear tyre better. There is a new front fork which is the same brand – Öhlins – but it’s completely new. With this fork it’s possible to push more in the braking. We think this is a good advantage.”

Guareschi adds, “We have a further important point, which is the swingarm. In this case it is aluminium but we have a choice of carbon fibre. With the swingarm in carbon it is possible to improve the bike in different conditions.”

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A replacement has been found following Bryan Staring pulling out on his Yamaha Racing Team event in the Formula Xtreme title, Kevim Curtain is the new racer.

The New South Welshman will unite with Pat Medcalf and Rick Olson to contest the Superstock FX1000 and FX600 sessions of Formula Xtreme, whilst Aussie champion Bryan Staring will re-locate to the Australian Superbike Championship on a Honda CBR1000RR..

Curtain initially raced for YRT, prior to finishing second in the 2005/2006 world supersport titles on a Yamaha YZF-R6.

"I'm stoked to be back on the same awesome team and I know the bikes will perform great. Plus I'm back in Formula Xtreme where I had some top results before I headed over to Europe. So everything is new but really familiar at the same time. I can't wait to get on the bikes and start racing," states the 42 year old.

Ray Howard, manager of Yamaha Motorsports, was also excited about the replacement: "Kevin has more experience than the rest of the paddock put together and he is lightning fast motorcycle racer who is equally at home on big bore 1000cc bikes as he is on the smaller 600s.

"He can also develop a bike like few others out there. In fact, during the time he spent with Yamaha in world supersport competition he helped develop the R6 into the race track dominator it is today," states Howard.

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Toni Elías begins a fresh chapter in his career this season with a change to the Moto2 category, after five years in the premier class. Elías ended with a career best of seventh place last season, however was not able to keep his spot in the premier session, he will now race in the 600cc 4-stroke Championship with the Gresini team.

Elías is excited about his new challenge, stating “I am excited at this year’s project and I feel very strong.”

Elías has spent a short time in the Catalán Pyrenees for his winter training program, and the physical preparations in the snow have aided with his pre-season.

The fresh Moriwaki MD600 prototype has been dispatched to the Gresini HQ in earlier in January, however final assembly is still in progress. Elías will appear at the Montmelo test in mid-February, though he may have to wait for the scheduled Valencia test in early March to initially race the MD600.

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As Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo are together inside the top three at the initial testing of 2010 in Malaysia, it was a glorious outing for the Fiat Yamaha squad.

Rossi was the sole racer of all 17 participants to achieve below the 2’01” mark, he claimed a time of 2’00.925 on Friday, while Lorenzo’s time of 2’01.680 has ensured him as third quickest following Ducati’s Casey Stoner.

Rossi left the garage in the afternoon on Friday as wet conditions in the morning created the circuit to not dry out until midday, when he did arrive the Doctor finished 32 laps on his YZR-M1 prototype, only half a second slower than his record pole spot set at the track last season.

“After yesterday this second day has been very good as well, even though we lost a few hours to the rain, and by the end we were still able to finish all our work,” explains Rossi. “We worked on the new bike to find a better setting and I was happy to be the fastest overall - even though this is just testing this is important for me!”

“At the next test we will have a few more new things but we’re already happy because we’re fast and strong. There is room to improve of course; Sepang is always a good track for the Yamaha so we will have to wait until Qatar to get a better understanding of our level, but we have made a great start.”

Lorenzo began his work later in the morning however ended the majority of his 60 laps after midday. A massive improvement on his Thursday time, plus a confident feeling with the fresh M1, were good results for the Spaniard.

“I felt much better today and I was able to be fast straight away,” he states. “It wasn’t a big problem yesterday, it’s just that after such a long break I forgot how to ride a little bit! I need a bit of time, but it was much better today. I’m happy about my performance and about my feeling with the new bike. Yamaha have made good improvements without changing the best parts of the bike and this is the best way. They have made some good modifications to the chassis and the engine and this has already improved our pace.”

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The Ducati Marlboro squad’s initial day of testing with Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden came with constructive results, both competitors were happy with the performance of the 2010 prototype.

Stoner, second quickest of all 17 racers present, was satisfied with the fresh engine and is looking to further focus on the set-up of his motorbike to resolve minor issues with chatter.

Stoner's lap timed at 2’01.902, he says: “This first day was a bit difficult to understand: we started off with a setting that was quite good and that allowed us to make reasonably good lap times. We thought we would improve as the day went on but we had a few problems with chatter. We tried a lot of different combinations trying to make the bike feel a little bit better but we couldn’t really get an improvement. To be honest it was difficult to work out why because the track conditions were particularly difficult - it was so hot that it was actually hard to understand if you were making an improvement on the bike or not.”

The Aussie, who finished with 42 laps, continues: “In any case I’m really happy with the new engine, I think that with the other one we would have struggled more. Now the bike in general feels very good, very balanced and I’m happy with it. Hopefully the weather will be a little cooler tomorrow so that we can understand better if the changes we try are the right ones.”

Rain finished the day slightly earlier.  Hayden, who brought in 59 laps with a best time of 2’02.792, says: “Overall the day was positive. It went quite fast actually and at the end of the day when we were ready to do some more laps the rain came and cut it a little bit short. It would be nice to have had the chance to do some more laps, but overall the bike was feeling quite good. We made a couple of little tweaks that helped us but we struggled a lot for edge chatter.

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Ducati has unveiled Australian pricing and availability for its fresh 2010 Multistrada 1200 and 1200S shown in Milano, Italy.

The Multistrada 1200 will be available in three different varieties, the 1200, the 1200S and the 1200S Touring.  All three models appear with the initial introduction of ABS on a Ducati.

Ducati believe the Multistrada 1200 is basciall four bikes into one, ie: sports, long-distance touring, urban runabout and road enduro.

The Multistrada 1200 series is due to be available from May or June 2011.

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Nineteen year old Bancaja Aspar competitor Bradley Smith, challenged over 50 journalists in an event of Grand Prix rides which appear on the fresh MotoGP 09/10 videogame manufactured by Capcom.

After some epic battles, a new Tissot MotoGP watch was given to the journalist who won against Bradley, in a three lap ride of the Mugello track in Italy.  This is where Bradley claimed his second Grand Prix win last year.

“It’s a brilliant game, not only for the racing at all the MotoGP venues including the new circuits at the Balatonring in Hungary and Silverstone in England, but all aspects of Grand Prix racing including sponsorship, livery and PR,” explains Smith alongside Scottt Redding and Danny Webb at the launch. “There were some serious game players there and I'm glad I don't have to meet them out on the track!”

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Amazing new facilities will be met for spectators at round six of this season’s MotoGP World Championship, when the Silverstone track hosts the British Grand Prix between June 18-20.

Due for completion in March, Silverstone will play host to motorbike competition for the sole time since 1986, with a fresh Arena Grand Prix track which will include improved spectator viewing area. Managing Director of the track, Richard Phillips, comments on the benefits of the new developments.

He states: “The biggest change is the new Arena section which is a brand new piece of track from Abbey up towards Becketts (corner) and that should introduce some new overtaking opportunities.

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Roberto Locatelli is 35 years old and has marked a career on the World Championship podium spanning over 15 full seasons.  The Italian racer has decided to stop competing and turn his attention to aiding the development of young riders.

Locatelli will proceed in a coaching role and sports coordinator of Team Junior GP FMI, a squad associated with the Italian Motorcycling Federation who work towards training talented youngsters.

Locatelli, whose 15 years on the stage claimed both the 125cc and 250cc sessions, won the 2000 title in the eighth litre class. He also endured setbacks, with a shocking injury at Jerez in 2007 that almost ended his career.

“This opens up a new and exciting role as coach and sports coordinator of Team Junior GP FMI, working with young talent,” says Locatelli. “I am grateful to Paolo Sesti (President of the FMI) and Giampiero Sacchi (Piaggio Group) who believe in my passion for motorcycling and appreciate my professionalism.”

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