Paddock Girls Special: Julia Liptakova

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If you see blonde with Interwetten Racing on last 3 years, especially with Thomas Luthi around the Europe race this year, she is Julia Liptakova. Meet Julia on Facebook

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Marquez apologized for Luthi

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Following Moto2 race 'incident' between Marc Marquez, the race winner, and Thomas Luthi, Marquez told motor-total:

"I do not know exactly what happened," said Marquez. "I have overtaken him on the straight. When I arrived at the braking point, I tried to slow down as usual. Then I noticed that he moved to the left. I did not know. I thought I was already past him . "

"If I irritated him, then I'm sorry. But a few laps before I have overtaken many drivers like that," notes the Spaniard, who was not yet fully fit. "I'm still not at 100 percent. I still need more miles because I had a bad season. The whole weekend was very tough because I was struggling with the bike."

This was not only the chance of winning there, even a place on the podium was out of reach. After number five on the Interwetten-driver was pissed. Marquez decided the race for himself and was delighted with the narrow victory ahead of Andrea Iannone.

source: motorsport-total.com

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Formal Warning after Qatar Moto2 Race to Marquez and Luthi

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MotoGP race direction was officially issued a formal warning to Marc Marquez and Thomas Luthi. Marquez was warned over his pass on Luthi at the start of the last lap, while Luthi received the warning for the hard slap he gave on Marquez' throttle arm on the cooldown lap. Marc Marquez passed Thomas Luthi on the way down the front straight. although there were no 'touch' between them, but it pulled Luthi wide.

Marquez told "I passed him on the straight, I was completely past him, and when I arrived at the braking point, I braked like I always do, and I saw him pass me on the left."

"He has simply left no room for me," complains Luthi. "In my eyes it was not fair. He may simply not move to the left. He could have just run straight ahead. I would have let him enter the car as well. I was still at the height of his rear wheel. With my front wheel, I was almost at the level of its footrest. Then he can not simply pull to the left and to relegate me to the curb. "

"The pass was reviewed immediately, and then reviewed again later in more depth and with different camera angles, and in the context of the whole race. After the race, both riders were spoken with. The decision of Race Direction was that it was a very hard maneuver, on the borderline of acceptable racing. Marquez was warned, the equivalent of a yellow card." 

"Luthi was also given a warning/yellow card for venting his obvious frustration after the chequered flag," Webb said, adding that both riders had accepted the warnings, and that as far as he was concerned the issue was done with. But the fact that a warning was issued was a clear message to all of the Moto2 riders that their actions would be subject to close scrutiny. Though no formal punishment was handed out, Race Direction were far from happy with the pass. "In this case, it was judged to be close to the limit, but not obviously malicious,"

source: Motomatters and Motorsport-Total

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Tempers fly at Interwetten after Marquez overtake

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Off track Marc Márquez is a shy and well-mannered unassuming 19 year old, but put him on a racing bike and he becomes one of the most aggressive riders in Moto2.

During yesterday’s race in Qatar, on the penultimate lap Marquez cut across the front of Thomas Luthi who was leading forcing him to run wide and off track, the Interwetten rider was able to rejoin but finished in 5th which didn’t go down at all well with him and on the cool down lap he caught up with the celebrating Marquez and angrily slapped the Spaniard’s arm gesturing that Marquez needs to use his head.

Apparently the question didn’t end there as Luthi’s mechanics decided to head over to the Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol garage to demonstrate their anger, but Emilio Alzamora managed to calm things down before things got out of hand and had his star rider apologize, who added that he too had been made object of aggressive passes during the race, more or less a tit for a tat.

What do you guys think, was it an overly aggressive pass similar to Johann Zarco’s move on Nico Terol last searon at Catalunya or is this just what racing is supposed to be about in the final laps of a very hard fought race? Video of the final laps after the jump.

source: twowheelsblog

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Luthi makes it a clean sweep in practice

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Thomas Lüthi, fastest in both of Thursday's Moto2 sessions, was quickest in the third and final practice on Friday ahead of Pol Espargaró, Esteve Rabat and Scott Redding.

Thomas Lüthi's (Interwetten Paddock) strong form at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar rolled on in FP3 on Friday, as the Swiss rider topped the final session before Saturday's qualifying with the fastest lap of the weekend so far. Lüthi's time of 2'00.479 meant he completed a clean sweep in all three Moto2 practice sessions, after topping the first and second runs the previous day.

Pons 40 HP Tuenti team-mates Pol Espargaró and Esteve Rabat were also in the mood for setting fast times, as the former clocked in at just 0.040s off Lüthi. Espargaró was the only other rider under 2'01” in the session, with Rabat in third posting a best effort of 2'01.118.

Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) was fourth in the order in 2'01.230, with Italians Claudio Corti (Italtrans), Simone Corsi (Came IodaRacing Project) and Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) closely grouped from fifth to seventh.

Bradley Smith (Tech 3 Racing) took a step forward and was the last rider within one second of Lüthi's scorching lap, and Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) and Alex de Angelis (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) completed the top 10.

Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda Gresini Moto2) escaped unharmed from a crash early in the session and went on to time in at 14th fastest, just behind Julián Simón (Blusens Avintia).

The Moto2 riders will be back on track at 6.55pm local time on Saturday for qualifying.

source: MotoGP Official

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