 1 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 MotoGP recommences at Estoril after four weeks off. The circuit was built in 1972 and is 9 km from Estoril. It orginally had a perimeter of 4.35 km but the circuit had numerous problems with safety and, after the death of Ayrton Senna at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, a chicane was added in 1994 at turn 8 to increase the circuit to 4.36 km. The old turn 8 is still visible here. |
 2 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 At the top of the circuit is the Parabolica Ayton Senna and inside it, the Parabolica interior. Curva VIP, turn 4, is the hairpin in the foreground. In the top left is the new turns 8, 9 & 10 (the Gancho) where Lorenzo pulled a fabulous pass on Rossi last year to win his maiden GP. Turn 10 has hardly any run-off and is protected with an air fence. The straight is long at 986 metres. |
 3 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 This is the track as it was prior to 1994. Turn 8 is an open right hander with no run-off. |
 4 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 These are the final Herman Tilke modifications: Turn 1 was extended and tightened and turn 2 was turned from a sweeper to a tighter turn and that created a longer straight up to turn 3. Turn 3 was changed from a hairpin into a double apex with turn 4. The Parabolica was changed in shape and moved closer to the start line to increase the run-off area. These modifications shortened the track to its current 4.182 metres. |
 5 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 On the Thursday, Casey Stoner returned to racing and conducted a press conference. He was accompanied by team manager Livio Suppo and the GP09's designer Filippo Preziosi. Casey apologised to Ducati and his team for his absence but not to Marlboro. |
 6 200 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 Chris Vermeulen lost his Suzuki ride but announced that he would be going to the factory Kawasaki SuperBike team. On Friday practice, he was the second slowest. |
 7 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 Valentino and Lorenzo sported a special paint scheme and leathers to celebrate the Fiat Punto Evo (a 1.4 litre turbo charged mini-car). Rossi's bike had the sun on one side and the moon on the other. In FP1, Lorenzo was fastest with Rossi in third. |
 8 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 It had been known for some time that James Toseland was to lose his ride. What was not known, and announced this week, was that American Ben Spies will take his ride and that James will transfer to the Yamaha WSB team and replace Ben Spies. With Colin Edwards remaining at Tech 3, the team now has two Texans on board for 2010. Also announced was that Ben Spies will get a wild-card entry into the final GP at Valencia. |
 9 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 In Qualifying, Lorenzo took pole with Rossi .260 seconds behind in second. Casey took the final front row spot - he seems to be as fast as ever and is still the only one who can ride a Ducati. Nicky Hayden on the second factory Ducati was ninth, 1.44 seconds off the pace, with the other two Ducatis qualifying in 10th and 14th. |
 10 Round 14 - Estoril, Portugal, Sunday, October 046, 2009 What a crap race. It seems to me if Valentino is not competitive, then there's no racing. Look at the gaps. There was some competition for sixth but the rest of the field was spread out. The only good news in this race was that Casey's back to full strength. This race matched Valencia last year for being a boring procession of bikes out for a ride day. |
