The legal system in Spain sure moves quickly, doesn’t it? Not long after news broke that Avintia Blusens MotoGP racer Hector Barbera was arrested after a domestic violence complaint involving his girlfriend, the couple have already appeared in court and both parties were found at fault and handed suspended sentences.

Spain has a special process for domestic abuse cases with hundreds of courtrooms reserved for dealing with domestic violence. These specialized tribunals, established in 2004, are designed to bring immediate action in cases involving couples.

The courts acted swiftly, finding both Barbera and his partner, identified only as “DP” were equally responsible for what transpired. Barbera was handed a sentence of six months in prison, commuted to 14 months of community service. DP was sentenced to five months in prison, but her sentence was commuted  as she has a clean record. It should be noted that Barbera’s previous arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol in January 2012 factored into the difference in their sentences. Continue Reading »

MotoGP racer Hector Barbera has been arrested by Spanish police following allegations of domestic abuse. UPDATE: Spanish courts found both Barbera and his girlfriend equally responsible for what transpired. Both parties received suspended sentences and were placed under a restraining order.

According to the Irish Independent, the Avintia Blusens racer was taken into custody in Jerez on May 9 after a woman identified as his girlfriend required hospital treatment following an alleged incident in their hotel room.

A statement released on Barbera’s Facebook page says the allegations are untrue and that Barbera is cooperating with authorities. Avintia Blusens has not released any comments on the allegations at this time. Continue Reading »

Former Moto2 World Champion Toni Elias is back in the premiere MotoGP class, albeit on a temporary basis. The Pramac Racing satellite Ducati team has signed Elias to race at the U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca in place of Hector Barbera who is sidelined with a broken leg.

Barbera, pictured above, broke his left fibula and tibia in a training accident on July 21 in Spain. Barbera underwent surgery to have a titanium plate and several screws inserted into the leg and is expected to be out four to six weeks. The Spanish rider will miss this week’s U.S. Grand Prix and likely the Aug. 19 Indianapolis Grand Prix at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For Elias, this marks a return to MotoGP and a quick end to his recent unemployment. Elias started the season racing for the Aspar Racing Moto2 team but the two sides agreed to part ways after the July 15 Italian Grand Prix at Mugello. Aspar has replaced Elias with reigning Spanish National Moto2 Champion Jordi Torres. Continue Reading »

The good news for Valentino Rossi is he managed to narrow the gap in lap times between his Ducati Desmosedici and Casey Stoner‘s Honda RC213V. The bad news is other riders improved more than he did.

Rossi completed 57 laps and set a time of 2:01.550 on the third and final day of the second MotoGP test at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit. That puts him just a bit over a second behind the fastest time set by Casey Stoner at 2:00.473. Unfortunately, Rossi’s time put him down at 10th on the day, with seven other riders within a second of Stoner.

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Wet conditions limited Ducati factory riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden to just 18 laps each on the second of three days of MotoGP testing in Malaysia.

Though there is a lot of work to be done for Ducati to be competitive, the heavy rainfall plus Hayden’s still-recovering shoulder limited track time for both riders.

They used what time they did have to work on the Ducati Desmosedici GP12‘s electronics including new traction control software.

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The good news is Ducati managed to trim another second off of Valentino Rossi‘s Day Two test time. The bad news is the Doctor is still over a second behind Casey Stoner.

Of course, considering how much faster Stoner has been compared with everyone else at the MotoGP test in Sepang, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. But it does highlight how much Rossi and Ducati need to improve in order to compete against the 2011 MotoGP Champion.

Rossi led all riders with 42 laps on the third and final day of the three-day Sepang test, recording a time of 2:00.824 on his best lap, fifth fastest overall. That represents a 1.062 second improvement on his Day Two time and a 1.568 second improvement from his time on Day One. Catching up to Stoner would be asking a lot at this point in the Ducati Desmosedici’s development, considering the GP12′s quick turnaround.

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Ducati continues to develop its Desmosedici GP12 MotoGP race bike, setting modest goals while trying to establish a good setup.

Already trailing the other factory teams in development time for its race prototypes, Ducati continued to try to find good base settings for the GP12.

Valentino Rossi achieved the team’s goal of lapping under two minutes and two seconds with a time of 2:01.886 while completing 44 laps on the second day of testing at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit. Continue Reading »