MotoGP Special '09: Newcomers to the Class

Starting today, we are going to run a special feature on the riders who will compete in the 2009 MotoGP World Championship, so let’s get ready for the start of the Motorcycle World Championship.

The first riders we are going to present are the newcomers of this season, namely Mika Kallio, Sete Gibernau (returning), Yuki Takahashi and Niccolo Canepa.

The first of them is Mika Kallio, who arrives in MotoGP with Pramac Racing after having gone through all the categories of the Motorcycle World Championship, although the Finn has never managed to claim a title in his previous stints.

Last season he got off to a great start and was one of the favourites to win the 250cc title, but KTM was not up to the level of Aprilia and Gilera, which led him to gradually lose ground to Simoncelli and Bautista.

In the end he achieved the third place in the overall standings of the displacement class, which opened the doors of the MotoGP category for him, where he will have to tame a Desmosedici GP9 Sat, with which he can produce more than one surprise, since the 36 on the grid knows how to control races and stay alert at all times.

The next newcomer is Niccolo Canepa, Mika Kallio’s teammate, who until now had been the test rider for the red bullets since 2007, so he has a great deal of experience on the Ducati, which has made it easier for him to adapt to the Desmosedici.

He should not be ruled out of the results predictions, since his experience and the machine he rides can earn him many points to achieve good positions, so the Italian may cause more trouble than we think.

We still do not know how he will perform in races, as we have no previous references in the World Championship, so we will have to wait until Qatar to find out how the Canepa-Ducati tandem works, and see whether the number 88 on the grid can stay among the leading riders or the situation overwhelms him.

We will keep watching MotoGP.

Photo | MotoGP Official website