Team Gresini, there is the second Honda for MotoGP

No halving. Indeed, he is ready to play a leading role in the next season too. The Gresini team will participate in the 2012 MotoGP championship with two motorbikes. The team, this year a satellite of Honda, will present itself at the starting line with one Honda RC213V and FTR. And if the Spaniard will certainly be riding the first Alvaro Bautista, there are still many doubts about the FTR/Honda rider complying with the CRT (Claiming Rule Team) regulations which requires a decisive cut in expenses. Sources close to the Valencia team whisper the name of Michele Pirro already on track in Moto2 with a Moriwaki.

For his part, the former world champion Fausto Gresini does not hide his enthusiasm for the agreement reached with FTR moto and explains that the uncertainty of these last few weeks had to be sought from the identification of the "technical partner with which to carry forward the project". The two-time world champion in the 125 class not only considers the FTR motorbike powered by Honda CBR 1000R engines a "competitive two-wheeler for this new category", but identifies in this "new adventure" the "future of MotoGP".

While waiting for confirmation and officialization, Bautista has carried out 55 laps in Valencia with the new bike equipped with 2012 Bridgestone tyres. The best time recorded was 1' 33” 814. A test – the team reports – which should not have been indicative at all but which created satisfaction on both sides, for the agreement emerged, before the long winter break. The break – they continue – will be necessary to recharge your soul and spirit and be ready to face the new challenge with determination.

The troubled season of the Gresini team had its epilogue with the death of Marco Simoncelli (official Honda HRC) on the Sepang track. Riding the other bike, without official HRC support, there was Hiroshi Aoyama. Even before that, Takeo Fukui's Japanese company, for economic reasons, had been forced to say no to the third bike from the Repsol team and to equip the Gresini team with only the RC213V initially intended for Simoncelli.