[kropotkin thinks...] - Aleix Espargaro To Replace Canepa For Rest Of Season?

[Ninjette Newsbot]

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No motorcycle has acquired quite such a fearsome reputation as the Ducati Desmosedici GP9. Though there are no doubts about the speed of the Ducati - Casey Stoner has proved the bike is fast over and over again - there are huge question marks about its ridability. Loris Capirossi went from being a title candidate to an occasional podium visitor on the 800, Marco Melandri turned from podium regular to backmarker, and Nicky Hayden is only just starting to turn around his miserable start to the season and make a return to the front half of the pack. Marco Simoncelli, Alvaro Bautista and Jorge Lorenzo all turned down the chance to ride the Bologna Beast.

Yet the bike is not impossible to go fast on. Where others have failed, substitute rider Aleix Espargaro has succeeded fairly spectacularly, posting the 5th fastest race lap at last week's Misano MotoGP round, and finishing ahead of MotoGP regulars Randy de Puniet, Niccolo Canepa and Gabor Talmacsi in just his second race. He also managed to qualify at Misano just over a tenth of a second slower than double World Superbike champion James Toseland on the Tech 3 Yamaha.

So impressive has his progress been that two things happened after the Misano MotoGP round. The first was that the Spaniard - brother of the Indianapolis 125cc race winner Pol Espargaro - was whisked off to hospital on Monday to have surgery for arm pump. The second is that rumors immediately emerged that Espargaro is to be drafted in to replace his team mate Niccolo Canepa for the rest of the season.

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