Disappointment for Rossi and Edwards on unlucky day in Turkey

High hopes for Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards went unfulfilled today as the Fiat Yamaha Team riders, who started from first and second on the grid, were both victims of bad luck at Istanbul Park. The pair got a good start and were leading the pack into turn one before Edwards dropped back as he was unable to get enough heat into his tyre and Rossi made a mistake and ran wide at turn eleven. Disaster then struck for Edwards as he was hit from behind by another rider and sent tumbling into the gravel trap in a crash that involved four riders in total. Rossi meanwhile seemed to be going well and had fought back to second behind eventual winner Casey Stoner, before he suffered a serious rear tyre problem that forced him to roll off the gas and drop right back through the field. The Italian had to use all his talents to keep himself in the race and he eventually brought his Yamaha home in tenth position, taking what were a creditable six points under the circumstances.

Rossi now drops to second place in the championship standings, ten points behind Stoner and 15 ahead of Dani Pedrosa, who was also involved in the first-lap crash. Edwards' unlucky non-finish, only the second in his Yamaha career, means he drops down to sixth. The Fiat Yamaha Team have a one-day test planned tomorrow although Edwards will wait until the morning to confirm if he will ride after badly bruising his knee when he was knocked down.

Valentino Rossi Position: 10thTime: +18.999 "We are very disappointed today because we had high expectations for this race, but instead we had some unexpected problems with the tyre and it's been a disaster for us. Yesterday and this morning the same race tyre felt good but unfortunately today something happened to it after some laps and I couldn't fulfil the potential we had here. We don't know the reason yet for the problem but now Michelin are trying to understand what happened. I had a great start and was leading on the first lap, although I made a mistake at turn eleven when I ran wide and dropped to fifth. However at that stage my bike was working very well and I was able to fight back to second; I felt sure that I was going to have a good battle with Stoner! Sadly though, after ten or eleven laps, the tyre started to lose all grip and I had to slow right down because I was quite scared. It felt like there was a big problem with the tyre and I had to go very carefully just to finish. We were very unlucky today, we started first and second but Colin crashed when he was hit and then I had this problem. I'm also quite unhappy with Elias today because I think he was quite dangerous - more than once he passed me on the inside and then altered his line. This is not a correct way to race. We're all quite sad tonight but we have many more races so we will look forward now to China."    Colin Edwards Position: DNFTime: "I got a great start but I had some problems getting heat into the rear tyre, which we were expecting at the start anyway. As a result I couldn't corner so well and I slipped right back on that first lap. Then Valentino ran off the track a bit at the fast right turn and I think everyone was checking up a bit and looking at him instead of thinking about the next corner! It seemed that everyone around me ran a bit wide into turn 12 but I braked normally and went underneath them when Jacque hit me from behind and I went down. I'm not badly hurt but my knee took a bit of a bang and it's swollen up quite a lot. It's pretty disappointing because we know my bike was working well and once I got some heat into the tyre it might have been a good race."

Davide Brivio - Team Director "A very difficult and disappointing race for us! Colin was very unlucky as he was hit from behind through no fault of his own and there was no way for him to avoid the crash. He has some bad bruising to his knee but we hope it's nothing too serious. Valentino made a mistake on lap one but he recovered well and it looked like he was set for a good race, but we had some problems with the tyre. We'd chosen the hardest and best tyre that we had available to us but it wasn't enough to fight with our competitors today. We now have to work with Michelin during tomorrow's test to understand why this happened and learn from the mistake. It was very hard for Valentino to keep going until the end in this situation but he didn't give up and took some valuable points; we're still second in the championship so let's move on from here and look forward to China."

Turkish delight for Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team

After a drama charged Grand Prix of Turkey the Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team can leave Istanbul extremely satisfied as riders Makoto Tamada and Sylvain Guintoli scored more championship points finishing in 14th and 15th spots respectively.

In what is shaping as the most intensely contested MotoGP Championship on record, both riders were extremely fortunate not to be involved in a spectacular opening lap crash that caused three riders to retire, as the Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 pilots were forced to take evasive action to stay in the race. Losing vital seconds in the melee, both riders recovered composure rapidly to give chase to the quickly disappearing pack and with determined rides closed the gap to the leaders over the remainder of the race to finish just 30 seconds from a podium finish.

Confirming the continuing development of both the new generation Dunlop tyres and the 800cc Yamaha's that have made their debut in the new look championship in 2007, both riders consistently lapped the 5.340km Istanbul Park circuit over a second quicker than last year.

Makoto Tamada Position: 14thTime: +38.540 The race wasn't so bad for me after Jerez but I need to find more consistency in myself. I had a good tyre as in the first few laps I could push very hard. It then dropped off a little but then the consistency remained the same. In the first lap I lost a bit as I had to ride around a long way to avoid the bikes on the track. I rode very hard to try and make up the difference but this is where I think I used a bit of the rear tyre trying to catch up to everyone. During the race I had a good battle with Shinya Nakano and my teammate Sylvain so things are getting better but the tyre remained consistent in its level of grip. I am working well with the team as we get to know each other and I am getting more and more confidence with the Dunlop tyres after being on other makes of tyres for many years. I feel that with the improvements we are making with the bike and the help from Dunlop that our results will improve at every race, as long as there are not too many crashes in front of me! 

Sylvain Guintoli Position: 15thTime:+39.337 Overall it was a good weekend. After Qatar and Jerez where we did some testing, this track was completely new to me. In the first lap I had to do a bit of gardening to miss the accident in front of me on the first lap and I think I lost about 10 seconds so it was a race against the clock to come back to the pack. On the last lap I had passed Makoto but unfortunately braking at the end of the straight I hit a bit of footpeg from the big crash that was still on the track and I lost the front and nearly crashed. One point is good again, especially here where I thought it would be more difficult but I think I could've been closer to the front than 30 seconds except for missing the crash and that little incident on the last lap. We always knew we had a good front tyre and now we have found some new information to improve the front but especially the most important was the rear tyre. Dunlop has made some big improvements with the rear tyre as it was very consistent the entire race and allowed us to go much faster than last year as I have done faster lap times than Carlos Checa did last year in the dry. This weekend has given me a lot more confidence as I feel these tyres are much better than a lot of people think so I am hoping for a race soon where we can get everything to gel together.

Herve Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Director I am reasonably satisfied with the result of the weekend as we are again in the points and towards the end of the race, we were quicker than a few riders in front of us and this proves that we are becoming more competitive at each race and that the new tyre rules are working. I am extremely happy with Sylvain and feel that if he wasn't involved in the first lap drama that he would have scored more points than the single one that he claimed. He came back strongly and was very consistent the entire race, competing together with Shinya Nakano and Carlos Checa. The most encouraging sign for us was that we were only 30 seconds from third place and this proves to me the improvement that is being made to the entire package as last year we struggled here and this year it is a lot better result for us We are staying here to test tomorrow and we have quite a few things to test especially in the tyre department. We have to keep it in perspective though as we are not going to climb ten steps at once but from the beginning of the season we are consistent and we are steadily improving.   Circuit Length: 5378 Temp: 23 Weather: Dry     2007 MotoGP Turkey - Istanbul 22/04/2007 Race 1 - 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 42'2.850 2 Toni Elias Honda ESP 0'6.207 3 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 0'8.102 4 Alex Barros Ducati BRA 0'8.135 5 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 0'8.289 6 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 0'10.186 7 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 0'10.239 8 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 0'14.734 9 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 0'16.042 10 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 0'18.999 11 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 0'26.249 12 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 0'29.546 13 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 0'36.922 14 Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 0'38.540 15 Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 0'39.337

Rider Standings 22/04/2007

Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 61 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 51 3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 36 4. Toni Elias Honda ESP 35 5. Marco Melandri Honda ITA 30 6. Nicky Hayden Honda USA 26 7. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 26 8. Alex Barros Ducati BRA 25 9. John Hopkins Suzuki USA 23 10. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 21 11. Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 20 12. Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 15 13. Carlos Checa Honda ESP 14 14. Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 12 15. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 11 16. Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 4 19. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 3

Team Standings 22/04/2007

Pos. Team Points 1. Ducati Marlboro Team 81 2. FIAT Yamaha Team 77 3. Honda Gresini 65 4. Repsol Honda Team 62 5. Rizla Suzuki 44 6. Pramac D'Antin 37 7. Kawasaki Racing Team 15 8. Konica Minolta Honda 15 9. Honda LCR 14 10. Tech3 Yamaha 7 11. Team Roberts 3

Manufacturer Standings 22/04/2007

Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Ducati 61 2. Honda 56 3. Yamaha 51 4. Suzuki 30 5. Kawasaki 15 6. KR212V 3