Guerrero on French podium as Albergoni struggles

UFO Corse Yamaha team rider Simone Albergoni finished the sixth round of eight in the 2008 WEC series - a dry Grand Prix of France staged in Uzerche - with two 5th place results as team-mate Cristobal Guerrero claimed his first podium of the season with 3rd on Day2. Looking to finish on the podium as he did in Wales recently title contender Albergoni struggled to master the dry French special tests and as a result failed to perform at his best. Although he was the highest UFO Corse Yamaha team rider on day one Abergoni ended the event far from satisfied with his performances. Despite an 'off-weekend' Albergoni still holds third in the Enduro 1 world championship standings. Making the most of his home support Yamaha France rider Marc Germain finished on the podium on Day1 placing a strong 3rd behind current E1 championship leader Mika Ahola and Spaniard Ivan Cervantes. The first of four Yamaha mounted riders inside the top six, Spaniard Guerrero claimed the UFO Corse Yamaha team's best result with 4th, just 20 seconds behind Germain. With Albergoni finishing 5th Italian Maurizio Micheluz overcame pain from his tendonitis injury to finish 6th. Just as he had on Day1 Cristobal Guerrero delivered the UFO Corse Yamaha team's best result by claiming his first silverware of 2008. With 3rd position and classifying just 11 seconds behind runner-up Ahola, Guerrero rode well throughout the day and battled with Germain. Little separated the two riders as they arrived at the event's final motocross test and Guerrero outpaced his more experienced brand-mate and finished three seconds ahead of him, ending Day2 with the final step of the podium. Behind Germain Simone Albergoni again struggled to shine and although making no major mistakes could do no better than match his Day1 result of 5th. Handicapped by his arm injury Maurizio Micheluz placed 7th having come close to matching his day one result of 6th. Albergoni is 38 points behind leader Ahola with the penultimate round of the series taking place in Italy on September 27th/28th. Guerrero is 5th and 13 points from Germain in 4th. Simone Albergoni (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1: 5th, Day 2: 5th "It's been a terrible weekend for me and the worse thing is that I'm not sure why. Normally I ride well in these conditions but this weekend nothing went right for me. Finishing fifth on both days isn't good enough. I was just too slow. I made some small mistakes but overall I just didn't have any speed in the corners. I'm really disappointed." Cristobal Guerrero (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1: 4th, Day 2: 3rd "It's been a good weekend, and day two was really good. I liked the dry terrain because it is much more like what I am used to in Spain. I enjoyed the first day but I made too many mistakes to get on the podium, but I was riding well most of the time. Although I crashed on two of the three special tests on the first lap, the rest of the day went well. I did catch a slow E3 rider in the final extreme test, but I got my first podium of the year so I am very happy." Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1: 6th, Day 2: 7th "This GP has been really frustrating for me because I know I can be fast in dry conditions but because of the problem with my arm I found it really difficult. I simply couldn't ride as I wanted to. Sixth on day one wasn't too bad but I crashed twice on the extreme test on day two, which dropped me to sixth position. It's not too bad considering my arm, but I am disappointed that I wasn't more competitive." Race 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 50'28.470 2, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 0'20.950 3, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 0'28.110 4, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 0'47.700 5, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'43.920 6, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 2'0.100 7, Julien Gauthier, Honda, FRA, 2'0.320 8, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 2'11.450 9, Bartosz Oblucki, Husqvarna, POL, 2'13.710 10, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 2'37.150 11, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 2'40.830 12, Luca Cherubini, TM, ITA, 4'1.220 13, Danielle Tellini, Suzuki, ITA, 4'5.080 14, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 6'42.020 15, Francois Ciognac, KTM, FRA, 9'28.430 16, Miguel Maroto, Husqvarna, ESP, 26'57.440 Race 2 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 59'48.640 2, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 0'51.620 3, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 1'2.660 4, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 1'4.690 5, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'52.090 6, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 2'28.540 7, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 2'36.890 8, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 3'18.970 9, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 3'28.370 10, Bartosz Oblucki, Husqvarna, POL, 3'45.550 11, Julien Gauthier, Honda, FRA, 3'55.260 12, Luca Cherubini, TM, ITA, 4'24.550 13, Kevin Gauniaux, KTM, BEL, 4'46.600 14, Damien Miquel, Suzuki, FRA, 5'48.770 15, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 7'44.560 Rider Standings 26/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 284 2, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 275 3, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 237 4, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 198 5, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 185 6, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 158 7, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 130 8, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 128 9, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 119 10, Eero Remes, KTM, FIN, 112 11, Luca Cherubini, TM, ITA, 91 12, Bartosz Oblucki, Husqvarna, POL, 81 13, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 66 14, Daryl Bolter, Husqvarna, GBR, 58 15, Danielle Tellini, Suzuki, ITA, 50 Manufacturer Standings 26/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Honda, 275 2, KTM, 271 3, Yamaha, 252 4, Husqvarna, 139 5, Suzuki, 130 6, TM, 91 7, Kawasaki, 47 8, Sherco, 12 ---------- RACE REPORT - 28/07/2008 Aubert double runner-up at home GP UFO Corse Yamaha's Johnny Aubert continues to lead the competitive Enduro 2 world championship following his home round of the series, the Grand Prix of France staged in Uzerche; the sixth round of eight in the current campaign Having taken control at the top of the E2 championship following the third round of the series in Spain, Aubert finished in 2nd position on both days in France and saw his closest rival Juha Salminen move just one point closer in the all important E2 championship standings. Pleased that the slippery conditions of the GP of Wales were behind him Aubert was confident of a strong result in France but also knew that winning would be anything but easy, and he was proved correct after a thrilling opening day's competition. Johnny missed claiming victory by just over five seconds as former two-time motocross world champion Michael Pichon managed to top the podium. Winning four of the day's tests Johnny and countryman Pichon battled it out at the head of the E2 class while Salminen, the only rider able to match the leading duo, held 3rd throughout the day. Knowing that finishing ahead of title-rival Salminen was more important that risking a crash while trying to beat wild-card rider Pichon, Johnny claimed a solid runner-up result. With the sun blazing down on all riders during the second day, Pichon found things simply too tough and withdrew from the competition after nine special tests, leaving Aubert and Salminen to battle it out, with Salminen setting the fastest pace. Aubert recognised that finishing second to the Finn, having placed ahead of him on day one, he would lose just one championship point and again rode safely to be runner-up. As a result he maintains a healthy 16-point lead in the standings with two rounds of the series remaining. Aubert's UFO Corse Yamaha team-mate, Fabrizio Dini, was among a number of riders to find the extreme test at the GP of France hard-going, and as a result of mistakes on Day1 finished 12th in the E2 class. On Day2 Dini improved his result to 10th but due to more small mistakes was unable to place higher. Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1: 2nd, Day 2: 2nd "I knew that this race would be difficult because there was just one week to recover from the GP of Wales, which was really difficult! But the special tests in France didn't look that tricky when I walked them so it was a surprise that they got as rough as they did. It would have been nice to have won at least one of the days but the most important thing was that I only lost one-point to Salminen in the championship. It was very, very close between Michael Pichon and I on the first day so it was a little bit disappointing not to win. But second, and then second again on day two to Salminen, is a good weekend. Now I must work hard ready for the GP of Italy. The last two years that race has been a disaster for me, and I need to make sure it goes well this year." Fabrizio Dini (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1: 12th, Day 2: 10th "Although I enjoyed the race more than the GP of Wales it has been a very hard event. I didn't do as well as I wanted to, especially on day one. My first lap wasn't the best but then I lost a lot of time on the final extreme test, which put me outside the top 10. Day two was a little better but again I had some disappointing tests that stopped me finishing higher than 10th" Race 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Mickael Pichon, KTM, FRA, 50'2.440 2, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 0'5.530 3, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 0'25.840 4, Antoine Meo, Husqvarna, FRA, 1'51.820 5, Rodrig Thain, TM, FRA, 2'2.480 6, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 2'19.880 7, Fabio Mossini, Honda, ITA, 2'21.580 8, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 2'27.920 9, Nicolas Deparrois, GasGas, FRA, 2'28.630 10, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 2'39.400 11, Joakim Ljunggren, HusaBerg, SWE, 2'52.260 12, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 3'6.760 13, Jari Juha Mattila, Honda, FIN, 3'24.690 14, Valtteri Salonen, HusaBerg, FIN, 3'38.240 15, Felipe Zanol, Yamaha, ESP, 3'57.610 16, Rudy Cotton, Beta, FRA, 4'3.790 17, Aaron Bernandez, Husqvarna, ESP, 4'26.760 18, David Fretigne, Yamaha, FRA, 4'45.580 19, Vincent Turpin, Honda, FRA, 6'0.870 Race 2 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 58'55.720 2, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 0'54.970 3, Antoine Meo, Husqvarna, FRA, 2'47.630 4, Rodrig Thain, TM, FRA, 2'51.990 5, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 3'15.470 6, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 3'46.590 7, Jari Juha Mattila, Honda, FIN, 4'8.130 8, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 4'36.190 9, Emmanuel Albepart, Honda, FRA, 5'2.550 10, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 5'18.680 11, Felipe Zanol, Yamaha, ESP, 5'21.220 12, Aaron Bernandez, Husqvarna, ESP, 5'38.710 13, David Fretigne, Yamaha, FRA, 6'6.620 14, Amel Advokaat, KTM, NED, 7'0.110 15, Olivier Pain, Yamaha, FRA, 8'54.870 16, Valtteri Salonen, HusaBerg, FIN, 9'28.140 Rider Standings 26/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 272 2, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 256 3, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 185 4, Joakim Ljunggren, HusaBerg, SWE, 165 5, Rodrig Thain, TM, FRA, 160 6, Antoine Meo, Husqvarna, FRA, 153 7, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 142 8, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 129 9, Valtteri Salonen, HusaBerg, FIN, 126 10, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 115 11, Jari Juha Mattila, Honda, FIN, 110 12, Fabio Mossini, Honda, ITA, 96 13, Nicolas Deparrois, GasGas, FRA, 87 14, Alessandro Zanni, Honda, ITA, 78 15, Felipe Zanol, Yamaha, ESP, 54 Manufacturer Standings 26/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, KTM, 281 2, Yamaha, 272 3, HusaBerg, 191 4, Husqvarna, 178 5, Honda, 170 6, TM, 160 7, BMW, 148 8, Aprilia, 115 9, GasGas, 87 10, Beta, 41 11, Suzuki, 26