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Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi slid out of the Grand Prix of Valencia today and lost his grip on the MotoGP World Championship for the first time in six years on the final day of an implausibly dramatic season. Nicky Hayden (Honda) lifted the title after claiming third place behind surprise winner Troy Bayliss and Loris Capirossi (both Ducati), with Rossi recovering to cross the line in 13th place but missing out on the title by just five points. The fifth lap mishap came after a bad s

The Tech 3 Team is pleased to announce that the Yamaha-Dunlop project will continue in 2007 with a two-rider line-up. After signing Makoto Tamada last week, Tech 3 Yamaha has completed its 2007 squad with the addition of French 250cc rider and current Tech 3 test rider Sylvain Guintoli. Herve Poncharal, Team Principal of Tech 3 Yamaha, said “I am very grateful to Yamaha for supporting us for one more season and enabling us to have two riders on the new 800cc motorcycle. Furthermore, I am very h

Just a couple of days after the dramatic finale to his rollercoaster season, Valentino Rossi was back out on track in Valencia yesterday and today, already thinking about next season’s revenge as he got to grips with Yamaha’s new 800cc motorcycle. After the final race of the 990cc era on Sunday, most of his MotoGP rivals were also out on their new bikes as the teams began the long winter of testing in the build-up to the first race next March. Having only ridden the Yamaha 800cc bike briefly on

Colin Edwards got his first chance to try out Yamaha’s brand-new 800cc MotoGP bike today, but his debut on the bike was cut short due to bad weather at Sepang. Torrential rain fell on the Malaysian circuit from 1pm, flooding parts of the track and bringing about scenes reminiscent of September’s Grand Prix, when a similar storm led to the cancellation of Qualifying. The rain did begin to ease up as the afternoon wore on but parts of the track remained underwater and Edwards, along with all other

Positive first outing for Haga and Corser on the All-New R1 After working hard to make the first race version of the 2007 YZF-R1 ready for a two day Pirelli Development Teams’ test at Valencia, the Yamaha Motor Italia team enjoyed two positive days of work under clear Spanish skies. Troy Corser set a best of 1’34.9 with a race set-up, with Noriyuki Haga on a 1’35.1, on qualifying tyres. Both existing team rider Haga and new signing Corser made back-to-back evaluations of the 2006 and 2007 mode

After yesterday’s torrential downpour, the rain stayed away today and the sun came out at Sepang for the second day of MotoGP testing at the Malaysian track. Yamaha pilot Colin Edwards, who is riding Yamaha’s new 800cc motorcycle for the first time this week, was able to complete 48 laps and make significant improvements to the setting of his bike, despite suffering a small slide into the gravel in turn one at one stage. Edwards was luckily unhurt and was able to continue working on the same bik

New 2007 factory Yamaha Motocross team rider Marc de Reuver completed his first laps with his works YZ450FM in Italy last week and then guided a production 450cc YZ to victory in the high-profile RedBull Knockout beach race in Holland at the weekend. The 23 year old De Reuver, who finished fifth in the 2006 MX2 World Championship and makes his debut in the MX1 class for the 2007 Grand Prix campaign, completed his first Yamaha test in Italy, where he spent 3 very positive days with his new team.

Colin Edwards completed his first test of the 800cc era with another good morning’s work at Sepang today, making more progress on the development of Yamaha’s new prototype machine and finishing the day with the 3rd fastest time in the process. Edwards once again spent the time working on general set-up with his team, especially chassis and suspension, as well as testing some new tyres for Michelin. Suzuki rider John Hopkins was fastest again with a best lap of 2’01.64, followed by his team-mate

2006 FIM International Six Days Enduro – Taupo New Zealand (November 14-19 November) Germain finishes fourth in E1 class Yamaha France rider Marc Germain has finished in fourth place in the overall Enduro 1 class at the 81st running of the International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) staged in Taupo, New Zealand. Competing aboard his WR250F Marc performed brilliantly to win the E1 class on the opening day of the competition and continued to perform well on days two, three and four despite being disadv

Antonio Cairoli claimed his second big international prize in his young career by sealing the 2006 SX UEM championship. The 2005 MX2 world champion scored enough points at the 24th Fiat Supercross of Genova event held last weekend to claim the SX title. Earlier in the year Cairoli already won the Italian MX2 championship and finished as vice world champion in the MX2-GP class, making 2006 an almost prefect season. After Cairoli won the SX race in Milan earlier this year he succeeded in beating

The last MotoGP test of the season got underway at the Andalucian circuit of Jerez today, with unexpectedly cold temperatures delaying the start of activity until late morning for the Yamaha duo of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards. Unfortunately, it then began to rain soon after track temperatures had risen to suitable level and Rossi and Edwards, testing Yamaha’s new prototype 800cc motorcycle side-by-side for the first time, were only able to complete a few laps in the dry. Rossi nonetheless

The long 2006 MotoGP season finally drew to a close for Yamaha today as the team rounded off the year with a final day’s work in Jerez, before the start of the winter testing ban tomorrow. Rossi and Edwards spent their last day on track continuing with general development work of Yamaha’s new prototype 800cc motorcycle, testing different chassis, new suspension settings and a variety of new tyres for Michelin under sunny Spanish skies. The fastest lap of the day was set by Honda rider Dani Pedr

Following Camel’s recent announcement, Yamaha Factory Racing would like to express its thanks to Camel and Japan Tobacco International for their partnership and support over the 2006 MotoGP season. Our thanks go out to all those involved in the project; they have formed an important part of our team over the past year. It has been a great honour for Yamaha to work with such an experienced sponsor and Camel’s enthusiasm throughout the season has been greatly appreciated by the entire Yamaha Fac

Corser and Haga prove new R1's abilities at Losail test The second significant test session in the run-up to the 2007 season proved to be another giant step for the all-new YZF-R1 and despite poor track conditions in the early sessions and having a mountain of development parts to work through, both Yamaha Motor Italia riders, Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga, were able to set fast times. Corser, highly impressive on the new machine at such an early stage in its development, proved to be second qu

Shortly after New Year, on January 6th, the 29th edition of the Dakar Rally will traditionally kick off the 2007 motor sport season. Ever since the first event ‘The Dakar’ has been the most grueling test for both man and machine, whereby for bike competitors things are quite a bit rougher then for the car drivers. For the second time in the event’s history the caravan will start from the Portuguese capital Lisbon, when a total of 525 competitors from 42 nationalities will embark on the intimidat

Yamaha WR450F mounted riders have dominated the opening two stages that took the caravan from the start in the Portuguese capital Lisbon to the ferry crossing bound for Africa at the Spanish harbor of Malaga. Portuguese enduro stars Helder Rodrigues and Ruben Faria won a stage each to lead the bike category into Morocco. Ruben Faria was the surprise winner of the opening leg, beating his country man Helder Rodrigues by 16 seconds in the very tough deep sand of the first special stage. The circu