Simone Albergoni claims double podium result

UFO Corse Yamaha rider Simone Albergoni moved into second position in the Enduro 1 world championship standings following the fourth round of the '07 World Enduro Championship series held in Borno, Italy having claimed podium finishes on both days aboard his UFO Corse Yamaha WR250. Placing third on day one of his and the UFO Corse Yamaha team's home GP Simone then stepped one place higher on the rostrum with a second place finish on day two. In claiming a double podium result Simone moved into the runner-up spot in the E1 championship standings, one point ahead of his team-mate Cristobal Guerrero.

With the GP of Italy proving to be anything but easy due to mixed weather, a demanding stone littered enduro test and a difficult extreme test Simone, like many riders, made several small mistakes and fell on more than one occasion on day one, which prevented him from finishing higher than third. Simone hoped not to make the same mistakes on day two as he had on day one and started the day well, despite heavy overnight rain making the opening lap extremely slippery. Disappointingly, Simone's promising start to the day was followed by two costly crashes in the extreme test, which cost him close to 40 seconds. Despite his mistakes Simone claimed a well deserved runner-up finish, equalling his highest result of the season.

Finishing ahead of Albergoni on day one and less than six seconds behind E1 class winner Juha Salminen was Yamaha France rider Marc Germain. A specialist in wet and slippery conditions Marc came close to claiming his first win of the '07 season but fell just short of beating his Finnish rival. With Poland's Bartosz Oblucki claiming fourth on the opening day UFO Corse Yamaha rider Cristobal Guerrero placed fifth continuing his excellent debut season in the E1 class. Ensuring Yamaha claimed four of the top six positions in the E1 class on day one the UFO Corse Yamaha team's third rider Maurizio Micheluz placed sixth.

With Albergoni finishing second on day two Sunday again proved to be another good day for Yamaha. With Finn Salminen topping the class results as he did on day one Maurizio Micheluz came frustratingly close to finishing third, he was denied his first podium result of the season by a slower rider blocking his way on one of the extreme tests. Placing fourth and just ten seconds behind eventual third place finisher Alessandro Belometti, Maurizio saw his result affected when a slower rider blocked a difficult climb on the extreme test leaving him no other option other than to stop and wait while the track was cleared.

Dropping from the podium to fifth, due in part to a disappointing final extreme test, Marc Germain started the second day in the best possible way by winning the opening special test while Spanish UFO Corse Yamaha rider Cristobal Guerrero claimed sixth after being disadvantaged by being the first rider in the E1 class onto the day's extremely wet opening special test.

Simone Albergoni (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Third, Day 2 Second: "It's been a very good weekend for me, although I'm not so happy with third on day one. I made some small mistakes, which cost me time, so on day two I really pushed hard to make sure I got a better result. I really hoped that I could battle against Juha Salminen but he was so strong again. I was pleased with my performance though. I did make two crashes in the extreme test, where I lost 40 seconds, but I'm pleased with second."

Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Sixth, Day 2 Fourth: "I finished sixth on day one, which isn't so good, but I was not too far behind the riders that finished on the podium so I was quite happy. On day two I was fourth, which I am pleased with but it could have been better because I lost some time on the extreme test on the last lap because I had to wait for a slower rider who was stuck on one of the hills. I finished the day 10 seconds behind the third place rider and I know I lost much more time than that. I'm a little disappointed but my results and riding have been much better than in Spain and Portugal."   Circuit Length: 4800 Crowd: 3250 Weather: Sunshine     2007 Enduro 1 Italy 29/05/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Juha Salminen KTM FIN 51'54.150 2 Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 0'5.590 3 Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 0'17.070 4 Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 0'26.540 5 Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 0'27.210 6 Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 0'54.590 7 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 1'47.550 8 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 3'10.260 9 Peter Bergvall Suzuki SWE 3'19.180 10 Luca Cherubini TM ITA 3'19.570 11 Fabio Mossini Honda ITA 3'48.180 12 Roberto Bazzurri Husqvarna ITA 3'51.710 13 Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 4'1.680 14 Frederik Georgsson KTM SWE 4'28.600 15 Pier Luigi Surini Honda ITA 4'54.610

Race 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Juha Salminen KTM FIN 55'42.720 2 Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 0'40.800 3 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 1'47.290 4 Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 1'57.400 5 Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 2'6.110 6 Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 2'6.910 7 Luca Cherubini TM ITA 4'10.820 8 Frederik Georgsson KTM SWE 5'13.230 9 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 5'56.370 10 Joan Jou Yamaha ESP 7'23.330 11 Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 7'45.990 12 Mario Patrao Suzuki POR 8'56.320 13 Ryan Voase Kawasaki GBR 9'33.740 14 Pier Luigi Surini Honda ITA 10'17.240 15 Juraj Dozsa KTM SVK 11'6.010

Rider Standings 26/05/2007

Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Juha Salminen KTM FIN 200 2. Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 140 3. Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 139 4. Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 137 5. Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 135 6. Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 125 7. Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 99 8. Mike Hartmann KTM GER 91 9. Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 67 10. Luca Cherubini TM ITA 59 11. Frederik Georgsson KTM SWE 56 12. Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 50 13. Joan Jou Yamaha ESP 45 14. Damien Miquel Kawasaki FRA 40 15. Tomi Peltola Suzuki FIN 38

Manufacturer Standings 26/05/2007

Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. KTM 200 2. Yamaha 160 3. Husqvarna 125 4. Honda 86 5. TM 65 6. Suzuki 59 7. Kawasaki 48

RACE REPORT 29/05/2007 Johnny Aubert continues impressive run of results    UFO Corse Yamaha team rider Johnny Aubert continued his impressive run of results in the '07 World Enduro Championship series by placing in third position in the Enduro 2 class on day one of the GP of Italy, staged in Borno. With his confidence high having won both days of the GP of Spain and the GP of Portugal Johnny saw his day one result affected by a big crash in the stone covered enduro test mid way through the day. Despite having parted company with his WR450 in spectacular style Johnny ended the day just 13 seconds behind the eventual second place rider Samuli Aro, but unable to stop Mika Ahola claiming his second win of the season. Disappointingly for Aubert a mechanic problem, when in sight of the finish, resulted in him failing to finish the second day, which dropped the Frenchman to third in the Enduro 2 world championship standings.  

Looking to claim his fifth consecutive day win in the '07 WEC series Johnny started the opening day of the GP of Italy by placing second in the E2 class on the opening test. Performing well on the second test before then winning the third, Aubert's crash in the second timed enduro test ended his hopes of winning. Nevertheless he continued to push hard and after close to one-hour of special test action claimed third. On day two Aubert again started well showing that he had the speed to win by topping four of the opening seven special tests. Holding a well deserved runner-up spot and with the finish of the event in sight Johnny then suffered a sudden mechanical problem, which disappointingly put him out of the event.    Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1 Third, Day 2 DNF: "The first day was not so bad for me but I crashed on the enduro test and lost one minute, which meant that I was never going to be able to win. My speed was good but after a mistake like that there was no way I was going to catch up to Mika Ahola, he was riding too well. After my crash I just wanted to go as well as I could so to finish third was good." "Things were going well for me on day two but I had a problem with my bike's engine close to the finish. My bike stopped so I pushed it to the finish but I didn't score any points, which is disappointing. I would have struggled to win because Mika was again riding really well, but I was in second when my bike stopped so it's disappointing not to have finished on the podium like I did on day one."   Circuit Length: 4800 Crowd: 3250 Weather: Sunny     2007 Enduro 2 Italy 29/05/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 51'52.730 2 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 0'48.180 3 Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 1'1.420 4 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 1'2.580 5 Andrea Belotti KTM ITA 1'25.730 6 Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 2'9.560 7 Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 2'32.010 8 Joel Smets BMW BEL 2'42.280 9 Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 2'46.630 10 Fausto Scovolo GasGas ITA 3'9.790 11 Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 3'15.560 12 Patrick Caps GasGas BEL 3'18.180 13 Nicolas Paganon Aprilia FRA 3'51.010 14 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 4'10.060 15 Giuliano Falgari Kawasaki ITA 4'20.460

Race 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 54'44.820 2 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 1'21.240 3 Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 1'23.900 4 Andrea Belotti KTM ITA 1'56.310 5 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 2'14.710 6 Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg FIN 2'34.620 7 Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 4'41.650 8 Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 4'59.480 9 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 5'20.340 10 Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 5'52.990 11 Patrick Caps GasGas BEL 6'20.800 12 Giuliano Falgari Kawasaki ITA 6'47.940 13 Carmelo Mazzoleni Kawasaki ITA 11'10.170 14 Nicolas Paganon Aprilia FRA 18'12.550

Rider Standings 26/05/2007

Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Mika Ahola Honda FIN 183 2. Samuli Aro KTM FIN 167 3. Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 152 4. Fabien Planet KTM FRA 126 5. Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 121 6. Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 102 7. Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 87 8. Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg FIN 86 9. Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 82 10. Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 79 11. Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 79 12. Patrick Caps GasGas BEL 51 13. Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 51 14. Nicolas Paganon Aprilia FRA 47 15. Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 37

Manufacturer Standings 26/05/2007

Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 183 2. KTM 169 3. Yamaha 164 4. Aprilia 129 5. Beta 102 6. Husqvarna 90 7. HusaBerg 86 8. Suzuki 79 9. GasGas 53 10. Sherco 51 11. BMW 25 12. Kawasaki 15 13. TM 9