Weather restricts Yamaha riders at Monza test

A two day test for the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team at their home circuit of Monza was expected to be an opportunity to run the latest Pirelli development tyres in readiness for the Monza round on 11 May. With the high-speed 5.793km track drenched with rain on both days, however, the team had to adapt their plans. Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser went to these tests, held at a circuit only a short distance from their Gerno di Lesmo team headquarters, with the natural confidence that a race win (for Nori) and a podium finish (for Troy) at the most recent Valencia round gave them. However, each was to leave disappointed with their complete lack of dry track time, albeit glad to not have fallen on such a treacherous surface. Claudio Corti, a Yamaha Superstock 1000 FIM Cup regular and the team’s new test rider, continued on track on day two, but neither Haga nor Corser added to their respective 25 and 29 first day lap totals, such was the ferocity of the rain and the amount of standing water on the Monza asphalt. Next stop for the team is the fourth round of the World Superbike Championship, at Assen on April 27. Troy Corser (29 laps - Yamaha Italy WSB Team) “The whole track is like swimming pool, too much water sitting around the place to be safe. We did some tests on the electronics and the traction control yesterday, got a feel for how the chassis is, but you can’t get too much out of a test like that when it is that wet. You simply can’t push hard enough to get any bike to do what you want to do, and it was easy to have a small crash - or a big one. We did no laps at all on day two. Yesterday was bad enough and it really wasn’t worth the risk today.” Noriyuki Haga (25 laps - Yamaha Italy WSB Team) “We hoped and expected to have good weather here, but it wasn’t to be! Rain and more rain, you could easily have a shower it is so heavy. Monza is a very high-speed track so we were careful and only rode some laps yesterday to do some running-in of parts and checks on a few other things. The track surface was like a river on day two so we decided not to run.” Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) “What terrible weather! On day one the guys did only a few laps. The main reason to come here was to test some new tyres, but it was just impossible. So we worked on some electronics, but pretty much that was it. Day two was even worse than today and neither Troy nor Nori rode. Just Claudio, but he has been doing two or three laps then into the pits. We’re a bit disappointed but only about the rain.”