Yamaha sign off for 2006 with a positive final day in Jerez

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 Pedrosa with a time of 1’39.910, followed closely by Valentino Rossi who set a time of 1.40.123 on his 69th and final lap of the day, nearly half a second under his own lap record pace. Edwards was seventh fastest in the unofficial time sheets after a best lap of 1’41.254 from 41 laps.

After 17 races and more than 30 additional days of testing this year, Rossi, Edwards and the entire Yamaha MotoGP set-up will now head home for the winter holidays. They will reconvene for the first test of 2007 in Sepang, Malaysia on 22nd January.

Valentino Rossi (2nd - 1’41.254, 69 laps) “We had a very good test today; it’s been very productive for us because we were able to check many different things for our new bike. We continued to test tyres with Michelin in order to find the correct direction for their development and we also kept working with the chassis and were able to try some different suspension settings. We’ve got some very good information for the Yamaha engineers and now they will work hard over the winter in order to have everything ready for the next test in January. The weather was good today, warm and sunny and in these conditions it was fun to ride on this track, which is one of my favourites. This has been an important test and I am really pleased with the level that we have got to in a short space of time. Of course we still have a lot of work to do, but now it’s finally the end for this year and it’s time to have a rest so we can come back ready to fight in January!”

Colin Edwards (7th – 1’41.254, 41 Laps) “I had a small technical problem near the end of the day so I had to stop a little bit early, but other than that it’s been another good day all round. We tested quite a lot more front tyres but honestly the best tyre package we found was what we tried first thing in the morning straight out of the box; that felt pretty good! Other than that we just kept on playing around with the general set-up, trying to learn as much as possible about the new bike. We tried a different chassis today, it’s one Valentino's been testing and it’s definitely the best one so far. We weren’t really looking for times but we ran pretty consistently in the low 41’s all day and I definitely felt like I could have found a bit more if I’d needed to push hard. Overall it’s been a really good test and I am pretty excited about the new bike; we’ve come on in leaps and bounds in just the six days I’ve ridden it. Now I am heading home and looking forward to a nice relaxing Christmas with the family before we get going again in January!”

Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director “We’ve been able to do a great job throughout these November tests and everyone has worked very hard. All three tests have been very important for us in order to get as much information as possible for Yamaha to work with over the winter, the engineers have done a good job with the bike and now they will put everything together over the break. In January we will have our final 2007 bikes and then we can start our real preparation for the long season ahead.”

Unofficial Lap Times

1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda, 1’39.910 2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha, 1’40.123 3. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda, 1’40.524 4. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Suzuki, 1’40.766 5. John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki, 1’41.049 6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Honda, 1’41.142 7. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha, 1’41.254 8. Alex Barros (BRA) Ducati, 1’41.276 9. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati, 1’41.492 10. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati, 1’41.595 11. Tadayuki Okada (JPN) Honda Test Rider, 1’43.392 12. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Test Rider, 1’44.071 13. Jeremy McWilliams (GBR) Ilmor, 1’44.661 14. Andrew Pitt (AUS) Ilmor, 1’44.983

Jerez Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005, 1’40.596 Jerez Best Lap: Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2006, 1’39.064