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Alex Asigno
The World Superbike Championship's next stop this coming weekend is the historic circuit of Monza in Italy for the sixth round in the 2007 series. The championship first came to the circuit in 1990 and this year will be its 14th visit.
The Monza circuit is located northeast of Milan and was built in 1922 by 3,500 workers with funding from the Milan Automobile Club. Monza is the fastest track to appear on the World Superbike calendar with riders often reaching speeds of over 300kph on the start/finish straight. As well as hosting the WSB Championship, the circuit features on the Formula 1 calendar.
The circuit actually consists of three tracks - GP, Junior and the Speed track which includes the oval banking for which the circuit is famous - though WSB uses the GP circuit. The track has been modified many times over the years to increase safety and provide better facilities for race teams and spectators. The last modification was in 2000 when amendments were made to the two chicanes to improve safety. Grandstand seating was also increased in 1997 to 51,000.
Monza is the home circuit for the Yamaha Motor Italia Team, who will be hoping for better luck than at Assen. In a weekend of mixed fortune at the last round Haga took second in race one but failed to finish race two. Corser had an equally turbulent time crashing out of third on the penultimate lap when fluid was sprayed on the rear tyre. Despite pain from the injuries he received in the accident Corser went on to finish fourth in race two and take away some much needed points.
Haga finished third and fourth last year at Monza. Though he is yet to win there Haga goes to Monza determined to provide the team with a win following his second place at Assen.
"Even though Monza is the team's home circuit it is not my favourite track because it has a long start/finish straight but not many corners. This makes it more of a machine's track than a rider's track," says Haga of the circuit. "After the disappointment of Assen though, the show must go on. I need to win at Monza to keep my championship fight alive and to erase the bad memories of the last round. I am always looking to win and nowhere more so than at Monza."
Monza was a good round for Corser in 2006 with second and third position finishes in addition to taking pole position and setting a new Superpole record. He also won there in 2005. For 2007 Corser goes to Monza with the opportunity to take his 40th pole of his Superbike career.
"I've been checked out by a sports therapist and nothing's broken from the crash in Assen, there's just a lot of deep bruising. I've had worse in a lot of other crashes so I'll be fine for Monza," he says of his injuries. "Monza should be a good race. The circuit is all about speed and the bike has enough of it so I'm confident of what we can achieve there. I've got a good history at that place. As for my 40th pole, well I'd love to get it at Monza for the team but my focus is more on getting on the front row. Pole would be an added bonus. The race is the most important thing."
The Yamaha World Supersport Team also had a mixed round at Assen with Parkes crashing out of the race in second place when he lost the front on the penultimate lap. Steve Martin stood in for Kevin Curtain who is recovering from a leg injury sustained at Valencia, and finished in a credible tenth place considering he had only had three hours on the bike prior to the race.
Parkes goes to Monza knowing he needs to finish on the podium and claim points to get him back in contention for the championship. He has shown his capability at Monza finishing second previously.
"We need to get some points on the board and I am aiming for some wins now to get myself back into the championship fight. We were heading in the right direction at Assen until the crash," he says. "There are still eight rounds to go and catching Sofuoglu is going to be tough but not impossible. If I had got second at Assen then I would have been third in the championship now. It's that tight so I'm confident I can move up the championship board if I can get a good finish. Anything can happen when everyone is this close in the points."
Regarding Monza, Parkes says, "I like Monza and even though the last couple of years there haven't been great for me I have finished second there in the past so I know I can do it again. Monza is all about horsepower and set-up and we've got a few more chassis and suspension adjustments to try that we didn't get time to do at Assen."
The Yamaha World Supersport Team had been hoping to welcome back Kevin Curtain at Monza but his recovery is taking longer than expected. He is still resting in Australia where he is seeing a specialist following an accident at Valencia in mid April when he cut the muscle in his right thigh. Kevin is making a good recovery and is now walking without crutches though he has recently got an infection in the wound which has delayed his return to the championship. Following a course of antibiotics it is hoped that he will be back for the Silverstone round later this month but he may need a further operation on the wound if the antibiotics don't work.    WSB rider Steve Martin stood in for Kevin at the last round in Assen but has not been released by the DFX squad for the Monza round. Instead, 250 GP race winner Anthony West will be stepping in to Curtain's shoes for Monza. Yet another Australian, West is racing in the 2007 250 GP Championship though he has raced in the World Supersport Championship previously at Brands Hatch in 2004. His biggest challenge this weekend will be to get used to the four-stroke engine characteristic against the two-stroke he is used to. The weight of the bike will also be a difference for him with the 600cc bike much heavier than the 250cc machine.
"I'm excited to be riding in Kevin's place this weekend though I wish him well. It will be good to ride a different bike in a different championship and at a track that I have never been to before. My GP season hasn't been great so far so this will be a good chance for me to have a really good race," he says. "Though I have ridden four-stroke bikes before, it's quite a while since I slung my leg over one. I would like to finish in the top five this weekend."
Massimo Roccoli, riding in the Yamaha Team Italia squad, went to Assen boosted by a win in the national Italian championship at Mugello the week before. Although he qualified in fifth Roccoli finished the race in 14th due to a wrong tyre choice. Roccoli goes to Monza determined to put in a good performance throughout the whole weekend.
Yamaha had great success in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup at Assen, walking away with first, second and third place on the 2007 new YZF-R1. Pirro took his first Superstock win after moving up this year from the 125 MotoGP World Championship. Team mate Corti came second after being penalized for overtaking under a yellow flag and Belgian rider Didier van Keymeulen took the third podium space.
Pirro and Corti go into this third round both on 45 points and are second and third in the championship respectively. Van Keymeulen lies in seventh but with only a small points margin up to the Yamaha Team Italia riders. All three riders will be targeting the top spot at this weekend's round ensuring some close race action.
Track length: 5792m Track opened: 1922 2006 winner: Bayliss (Ducati), Bayliss (Ducati) 2006 fastest lap: 2'00.061 (Haga, Yamaha) WSB lap record: 1'59.696 (Bayliss, Ducati) Circuit tel: +39 039 24821 Circuit website: www.monzanet.it
Alex Asigno
UFO Corse Yamaha mounted Spaniard Cristobal Guerrero produced two well deserved podium finishes at the GP of Portugal, staged in Marc de Canaveses, to once again show that he is the most exciting young talent in the Enduro 1 class in '07. Having claimed a career best result of fourth and third at his home round of the '07 WEC series, the GP of Spain, the former Enduro Junior World Champion placed in third and second in Portugal to claim his first ever double podium result.
With Finn Juha Salminen topping the E1 class results in Portugal as he has in both Spain and Sweden, it was Yamaha France rider Marc Germain who placed as runner-up on day one placing just under one and a half seconds ahead of Guerrero. Placing as runner-up in the three opening special tests on day one Cristobal set himself up well for a good result despite then falling in the opening enduro test. Despite his small mistake the Spaniard went on to perform consistently and placed a creditable third.
On day two Cristobal started in the best possible way by winning the first extreme test and in doing so made his intensions of another good result crystal clear. Going on to post the second fastest E1 class time on three of the day's tests Cristobal spent much of day two locked in a battle with Poland's Bartosz Oblucki. With little to separate the two riders Cristobal managed to claim the upper hand as the day neared its close and in beating Oblucki in the final three tests he ensured that he had done enough to claim the runner-up spot behind Juha Salminen and claim a career best result.
Also performing well in Portugal, despite failing to make it onto the podium on either day, was UFO Corse Yamaha rider Simone Albergoni. Fourth on both days Simone placed less than 11 seconds behind second placed rider Marc Germain on day one and then just 10 seconds away from team-mate Guerrero on day two. Performing well on the second and third laps on both days Simone's slow start to both days ultimately affected his results.
Disappointingly for the UFO Corse Yamaha team's third rider Maurizio Micheluz a seventh place finish on day one was followed by an 18th place finish on day two as the Italian's WR250 took water into its engine as he crossed a river. Due to losing time while working on drying out his bike's engine Maurizio received a 10 minute penalty, which dropped him to 18th position.    Cristobal Guerrero (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Third, Day 2 Second: "It's been a really good race for me and to finish on the podium on both days is fantastic. At the start of the season I wanted to finish inside the top five so finishing third on day one and second on the second day is great, I'm really happy with my results. I didn't have too many problems although I had a few small crashes on both days. The start of the season has been great so I hope I can continue to finish with good results."    Simone Albergoni (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Fourth, Day 2 Fourth: "My problem this weekend has been my first laps. On both days I was sleeping a little on the opening lap and lost some time there. After that I was able to find my rhythm and my speed. My problem was not being fast enough in the first lap. I won one test on day one and had some good times on both days but I can't afford to be slow on the first lap, not against a rider like Juha Salminen. My results weren't so bad but if my first laps were better then my result would have been better."    Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Seventh, Day 2 18th: "It's not been a good weekend for me. The first day wasn't so bad but I had a really bad extreme test on the second lap, which cost me a lot of time. Day two was a disaster. I managed to get some water into my engine on one of the river crossings and I took a 10 minute penalty trying to fix it. After that I had some ok tests but with a 10 minutes penalty there was no way I could get a good result. I finished so at least I took some points."   Circuit Length: 4555 Crowd: 6500 Weather: Sunny     2007 Enduro 1 Portugal 07/05/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Juha Salminen KTM FIN 44'17.800 2 Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 0'31.430 3 Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 0'32.800 4 Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 0'42.720 5 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 0'45.340 6 Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 0'48.040 7 Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 1'42.040 8 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 2'16.150 9 Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 2'31.150 10 Damien Miquel Kawasaki FRA 2'56.590 11 Luca Cherubini TM ITA 3'20.510 12 Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 3'32.720 13 Jordi Figueras KTM ESP 3'43.890 14 Joan Jou Yamaha ESP 3'48.930 15 Pedro Enes Yamaha POR 3'52.910
Race 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Juha Salminen KTM FIN 54'41.680 2 Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 0'40.090 3 Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 0'41.720 4 Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 0'48.940 5 Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 0'49.640 6 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 1'40.520 7 Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 3'21.860 8 Damien Miquel Kawasaki FRA 3'37.930 9 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 4'5.840 10 Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 4'48.490 11 Jordi Figueras KTM ESP 5'4.190 12 Pedro Enes Yamaha POR 5'13.450 13 Fernando Ferreira Yamaha POR 5'47.380 14 Joan Jou Yamaha ESP 5'50.460 15 Tim Lewis TM GBR 6'2.250 18 Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 12'31.120
Rider Standings 05/05/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Juha Salminen KTM FIN 150 2. Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 108 3. Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 104 4. Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 103 5. Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 98 6. Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 97 7. Mike Hartmann KTM GER 66 8. Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 66 9. Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 59 10. Damien Miquel Kawasaki FRA 40 11. Tomi Peltola Suzuki FIN 38 12. Frederik Georgsson KTM SWE 36 13. Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 36 14. Luca Cherubini TM ITA 34 15. Niklas Gustafsson KTM SWE 34
Manufacturer Standings 05/05/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. KTM 150 2. Yamaha 116 3. Husqvarna 104 4. Honda 69 5. Kawasaki 40 6. TM 40 7. Suzuki 38
RACE REPORT 07/05/2007 Johnny Aubert wins second consecutive GP    UFO Corse Yamaha rider Johnny Aubert claimed his second consecutive double Enduro 2 class win of the '07 World Enduro Championship season by twice topping the podium at the GP of Portugal, staged in Marco de Canaveses. With his confidence running high having claimed two impressive E2 class wins at the GP of Spain one week earlier Aubert opened up an early lead on day one, which was never headed.
Winning the first five tests of the opening day Aubert never looked like being beaten on his WR450 and despite constant pressure from reigning E2 world champion Samuli Aro, Finn Mika Ahola and Australian Stefan Merriman the former motocross racer remained in control and claimed a deserved win finishing just under 12 seconds ahead of his nearest rival. Putting his aggressive riding style to good work Aubert showed, as he did at the GP of Spain, that he has the speed to win the Enduro 2 world championship in '07. Placing second behind Aubert was Finn Mika Ahola who placed close to 30 seconds ahead of Merriman with Aro fourth.    On day two Aubert had to work a little harder for his victory, despite going on to win by close to 40 seconds. Placing eighth on the day's opening special test he then set about his winning ways topping seven of the day's 10 tests. Setting a pace that no other rider could match Aubert made light work of the rough, rutted and demanding special tests and finished the second day, as he had the first, as the fastest overall rider in the event.
As he did on day one Finn Mika Ahola placed in second to Aubert on day two with Samuli Aro claiming third. The UFO Corse Yamaha team's second E2 class rider Italian Fabrizio Dini placed in eighth on day one before moving one place higher with a seventh place result on day two.    Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1 First, Day 2 First: "At the beginning of the race I was a little bit nervous. I was looking forward to the race after winning last weekend and although I didn't feel 100 per cent relaxed from the start on the first day after a few special tests I felt good. I opened up a good lead and began to ride smooth. I crashed once in the motocross test, but I only lost a few seconds. "Day two also went well but I crashed twice in the extreme test, which cost me some time. I had to push hard all day and from the second lap on I felt good. It was a hard race though because the special tests got really rough. Winning both days in Spain was great and winning both days here in Portugal is just fantastic. I'm so happy, and a little surprised. I'm really looking forward to the Italian GP now."   Circuit Length: 4555 Crowd: 6500 Weather: Sunny     2007 Enduro 2 Portugal 07/05/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 43'55.040 2 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 0'11.190 3 Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 0'37.750 4 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 1'4.290 5 Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 1'22.640 6 Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 1'31.530 7 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 1'47.960 8 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 1'57.170 9 Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg FIN 2'15.520 10 Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 2'26.360 11 Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 3'3.170 12 Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 3'11.140 13 Nathan Kanney Husqvarna USA 4'16.300 14 Victor Oliveira HusaBerg POR 8'54.850 15 Vito Carvalho HusaBerg POR 11'7.910
Race 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 54'19.390 2 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 0'37.540 3 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 0'46.770 4 Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 1'26.430 5 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 2'3.350 6 Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 2'23.580 7 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 2'37.320 8 Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg FIN 2'44.220 9 Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 3'19.390 10 Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 3'53.020 11 Patrick Caps GasGas BEL 4'7.830 12 Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 4'15.470 13 Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 4'39.290 14 Felipe Zanol Yamaha ESP 10'16.420 15 Victor Oliveira HusaBerg POR 13'47.130
Rider Standings 05/05/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Mika Ahola Honda FIN 133 2. Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 132 3. Samuli Aro KTM FIN 123 4. Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 100 5. Fabien Planet KTM FRA 92 6. Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 77 7. Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 75 8. Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg FIN 67 9. Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 63 10. Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 55 11. Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 51 12. Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 51 13. Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 37 14. Nathan Kanney Husqvarna USA 35 15. Patrik Wicksell KTM SWE 33
Manufacturer Standings 05/05/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 133 2. Yamaha 132 3. KTM 125 4. Aprilia 101 5. Beta 77 6. HusaBerg 67 7. Husqvarna 62 8. Suzuki 55 9. Sherco 51 10. GasGas 32 11. BMW 12 12. TM 9
Alex Asigno
Yamaha's emphatic presence in the MX1 and MX2 World Championship continues as Yamaha Motocross Team's Josh Coppins won his third Grand Prix of the year and Yamaha De Carli's Antonio Cairoli maintained a 100% record with his fourth consecutive success at a sunny and warm Mantova circuit for the Italian round and the fourth meeting of fifteen in the FIM competition.
The Mantova layout had been altered slightly from the course that opened the off-road racing calendar in February. The track, with its rough, sandy terrain and many jumps, won praise from most of the riders for the challenge it offered. The facility is unique in the way it is compacted in a squared 'stadium' setting, allowing wide views of most of the circuit. The first MX1 moto was a collection of incidents. Marc De Reuver started brightly and held fourth position behind Coppins in the early stages. On a surge of confidence the Dutchman took off to challenge David Philippaerts for the lead but the pair collided in a tight left-hander and both went down. Ken de Dycker moved through to head a four rider group but Coppins attacked right away and the duo swapped positions for several laps until De Dycker faded. For the last third of the race Coppins was not overtaken, although Tanel Leok kept him close company; the 30 year old rode comfortably to his fifth triumph from seven motos. De Reuver re-started outside of the top ten and eventually took the chequered flag in a humble twenty-third and out of the points.
Coppins again faced the threat of De Dycker in the second sprint. The former team-mates tangled before the New Zealander backed off to observe his rival. After four laps he was able to regain ground on the Belgian and swiftly relegated the 22 year old to second spot. The Rinaldi squad were naturally thrilled with victory at their home Grand Prix and Coppins cited the triumph as the best of his career after battling some set-up problems on Saturday. Further good news lay in store when De Reuver (sporting a close-cut hairstyle instead of his traditional lengthy locks) crossed the line in third spot for his second top three MX1 moto finish with Yamaha. Tanel Leok in second place and Sebastien Pourcel in third both made their first appearances on the podium, Coppins was able to extend his lead in the MX1 series by 17 points over Kevin Strijbos (who was fourth overall) and now enjoys a 36 point advantage. De Reuver's efforts leave him tenth.
Josh Coppins, Yamaha Motocross Team: "I'm pretty happy. It is no secret that I don't like this track and it looked obvious yesterday but we worked hard with the team, and Yamaha were really smart and made some good decisions for me. We really improved the bike over the two days. I knew my race pace was good but I could not go that little bit extra for a flying lap. Today I had to be a little bit clever and head-strong and fight to the end. The first moto was crazy because a lot of guys were trying to win the race in the first ten minutes. I let them do their own thing. I almost got caught up with Marc when he fell and that was a near miss. I started to ride better after that and gave my best. I had a pretty good idea that I could pass Ken again in the second moto. He had a couple of better lines so I let him go but I wondered how much energy he had left and when he started to slow I was confident I could lead again. I think this is the best win ever for me simply because I have never done well at this track and today went much better than I expected."
Marc de Reuver, Yamaha Motocross Team: "I felt really good from the first practice and I really thought this was going to be my weekend. I got the first corners right in the first moto and moved into fifth. I found it really easy to overtake from there and got up to second place. I then got a bit over-excited when I wanted to pass Philippaerts. It was not totally my fault. It was just a racing accident. It took a while before we got untangled and I was at the back and really disappointed. In the second race my start was good and I wanted to follow Josh because it is easy to blow yourself up on this track if you go crazy. We both moved past Mike Brown, but Ken de Dycker came through. At the end he tired and I thought I might be able to get him but I made some mistakes and decided to have a safe finish. Third is not so bad and lifts my results and points in the right direction again."
Carlo Rinaldi, Team Manager, Yamaha Motocross Team: "It has been a very good home GP and I am very happy mainly because the weekend did not start in the best way. Josh did not feel very comfortable on this track and we struggled on Saturday to get him running well with the bike, so we were not expecting such a good race. Josh showed one of his very positive characteristics though and reacted strongly. With good starts he had the patience to wait for the right moment to attack and won both motos. About Marc, I am pleased because physically he is getting better and speed-wise he is there, but I was disappointed when he crashed in the first moto and threw away a big chance for the race win. He proved that he was ready to win, but maybe he wasn't patient enough and that's a pity. He made up for it with a consistent race in the second moto and third place was very good for him because he needs the points."   Temp: 26 Crowd: 29000 Weather: Sunny     2006 2007 GP of Mantova, Italy 06/05/2007 Race 1 - 19 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 40'20.318 2 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 0'10.494 3 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'16.085 4 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'29.880 5 James Noble Honda GBR 0'34.911 6 Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR 0'38.195 7 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 0'42.294 8 Gordon Crockard Honda IRL 0'46.664 9 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 0'49.336 10 Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 0'55.145 11 Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 1'10.513 12 Manuel Priem TM BEL 1'15.256 13 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 1'28.505 14 Mike Brown Honda USA 1'31.926 15 Julien Bill Kawasaki CHE 1'32.921 16 Alex Salvini Yamaha ITA 1'34.455 17 Christian Beggi Honda ITA 1'43.475 18 Antti Pyrhonen Kawasaki FIN 1'48.314 19 Marko Kovalainen Honda FIN 1'52.786 20 Christian Stevanini Yamaha ITA 1'56.134
Race 2 - 19 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 40'56.507 2 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 0'5.757 3 Marc De Reuver Yamaha NED 0'10.669 4 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'13.407 5 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 0'15.793 6 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 0'19.242 7 James Noble Honda GBR 0'28.599 8 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'39.096 9 Mike Brown Honda USA 0'49.588 10 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 0'59.306 11 Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 1'3.127 12 Gordon Crockard Honda IRL 1'6.985 13 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 1'21.234 14 Pierre A. Renet Honda FRA 1'25.998 15 Antti Pyrhonen Kawasaki FIN 1'43.079 16 Marko Kovalainen Honda FIN 1'45.801 17 Thomas Allier Kawasaki FRA 1'57.507 18 Christian Beggi Honda ITA 2'28.389 19 Julien Bill Kawasaki CHE -1 Laps 20 Scott Columb Suzuki NZL -1 Laps
Rider Standings 06/05/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 194 2. Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 158 3. Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 116 4. Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 106 5. Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 103 6. Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 100 7. Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 98 8. James Noble Honda GBR 91 9. Mike Brown Honda USA 81 10. Marc De Reuver Yamaha NED 80 11. David Philippaerts KTM ITA 74 12. Manuel Priem TM BEL 70 13. Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 63 14. Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 62 15. Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR 61 16. Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 45 17. Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 45 18. Thomas Allier Kawasaki FRA 35 19. Gordon Crockard Honda IRL 32 20. Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 27
Manufacturer Standings 06/05/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Yamaha 194 2. Suzuki 165 3. KTM 140 4. Honda 129 5. Kawasaki 127 6. TM 70 7. Aprilia 2
RACE REPORT 06/05/2007 Cairoli scores quartet of GP wins
The traditionally enthusiastic crowd were driven wild by Cairoli's third clean-sweep of both motos this season. The Sicilian, on the De Carli tuned YZ250F, has now won five from six and finished second in the other race categories, winnig all GP's thusfar in the 2007 season. Antonio was so dominant in his qualification heat Saturday that he could afford to make a good show for the crowd over the many Mantova jumps, he blitzed the first Grand Prix moto and held a lead of four seconds by the end of the second lap. From that point onwards the 2005 World Champion raced the track alone with the cheers of his many fans for company.   He repeated his excellence in the second race and his sheer speed on the opening lap after another ideal start was the deciding factor in delivering his fifteenth career success. There is little more to say about Cairoli's form this season except that the 21 year old is currently operating in a different league to his peers. His increased his margin to 55 points which means that he can afford two DNFs and still be leading the championship. With Tyla Rattray and Tommy Searle filling the other two podium steps Yamaha's next best placed representative was Yamaha Team Ricci's talent Nicolas Aubin with sixth overall. The French youngster - who looked so stylish over the table-top jumps - was eleventh and sixth in the two motos.
Team-mate Kenneth Gundersen ran as high as fourth for long stretches of the first moto but was passed by an energetic Gareth Swanepoel. His fifth position would be his only finish of the day as a heavy crash after landing awkwardly from a double jump forced the Norwegian to retire with a bruised left side of his body. Davide Guarneri was back in action and attempting his first Grand Prix of the season after sustaining an ankle injury. The Italian could not continue after his gear lever was smashed in the first moto but took a conservative thirteenth in the second outing. Both Bike it Yamaha Dixon Racing rider's score points today. Martin Barr completed the best weekend of his short GP career (started with appearances in 2006) by taking thirteenth overall with twelfth and fifteenth positions. British Champion Carl Nunn is coming back to full fitness and should have had a top ten result after running near the first five in the opening moto but slipped off and took four points for seventeenth. He was hit by another rider on the first lap of the second Moto and had to pit to change a bent rear brake lever. He finished the race, but out of the points.
Antonio Cairoli, Team De Carli Yamaha: "I am really happy with this race and I feel very good with my riding and also mentally. I had a great feeling with the bike at this track even though we made some changes for the second heat and I could win that race even easier. It helped to have pole position from Saturday as I could hold the inside line even if I did not get away in first from the gate. I was surprised that Christophe could not go with me in the second moto but after two laps I saw that I had a good enough gap and could control it from there. It was an important race for me as I know Motocross is getting more popular now in Italy; I have many fans and I'm really happy about this and to be able to win for them is fantastic."
Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha Team Ricci: "Sixth overall was not so bad today as my goal is to always be in the top ten. The first race my start was not very good but I could not find my rhythm and struggled to get the good lines. Things were better in the second race but I was on the limit sometimes and close to crashing. I got near to Searle but couldn't find a way through. I dropped back to get my rhythm going again and pushed hard to overtake but then crashed. I was lucky that the bike kept running and there was no damage."
Kenneth Gundersen, Yamaha Team Ricci: "In the first race I had a good start but got a bit tired towards the end so I thought I would make sure of fifth and see what I could do in the second moto. I had a poor start when we went out again but I was coming through well and reached the top ten before the crash. I'm sure the overall result would have been good but I just lost control."
The fifth meeting of the year takes place in just seven days time with the Grand Prix of Germany at the Talkessel circuit in Teutschenthal. The teams will cut through Europe this week to head to the east of the country and the venue near the city of Halle.   Temp: 27 Crowd: 29000 Weather: Sunny   2006 2007 GP of Mantova, Italy 06/05/2007 Race 1 - 19 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 40'29.827 2 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 0'8.985 3 Tommy Searle KTM GBR 0'11.718 4 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'13.575 5 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 0'32.325 6 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 0'41.013 7 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 0'46.640 8 Sean Hamblin Suzuki USA 0'55.326 9 Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 0'56.844 10 Marcus Schiffer KTM GER 0'57.270 11 Nicolas Aubin Yamaha FRA 0'57.807 12 Martin Barr Yamaha GBR 1'7.415 13 Dennis Verbruggen Yamaha BEL 1'13.097 14 Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 1'17.216 15 Rui Goncalves KTM POR 1'18.799 16 Xavier Boog Yamaha FRA 1'25.239 17 Carl Nunn Yamaha GBR 1'29.917 18 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 1'32.600 19 Gregory Aranda Kawasaki FRA 1'34.173 20 Shaun Simpson Kawasaki GBR 1'36.827
Race 2 - 19 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 41'12.692 2 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 0'15.981 3 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 0'19.661 4 Tommy Searle KTM GBR 0'21.469 5 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'22.998 6 Nicolas Aubin Yamaha FRA 0'45.140 7 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 0'51.466 8 Rui Goncalves KTM POR 1'0.340 9 Sean Hamblin Suzuki USA 1'6.121 10 Marcus Schiffer KTM GER 1'6.449 11 Shaun Simpson Kawasaki GBR 1'8.807 12 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 1'16.883 13 Davide Guarneri Yamaha ITA 1'21.212 14 Avis Wyatt KTM RSA 1'25.093 15 Martin Barr Yamaha GBR 1'25.739 16 Dennis Verbruggen Yamaha BEL 1'26.468 17 Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 1'41.997 18 Gregory Aranda Kawasaki FRA 1'45.542 19 Matteo Bonini Yamaha ITA 2'0.415 20 Jeremy Tarroux Yamaha FRA -1 Laps
Rider Standings 06/05/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 197 2. Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 142 3. Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 137 4. Tommy Searle KTM GBR 117 5. Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 110 6. Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 107 7. Nicolas Aubin Yamaha FRA 94 8. Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 91 9. Matti Seistola Honda FIN 78 10. Marcus Schiffer KTM GER 70 11. Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 58 12. Anthony Boissière Kawasaki FRA 57 13. Erik Eggens Suzuki NED 54 14. Xavier Boog Yamaha FRA 46 15. Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 45 16. Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 45 17. Matteo Bonini Yamaha ITA 42 18. Dennis Verbruggen Yamaha BEL 35 19. Sean Hamblin Suzuki USA 35 20. Shaun Simpson Kawasaki GBR 34 21. Carl Nunn Yamaha GBR 31 29. Davide Guarneri Yamaha ITA 8
Manufacturer Standings 06/05/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Yamaha 197 2. Kawasaki 165 3. KTM 161 4. Honda 115 5. Suzuki 82
Alex Asigno
Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi fought a race-long battle with Casey Stoner during the Grand Prix of China today, the pair providing a thrilling spectacle until the 16th lap when Rossi was forced to concede victory to the Australian after a small mistake. Despite starting from the front row alongside pole-sitter Rossi, Colin Edwards had a less successful day as he suffered tyre problems from the start and dropped steadily down the order, eventually finishing a disappointing 11th.
John Hopkins took the lead into turn one but Rossi passed him on the first lap to cross the line in front. Edwards however had already slipped down to sixth and was unable to make up anymore ground from then on. By lap three Rossi had dropped behind both Stoner and Marco Melandri but before long Rossi had despatched his fellow countryman and set off after Stoner, eliciting a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse which kept everyone on the edge of their seats. Rossi's M1 worked perfectly throughout and the Italian was never more than a few tenths down on Stoner, exploiting the agility and corner speed of his Yamaha in the earlier sections to close the gap and often pass Stoner, but relinquishing ground down the long back straight where the Ducati had the advantage.
The pair kept up a blistering pace and only Hopkins could stay with them, closing the gap to half a second at one point in pursuit of his first podium. With seven laps to go and Rossi doing everything in his powers to find a way to make a pass stick on Stoner, the Yamaha rider made a mistake braking into the hairpin at the end of the back straight and ran off the track, letting Hopkins through. Rossi kept fighting and was able to pass the American back again to consolidate second place, but Stoner was too far ahead and took the flag three seconds in front. Edwards, meanwhile, had a difficult race as his package failed to work today and he was una ble to use the potential of his Yamaha, crossing the line 35 seconds behind the winner.    Valentino Rossi Position: 2ndTime: +3.036 "I enjoyed today a lot, it was a great race, a really exciting battle and my Yamaha was fantastic to the end. We knew that this track would be difficult for us so to be able to fight with Stoner at 100% for the entire race was a great feeling. Of course it's not a win, but I think second place is a very good result for us here. I didn't want to give up and just ride for second, I wanted to try to pass him and I made some good overtaking manoeuvres but wasn't able to stay in front down the straight. Then I made a mistake when I hit a bump when braking, had to release the brake and ran off track. It was a pity, but when you're riding on the limit lap after lap then things like this can happen; that's racing! Anyway I knew I couldn't give up, I had a nice battle with John and then was able to take second. I think these twenty points are really important and we're still second in the championship. I'm really more sad for what happened in Turkey because if we hadn't had the problem there then I might have been level with Stoner in the championship now. But the season is long and now we have several races in Europe at some of my favourite tracks and I think we're in good shape for them!"
Colin Edwards Position: 11thTime: +35.053 "I don't have much positive stuff to say about today's race! I had hoped that I would be able to try for a podium but right from the start I didn't have any rear grip and it was all I could do to keep it upright throughout the race. I genuinely believe that our bike is the best on the grid and I've never felt happier with it, but unfortunately the package as a whole isn't working for me at the moment and we need to understand why. I had a slightly different tyre to Valentino but he really showed his class again today. I just want to forget about this race and look forward to Le Mans, where I've always gone well." Davide Brivio - Team Director "If you had told us before we got here that we would take second place, we would have been happy with that. Then of course on Friday and Saturday we realised that we could in fact battle for the victory! Valentino was perfect today and he couldn't have done anything better. His mistake was due to his fighting spirit, his refusal to give up and his will to fight until the end; this is the mark of a champion. We showed we have huge potential, we lack a little bit of top speed and we must improve the performance of the engine so this is what we will be working on in the next few weeks. Colin showed with his performance yesterday that he has the ability to do well this season, but he used a different tyre and a different set-up to Valentino and unfortunately it didn't work for him today. Valentino and Yamaha are in perfect shape and Colin has proved that he too can do great things when everything's working well for him. The championship is still young and we will keep on fighting like we did today."
Season best result for Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team
The Yamaha Tech 3 Team scored its best result of the year to date as Sylvain Guintoli finished in 13th position at the Grand Prix of China held in Shanghai. The result for the team could have been a lot better but unfortunately, his team mate Makoto Tamada was involved in an accident on the fourth lap of the race with fellow Japanese rider Shinya Nakano which forced his retirement. Among the positives that the team will take to the next Grand Prix is the fact that Sylvain was able to stay with defending world champion, Nicky Hayden, for several laps.    Sylvain Guintoli Position: 13thTime: +50.705 I'm very happy with the race and the weekend. It was a good boost for me to be so close to Nicky for so long after he was caught up in that first lap incident and I had a lot of fun racing with him. Unfortunately I made a little mistake towards the end of the race that allowed the gap to open up. Anyway, I am satisfied as the weekend didn't start very well as we had a lot more trouble than Jerez and Turkey to get the right tyre but we worked hard and managed to find a good tyre for the race. At the end of the day it is my best result in MotoGP, I was able to follow Rossi for a couple of laps during practice learning a few things and I managed to stay with the world champion for half the race so this has given me a good boost of confidence for my home Grand Prix in Le Mans in two weeks time. I am really looking forward to that and after testing with Dunlop and the Yamaha Tech 3 Team last year feel that the tyres should work well there and it a track I particularly like so hopefully I can score some more good points in front of my home crowd.
Makoto Tamada Position: DNF It was a shame my race only lasted three laps as I had a very good feeling with the bike and the tyres. I felt that this was going to be the best race of the year for me so far I am very disappointed that I crashed as we had good speed but I am also sorry for Shinya. I wasn't expecting to be going to pass him then but he was going a lot slower than I thought. I tried to avoid him by diving for the inside to take the corner but unfortunately we hit and we both went down and my bike was too badly damaged to continue The tyres are also getting better so I am feeling better on the bike everytime I ride it. Hopefully we can continue the progress at the next race and I can get a good result for myself and the team.
Herve Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Director It wasn't such a bad weekend for us but firstly I would like to say that we have to qualify better because during the entire weekend, apart for the last 30 minutes of the qualifying session, we were always quicker than a few riders who eventually qualified in front of us. Once we get to the race we go back to the same pace we had during the practices. Makoto was catching and passing a few guys and doing very well. He had a great start, was very aggressive but wasn't involved in the first lap crash. He was up to 11th as he was able to catch and pass a few riders but unfortunately - and we apologise to Shinya Nakano and his team - he was caught a bit by surprise as he was a lot faster but he didn't expect Shinya to brake so early at the end of the back straight and hit him from behind. It's a pity because when we see what Sylvain has done it was possible to have both riders score some good points. For myself personally, the best part of the weekend was Sylvain as he managed to stay right behind the world champion, Nicky Hayden for over 10 laps turning in the same lap times and this will be excellent for his confidence. He showed to many in the MotoGP paddock that he can race with anyone. The work we did at Istanbul is paying off so I hope that we will have many people come and support us at our home Grand Prix at Le Mans in two weeks time.   Circuit Length: 5451 Temp: 23 Weather: Dry     2007 MotoGP China - Shanghai 06/05/2007 Race 1 - 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 44'12.891 2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 0'3.036 3 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 0'6.663 4 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 0'14.090 5 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 0'17.276 6 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 0'26.256 7 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 0'26.591 8 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 0'27.025 9 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 0'28.108 10 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 0'32.957 11 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 0'35.053 12 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 0'37.327 13 Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 0'50.705 14 Alex Barros Ducati BRA 0'55.264 15 Kenny Roberts KR212V USA 0'57.736
Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'59.857
 Rider Standings 06/05/2007 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 86 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 71 3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 49 4. Marco Melandri Honda ITA 41 5. John Hopkins Suzuki USA 39 6. Toni Elias Honda ESP 35 7. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 31 8. Nicky Hayden Honda USA 30 9. Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 30 10. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 30 11. Alex Barros Ducati BRA 27 12. Carlos Checa Honda ESP 20 13. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 19 14. Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 19 15. Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 15 16. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 6 17. Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 4
Team Standings 06/05/2007 Pos. Team Points 1. Ducati Marlboro Team 116 2. FIAT Yamaha Team 102 3. Repsol Honda Team 79 4. Honda Gresini 76 5. Rizla Suzuki 69 6. Pramac D'Antin 46 7. Kawasaki Racing Team 23 8. Honda LCR 20 9. Konica Minolta Honda 15 10. Tech3 Yamaha 10 11. Team Roberts 4
Manufacturer Standings 06/05/2007 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Ducati 86 2. Yamaha 71 3. Honda 69 4. Suzuki 46 5. Kawasaki 23 6. KR212V 4
Alex Asigno
An incredible flying lap from Valentino Rossi saw the Fiat Yamaha Team rider take his third pole of the season in China this afternoon, the Italian bettering last year's pole time by more than half a second with a perfect lap around the 5.2km Shanghai International Circuit. For the third time this season Rossi is also joined on the front row by his team-mate Colin Edwards, who qualified third, with the Yamaha pair separated by Edwards' fellow American John Hopkins.
The promised rain once again failed to appear and the hour-long qualifying session was played out on a dry track with the clouds giving way to bright sunshine by the end. The first 45 minutes passed busily for the Yamaha duo, who were intent on using all the available time to fine-tune their set-up and gather information about tyres before concentrating on their qualifying laps in the final stages. Edwards' first run with a soft Michelin qualifying tyre moved him close to the top of the order but it was Rossi's first flying lap that left everyone amazed, the Italian completing a faultless lap right on the limit of his Yamaha's capabilities to put in an incredible time of 1'58.424. Edwards' second flying lap was good enough to move him into second but he was eventually pushed down one place by Hopkins. Although Rossi's lap proved well out of the striking distance of his rivals, he showed it was no fluke by going within 0.1 seconds of his own time on his second qualifying tyre just minutes later.    Valentino Rossi Position: 1stTime: 1'58.424Laps: 24 "That was sincerely an incredibly exciting feeling for me; to ride my M1 right on the limit and make such a perfect lap at 100%. When I saw the time on the television I was quite surprised because I didn't know it was that fast, but I had pushed the bike to the maximum and I knew that it was a good lap. I had great grip from my Michelin qualifying tyre and my Yamaha worked perfectly, so a big thank you to everyone involved. I was able to arrive at every corner very fast and to brake at the last possible moment; a couple of times I was worried I was too late but every time my bike responded perfectly and I had great grip. I felt a lot of adrenalin from this lap! Despite both of us being on the front row, maybe we're not favourites for tomorrow and the race is a very different story. Anyway we've all done very well today. We need to make a couple more small modifications to the setting and then we will just hope for good weather again, a good start and a good race."    Colin Edwards Position: 3rdTime: 1'59.406Laps: 18 "Well done to the team, once again they've done a really good job, worked their tails off and here we are again on the front row alongside Valentino. The qualifying tyres are working really well this year and with the extra grip they give us we can really push hard. As for the race setting, we've changed a few things with the geometry today and it seems to have improved things a fair bit, although we've still got to make a final decision with regards to the race tyre. It's always going to be a little bit of a gamble but hopefully we'll make the right choice. The bike feels very good and a podium is definitely a realistic aim, but it's going to be a very long and hard race. Starting from the front row will be pretty important here and hopefully we can make the most of this advantage, avoid any repeats of the first-lap pile-up in Turkey and try to better last year's podium!"
Davide Brivio - Team Director "It's great for the team to have both riders on the front row once again, after the problems we had last year it's very encouraging that this is becoming a regular occurrence. When everything is working well our riders are always at the top so this shows the great potential of our package. Valentino's lap was exceptional today and Colin is also in good shape and riding very well; we're especially happy for him to be on the front row again after his unlucky crash in Turkey. Despite this qualifying result we know that tomorrow's race is going to be very difficult and our riders will have to fight at 100% throughout it. The team have done a great job and now they just need to make a few final preparations in the morning and then we'll be ready for an exciting race!"    2007 MotoGP China - Shanghai 05/05/2007 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'58.424 2 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 1'59.315 3 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'59.406 4 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'59.516 5 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'59.602 6 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 1'59.863 7 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1'59.985 8 Alex Barros Ducati BRA 2'0.052 9 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 2'0.087 10 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 2'0.157 11 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 2'0.175 12 Toni Elias Honda ESP 2'0.205 13 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 2'0.319 14 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 2'0.369 15 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 2'0.680 17 Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 2'1.157 18 Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 2'1.178
Alex Asigno
A weekend of close racing beckons at the Grand Prix of China as the first day of practice finished with the top fourteen MotoGP riders separated by less than a second in Shanghai today. Fiat Yamaha team-mates Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards were right in the mix and ended the day sixth and seventh fastest respectively in the combined standings, with Edwards just 0.2 seconds off the day's fastest time, set by John Hopkins.
With rain forecast for the afternoon this morning's Free Practice looked like being a crucial one and Rossi got things off to a strong start by finishing third fastest. Despite overcast skies and humid conditions however the rain stayed away and this afternoon's practice remained dry throughout, giving the riders further time to concentrate on set-up and tyre work with Michelin, conscious that bad weather could still arrive tomorrow to play havoc during Qualifying. Both riders were pleased with how quickly they were able to adapt their YZR-M1's to the demands of the stop-and-go circuit and will aim to make further improvements tomorrow, aware that every tiny advantage here could spell the key to success over their rivals.     Valentino Rossi Position: 6thTime: 2'01.390Laps: 47 "I'm not so happy with sixth position but the difference from the top is very small, only 0.18 seconds, and so the actual time is not so bad. All the riders are very close and already you can see that it's going to be a hard battle. For this reason we have to find every millimetre of difference in every corner of the track in order to have an advantage and it's also going to be important to start from the front. We're working hard to get the bike in the best possible shape but I can already ride my M1 quite well. We are missing a little bit of top speed on the straight but we're obviously making it up in other areas of the track where our bike is strong, because our overall times are similar to our rivals. Of course we've also been working closely with Michelin on the tyres and tomorrow we have a few more things to try; a couple of possibilities remain for us and from them we will decide our final race tyre. We were lucky with the weather today because we were waiting for rain but now it looks like it will come tomorrow or on Sunday instead. It's a pity; of course it's always better to race in the dry but we have had success here before under the rain and I think our bike is fast in the wet this year so lets wait and see."  
Colin Edwards Position: 7thTime: 2'01.409Laps: 46 "I've got a small engine modification to try here but actually I only managed a few laps with it at the end of the second session today. Tomorrow we'll use it a bit more and see how we get on with that. Anyway my time wasn't too bad today; it's ridiculously close amongst the top group so it looks like we could see some pretty exciting racing this weekend! I feel pretty good overall - we made a small modification to the geometry this afternoon and that's improved things a bit and we've got a couple more ideas just to finally tweak the setting a little more tomorrow. As for the tyres, we've found something good but we've got a couple more things to check before we make our final decision about the race tyre. However what we can do tomorrow might well depend on the weather!"
Davide Brivio - Team Director "All the riders are very close today so it's going to be very important to really fine-tune the bike and try to find the perfect setting. We've got both Valentino and Colin in the first group of riders and so far the bike seems to be working quite well for both of them. Now we need to work on the final tyre selection for both riders. Today we were expecting some rain but luckily it didn't come and we were able to use all the practice time we had. Now it looks like tomorrow could be wet so the information we got today is going to be very important for us."   Circuit Length: 5451 Temp: 24 Weather: Hazy     2007 MotoGP China - Shanghai 04/05/2007 Free Practice Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 2'1.204 2 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 2'1.303 3 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 2'1.333 4 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 2'1.346 5 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 2'1.365 6 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 2'1.390 7 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 2'1.409 8 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 2'1.460 9 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 2'1.771 10 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 2'1.881 11 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 2'1.896 12 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 2'1.991 13 Alex Barros Ducati BRA 2'2.051 14 Toni Elias Honda ESP 2'2.114 15 Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 2'2.242 17 Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 2'2.768
Alex Asigno
The World Superbike Championship goes to Assen this weekend and with Queen’s Day falling on the Monday after the race the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team will be celebrating this Dutch national holiday by wearing special team clothing over the weekend.
Queen’s Day, or Koninginnedag as it is called in Dutch, is a day of celebration of the Dutch monarchy. Queen Juliana started the festival on the date of her birthday (30th April) and when Queen Beatrix succeeded the throne in 1980 she kept the same celebration date as the weather on her own birthday in January often prohibited outdoor festivities.
The team shirts are orange and feature the Dutch coat of arms and will be worn by all team personnel in the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team. These shirts have been provided by team sponsor and clothing manufacturer DayGas Krum.Hero.
“Race day at Assen is the day before Queen’s Day, when most of the Dutch population will be wearing orange. I’m sure that the Dutch crowd in Assen will appreciate the team for wearing a very appropriate uniform on this special occasion!” said Leon Oosterhof, Racing Communications Manager at Yamaha Motor Europe’s Racing Division.     In preparation for the weekend celebrations, staff and riders from the World Superbike and Supersport teams visited the Yamaha Motor Europe’s head offices this week. During their two hour visit, Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga from the Superbike team along with Broc Parkes from the Supersport team answered questions from staff at Yamaha Motor Europe as well as signing shirts and memorabilia, prior to traveling to Assen for the fifth round of the World Superbike Championship. In addition, all employees were given one of the limited edition team shirts to proudly wear this weekend at the races.
Talking about the visit, Leon said, “There are many Yamaha Motor Europe employees that follow Yamaha’s teams and riders in the World Superbike and World Supersport Championships. Many are passionate about racing and this was the perfect opportunity for them to meet the riders and teams in person and ask them questions. It was also nice for the teams to visit Yamaha's European headquarters and get an impression of all the activities and the atmosphere.”
Alex Asigno
Following on from the injuries Kevin Curtain sustained at Valencia, fellow Australian Steve Martin will ride as a replacement in the Yamaha World Supersport Team at this weekend’s Assen round.
Martin has ridden for the DFX Honda Team for the first four rounds of the World Superbike Championship this season, but the team has since informed him that they are unable to give him the opportunity to ride in Assen. The Yamaha World Supersport Team has snapped up this highly experienced rider to maintain the pace and work alongside Broc Parkes while Kevin recovers from his injuries.    Curtain suffered ripped muscles and a large cut in his right thigh when his bike hit him during a race incident at the Spanish round less than two weeks ago. He has certain limitations in muscle movement as well as hip pain and has flown home to Australia to rest and recover. It is hoped that he will be back with the Yamaha World Supersport Team at the next round at Monza on 13th May.
Steve Martin has a proven track record with over ten years experience in the World Superbike Championship including 168 race starts, 3 pole positions and 5 podium finishes. He knows the Assen circuit well and is looking forward to a positive weekend at Assen.
Steve says, “I can’t believe the way this all came about, but when Kevin also asked me personally to fill in for him I was in shock as it was the last phone call I was expecting. No one likes to fill in under these circumstances, especially when it’s one of your mates, but I will do the best job possible to help Kevin, Broc and the Yamaha World Supersport Team.
I know the team and they are very professional so I’m sure they will make it as easy as possible for me in every way. Already from the small dealings I have had with them I feel more settled than I have all year.”
Martin’s career highlights include winning the Australian Superbike Championship in 1999 and he has a wealth of experience across many types of manufacturers and championships. Prior to Pirelli becoming the single tyre supplier to the WSB/ WSS championships Steve had been a development rider for them for several years. With his versatile background Steve is expected to adapt swiftly to the Yamaha YZF-R6.
Alex Asigno
After the disappointment of an unrewarding weekend in Istanbul, the Fiat Yamaha Team take their quest for glory even further east this week as the MotoGP World Championship points-chase stops off in Shanghai. The Grand Prix of China is the fourth round of eighteen on this year's gruelling calendar and it promises to be one of the most challenging, with the horsepower-sapping nature of the circuit and the unpredictable weather of the world's ninth largest city sure to play their part.
The past two visits to Shanghai have provided almost polar extremes in the conditions, with a torrential downpour virtually flooding the circuit in the inaugural event of 2005 and then the intense heat of a year ago, when ambient temperatures during the race touched 31ºC, presenting an altogether different challenge. The event has also seen stark contrasts in fortunes for Valentino Rossi, who navigated his way to victory ahead of Olivier Jacque two years ago but suffered front tyre problems in the heat-wave of 2006 and was forced to retire from the race.
Colin Edwards provided some cheer for the team last year by clinching third place in what would prove to be his only podium finish of the campaign. This year the Texan heads to China with a rostrum already under his belt, thanks to his third place at Jerez, following an encouraging start to the season that was only spoiled by an unfortunate crash in Turkey, when he was knocked out of the leading group by another rider on the first lap. Edwards suffered a cut and swollen knee in the incident and was forced to skip a day of testing at Istanbul Park last Monday but he will be fit to resume action in Friday morning's opening free practice session.
Despite being drawn by the same hand as the Istanbul Park Circuit in Turkey, Shanghai has different characteristics that bring to mind closer comparisons with the other Herman Tilke circuit of Sepang. Combining fast straights and hard braking zones with a series of slow and difficult corners, bike set-up is a question of finding a compromised balance and enough horsepower to deal with the longest straight on the calendar, measuring 1202 metres. The unpredictable conditions and mixed data from previous seasons mean grip levels will be a complete mystery, making life even more difficult for Michelin's engineers as they try to adapt to new tyre restrictions in the most demanding of circumstances.
Valentino Rossi - "Mixed memories but clear focus" Valentino Rossi heads to Shanghai with his mind still fully focused on the job despite tyre problems at Istanbul and in this race last year. Other than when he fell and re-mounted to take 14th at Jerez last season, tenth place in Turkey was the Italian's worst-ever dry weather result since his rookie premier-class season in 2000 and he is keen to make amends this Sunday.
"We had a bad result in Turkey which we weren't expecting after being on pole, but Michelin have been working very hard to understand what went wrong and to ensure that it won't happen again," says Rossi. "We had a good test on Monday and tried a lot of new tyre combinations with China in mind, so we are going there with some ideas about what we think will work. Now it's a case of making what is hopefully the right tyre choice and then seeing how things go on Friday morning.
"Last year we had a big problem in China and I couldn't finish the race, but in 2005 I had a great victory there in the wet so I have some nice memories of this track as well as some bad ones! We know it's not ideal for our bike and maybe they're going to have to split the main straight in two - one part for Ducati and one part for the rest of us! Joking aside though, it's a very long straight and we know that we're going to lack some top speed on it but the new engine modifications we had in Turkey worked well and there's a good improvement, so hopefully it won't be too serious. We're second in the championship and we've lost a few points so we need to aim for a podium to get back on track."  
Colin Edwards - "Punching back!" Colin Edwards insists he will be back up and fighting in China despite being knocked to the canvas on the first lap of the Grand Prix of Turkey. The Texan has boxed clever throughout testing and the opening three rounds of the season to give himself an optimum chance of success this season and he is hoping his excellent relationship with Michelin can pay dividends in a race that will place huge emphasis on tyre choice. "Turkey was a real shame because I felt I could have challenged for a podium, but that's racing and there's no point getting angry and stewing over it," reflects Edwards. "I didn't test on Monday because my knee was pretty painful but a few days resting up at home has helped a lot and it's feeling a lot better. After starting the season pretty well it was disappointing to have such a bad time in Turkey for the team but that's our 'bogey' circuit and now we're looking forward to punching back in China! "Shanghai last year was good for me and I ended up on the podium and of course I'm aiming to repeat that with improvement this year! We know it's going to be a tricky track for us with the long straight but hopefully we can make it up on the other parts of the track. Again the tyres are going to be a big factor but Valentino and Michelin worked seriously hard on Monday in Turkey, while I was chair-bound, and I think they've got some good plans about what's going to work."  
Davide Brivio - "Defence the priority" Fiat Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio says his riders face an uphill challenge in their battle for honours this weekend and admits the onus will be on defence rather than attack in the final 'flyaway' race before the start of the European term. The Italian pinpoints the long straights of Shanghai as a potential sticking point for the YZR-M1 but says his team are putting their faith in a new direction of development with Michelin tyres - aimed at an assault on the top positions during the decisive run of races up to summer.
"Turkey was disappointing but at the same time very important to get information and data about where the limit of the tyres is with these new bikes and where they can be improved," says Brivio. "We had a very good meeting with Michelin and developed some ideas during the test last Monday. Time will tell but it seems we have identified a new direction to work in and we are all keen to get to China to verify those ideas and help Michelin find a tyre that is most suitable for our bike and for our riders' style.
"China will be a very difficult race for us because of the long straight. It is not a track that allows us to maximise the potential of our bike, which is perhaps stronger at smaller, more 'rideable' circuits. We really have to go there and defend as much as possible and focus on getting the bike and tyres ready to attack when we return to Europe once more. Hopefully then we can be back fighting for the victory."  
Valentino Rossi : Information Age: 28 Lives: London, UK Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 GP victories: 85 (59 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc) First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc) GP starts: 177 (117 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 47 World Championships: 7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP)
Colin Edwards: Information Age: 33 Lives: Conroe, Texas Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 First GP: Japón, 2003 (MotoGP) GP starts: 69 x MotoGP World Championships: 2 World Superbike
Shanghai: Lap Record D.Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'59.318
Shanghai: Best Lap D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'59.009
Grand Prix Results: Shanghai 2006 1. D. Pedrosa (Honda) 44'07.734 2. N. Hayden (Honda) +1.505 3. C. Edwards (Yamaha) +14.634
. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha DNF
Alex Asigno
UFO Corse Yamaha rider Simone Albergoni put his disappointing result at the opening round of the '07 World Enduro Championship series behind him at round two of the series staged in Puerta Lumbreras, Spain, where the Italian placed in third and second position in the Enduro 1 class. Feeling completely at home on his WR250, and having recorded some strong results in the opening rounds of the Italian Enduro Championship ahead of the Spanish event, Simone showed that despite his frustrating start to the WEC series he now has the speed to battle for E1 class victory.
With conditions much different to those found at the series' opening winter enduro in Sweden, day one proved to be extremely difficult in places as a result of heavy rain on Friday evening. Leaving each of the events three special tests extremely slippery it was Finn Juha Salminen who managed to deal with conditions the best and claimed victory ahead of Italian Alessandro Belometti with Albergoni 10 seconds behind in third. Winning the third timed test of the day had it not been for a costly mistake in the day's eighth timed tests Simone would have placed as runner-up. Following Albergoni home on day one, and finishing less than half a second behind his more experienced team-mate, was Spaniard Cristobal Guerrero. Encouraged by his home crowd Guerrero, like Albergoni, topped one special test to claim his best result since winning the Enduro Junior world championship in '05.
On day two it was again Finn Salminen that set the pace winning all but four of the day's special tests in the E1 class. But behind the six-time enduro world champion both Simone Albergoni and Cristobal Guerrero managed to get ahead of Alessandro Belometti to claim the runner-up and third place positions respectively. With Albergoni winning two special tests to place 28 seconds behind Salminen. Guerrero again placed less than one second behind his team-mate in third. In finishing third Cristobal claimed his first ever podium finish in senior WEC competition. Disappointingly for the UFO Corse Yamaha team's third E1 class rider Maurizio Micheluz the second round of the '07 WEC series didn't go as well as the Italian had hoped. Having shown good speed in the Italian championship Maurizio struggled to get to grips with the conditions and as a result placed in seventh on both days.  
Simone Albergoni (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 third, Day 2 second: "I am really pleased with the way the GP of Spain has gone because the first round of the championship in Sweden was terrible. I am really happy because I now have a good feeling with the bike and am able to push hard. Finishing third on day one was really good. The start of the season was difficult for me because I struggled to adjust to my Yamaha as quickly as I hoped I would, but now I am really pleased with the performance of the bike. "The second day was tough - there were several riders that we really fast so to finish second is great. I had a really good fight with my team-mate Cristobal Guerrero, which was good. I am much happier with my result and the way I am riding."
Cristobal Guerrero (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Fourth, Day 2 Third: "It's been a great weekend for me and my first podium finish in the WEC since I won the Enduro Junior championship in '05. On day one I missed the podium by one second, which was disappointing but at the same time it was good to know that my speed was good enough to fight with the riders at the top of the class. I only made one crash so it was a good day. "Day two was really tough. The tests were much rougher than on day one and it was really close between myself, Simone Albergoni, Bartosz Oblucki and Alessandro Albergoni. I could have finished second but Simone finished less than one second ahead of me. I am really pleased with the way the weekend has gone. I'm looking forward to Portugal now."
Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Seventh, Day 2 Seventh: "It's been a bad weekend for me. I didn't feel good on the bike and just didn't have a good feeling with the special tests. I finished seventh on both days, which isn't good. I crashed many times on day one and things weren't much better on day two. I hope things will be better in Portugal."   Temp: 20 Crowd: 5600 Weather: Sunny     2007 Enduro 1 Spain 29/04/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Juha Salminen KTM FIN 50'3.520 2 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 50'14.070 3 Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 50'44.690 4 Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 50'45.140 5 Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 51'8.520 6 Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 51'33.690 7 Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 51'50.430 8 Julien Gauthier Honda FRA 52'10.220 9 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 52'12.080 10 Luca Cherubini Honda ITA 52'47.890 11 Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 52'57.100 12 Miquel Damien Kawasaki FRA 53'40.870 13 Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 54'23.110 14 Gonzalo Reis KTM ITA 55'14.550 15 Gregory Eyries Yamaha FRA 55'35.030
Race 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Juha Salminen KTM FIN 49'53.300 2 Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 50'21.750 3 Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 50'21.830 4 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 50'23.930 5 Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 50'48.840 6 Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 50'51.260 7 Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 51'14.940 8 Luca Cherubini Honda ITA 52'17.090 9 Julien Gauthier Honda FRA 52'21.400 10 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 52'26.210 11 Fabio Mossini Honda ITA 53'15.260 12 Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 53'16.410 13 Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 53'49.770 14 Miquel Damien Kawasaki FRA 50'1.470 15 Gonzalo Reis KTM ITA 54'29.070
Rider Standings 28/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Juha Salminen KTM FIN 100 2. Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 72 3. Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 69 4. Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 66 5. Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 62 6. Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 59 7. Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 49 8. Mike Hartmann KTM GER 41 9. Tomi Peltola Suzuki FIN 38 10. Frederik Georgsson KTM SWE 36 11. Niklas Gustafsson KTM SWE 34 12. Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 33 13. Julien Gauthier Honda FRA 25 14. Luca Cherubini Honda ITA 24 15. Tobias Burman KTM SWE 21
Manufacturer Standings 28/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. KTM 100 2. Yamaha 72 3. Husqvarna 69 4. Honda 44 5. Suzuki 38 6. Kawasaki 16 7. TM 3
RACE REPORT 29/04/2007 Johnny Aubert wins first Enduro 2 race    Yamaha mounted Frenchman Johnny Aubert produced the best result of his enduro career to date at the second round of the '07 WEC series staged in Puerto Lumbreras where he topped the highly competitive Enduro 2 class on both days aboard his WR450. Hardly putting a foot wrong on day one, and then managing to claim victory on day two despite two falls and constant pressure from reigning E2 world champion Samuli Aro, Aubert signalled his intentions to claim his first enduro world title in '07.   With conditions in Spain starting wet on day one following heavy rain on Friday evening Aubert started the event in the best possible way by winning the six opening special tests on day one. Dropping just a few seconds to his E2 championship rivals on the seventh test of the day the former motocross rider then returned to his winning ways and topped a further three special tests before the day's close to win by close to one minute. Placing along side Aubert on the podium were Finn Mika Ahola and Australian Stefan Merriman.   With conditions much drier and much rougher on day two than they were on day one Aubert again started well and topped the first three tests on day two. Opening up a slender lead at the head of the E2 class only to lose it following two crashes, Johnny remained focused during the second half of the day and maintained his lead to claim a deserved win. Winning a total of eight special tests in the E2 class on day two Aubert also finished as the event's overall fastest competitor on both days one and two. Finishing on the podium alongside Aubert on day two were Finns Samuli Aro and Mika Ahola. Italian UFO Corse Yamaha team rider Fabrizio Dini recorded two top 10 results aboard his WR450 in Spain placing in 10th on day one and in ninth on day two.    Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1 First, Day 2 First: "Day one was a little strange for me because I won the race quite easily. I didn't make any mistakes and felt really comfortable on all the special tests. Day two was a little harder because the special tests got really rough, but I still rode well. I crashed twice, and got stuck in a big rut in the extreme test on one lap, but still managed to stay at the top of the E2 results. Samuli Aro was also really fast, which meant that if I had made one more mistake I would have lost the lead, but I managed to stay in front and won like I did on day one. It's my first double victory so I am really pleased. I hope I can continue like this in Portugal next weekend."   Temp: 20 Crowd: 5600 Weather: Sunny     2007 Enduro 2 Spain 29/04/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 49'10.520 2 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 50'8.540 3 Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 50'33.870 4 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 50'56.410 5 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 51'7.070 6 Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 51'25.170 7 Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 51'31.890 8 Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 51'39.370 9 Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 52'1.110 10 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 52'16.280 11 Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 52'37.570 12 Nathan Kanney Husqvarna USA 53'17.950 13 Joel Smets BMW BEL 54'32.560 14 Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 54'43.560 15 Sascha Eckert BMW GER 54'55.700
Race 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 49'16.350 2 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 49'23.310 3 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 49'42.130 4 Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 50'20.590 5 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 50'29.140 6 Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 50'50.750 7 Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 51'8.130 8 Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 51'11.360 9 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 51'18.680 10 Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 51'28.500 11 Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 52'34.310 12 Patrick Caps GasGas BEL 52'41.180 13 Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 52'54.010 14 Felipe Zanol Yamaha ESP 53'9.370 15 Nathan Kanney Husqvarna USA 53'35.290
Rider Standings 28/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Mika Ahola Honda FIN 89 2. Samuli Aro KTM FIN 85 3. Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 82 4. Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 62 5. Fabien Planet KTM FRA 62 6. Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 59 7. Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 45 8. Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg FIN 42 9. Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 39 10. Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 39 11. Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 36 12. Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 33 13. Patrik Wicksell KTM SWE 33 14. Nicolas Paganon Aprilia FRA 32 15. Nathan Kanney Husqvarna USA 27
Manufacturer Standings 28/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 89 2. KTM 87 3. Yamaha 82 4. Aprilia 63 5. Beta 59 6. Husqvarna 42 7. HusaBerg 42 8. Suzuki 39 9. Sherco 33 10. GasGas 22 11. BMW 12 12. TM 9
Alex Asigno
UFO Corse Yamaha rider Simone Albergoni put his disappointing result at the opening round of the '07 World Enduro Championship series behind him at round two of the series staged in Puerta Lumbreras, Spain, where the Italian placed in third and second position in the Enduro 1 class. Feeling completely at home on his WR250, and having recorded some strong results in the opening rounds of the Italian Enduro Championship ahead of the Spanish event, Simone showed that despite his frustrating start to the WEC series he now has the speed to battle for E1 class victory.
With conditions much different to those found at the series' opening winter enduro in Sweden, day one proved to be extremely difficult in places as a result of heavy rain on Friday evening. Leaving each of the events three special tests extremely slippery it was Finn Juha Salminen who managed to deal with conditions the best and claimed victory ahead of Italian Alessandro Belometti with Albergoni 10 seconds behind in third. Winning the third timed test of the day had it not been for a costly mistake in the day's eighth timed tests Simone would have placed as runner-up. Following Albergoni home on day one, and finishing less than half a second behind his more experienced team-mate, was Spaniard Cristobal Guerrero. Encouraged by his home crowd Guerrero, like Albergoni, topped one special test to claim his best result since winning the Enduro Junior world championship in '05.   On day two it was again Finn Salminen that set the pace winning all but four of the day's special tests in the E1 class. But behind the six-time enduro world champion both Simone Albergoni and Cristobal Guerrero managed to get ahead of Alessandro Belometti to claim the runner-up and third place positions respectively. With Albergoni winning two special tests to place 28 seconds behind Salminen. Guerrero again placed less than one second behind his team-mate in third. In finishing third Cristobal claimed his first ever podium finish in senior WEC competition. Disappointingly for the UFO Corse Yamaha team's third E1 class rider Maurizio Micheluz the second round of the '07 WEC series didn't go as well as the Italian had hoped. Having shown good speed in the Italian championship Maurizio struggled to get to grips with the conditions and as a result placed in seventh on both days.  Simone Albergoni (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 third, Day 2 second: "I am really pleased with the way the GP of Spain has gone because the first round of the championship in Sweden was terrible. I am really happy because I now have a good feeling with the bike and am able to push hard. Finishing third on day one was really good. The start of the season was difficult for me because I struggled to adjust to my Yamaha as quickly as I hoped I would, but now I am really pleased with the performance of the bike. "The second day was tough - there were several riders that we really fast so to finish second is great. I had a really good fight with my team-mate Cristobal Guerrero, which was good. I am much happier with my result and the way I am riding."
Cristobal Guerrero (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Fourth, Day 2 Third: "It's been a great weekend for me and my first podium finish in the WEC since I won the Enduro Junior championship in '05. On day one I missed the podium by one second, which was disappointing but at the same time it was good to know that my speed was good enough to fight with the riders at the top of the class. I only made one crash so it was a good day. "Day two was really tough. The tests were much rougher than on day one and it was really close between myself, Simone Albergoni, Bartosz Oblucki and Alessandro Albergoni. I could have finished second but Simone finished less than one second ahead of me. I am really pleased with the way the weekend has gone. I'm looking forward to Portugal now."
Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 Seventh, Day 2 Seventh: "It's been a bad weekend for me. I didn't feel good on the bike and just didn't have a good feeling with the special tests. I finished seventh on both days, which isn't good. I crashed many times on day one and things weren't much better on day two. I hope things will be better in Portugal."   Temp: 20 Crowd: 5600 Weather: Sunny     2007 Enduro 1 Spain 29/04/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Juha Salminen KTM FIN 50'3.520 2 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 50'14.070 3 Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 50'44.690 4 Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 50'45.140 5 Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 51'8.520 6 Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 51'33.690 7 Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 51'50.430 8 Julien Gauthier Honda FRA 52'10.220 9 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 52'12.080 10 Luca Cherubini Honda ITA 52'47.890 11 Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 52'57.100 12 Miquel Damien Kawasaki FRA 53'40.870 13 Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 54'23.110 14 Gonzalo Reis KTM ITA 55'14.550 15 Gregory Eyries Yamaha FRA 55'35.030
Race 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Juha Salminen KTM FIN 49'53.300 2 Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 50'21.750 3 Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 50'21.830 4 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 50'23.930 5 Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 50'48.840 6 Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 50'51.260 7 Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 51'14.940 8 Luca Cherubini Honda ITA 52'17.090 9 Julien Gauthier Honda FRA 52'21.400 10 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 52'26.210 11 Fabio Mossini Honda ITA 53'15.260 12 Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 53'16.410 13 Danielle Tellini KTM ITA 53'49.770 14 Miquel Damien Kawasaki FRA 50'1.470 15 Gonzalo Reis KTM ITA 54'29.070
Rider Standings 28/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Juha Salminen KTM FIN 100 2. Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 72 3. Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 69 4. Cristobal Guerrero Yamaha ESP 66 5. Simone Albergoni Yamaha ITA 62 6. Marc Germain Yamaha FRA 59 7. Maurizio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 49 8. Mike Hartmann KTM GER 41 9. Tomi Peltola Suzuki FIN 38 10. Frederik Georgsson KTM SWE 36 11. Niklas Gustafsson KTM SWE 34 12. Anthony Roberts Honda AUS 33 13. Julien Gauthier Honda FRA 25 14. Luca Cherubini Honda ITA 24 15. Tobias Burman KTM SWE 21
Manufacturer Standings 28/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. KTM 100 2. Yamaha 72 3. Husqvarna 69 4. Honda 44 5. Suzuki 38 6. Kawasaki 16 7. TM 3
RACE REPORT 29/04/2007 Johnny Aubert wins first Enduro 2 race    Yamaha mounted Frenchman Johnny Aubert produced the best result of his enduro career to date at the second round of the '07 WEC series staged in Puerto Lumbreras where he topped the highly competitive Enduro 2 class on both days aboard his WR450. Hardly putting a foot wrong on day one, and then managing to claim victory on day two despite two falls and constant pressure from reigning E2 world champion Samuli Aro, Aubert signalled his intentions to claim his first enduro world title in '07.  
With conditions in Spain starting wet on day one following heavy rain on Friday evening Aubert started the event in the best possible way by winning the six opening special tests on day one. Dropping just a few seconds to his E2 championship rivals on the seventh test of the day the former motocross rider then returned to his winning ways and topped a further three special tests before the day's close to win by close to one minute. Placing along side Aubert on the podium were Finn Mika Ahola and Australian Stefan Merriman.  
With conditions much drier and much rougher on day two than they were on day one Aubert again started well and topped the first three tests on day two. Opening up a slender lead at the head of the E2 class only to lose it following two crashes, Johnny remained focused during the second half of the day and maintained his lead to claim a deserved win. Winning a total of eight special tests in the E2 class on day two Aubert also finished as the event's overall fastest competitor on both days one and two. Finishing on the podium alongside Aubert on day two were Finns Samuli Aro and Mika Ahola. Italian UFO Corse Yamaha team rider Fabrizio Dini recorded two top 10 results aboard his WR450 in Spain placing in 10th on day one and in ninth on day two.    Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1 First, Day 2 First: "Day one was a little strange for me because I won the race quite easily. I didn't make any mistakes and felt really comfortable on all the special tests. Day two was a little harder because the special tests got really rough, but I still rode well. I crashed twice, and got stuck in a big rut in the extreme test on one lap, but still managed to stay at the top of the E2 results. Samuli Aro was also really fast, which meant that if I had made one more mistake I would have lost the lead, but I managed to stay in front and won like I did on day one. It's my first double victory so I am really pleased. I hope I can continue like this in Portugal next weekend."   Temp: 20 Crowd: 5600 Weather: Sunny     2007 Enduro 2 Spain 29/04/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 49'10.520 2 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 50'8.540 3 Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 50'33.870 4 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 50'56.410 5 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 51'7.070 6 Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 51'25.170 7 Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 51'31.890 8 Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 51'39.370 9 Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 52'1.110 10 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 52'16.280 11 Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 52'37.570 12 Nathan Kanney Husqvarna USA 53'17.950 13 Joel Smets BMW BEL 54'32.560 14 Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 54'43.560 15 Sascha Eckert BMW GER 54'55.700
Race 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 49'16.350 2 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 49'23.310 3 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 49'42.130 4 Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 50'20.590 5 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 50'29.140 6 Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 50'50.750 7 Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 51'8.130 8 Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 51'11.360 9 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 51'18.680 10 Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 51'28.500 11 Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 52'34.310 12 Patrick Caps GasGas BEL 52'41.180 13 Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 52'54.010 14 Felipe Zanol Yamaha ESP 53'9.370 15 Nathan Kanney Husqvarna USA 53'35.290
Rider Standings 28/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Mika Ahola Honda FIN 89 2. Samuli Aro KTM FIN 85 3. Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 82 4. Stefan Merriman Aprilia AUS 62 5. Fabien Planet KTM FRA 62 6. Jari Juha Mattila Beta FIN 59 7. Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 45 8. Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg FIN 42 9. Rodrig Thain Suzuki FRA 39 10. Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 39 11. Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 36 12. Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 33 13. Patrik Wicksell KTM SWE 33 14. Nicolas Paganon Aprilia FRA 32 15. Nathan Kanney Husqvarna USA 27
Manufacturer Standings 28/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 89 2. KTM 87 3. Yamaha 82 4. Aprilia 63 5. Beta 59 6. Husqvarna 42 7. HusaBerg 42 8. Suzuki 39 9. Sherco 33 10. GasGas 22 11. BMW 12 12. TM 9
Alex Asigno
Both Haga and Corser suffered a day of ups and downs in today's round of the World Superbike Championship at Assen. Haga took second place in race one but suffered a technical failure in race two and was forced to retire. Corser suffered a mechanical fault in race one causing him to crash at high speed but rode through pain in race two to take fourth slot.
Race one started so well for Haga, who had qualified in 15th following a mistake during his Superpole lap yesterday cost him valuable seconds. By the end of the first lap he had already pushed through the field to take seventh and he then carried on through to first place but settled back in fourth with team mate Corser just behind in fifth. On lap 15 Haga made another charge for the front of the pack and overtook Bayliss for second place with only two laps to go. He also contended for first place but had to settle for second.
Corser put in a strong performance and was in a comfortable fifth place for much of the race, moving up to third on the penultimate lap when he overtook Bayliss and Xaus. Both riders were on track for podium finishes but Corser suffered a broken radiator hose clip causing fluid to spray over his rear tyre and making him high-side at a fast part of the circuit.
Both riders got a good start in race two with Corser moving up to fourth and Haga taking fifth slot on lap one. Haga went through to challenge Lanzi and then Bayliss using his usual wild sliding riding style. Haga then focused on closing the gap between him and front man Toseland and he took the lead on lap nine. The two riders were battling for first place when Haga had to pull off the track on lap 11 with an electrical-based engine problem.
Corser spent the main part of the race in a battle for fifth place with Lanzi but took fourth when Lanzi crashed out. The Australian fought the pain of his injuries received in race one to bring his bike home in fourth.
The weekend finished on a good note for Team Yamaha YZF rider Shinichi Nakatomi with him finishing in the points in both races. Settings alterations made throughout the weekend gave the team one of their best results so far this season with the Japanese rider taking seven points away from Assen.
The weekend's results means that Haga goes to Monza third in the championship, 20 points behind Biaggi who is in second. Corser lies in fifth in the championship.    Noriyuki Haga (2nd and DNF - Yamaha Motor Italia) "In race one I got a good result considering where I started. From the fourth row to the podium isn't bad for one race! The bike was feeling good and the suspension modifications we made worked well. In race two I made a good start but then a problem forced me to retire which is unlucky as I was on target to get a good result again. This has been a bit of a mixed day but I am sure Monza will be better." Troy Corser (DNF and 4th - Yamaha Motor Italia) "The incident in race one was so unlucky. I can't believe that such a small part can do that - it shouldn't have happened. That just put me out of serious contention for race two. I have a very sore left hip which has been X-rayed and they say nothing is broken. I am going to get further checks tomorrow as I can't believe how sore it is. Everything else feels okay at the moment, we will see."
Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator, Yamaha Motor Italia) "Race one was going very well until a really minor problem on Troy's bike cost him a podium position and caused him some injuries. In the same race Haga got a really good start from fifteenth to finish second. It was a very mixed result for the team.
In race two Haga was making similar progress as he had done in the first race but a different problem to Troy's forced him to retire and lose valuable points. Corser did a good job under the circumstances in race two. After his race one crash he had to have painkillers and was still in pain during the second race. He has definitely shown his determination today."    Shinichi Nakatomi (13th and 12th - Team Yamaha YZF) "In race one I got a good start, gaining a couple of positions until I nearly had a high-side on the back part of the circuit. For race two we changed the front tyre compound and it was better. I am confident the next race will be better as we are working on some modifications which are sure will help."
Martial Garcia (Team Manager, Tam Yamaha YZF) "Race one was satisfying, we are starting to bear the fruits of our hard work. We had the second top speed of the race even though we made a wrong choice for the front tyre. The bike is working well and Nakatomi's confidence is much improved. For race two we made some small modifications which helped further. Shinichi has better confidence with the frame and the engine now."   Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 19 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSB Assen 29/04/2007 Race 1 - 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 James Toseland Honda GBR 37'2.097 2 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 0'0.663 3 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 0'3.698 4 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 0'7.134 5 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 0'9.312 6 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 0'9.534 7 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 0'18.286 8 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 0'18.403 9 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 0'19.873 10 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 0'22.914 11 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 0'29.602 12 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 0'40.961 13 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 0'41.008 14 Dean Ellison Ducati GBR 1'12.714 15 Marek Svoboda Yamaha CZE -2 Laps
Race 2 - 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 36'54.133 2 James Toseland Honda GBR 0'0.009 3 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 0'7.439 4 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 0'12.379 5 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 0'23.052 6 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 0'23.158 7 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 0'23.311 8 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 0'24.147 9 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 0'29.660 10 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 0'32.301 11 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 0'32.389 12 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 0'39.091 13 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 0'39.128 14 Luca Morelli Ducati ITA -1 Laps 15 Marek Svoboda Yamaha CZE -1 Laps
Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'39.906
 Rider Standings 29/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. James Toseland Honda GBR 196 2. Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 164 3. Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 144 4. Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 128 5. Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 114 6. Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 99 7. Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 98 8. Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 70 9. Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 64 10. Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 47 11. Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 46 12. Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 43 13. Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 41 14. Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 37 15. Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 35 16. Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 19
Manufacturer Standings 29/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 205 2. Ducati 173 3. Yamaha 167 4. Suzuki 164 5. Kawasaki 69
RACE REPORT 29/04/2007 Yamaha put up a spirited fight but are unlucky  
Everything was looking positive today for the Yamaha World Supersport Team when on the penultimate lap Parkes crashed out while in second, dashing the teams hopes of a podium finish. Up until that point the young Australian had been having a great race and was looking very strong. With Parkes crashed out it was left up to Steve Martin to grab six points for the team's championship cause.
Broc got a good start from third and found himself in a race-long battle at the front between Sofuoglu, Pitt, Foret and Charpentier. A fierce fight with Charpentier on lap eight saw Parkes challenging for third position with the riders swapping places every turn but he was unable to maintain the pace and moved back to fifth place when Foret overtook. He settled in fifth for the middle part of the race waiting for the last few laps before making a charge on lap 17. It was on lap 20 that Parkes lost the front going into the left-hand bend of Strubben corner and crashed out.
Martin had an unlucky start off the line from sixth place and went down to 14th. He then spent the remainder of the race trying to make up places and succeeded in overtaking to tenth place. This was a good achievement considering the rider had only had three hours on the bike since being taken on as a replacement rider for Kevin Curtain last week. After Parkes' crash Sofuoglu went on to win the race with Pitt behind in second and Foret in third.
Roccoli had a disappointing result today after a very good weekend of practice and qualifying. Having qualified fifth the rider then struggled in the race due to a wrong tyre choice and had to settle for the points rather than the race win. He finished in 14th.
Having come to Assen fifth in the championship Parkes goes into the sixth round in two weeks in ninth place with 27 points and everything to work for. Yamaha also had a very good result today in the FIM Superstock 600 Cup with eight R6-shod riders finishing in the top ten.    Steve Martin (10th - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I got a very bad start and just couldn't come back from there. I got stuck in a group and didn't feel I had enough rear grip to really push it or brake hard. I wanted to be more aggressive but there wasn't much I could do. If I had to do that race again I would try and get more rear grip - that was the only problem on an otherwise good bike and set up. The team has been really good to work with all weekend, I'm sorry I couldn't re-pay their efforts with a higher end result."    Broc Parkes (DNF - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I got away okay at the start and found myself in a big battle with the front runners. Some of the Honda guys in that group were very committed and I was just trying to avoid being taken out. I did my best to conserve my tyres and then make a late charge at the end. The problem was I wasn't confident in the front brakes and I lost the front as I started to push harder. I'm gutted to crash out of second place."
Massimo Roccoli (14th - Yamaha Team Italia) "I decided to try a medium rear tyre in the race which was a gamble and didn't work because the tarmac temperature was lower today than yesterday. I was very fast at the beginning of the race but after the first three laps the rear tyre was finished. The second half of the race was very difficult and I focused on just finishing in order to provide the team some more data to work from."   Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 19 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSS Assen 29/04/2007 Race 1 - 21 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 36'4.418 2 Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 0'4.043 3 Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 0'5.479 4 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 0'8.140 5 David Salom Yamaha ESP 0'8.900 6 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 0'11.090 7 David Checa Yamaha ESP 0'14.847 8 Vesa Kallio Suzuki FIN 0'19.545 9 Davide Giugliano Kawasaki ITA 0'19.880 10 Steve Martin Yamaha AUS 0'20.084 11 Lorenzo Alfonsi Honda ITA 0'21.940 12 Pere Riba Kawasaki ESP 0'26.792 13 Simone Sanna Honda ITA 0'36.477 14 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 0'37.156 15 Arie Vos Honda NED 0'39.459 18 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 0'41.140
Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'42.096
 Rider Standings 29/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 120 2. Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 67 3. Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 43 4. Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 40 5. Robbin Harms Honda DNK 39 6. Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 30 7. Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 30 8. Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 28 9. Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 27 10. Pere Riba Kawasaki ESP 26 11. Craig Jones Honda GBR 25 12. Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 25 13. David Salom Yamaha ESP 24 14. Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 23 15. Vesa Kallio Suzuki FIN 21 17. David Checa Yamaha ESP 18 21. Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 10 22. Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 9
Manufacturer Standings 29/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 120 2. Kawasaki 77 3. Yamaha 66 4. Suzuki 37 5. Ducati 30
RACE REPORT 29/04/2007 Yamaha 1, 2 and 3 in Superstock 1000 at Assen    Yamaha dominated the podium in today's third round of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup with the rookie rider Pirro taking his first win on the R1. Team mate Corti finished second and TTSL-MGM rider van Keymeulen took third to round up an excellent day for the three diapason manufacturer.
The three Yamaha riders, all using the new 2007 R1, had already taken the top three qualifying slots in yesterday's qualifying session with Corti in pole, van Keymeulen second and Pirro third. Belgian rider van Keymeulen got a good race start to take the lead but was quickly overtaken by Pirro by lap three. Corti rounded up the front group. New to the Yamaha Team Italia squad this season, Pirro came to Assen keen to show that his second place at Valencia was no fluke and he proved this by setting the fastest lap twice by lap five before van Keymeulen responded to knock over two seconds off the lap record.
By lap 11 the three Yamaha-shod riders had left the rest of the pack nine seconds behind and on lap 12 Corti took the opportunity to pass van Keymeulen before sizing up and passing his team mate for the race lead on the penultimate corner of the last lap. Corti took the race win but was subsequently penalized 0.3 seconds for overtaking van Keymeulen under a waved yellow flag. This penalty pushed Corti back into second, providing Pirro with his first win for Yamaha Team Italia in his first season on the YZF-R1.
Matteo Baiocco, riding an R1 for the Umbria Bike Team, had an excellent weekend finishing in fifth.
Pirro's win today means he leaps from sixth in the championship to second with 45 points where he is just six points behind Canepa. Corti lies in third, also on 45 points with Baiocco in fifth and van Keymeulen in seventh. Van Keymeulen's finish is a good result considering the rider came to Assen with injuries sustained at the Le Mans 24hr race last week.
Yamaha now leads the championship with 65 points to Ducati who are on 51 points. The next round of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup is in two weeks at Monza, Italy.     Michele Pirro (1st - Yamaha Team Italia) "I am very happy. I think that my victory is my rightfully mine because I stayed in front for virtually the whole race. I lost the lead on the last lap because the back marker Corti and I were overtaking didn't respect the signals. I am sorry for Claudio for the penalty but those are the rules."    Claudio Corti (2nd - Yamaha Team Italia) "I didn't see the yellow flag. I am very angry because to win was very important for me. The positive things are that I am now very near the top of the leader board and I am now in a position to challenge for the title."    Didier van Keymeulen (3rd - TTSL-MGM Racing) "At Le Mans I burnt my foot badly because the exhaust made contact with the foot peg which got hot and burnt through my boot. I also have very sore arms because of the length of time I was riding for. I had five injections for the pain in my arms today which helped. In the race I was able to keep up well with the other riders but I started to lose control of the front from lap six onwards. I had to back off, which is when Pirro and Corti passed me. I know I can compete with both these riders but I felt it was wiser to finish on the podium today than to risk not finishing at all."   Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 19 Weather: Sunny     2007 Superstock Assen 29/04/2007 Race 1 - 13 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Michele Pirro Yamaha ITA 22'27.536 2 Claudio Corti Yamaha ITA 0'0.920 3 Didier Van Keymeulen Yamaha BEL 0'0.513 4 Ilario Dionisi Suzuki ITA 0'9.257 5 Matteo Baiocco Yamaha ITA 0'13.319 6 Nicolo Canepa Ducati ITA 0'14.996 7 Brendan Roberts Ducati AUS 0'15.569 8 Xavier Simeon Suzuki BEL 0'15.796 9 Matej Smrz Honda CZE 0'19.816 10 Danilo Dell'omo MV Agusta ITA 0'20.396 11 Raymond Schouten Yamaha NED 0'27.508 12 Ronald ter Braake Kawasaki NED 0'28.404 13 Rene Mahr Yamaha GER 0'30.659 14 Cederic Tangre Yamaha FRA 0'30.863 15 Marko Rohtlaan Honda EST 0'35.346
Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Didier Van Keymeulen Yamaha BEL 1'42.548
 Rider Standings 29/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Nicolo Canepa Ducati ITA 51 2. Michele Pirro Yamaha ITA 45 3. Claudio Corti Yamaha ITA 45 4. Mark Aitchison Suzuki AUS 38 5. Matteo Baiocco Yamaha ITA 35 6. Ilario Dionisi Suzuki ITA 34 7. Didier Van Keymeulen Yamaha BEL 32 8. Xavier Simeon Suzuki BEL 27 9. Rene Mahr Yamaha GER 18 10. Matej Smrz Honda CZE 15 11. Cederic Tangre Yamaha FRA 11 12. Marko Jerman Suzuki SVK 11 13. Sheridan Morais Ducati RSA 10 14. Arne Tode Honda GER 9 15. Brendan Roberts Ducati AUS 9
Manufacturer Standings 29/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Yamaha 65 2. Suzuki 51 3. Ducati 51 4. Honda 23 5. MV Agusta 10 6. Kawasaki 4
Alex Asigno
The Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team had mixed fortunes in today's Superpole session but are confident of a good race tomorrow following a weekend of consistent lap times and good practice sessions.
Having made some adjustment alterations overnight Corser was confident of improving his provisional fifth place from yesterday. This confidence was rewarded with a move up to second place in this morning's qualifying session. A small mistake on his Superpole lap saw Corser slip to sixth position.
Haga's Superpole lap was looking good for a front row start until he almost lost the front tyre going into Mandeveen and had to take to the grass. He remained on board and re-joined the circuit but was unable to push for the remainder of the lap due to dirty tyres. Haga had been running in sixth place going into the Superpole session but had to accept the near miss putting him on the fourth row for his 137th race start with Yamaha.
Shinichi Nakatomi had less success in today's qualifying when setting changes made prior to the morning's session failed to improve the rider's position. Even though Nakatomi managed to go almost half a second faster compared to yesterday's qualifying, he dropped to 17th overall as other teams made more progress than the Team Yamaha YZF squad.
James Toseland will start in pole position with team mates Lanzi and Bayliss in second and third respectively. Biaggi rounds up the front row. Troy Corser (6th - 1'39.422 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "Superpole was disappointing, there's no denying it. I made a small mistake on the back part of the circuit and went into one corner a bit fast and ran a bit wide. But the second row is okay, I'm confident in the lap times so I just need to get a good start tomorrow. I'm happy with the race set up and I have done several long runs on the tyres in free practice so I am comfortable with those."    Noriyuki Haga (15th - 1'41.093 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I lost the front tyre at Mandeveen corner in the middle section of the lap and I had to pick the bike up to save it. Up until that point the bike had been feeling good, though we still need to make some suspension modifications - the data from the Superpole lap will help us with that. I am not thinking about the race win tomorrow right now, I just want to focus on getting our set-up completely sorted and adding to my championship points."
Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I am still confident despite our Superpole results because we have been in the top five in practice all weekend. It will be okay for Troy because he starts from the second row and had more opportunity to push through to the front row. It will be more difficult for Nori but we have performed miracles in races before now. We will make some more adjustments overnight and I am sure we will be ready to race tomorrow." 
Shinichi Nakatomi (17th - 1'40.824 - Team Yamaha YZF) "I am disappointed today after such a good start yesterday. We just need to continue working on our set-up tomorrow morning to see where we can make improvements. Seventeenth is not a good start but we must focus on finishing in the points now."   Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 24 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSB Assen 28/04/2007 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'38.603 2 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'39.226 3 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'39.256 4 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'39.320 5 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'39.411 6 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'39.422 7 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'39.648 8 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'39.928 9 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'40.057 10 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'40.288 11 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 1'40.328 12 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'40.376 13 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'40.561 14 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 1'40.674 15 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'41.093
Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Troy Bayliss AUS 1'39.806 1'39.245 2 Troy Corser AUS 1'39.938 1'39.386 3 James Toseland GBR 1'39.603 1'39.391 4 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'39.765 1'39.567 5 Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 1'40.445 1'39.655 6 Noriyuki Haga JPN 1'39.750 1'40.111 7 Fonsi Nieto ESP 1'40.201 1'39.955 8 Jakub Smrz CZE 1'40.355 1'39.956 9 Max Neukirchner GER 1'40.537 1'39.987 10 Karl Muggeridge AUS 1'40.092 1'40.280 11 Regis Laconi FRA 1'41.155 1'40.377 12 Max Biaggi ITA 1'40.804 1'40.378 13 Joshua Brookes AUS 1'40.480 1'41.172 14 Michel Fabrizio ITA 1'40.844 1'40.480 15 Roberto Rolfo ITA 1'41.109 1'40.666 17 Shinichi Nakatomi JPN 1'41.032 1'40.824
QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 28/04/2007 First and second row starts tomorrow for Yamaha in World Supersport 
Both Parkes and replacement rider Steve Martin put in excellent performances today to take third and sixth qualifying places respectively on the grid for tomorrow's race. Having both done two long runs during this morning's free practice session to test out two tyre options for tomorrow, the riders went into the second qualifying session of the weekend confident of their setting choices.
In qualifying Parkes lost his provisional second place that he achieved yesterday in the early stages of the session but sliced off over 0.4 seconds to take third qualifying slot in the last five minutes of the session - his highest qualifying position so far this season. This puts Broc in an ideal position to fight for the race win tomorrow and move up the championship standings board.
Martin put in a strong show in only his second day on the YZF-R6 and came up from 13th, where he started the day, to sixth position. The ex-World Superbike rider has not ridden in the Supersport series since 2000 but has adapted to the team and the bike with speed and ease. He is replacing fellow Australian Kevin Curtain while he recuperates from the leg injury he suffered at Valencia two weeks ago.
Just in front of Martin, Massimo Roccoli continued his positive weekend by securing fifth qualifying place this afternoon. The young Italian's confidence has been boosted by his win in the national championship at Mugello last week as well as finding a good set-up during the day.
Broc Parkes (3rd - 1'41.595 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "This is my best qualifying result so far this year. I'm happy because it means I can get on the pace from the very start tomorrow rather than having to battle through the field first. This morning we did two long runs trying two tyre options for tomorrow but we have yet to decide which to use. We will now sit down and look over the data gathered and make the choice."
Steve Martin (6th - 1'41.684 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I'm pretty happy with sixth considering this is only my second day on the bike. We have constantly made steps forward this weekend so far and if we keep doing that then tomorrow will be even better. I was going for the front row, naturally, but second row is okay. The team has made the transition for me really easy and that has helped enormously. We are in a good position for tomorrow's race."
Massimo Roccoli (5th - 1'41.672 - Yamaha Team Italia) "Last week's win has been a huge boost to my confidence. I found my race set-up very quickly and I feel my bike is very competitive. I must thank my chief engineer Vanni Lorenzini for this. Today I did my best lap time with the rear tyre that we will use tomorrow so I am very optimistic. I normally get a good start and I am confident that will be the case tomorrow."   Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 24 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSS Assen 28/04/2007 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR 1'42.482 1'41.144 2 Sebastien Charpentier FRA 1'42.174 1'41.192 3 Broc Parkes AUS 1'42.191 1'41.595 4 Fabien Foret FRA 1'42.755 1'41.618 5 Massimo Roccoli ITA 1'43.010 1'41.672 6 Steve Martin AUS 1'43.297 1'41.684 7 Andrew Pitt AUS 1'43.040 1'41.761 8 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN 1'43.167 1'41.835 9 David Salom ESP 1'43.000 1'42.043 10 Vladimir Ivanov RUS 1'43.478 1'42.322 11 Vesa Kallio FIN 1'42.773 1'42.348 12 Pere Riba ESP 1'43.578 1'42.388 13 Barry Veneman NED 1'42.875 1'42.392 14 David Checa ESP 1'43.241 1'42.433 15 Davide Giugliano ITA 1'43.369 1'42.510 22 Sebastien Gimbert FRA 1'43.601 1'42.948 24 Gianluca Vizziello ITA 1'44.227 1'43.233
Alex Asigno
Yamaha have had a good day in the first qualifying session today at the fifth round of the World Superbike Championship in Assen. In sunny, warm and dry weather Haga took provisional second qualifying place and Corser finished in fifth with both riders promising more progress tomorrow.
Noriyuki Haga started the afternoon qualifying session in fourth place but went on to top the board in front of Xaus and Toseland with only five minutes to go. Unfortunately, in the dying minutes of the session Toseland came back to take the top slot, pushing Haga down to second.
Troy Corser started the afternoon qualifying session in second where he remained for most of the session until Toseland knocked him down into third. Muggeridge and Bayliss also posted faster times putting him in a comfortable fifth slot for tomorrow's second qualifying.
Team Yamaha YZF rider Shinichi Nakatomi also had a good day, much preferring Assen's dry conditions to the wet weather experienced at Valencia two weeks ago. Concentrating on getting a good set-up, the young Japanese rider put in 20 laps, doing the second fastest speed of over 285kph and finishing the day in 14th.
Toseland currently tops the provisional qualifying grid at his team's home track with Haga only 0.147 seconds behind in second and Xaus in third.
Haga currently holds the Superpole record at Assen with a 1'39.009 which he claimed last year. He will be looking to equal this in tomorrow's qualifying and Superpole sessions, especially as this weekend will be his 137th race start with Yamaha. This will equal Fabrizio Pirovano's record with Yamaha.    Noriyuki Haga (2nd - 1'39.750 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I used a soft tyre for this afternoon's session but I know I won't be able to use it for the race because it will be too warm for it to last the race distance. I have already made a tyre choice for tomorrow, though, and we will make some more minor modifications tomorrow to try and get pole position. Second place is okay today but I want to go for pole position tomorrow."    Troy Corser (5th - 1'39.938 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "Today has been good for my first day on this bike at this track. We now have a good idea of the direction we need to go in tomorrow. This afternoon we made some changes and found some positive results as well as some negative ones. I also rode both bikes to get as much data as possible, but we didn't have enough time to really try out all the changes we made.
Tomorrow will be about finding a good race setting and to continue testing the changes we have made to the gearbox and suspension. I'm feeling good about how it's going, though. We're really close."  
Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I am quite confident after today's practice and qualifying sessions. We've had a problem free start to the weekend and tomorrow we will focus on deciding which tyres to use for the race. We already have an idea which we will confirm tomorrow."    Shinichi Nakatomi - 14th - 1'41.032 - Team Yamaha YZF) "I have had a good day today and so far this weekend everything feels much better than at Valencia. I am very positive for this weekend's result and I am working hard on finding a good set-up. I am certain that tomorrow we will find it."   Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 25 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSB Assen 27/04/2007 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'39.603 2 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'39.750 3 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'39.765 4 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'39.806 5 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'39.938 6 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'40.092 7 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'40.201 8 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'40.355 9 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'40.445 10 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 1'40.480 11 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'40.537 12 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'40.804 13 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'40.844 14 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 1'41.032 15 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 1'41.109
QUALIFYING 1 REPORT 27/04/2007 Parkes takes second in day one qualifying at Assen  
Parkes showed that he is back on the pace today by taking second place in qualifying following his accident at Donington only a month ago when he broke his right collar bone. And with Steve Martin settling into Curtain's seat while he recovers from the leg injuries he sustained at Valencia, the team is confident of good results this weekend.
Parkes started the morning's free practice session focusing on ensuring he was happy with the set-up and trying out several tyre options for the race. In the qualifying session Parkes proceeded to take second place on a flying lap before being knocked down to fourth by Sofuoglu and Charpentier. The session was then red flagged but as soon as it was re-started Parkes went out and re-took second place where he ended up only 0.017 seconds off pole position man Charpentier. Time ran out before the Australian could push any further for first place.
Today was Steve Martin's first opportunity to ride the R6 since stepping into Curtain's boots. Martin started the morning's free practice session using Parkes settings which he adapted to suit his riding style. Martin hasn't ridden in the supersport class since 2000 but that didn't stop the highly experienced World Superbike rider taking to the R6 within the first few laps.
Yamaha Team Italia rider Massimo Roccoli comes to Assen confident after a win in the national Italian championship last weekend at Mugello. His new-found confidence showed today in both sessions with him finishing in eighth.    Broc Parkes (2nd - 1'42.191 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "Today's sessions felt good. We tried two bikes which were set-up quite differently and have found a good direction for this weekend. Tomorrow we will concentrate on riding race distance to see if we can find the right tyre before the second qualifying session in the afternoon. But at the moment everything is going the right way for a good result this weekend. My collar bone is still sore and I'm finding it a bit hard to change direction in some of the fast-change corners but it certainly feels a lot better than it did at Valencia."    Steve Martin (13th - 1'43.297 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I'm happy with what I've achieved today considering I have only been on the bike for less than two hours. The bike is great to ride and I feel I am making solid progress. I didn't manage to get a good run on the tyres today due to the oil flag during the session, but I am confident we will go faster tomorrow. I just need to get to know the bike more and understand what it can and can't do."  
Massimo Roccoli (8th - 1'43.010 - Yamaha Team Italia) "Last weekend's win for me was a great boost to my confidence and the bike is very fast here. Those two things combined make me very happy and confident this weekend. It is thanks to my race engineer that the bike is so good. I am happy with my position and will look to improve on it tomorrow."   Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 25 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSS Assen 27/04/2007 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 1'42.174 2 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 1'42.191 3 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'42.482 4 Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 1'42.755 5 Vesa Kallio Suzuki FIN 1'42.773 6 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 1'42.875 7 David Salom Yamaha ESP 1'43.000 8 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1'43.010 9 Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 1'43.040 10 Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 1'43.167 11 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'43.241 12 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 1'43.245 13 Steve Martin Yamaha AUS 1'43.297 14 Davide Giugliano Kawasaki ITA 1'43.369 15 Craig Jones Honda GBR 1'43.414 19 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1'43.601 25 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1'44.227
Alex Asigno
Yamaha Motocross Team's Josh Coppins continued his triumphant ways by winning the first moto for round three of the MX1 World Championship. He however finished runner up in the second moto and thus handing the win of Grand Prix of Portugal held at Agueda to Kevin Strijbos who finished behind Coppins in the first moto. A crowd of 18,000 gathered around the slopes of the popular layout to see Antonio Cairoli amass a healthy 44 point lead in the MX2 class standings with his third straight win and second double moto haul of the year.   Brilliant and hot sunshine created a splendid but physically demanding terrain at the venue, around 100km south of Porto. The track was quick and with various lines but became rougher and even more testing towards the end of the day. Despite a painful groin after his exertions in Spain last week Coppins qualified fourth fastest in a very close timed practice session on Saturday that saw the top eight riders divided by less than one second. Marc de Reuver was four positions behind and the last of the quickest group. 30 year old Coppins however had a small spill that left him with a sore left foot.  Series leader Coppins moved into second spot behind Kevin Strijbos in the first moto and stalked the Belgian for half of the race until picking his moment to move through. Strijbos remained with two-to-three seconds but Coppins was able to control the margin to take his third chequered flag in succession. The second heat saw a re-match as the pair clashed again. The New Zealander pushed his way past Strijbos again, but his rival was able to answer and broke away as Coppins started to feel the effects of his Saturday mishap. De Reuver struggled with a mediocre launch from the start gate in Moto one and then was working his way through the pack until reaching a limit to his stamina and losing the edge to his lap-times. He dropped back to fourteenth. The second outing saw a more positive performance from the Dutchman as he was attacking David Philippaerts for a possible fifth position when he caught his left foot in the ground and twisted his ankle, causing him to retire. Although not able to complete his hat-trick of Grand Prix wins, Coppins has nevertheless protected his lead in the World Championship standings which still stands at nineteen points ahead of Strijbos. De Reuver is currently thirteenth.
Josh Coppins, Yamaha Motocross Team: "After Spain I had a small groin injury. I did not think it was anything special but after the first session I had a lot of pain. We worked on it and got it better but I could not ride how I wanted yesterday and because of this I had a crash and hurt my foot. I struggled on the track. No excuses though, Kevin was very strong in the second heat and deserved to win. We have started the season very well, better than I expected, with the new team, new bike and everything is going smoothly. I haven't lost points to anyone in any of the moto's so far and I know we need to keep on working like this. I know that I cannot win every GP but if I can minimise any points damage then this is also good.    Marc de Reuver, Yamaha Motocross Team: "In the first heat I had a good start but the first few corners didn't go so well and a few guys passed me. I came back quite strong to eighth but then I just seemed to hit a wall and went backwards. I got away good in the second heat but it was tight in the first corner and I had to change my line. I was twelfth and made some good passes on the first laps and a few guys were making mistakes. I got behind Philippaerts and was feeling very strong. I was faster than him and attacked. I did not make it and then tried again but I put my foot down and twisted my ankle. That was it. It is very painful but luckily it is not broken."
Carlo Rinaldo, Team Manager, Yamaha Motocross Team: "We cannot win every time! Kevin was very good today and Josh was not 100%, no excuses, but his crash yesterday left him in some pain. Anyway he rode well and was just a little tired in the second moto because he had to comeback from a backward position a mediocre start. He has been smart to accept the second. Regarding Marc he is going through a bit of a difficult period because he is not fully fit. He faded a lot in the first moto but was riding better in the second until his twisted his left ankle. He was fighting hard until that point though and that is all we can ask of him."   Circuit Length: 1600 Temp: 26 Crowd: 18000 Weather: Sunny     2007 GP of Agueda, Portugal 22/04/2007 Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 39'18.003 2 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'11.015 3 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 0'14.133 4 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 0'17.340 5 James Noble Honda GBR 0'40.774 6 Manuel Priem TM BEL 0'47.158 7 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 0'55.077 8 Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 1'0.740 9 Mike Brown Honda USA 1'5.022 10 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 1'10.096 11 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 1'13.650 12 Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 1'15.311 13 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 1'43.072 14 Marc De Reuver Yamaha NED 1'52.308 15 Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 1'58.513 16 Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR -1 Laps 17 Julien Bill Kawasaki CHE -1 Laps 18 Julien Vanni Honda FRA -1 Laps 19 Cyrille Coulon Honda FRA -1 Laps 20 Paulo Goncalves Honda POR -1 Laps
Race 2 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 39'43.882 2 Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 0'20.114 3 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'32.151 4 Manuel Priem TM BEL 0'38.825 5 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 0'45.242 6 Thomas Allier Kawasaki FRA 0'48.725 7 Mike Brown Honda USA 0'52.165 8 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 0'56.399 9 Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR 0'57.586 10 Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 0'58.844 11 Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 1'3.520 12 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 1'24.369 13 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 1'29.884 14 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 1'36.430 15 Pierre A. Renet Honda FRA 1'39.077 16 James Noble Honda GBR 1'52.062 17 Antoine Meo Honda FRA 2'4.903 18 Cyrille Coulon Honda FRA -1 Laps 19 Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL -1 Laps 20 Paulo Goncalves Honda POR -1 Laps
Rider Standings 22/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 144 2. Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 125 3. Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 89 4. Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 86 5. Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 84 6. Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 67 7. Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 63 8. Mike Brown Honda USA 62 9. David Philippaerts KTM ITA 62 10. Manuel Priem TM BEL 61 11. James Noble Honda GBR 61 12. Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 61 13. Marc De Reuver Yamaha NED 60 14. Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 51 15. Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR 46 16. Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 35 17. Thomas Allier Kawasaki FRA 31 18. Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 29 19. Pierre A. Renet Honda FRA 19 20. Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 17
Manufacturer Standings 22/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Yamaha 144 2. Suzuki 129 3. KTM 117 4. Honda 91 5. Kawasaki 87 6. TM 61 7. Aprilia 2
RACE REPORT 22/04/2007 Cairoli achieves maximum score for the third time running  MX2 series leader Antonio Cairoli overcame a heavy crash in the second moto to convincingly win his third successive Grand Prix on the YZ250F. The Sicilian started the weekend in comfortable form by dominating the first qualification heat for pole position and first entry into the start gate. As in Spain he had to recover from a start that left him just inside the top five and then faced a six second gap to MX2 world champion Pourcel. The 21 year old chased down the Frenchman and incredibly pulled through to seize the lead with five laps remaining. He made a mistake - by running wide into softer dirt - allowing Pourcel a second chance to attack, but Cairoli quickly made another rapid lap that pulled him clear for a second moto win in a row   It was followed by a third win in Moto two. Pourcel again was leading but had a hefty fall only a few laps after Cairoli had also hit the ground. De Carli Team star rider lost control due to slight arm-pump affecting his riding. Pourcel hurt his right ankle and retired but 'Tony' remounted and quickly passed Pascal Leuret for another '25 points'. Cairoli's team-mate Matteo Bonini posted his best set of Grand Prix results to-date. The Italian was sixth and tenth for sixth overall. In the first moto he held third position for most of the 35 minutes and 2 laps distance but was relegated in the last three laps as he tired; unaccustomed to the speed of the GP leaders. With Cairoli's double win it was still a very positive weekend for Yamaha Team De Carli.    Yamaha Team Ricci's Nicolas Aubin was seventh overall behind Bonini but claimed his best ever moto finish with second position trailing Cairoli in Moto two. The Frenchman might have made the podium but a self-imposed clutch problem (an error while trying to adjust the tension) while leading the opening race in the formative stages meant that he had to enter the pits to reverse the setting. He returned to the track but could only capture three points for eighteenth spot. His team-mate Kenneth Gundersen was dogged by two bad starts but rode hard to finish fifth overall with twelfth and fifth positions, making him the fourth and final Yamaha rider in the top ten. Davide Guarneri's injured ankle prevented him from competing in Portugal but the Italian is recuperating and undergoing rehab in a hope to be fit for his home Grand Prix in two weeks.
Cairoli now heads the MX2 standings by a hefty forty-four points (six shy of a full Grand Prix) from Pourcel. Gundersen is currently sixth and Aubin seventh.    Antonio Cairoli, Team Yamaha De Carli: "I am really happy to win this race; in 2005 I won both motos here and went on to take the championship. I have a big points lead now. My strategy today was good. I waited in the first part of the race and I knew that I had more speed than the other guys and pushed hard to win in the second half of the moto. I have been training on hard ground to get my starts better and the work helped today. I had a little problem with my arms in the second moto and I crashed because of this. Pourcel was a long way ahead but I believed that I could still catch him until I crashed, and then I was just looking at second. The bike had some damage and the handlebar was a little bit bent, but when I saw Pourcel crash I pushed again for the win and got rewarded."
Kenneth Gundersen, Yamaha Team Ricci: "I was 26th through the first corner of the first moto. It was a terrible start. I came through to 12th and was working hard but could not get any higher. In the second race I also had a bad start and was in between 15th and 20th but I was strong right until the end and passed many riders in the last ten minutes. I was happy with that. I know that I am fit and when I can manage proper starts I will be right there."    Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha Team Ricci "I am a bit disappointed because I made a mistake with the clutch and if it hadn't have been for this then I might have had a podium. I tried to make the setting softer during the race but turned it the other way by mistake and had to come into the pits. I then pushed really hard to get back in the points. I think I must have used a lot of energy because I was right at the front in the second moto but had to slow down to find my pace and then push on again. I am pleased with the second position, it is my best yet, but I think I will fixate the clutch adjustment so that I can't fiddle with it for the next Grand Prix!"
Matteo Bonini, Team Yamaha De Carli: "In the first moto I made a good start and I tried to follow the lines and speed of Pourcel but three laps before the end I felt the pace and got tired. My season preparation has not been the best because of some problems, but today was a good moto for me which helps me to improve my championship position. In the second moto the bike wheelied off the start and I felt tired as the laps went on. Tenth was not so bad, this is the best result so far for me and I hope now it will only get better."
Yamaha's motocross stars will now have a free weekend before venturing to southern Europe and the Grand Prix of Italy at the Mantova circuit; naturally the meeting will be an important one for the Rinaldi, De Carli and Ricci crews.   Circuit Length: 1700 Temp: 27 Crowd: 18000 Weather: Sunny     2007 GP of Agueda, Portugal 22/04/2007 Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 39'42.522 2 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'3.906 3 Tommy Searle KTM GBR 0'34.945 4 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 0'36.231 5 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 0'37.315 6 Matteo Bonini Yamaha ITA 0'38.439 7 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 0'42.175 8 Anthony Boissière Kawasaki FRA 0'44.298 9 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 0'55.593 10 Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 1'5.788 11 Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 1'11.558 12 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 1'15.496 13 Carl Nunn Yamaha GBR 1'17.724 14 Xavier Boog Yamaha FRA 1'19.864 15 Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 1'21.090 16 Jeremy Tarroux Yamaha FRA 1'35.178 17 Xavier Hernandez Yamaha ESP 1'39.655 18 Nicolas Aubin Yamaha FRA 1'46.044 19 Gregory Aranda Kawasaki FRA 1'47.928 20 Sean Hamblin Suzuki USA 1'48.989
Race 2 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 40'28.619 2 Nicolas Aubin Yamaha FRA 0'5.177 3 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 1'11.104 4 Anthony Boissière Kawasaki FRA 0'15.720 5 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 0'21.245 6 Tommy Searle KTM GBR 0'29.073 7 Shaun Simpson Kawasaki GBR 0'32.641 8 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 0'42.419 9 Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 0'45.907 10 Matteo Bonini Yamaha ITA 0'52.424 11 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 0'57.183 12 Xavier Boog Yamaha FRA 0'59.482 13 Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 1'6.100 14 Carl Nunn Yamaha GBR 1'11.044 15 Avis Wyatt KTM RSA 1'18.428 16 Jeremy Tarroux Yamaha FRA 1'39.575 17 Gregory Aranda Kawasaki FRA 1'41.297 18 Rui Goncalves KTM POR 1'44.148 19 Jeremy Van Horebeek KTM BEL -1 Laps 20 Dennis Verbruggen Yamaha BEL -2 Laps
Rider Standings 22/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 147 2. Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 103 3. Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 98 4. Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 87 5. Tommy Searle KTM GBR 79 6. Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 75 7. Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 72 8. Nicolas Aubin Yamaha FRA 69 9. Matti Seistola Honda FIN 61 10. Anthony Boissière Kawasaki FRA 57 11. Erik Eggens Suzuki NED 54 12. Marcus Schiffer KTM GER 48 13. Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 47 14. Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 45 15. Xavier Boog Yamaha FRA 41 16. Matteo Bonini Yamaha ITA 40 17. Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 33 18. Carl Nunn Yamaha GBR 27 19. Shaun Simpson Kawasaki GBR 23 20. Jeremy Van Horebeek KTM BEL 23 21. Dennis Verbruggen Yamaha BEL 23
Manufacturer Standings 22/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Yamaha 147 2. Kawasaki 127 3. KTM 117 4. Honda 87 5. Suzuki 57
Alex Asigno
High hopes for Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards went unfulfilled today as the Fiat Yamaha Team riders, who started from first and second on the grid, were both victims of bad luck at Istanbul Park. The pair got a good start and were leading the pack into turn one before Edwards dropped back as he was unable to get enough heat into his tyre and Rossi made a mistake and ran wide at turn eleven. Disaster then struck for Edwards as he was hit from behind by another rider and sent tumbling into the gravel trap in a crash that involved four riders in total. Rossi meanwhile seemed to be going well and had fought back to second behind eventual winner Casey Stoner, before he suffered a serious rear tyre problem that forced him to roll off the gas and drop right back through the field. The Italian had to use all his talents to keep himself in the race and he eventually brought his Yamaha home in tenth position, taking what were a creditable six points under the circumstances.
Rossi now drops to second place in the championship standings, ten points behind Stoner and 15 ahead of Dani Pedrosa, who was also involved in the first-lap crash. Edwards' unlucky non-finish, only the second in his Yamaha career, means he drops down to sixth. The Fiat Yamaha Team have a one-day test planned tomorrow although Edwards will wait until the morning to confirm if he will ride after badly bruising his knee when he was knocked down.
Valentino Rossi Position: 10thTime: +18.999 "We are very disappointed today because we had high expectations for this race, but instead we had some unexpected problems with the tyre and it's been a disaster for us. Yesterday and this morning the same race tyre felt good but unfortunately today something happened to it after some laps and I couldn't fulfil the potential we had here. We don't know the reason yet for the problem but now Michelin are trying to understand what happened. I had a great start and was leading on the first lap, although I made a mistake at turn eleven when I ran wide and dropped to fifth. However at that stage my bike was working very well and I was able to fight back to second; I felt sure that I was going to have a good battle with Stoner! Sadly though, after ten or eleven laps, the tyre started to lose all grip and I had to slow right down because I was quite scared. It felt like there was a big problem with the tyre and I had to go very carefully just to finish. We were very unlucky today, we started first and second but Colin crashed when he was hit and then I had this problem. I'm also quite unhappy with Elias today because I think he was quite dangerous - more than once he passed me on the inside and then altered his line. This is not a correct way to race. We're all quite sad tonight but we have many more races so we will look forward now to China."    Colin Edwards Position: DNFTime: "I got a great start but I had some problems getting heat into the rear tyre, which we were expecting at the start anyway. As a result I couldn't corner so well and I slipped right back on that first lap. Then Valentino ran off the track a bit at the fast right turn and I think everyone was checking up a bit and looking at him instead of thinking about the next corner! It seemed that everyone around me ran a bit wide into turn 12 but I braked normally and went underneath them when Jacque hit me from behind and I went down. I'm not badly hurt but my knee took a bit of a bang and it's swollen up quite a lot. It's pretty disappointing because we know my bike was working well and once I got some heat into the tyre it might have been a good race."
Davide Brivio - Team Director "A very difficult and disappointing race for us! Colin was very unlucky as he was hit from behind through no fault of his own and there was no way for him to avoid the crash. He has some bad bruising to his knee but we hope it's nothing too serious. Valentino made a mistake on lap one but he recovered well and it looked like he was set for a good race, but we had some problems with the tyre. We'd chosen the hardest and best tyre that we had available to us but it wasn't enough to fight with our competitors today. We now have to work with Michelin during tomorrow's test to understand why this happened and learn from the mistake. It was very hard for Valentino to keep going until the end in this situation but he didn't give up and took some valuable points; we're still second in the championship so let's move on from here and look forward to China."
Turkish delight for Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team
After a drama charged Grand Prix of Turkey the Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team can leave Istanbul extremely satisfied as riders Makoto Tamada and Sylvain Guintoli scored more championship points finishing in 14th and 15th spots respectively.
In what is shaping as the most intensely contested MotoGP Championship on record, both riders were extremely fortunate not to be involved in a spectacular opening lap crash that caused three riders to retire, as the Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 pilots were forced to take evasive action to stay in the race. Losing vital seconds in the melee, both riders recovered composure rapidly to give chase to the quickly disappearing pack and with determined rides closed the gap to the leaders over the remainder of the race to finish just 30 seconds from a podium finish.
Confirming the continuing development of both the new generation Dunlop tyres and the 800cc Yamaha's that have made their debut in the new look championship in 2007, both riders consistently lapped the 5.340km Istanbul Park circuit over a second quicker than last year.
Makoto Tamada Position: 14thTime: +38.540 The race wasn't so bad for me after Jerez but I need to find more consistency in myself. I had a good tyre as in the first few laps I could push very hard. It then dropped off a little but then the consistency remained the same. In the first lap I lost a bit as I had to ride around a long way to avoid the bikes on the track. I rode very hard to try and make up the difference but this is where I think I used a bit of the rear tyre trying to catch up to everyone. During the race I had a good battle with Shinya Nakano and my teammate Sylvain so things are getting better but the tyre remained consistent in its level of grip. I am working well with the team as we get to know each other and I am getting more and more confidence with the Dunlop tyres after being on other makes of tyres for many years. I feel that with the improvements we are making with the bike and the help from Dunlop that our results will improve at every race, as long as there are not too many crashes in front of me! 
Sylvain Guintoli Position: 15thTime:+39.337 Overall it was a good weekend. After Qatar and Jerez where we did some testing, this track was completely new to me. In the first lap I had to do a bit of gardening to miss the accident in front of me on the first lap and I think I lost about 10 seconds so it was a race against the clock to come back to the pack. On the last lap I had passed Makoto but unfortunately braking at the end of the straight I hit a bit of footpeg from the big crash that was still on the track and I lost the front and nearly crashed. One point is good again, especially here where I thought it would be more difficult but I think I could've been closer to the front than 30 seconds except for missing the crash and that little incident on the last lap. We always knew we had a good front tyre and now we have found some new information to improve the front but especially the most important was the rear tyre. Dunlop has made some big improvements with the rear tyre as it was very consistent the entire race and allowed us to go much faster than last year as I have done faster lap times than Carlos Checa did last year in the dry. This weekend has given me a lot more confidence as I feel these tyres are much better than a lot of people think so I am hoping for a race soon where we can get everything to gel together.
Herve Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Director I am reasonably satisfied with the result of the weekend as we are again in the points and towards the end of the race, we were quicker than a few riders in front of us and this proves that we are becoming more competitive at each race and that the new tyre rules are working. I am extremely happy with Sylvain and feel that if he wasn't involved in the first lap drama that he would have scored more points than the single one that he claimed. He came back strongly and was very consistent the entire race, competing together with Shinya Nakano and Carlos Checa. The most encouraging sign for us was that we were only 30 seconds from third place and this proves to me the improvement that is being made to the entire package as last year we struggled here and this year it is a lot better result for us We are staying here to test tomorrow and we have quite a few things to test especially in the tyre department. We have to keep it in perspective though as we are not going to climb ten steps at once but from the beginning of the season we are consistent and we are steadily improving.   Circuit Length: 5378 Temp: 23 Weather: Dry     2007 MotoGP Turkey - Istanbul 22/04/2007 Race 1 - 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 42'2.850 2 Toni Elias Honda ESP 0'6.207 3 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 0'8.102 4 Alex Barros Ducati BRA 0'8.135 5 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 0'8.289 6 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 0'10.186 7 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 0'10.239 8 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 0'14.734 9 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 0'16.042 10 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 0'18.999 11 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 0'26.249 12 Carlos Checa Honda ESP 0'29.546 13 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 0'36.922 14 Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 0'38.540 15 Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 0'39.337
Rider Standings 22/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 61 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 51 3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 36 4. Toni Elias Honda ESP 35 5. Marco Melandri Honda ITA 30 6. Nicky Hayden Honda USA 26 7. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 26 8. Alex Barros Ducati BRA 25 9. John Hopkins Suzuki USA 23 10. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 21 11. Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 20 12. Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 15 13. Carlos Checa Honda ESP 14 14. Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 12 15. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 11 16. Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 4 19. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 3
Team Standings 22/04/2007
Pos. Team Points 1. Ducati Marlboro Team 81 2. FIAT Yamaha Team 77 3. Honda Gresini 65 4. Repsol Honda Team 62 5. Rizla Suzuki 44 6. Pramac D'Antin 37 7. Kawasaki Racing Team 15 8. Konica Minolta Honda 15 9. Honda LCR 14 10. Tech3 Yamaha 7 11. Team Roberts 3
Manufacturer Standings 22/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Ducati 61 2. Honda 56 3. Yamaha 51 4. Suzuki 30 5. Kawasaki 15 6. KR212V 3
Alex Asigno
Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards put themselves in the best possible starting positions for tomorrow's Grand Prix of Turkey with a one-two in today's Official Qualifying. Shaking off the mild set-up problems they had encountered on yesterday's dirty track, the pair worked steadily on fine-tuning their 800cc YZR-M1s throughout the majority of the hour-long session before posting the best flying laps on qualifying tyres to take the top two spots on the grid for tomorrow's 22-lap race. With the weather staying dry once again the grip on track was considerably better than yesterday and Rossi's eventual pole time of 1'52.795 was just inside the existing lap record, although still slightly slower than last year's pole time. The Italian moved into pole with eight minutes remaining after his first flying lap before consolidating his position with another even faster lap on his second qualifying tyre soon after. Rossi's second pole of the season and ninth consecutive front row start puts him in a strong position to challenge for a win at one of only three circuits on this year's calendar where he has yet to stand on top of the podium. Edwards' second qualifying lap of 1'52.944 was good enough for second position behind his team-mate and the American will start ahead of Dani Pedrosa, who mounted a strong challenge in the closing stages but finished 0.027 adrift of the American.
Valentino Rossi Position: 1st Time: 1'52.795 Laps: 24 "I'm very happy to have a pole position at this track, which has never been one of my favourites! I've had some bad moments here in the past but this year it feels like a different track for me and I'm having great fun! My M1 is very competitive, a lot more fun to ride here than in the past and the new modifications we have for our engine have made an important difference to our overall performance. The team has done a great job because we had some problems yesterday but they've found some good solutions and now Colin and I are first and second. My tyres are working well and we've found the right front for tomorrow. We need to make a final decision about the rear in the morning. With the qualifying tyre my bike really flew and I was able to do a very good lap; I started my first lap a few minutes earlier than the others and then I knew that I could improve a little bit more with the second qualifying tyre. Anyway all three of us are very close on the front row so I think it's going to be a tight battle tomorrow. Let's hope for good weather and see what happens."    Colin Edwards Position: 2nd Time: 1'52.944 Laps: 21 "Well after the problems we had yesterday I've got to say a massive thanks to my team. They looked at the issues, got out their protractors, did their maths and worked their magic like always! The Michelin qualifier really sticks like glue for us this year and I was able to really push it. I thought I was going to run into traffic at one point on my last lap but I just kept my head down and somehow came out the other side in front. It was definitely a mistake-free lap. As for tomorrow, we need to work a little bit on our race pace - two tenths would be good but three would be even better! I think we're losing it in T3 so we need to concentrate on that part of the track. We've moved onto a different front from the 'old faithful' we've been using so far this year because that one was a little bit too close to the limit here, but it's working really well so we just need to make a final decision on the rear. It's a great result for the team to have us both on the front row again so let's hope to make the most of it with a similar result tomorrow!"    Davide Brivio - Team Director "Of course this is a great qualifying result for us and it's really good to be starting tomorrow's race like this. This year our bike is working very well and both Valentino and Colin are able to enjoy the qualifying in a way that they weren't always able to last year. Our bike seems to be in great shape for qualifying this season as is shown by the results - Valentino has been on the front row in all three races and Colin twice. The team have done a great job as usual as they had a few problems to fix after yesterday, so well done to them. Our situation for tomorrow's race isn't so bad either but it's very important to be starting in front as it's going to be a hard battle. We have a few things to check with both riders in the warm-up tomorrow and some fine-tuning to do, but we can definitely be competitive and fight until the end."
2007 MotoGP Turkey - Istanbul 21/04/2007 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'52.795 2 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'52.944 3 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'52.971 4 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'53.375 5 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 1'53.559 6 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 1'53.613 7 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 1'53.637 8 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1'53.706 9 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'53.771 10 Toni Elias Honda ESP 1'53.835 11 Olivier Jacque Kawasaki FRA 1'53.847 12 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 1'53.988 13 Alex Barros Ducati BRA 1'54.082 14 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 1'54.143 15 Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 1'54.206 19 Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 1'54.845
Alex Asigno
Valentino Rossi finished the first day of practice for the Grand Prix of Turkey in fourth position today, the top Michelin rider in the 19-strong MotoGP field at Istanbul Park. After heading the standings in this morning's practice, Colin Edwards struggled with front-end problems this afternoon and the American could only manage 15th in the combined standings. Although the sun shone all day, an overnight rainstorm and cool temperatures this morning meant the track was still wet for first practice and, although it had dried out somewhat by the afternoon, it remained quite dirty and the poor conditions meant that lap times were considerably slower than the existing lap record.
Without any testing at this track this season, the team face a hard task to find the correct set-up and tyre combination before Sunday's 22 lap race and the tricky track conditions today complicated their task. After losing much of this morning's session to the wet track both crews worked hard throughout this afternoon's practice, which was interrupted by a red flag for a short time after Shinya Nakano fell. Team-mates Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi topped the time sheets, whilst third spot ahead of Rossi went to John Hopkins.
Valentino Rossi Position: 4thTime: 1'55.120Laps: 33 "The conditions today weren't ideal for us as the track was very, very dirty. However we're not in such a bad position in fourth and when you compare it to last year, when we had some serious problems here, things are much better and I can ride the bike very well, in fact I like the track a lot more with this bike! Stoner especially was very fast today and I think that tomorrow is going to be a hard battle for qualifying. We need to work on the tyres and the set-up but I am confident that we can improve things quite a bit more tomorrow. The Japanese engineers have been working very hard during the break and today we tried out some new modifications for our engine. My first impressions are that it's a definite improvement and we can go a little bit faster. It's not a big difference but it's very important, especially here at this track. Now let's see what we can do tomorrow."    Colin Edwards Position: 15thTime: 1'56.320Laps: 28 "Strangely I felt more comfortable with the front end this morning, when the track was wet and even dirtier than it was this afternoon! Unfortunately we've got some problems to deal with in the front-end and we didn't quite get to the bottom of them today. This afternoon I stayed on the same front as we used this morning and we've been playing with the setting but at the moment it's not working great and I can't ride it how I want to. We need to look at both the setting and the tyre situation and make some adjustments in order to be in a position to challenge tomorrow. Apart from that the bike feels okay and I'm confident that once the team work their magic tonight, as they always do, things will be working good."
Davide Brivio - Team Director "The conditions today weren't good because of the rain overnight and so we lost a lot of this morning's practice. Unfortunately the track remained quite dirty and so the lap times are quite a lot slower than the last couple of years. Anyway, we have to work in these conditions so the team have tried to make the best of it and we're trying to analyse the problems we've encountered today. This afternoon Colin was suffering more than Valentino and he has some set-up problems which we need to work through. Of course the tyres are also very important here because it's the first track that we've been to this year without testing and our choice is also limited by the new regulations. However Valentino was able to improve his set-up a bit this afternoon and hopefully we can do the same with them both tomorrow."   Circuit Length: 5378 Temp: 18 Weather: Dry     2007 MotoGP Turkey - Istanbul 20/04/2007 Free Practice Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'54.200 2 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 1'54.979 3 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 1'55.062 4 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'55.120 5 Toni Elias Honda ESP 1'55.158 6 Olivier Jacque Kawasaki FRA 1'55.158 7 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'55.707 8 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 1'55.736 9 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'55.865 10 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 1'55.910 11 Kenny Roberts KR212V USA 1'56.071 12 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1'56.225 13 Alex Barros Ducati BRA 1'56.233 14 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 1'56.312 15 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'56.320 17 Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 1'56.923 19 Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 1'57.245
Alex Asigno
The efforts of Joshua Coppins, Antonio Cairoli and Yves Demaria in the FIM MX1, MX2 and MX3 Championship respectively have ensured a fantastic start to the international off-road racing calendar for Yamaha; with the manufacturer leading the standings of each series and remaining unbeaten in the two Grand Prix run so far in MX1 and MX2.   The Yamaha Motocross Team, reigning champions in the MX1 class, has extended their run of victories to 16 Grand Prix from the last 17 run over the past twelve months. New signing for 2007, Joshua Coppins, has gelled immediately with the YZ450FM and has won three of four motos in total, contested in Holland and Spain last weekend; climbing the top step of the overall rostrum on both occasions. The 30 year old New Zealander has shown an impressive rate of speed in sand and also muddy conditions at Bellpuig on Sunday, and is currently fulfilling many pre-season predictions that the Kiwi is number one favourite for the ’07 title. The Rinaldi-helmed crew are chasing their seventh championship this century and Team Manager Carlo is pleased with the progress thus far: “Josh was steady in the sand and stayed consistent in difficult conditions on Sunday; this was the best we could have expected from him. Josh believes in himself so much and is very motivated and focussed; we trust that we can have a very good season with him.”    Coppins’ achievements on the eve of entering the third round of fifteen at the Agueda circuit for the Grand Prix of Portugal this weekend have only been matched by the flamboyant and incredibly popular Antonio Cairoli in the MX2 competition. The exciting Sicilian – steering the potent YZ250F for Team De Carli Yamaha – has also won three from four motos and is undefeated in terms of GP wins. The 21 year old has raised his career tally of successes to 12 with a dominant set of victories at Valkenswaard two weeks ago and then sensationally beating Christophe Pourcel by passing the Champion on the last lap in Spain. “I am really happy with how things have been going,” the 2005 World Champ commented, “and I want to try and continue in this way. I know I have to be consistent for the championship and not repeat the mistakes I made last year. I am in good shape and the team is working very hard; we are heading in a good direction.”    With second and third positions captured in French and Italian Grand Prix events the MX3 series is currently being led by multi champion and reigning number one in the category Yves Demaria. The experienced French rider, who first gained the MX3 crown in 2004, is fielding adapted YZ450F machinery within his own team structure this season. He returns to the ‘blue’ fold after winning in 250cc Grand Prixs last century and the 2001 Motocross of Nations at Namur with the Yamaha brand. For 2007 the 35 year old is battling with some younger names such as Benjamin Coisy (victor in Italy) and main title rival Sven Breugelmans. “It is good to see some young faces in this ‘old’ championship,” he commented “They get the chance to re-establish themselves and it is positive for the series. I am leading the standings after two rounds and I don’t think I could ask for any more at the moment.” “The Yamaha is a good bike and it was only a case of sorting out some suspension settings at the start of the year. I think Breugelmans, Vehvilainen and Lozano will be my main competition for the rest of the season,” he added.    “Off course I am delighted with the results of our riders in all the MX world-championships,” said Huub Forschelen, Off-road Racing Manager of Yamaha Motor Europe. “After consecutive titles in MX1 with one specific rider, I am happy that we can prove that it is not just the individual who makes this possible. Now we can show also that the perfect team organisation and engineering qualities of YRRD (Yamaha Rinaldi Research Development) are a substantial part of the success, which Josh is now continuing for us. The quality of YRRD racing parts are proven as well in the MX3 championship, where Yves is leading, as a privateer, with his YZ479F kit-equipped Yamaha. While, as well, Team De Carli show the high level that a good team can tune a YZ250F. It is a motivation for a rider like Tony to work with such a team and to continue his victory tour.” The MX1 and MX2 Grand Prix of Portugal takes place in the dark red soil of Agueda with practice commencing this Saturday. The World Championship then pauses for a week before heading for consecutive meetings in Italy and Germany. MX3 also continues this weekend with the Spanish Grand Prix occurring near Madrid at Talavera de la Reina.
Alex Asigno
The Grand Prix of Spain at a sunny Bellpuig circuit in Catalunya for the second round of the FIM Motocross World Championship has been a memorable day for Yamaha with Josh Coppins winning both motos in the MX1 class, for his second consecutive success with the YZ450FM. Antonio Cairoli won a thrilling duel with World Champ Christophe Pourcel on the last lap of the second MX2 moto to seal his second GP victory in a row, watched by an appreciative 22,300 crowd. The 2007 campaign is only two events old but already Yamaha remain unbeaten thanks to the talents of the New Zealander and Sicilian respectively. The weather could not have been more varied in the north-east of the country. The huge swing from dark clouds and never-ending rain on Saturday to the sunny skies and high temperatures on Sunday afternoon caused the track to change from a swamp to a rutted and very bumpy prospect that made overtaking tricky because of the emphasis on a single line. For the first time this millennium the Saturday programme was cancelled due to heavy rain fall. The riders were forced to use what is normally the warm-up period before the Grand Prix motos Sunday morning as a make-shift qualification period.    Coppins started reasonably well in both motos. The 30 year old, who had been working on his set-up and speed for hard-pack tracks in Italy over the Easter holiday, steered past Mike Brown in the formative stages and began to pull away. He won by almost twenty seconds and repeated the authoritative performance in the second race, taking his third chequered flag from four motos, by more than twelve seconds over runner up Max Nagl. His team-mate Marc de Reuver did not enjoy similar fortune. The Dutchman was hindered around the first corner in both heats so that he was unable to penetrate the leading elite. The 24 year old's speed varied on the demanding terrain as he also had to battle hard to gain ground; finishing with fourteenth and tenth for tenth overall    Josh Coppins, Yamaha Motocross Team: "We were here in 2004 and I remember the first race was really bad but by the second the track was pretty good, so I knew that if the sun came out it would turn around. I have proved before that I am quite good in all kinds of conditions. I was already feeling comfortable on the Yamaha on hard-pack compared to the sand prior to this race. I knew that we had a good set-up on the bike so I was looking forward to coming here and believed that we had a chance to make a good race. My starts haven't been that great so far but I am lucky that the bike is so strong. I wheelied on the first and let the clutch go too soon with the second; as soon as I hit third gear though the bike just pulled me to the front."
Marc de Reuver, Yamaha Motocross Team: "Things did not work out very well for me today. My starts were not great. I touched Nagl on the start-straight of the first moto and that put me right at the back. I tried to get some rhythm going and passing was difficult but it was hard and I felt tired on the bike. I just want to look ahead to next week now."    Carlo Rinaldo, Team Manager, Yamaha Motocross Team: "It was a very good day for Josh and Yamaha of course. He made almost a perfect race; good starts but also a very fast pace and no mistakes. Normally in these conditions we have seen Josh a little bit tense and aggressive but today he looked very comfortable on this track. We worked a little bit on the bike before this race and it looked like he appreciated it. Regarding Marc I am a little bit sad and disappointed, for him just as much as us, because it looks like everything should be going well. He is fit and feeling fast on the bike but his starts were not good and the lap-times were very inconsistent. But let's keep working and see what will happen next week!"   Circuit Length: 1630 Temp: 21 Crowd: 22300 Weather: Sunny     2007 GP of Bellpuig, Spain 15/04/2007 Race 1 - 19 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 39'57.248 2 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'19.883 3 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 0'21.435 4 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 0'21.725 5 Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 0'44.270 6 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 0'49.611 7 Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 0'49.902 8 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 1'7.432 9 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 1'12.523 10 James Noble Honda GBR 1'13.428 11 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 1'38.226 12 Mike Brown Honda USA 1'38.593 13 Cyrille Coulon Honda FRA 1'44.872 14 Marc De Reuver Yamaha NED 1'57.837 15 Thomas Allier Kawasaki FRA 2'3.472 16 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 2'7.343 17 Alex Salvini Yamaha ITA 2'9.197 18 Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 2'14.936 19 Alessio Chiodi Aprilia ITA -1 Laps 20 Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR -1 Laps
Race 2 - 19 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 40'24.251 2 Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 0'12.485 3 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'14.452 4 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'18.369 5 Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR 0'22.157 6 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 0'30.563 7 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 0'43.111 8 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 0'47.783 9 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 0'51.842 10 Marc De Reuver Yamaha NED 0'54.262 11 Thomas Allier Kawasaki FRA 0'55.910 12 Manuel Priem TM BEL 1'2.144 13 Mike Brown Honda USA 1'32.637 14 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 1'35.421 15 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 1'36.557 16 James Noble Honda GBR 1'38.467 17 Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 1'43.971 18 Julien Bill Kawasaki CHE -1 Laps 19 Scott Columb Suzuki NZL -1 Laps 20 Christian Beggi Honda ITA -1 Laps
Rider Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Joshua Coppins Yamaha NZL 97 2. Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 78 3. Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 74 4. Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 63 5. Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 63 6. Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 61 7. Marc De Reuver Yamaha NED 53 8. Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 43 9. James Noble Honda GBR 40 10. Mike Brown Honda USA 36 11. Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 36 12. Billy MacKenzie Kawasaki GBR 29 13. Manuel Priem TM BEL 28 14. Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 27 15. David Philippaerts KTM ITA 26 16. Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 21 17. Thomas Allier Kawasaki FRA 16 18. Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 16 19. Pierre A. Renet Honda FRA 13 20. Antoine Meo Honda FRA 10
Manufacturer Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Yamaha 97 2. Suzuki 82 3. KTM 81 4. Honda 61 5. Kawasaki 49 6. TM 28 7. Aprilia 2
RACE REPORT 15/04/2007 Cairoli beats Pourcel to win the Spanish GP    In MX2 Antonio Cairoli buried the bad memories of his DNF at the 2006 Spanish round at Bellpuig with an inspiring chase of Christophe Pourcel that had the crowd cheering his efforts. In both races the 2005 World Champion experimented with different trajectories in order to shrink large margins to the escaping Pourcel. He challenged the Frenchman on the last lap of Moto one but made a mistake and opted for second place several corners before the flag. In the second race he caught up some fifteen seconds to the Kawasaki rider and gunned his YZ250F to make his three best laps of the race in the last three circulations to push his way into the lead. His emphatic celebrations - he dropped his machine and stood on it to wave and acknowledge the spectators - after the finish line showed just how much the achievement meant to him. >   Yamaha Team Ricci's Kenneth Gundersen could only secure thirteenth overall after two horrendous starts that left the Norwegian with a lot of hard work to get near the top ten. The former 125cc Grand Prix winner was twelfth and fourteen and now sits sixth in the World Championship standings. His team-mate Nicolas Aubin showed some promising speed by running in the top five of both motos. The Frenchman unfortunately was unable to score any points due to a clutch problem in the first moto but took a decent fifth place in race two after losing second due to a small crash.    The third member of the Ricci crew, Davide Guarneri, attempted to return to World Championship action but could only manage a handful of laps in the first moto. The Italian has a strained ligament and a small fracture in the ankle he damaged while competing in his domestic series in March. The joint swelled considerably and he was unable to make the second moto. He is now a doubt for the Portuguese round next week, opting instead for more recovery time prior to the Italian Grand Prix in May. Antonio Cairoli, Team Yamaha De Carli: "I am really happy with this race. I felt good on this track this year, we have never won the GP here before. I did not start well in the first heat but I worked hard and narrowed the gap to Christophe. I had a little bit of arm-pump and after I passed him he had some slightly better lines than me and got me back. I did not want to make a mistake so I settled for second. The track in the second moto was easier because there were more lines for us and passing was less complicated. I felt quicker than the first race so when I started slowly again I could work on Christophe's lead again; I made a very good pass on the last lap. Last year I feel that I lost my Championship here because I threw away many points to Christophe by not finishing one moto. This year I did not want to make any mistakes. I did push very hard in the second race though because I wanted the win and it was right there. I made some good laps at the end, my condition is at a high level now. Claudio (De Carli, Team Manager) gave me the cost for some damage caused when I was chearing and made a little dance standing on the bike to celebrate the victory!"
Kenneth Gundersen, Yamaha Team Ricci: "In the first moto I started almost last and came up to twelfth by the end. I was out of the gate OK but ran wide into the thick mud and almost got stuck. The track was virtually only one-line and when you get stuck behind a slower rider it was so difficult to pass; you lose your rhythm all the time. It was the same in the second heat and I had to work my way up. I hit someone on the straight and this put me right at the back. I feel good and strong on the bike I just hope that soon I can get away with the guys at the front who I want to race with." Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha Team Ricci: "The goal was to be twice in top five and without the problem in the first race I believed it would have been possible. The clutch was going and I had to work a lot with it; but in the end it was finished. I started the second race well and was settling into my own pace in second when I made a small mistake and lost the front wheel going around a corner. Luckily the bike was still running but I lost my rhythm after that and went back a few places. Physically I am feeling fit and today was not too bad as I feel my speed is really coming along."
Most of the teams and riders were in no rush to leave Sunday evening. The Grand Prix of Portugal will occur next weekend and means a journey east for the paddock across Spain to Agueda, just south of Porto, for the third race of fifteen on the '07 schedule.   Circuit Length: 1630 Temp: 21 Crowd: 22300 Weather: Sunny     2007 GP of Bellpuig, Spain 15/04/2007 Race 1 - 18 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 41'28.206 2 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 0'0.921 3 Erik Eggens Suzuki NED 0'53.809 4 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 1'3.739 5 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 1'27.248 6 Tommy Searle KTM GBR 1'33.414 7 Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 1'40.890 8 Marcus Schiffer KTM GER 1'48.657 9 Jeremy Van Horebeek KTM BEL 1'49.025 10 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 1'55.072 11 Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 2'0.526 12 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 2'10.942 13 Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 2'14.454 14 Carl Nunn Yamaha GBR 2'16.461 15 Jason Dougan Suzuki GBR 2'17.818 16 Xavier Boog Yamaha FRA 2'20.120 17 Dennis Verbruggen Yamaha BEL 2'33.960 18 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA -1 Laps 19 Rui Goncalves KTM POR -1 Laps 20 Gert Krestinov KTM EST -1 Laps
Race 2 - 18 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 40'54.529 2 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'0.884 3 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 0'37.726 4 Tommy Searle KTM GBR 0'41.313 5 Nicolas Aubin Yamaha FRA 0'45.718 6 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 0'53.814 7 Matteo Bonini Yamaha ITA 1'12.971 8 Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 1'20.316 9 Xavier Boog Yamaha FRA 1'22.680 10 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 1'28.111 11 Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 1'32.745 12 Shaun Simpson Kawasaki GBR 1'36.647 13 Marcus Schiffer KTM GER 1'49.494 14 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 1'52.344 15 Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 2'3.490 16 Carl Nunn Yamaha GBR 2'7.461 17 Anthony Boissière Kawasaki FRA 2'13.093 18 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA -1 Laps 19 Jason Dougan Suzuki GBR -1 Laps 20 Rui Goncalves KTM POR -1 Laps
Rider Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 97 2. Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 82 3. Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 81 4. Erik Eggens Suzuki NED 54 5. Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 53 6. Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 50 7. Marcus Schiffer KTM GER 48 8. Tommy Searle KTM GBR 44 9. Nicolas Aubin Yamaha FRA 44 10. Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 41 11. Matti Seistola Honda FIN 39 12. Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 34 13. Anthony Boissière Kawasaki FRA 26 14. Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 25 15. Xavier Boog Yamaha FRA 25 16. Dennis Verbruggen Yamaha BEL 22 17. Jeremy Van Horebeek KTM BEL 21 18. Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 19 19. Matteo Bonini Yamaha ITA 14 20. Carl Nunn Yamaha GBR 12
Manufacturer Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Yamaha 97 2. Kawasaki 87 3. KTM 82 4. Suzuki 56 5. Honda 53
Alex Asigno
Noriyuki Haga brought 36 more points and two podiums home for Yamaha in today's World Superbike Championship round at Valencia. Having battled to find the right set-up all weekend, Haga went out today and claimed second in race one, with Corser in fourth. He then had an excellent second race, finishing in third after a race-long battle with James Toseland.
In race one Corser made a good start and took the lead by the first turn until lap six when it became evident that he had a grip problem. He maintained as much pace as he could though, to stay in the four-way battle for top spot between Xaus, Haga, Bayliss and himself. Eventually Haga and Xaus dropped Bayliss and Corser and continued the battle, with Haga taking the fastest lap on lap eight before taking the race lead.
Corser and Bayliss fought for third place until Bayliss broke free to re-join the top two runners. A close race with Xaus, Haga and Bayliss saw all three of them dice for position but Xaus managed to take the win, with Haga second and Bayliss third. Corser held on to fourth with a decent margin back to Toseland in fifth.    In race two Nitro Nori, lived up to his name getting the hole-shot off the line to take the lead. Corser made a good start as well to follow up in second, with Xaus and Toseland again close behind. By the end of lap one Toseland and Xaus had both passed Corser and by the end of lap three Bayliss had managed the same move, pushing Troy back to fifth.
Ruben Xaus made it past Haga on lap four and Toseland and Haga touched fairings as the Honda rider also squeezed through. For the next ten laps all three riders swapped places at almost every turn until Bayliss ran briefly into the gravel after hitting the white line and dropping down to sixth. Haga and Toseland continued to fight for the win, with Noriyuki leading again from lap 19 until a mistake let James through on the penultimate lap.
Team Yamaha YZF rider, Shinichi Nakatomi, had a disappointing weekend after retiring in race one with tyre problems and finishing 16th in race two. The team has really felt the lack of winter testing this weekend, coupled with Nakatomi's lack of confidence with wet weather riding.
Noriyuki Haga (3rd - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "In race two I had a good start, getting the hole-shot from the start line into first place. During the race I was looking for a good pace - I was not concerned if someone came past me, I was watching them (Xaus and Toseland). But they weren't carrying the same speed as me, and slowed down the pace. I was fighting side by side with Toseland but also looking to save my rear tyre to push in the last five laps.
During the last two laps I had a good fight with Toseland for first place, and when I was planning to overtake James at the last corner I was not expecting Biaggi to be there, which prevented me from passing. For me, today was good but not perfect."    Troy Corser (9th - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "In race one I had a problem with our mapping choice, which is why I couldn't keep the pace with the front runners. But in race two the problem was different. I had exactly the same tyre as I had in race one, but I had absolutely no grip. I don't know why. I just can't believe my result today."    Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "Troy's tyre problem aside, this was a positive weekend for me. We got some good points especially closing the gap to Biaggi and Suzuki in the Manufacturers' standings. The progress we saw in Donington, we saw again here. Nori rode very well, he lead 14 of 23 laps in the second race, always very focused. Two podiums is an excellent step towards our goal - the Championship.
Unfortunately Troy had tyre problems in race two. His rear tyre didn't seem to work very well, giving him no grip at all. Otherwise, we are sure he would have been on the podium today. I am sure he will be up there in Assen. I'm looking forward to the next race, we are confident in good results there."
Shinichi Nakatomi (18th - Team Yamaha YZF) "Race one was bad for me, we needed more test time to find the right tyre but we did not have it so made a wrong choice. Race two was not a good result, but it was better than race one at least. At least I know where we need to make improvements now. This weekend has been tough, I hope Assen is better."
Martial Garcia (Team Coordinator - Team YZF Yamaha) "In race one, we made the wrong tyre choice, which was too soft and had finished after only five laps. The tyre we chose for race two was much better, but it is just unfortunate we couldn't get into the points even with our improved lap times.
We are paying for the lack of winter testing before this season. For Assen we hope for good weather and for Nakatomi to improve his confidence in riding in the wet."   Circuit Length: 4005 Temp: 17 Crowd: 39,000 Weather: Cloudy     2007 WSB Valencia 15/04/2007 Race 1 - 23 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 37'14.606 2 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 0'1.997 3 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 0'6.330 4 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 0'8.780 5 James Toseland Honda GBR 0'17.040 6 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 0'24.272 7 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 0'25.822 8 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 0'26.087 9 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 0'28.778 10 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 0'32.754 11 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 0'37.084 12 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 0'37.141 13 Giovanni Bussei Honda ITA 0'37.563 14 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 0'38.544 15 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 0'53.049
Race 2 - 23 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 James Toseland Honda GBR 37'35.825 2 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 0'0.287 3 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 0'0.375 4 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 0'6.637 5 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 0'7.991 6 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 0'10.210 7 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 0'10.861 8 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 0'14.366 9 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 0'15.511 10 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 0'19.716 11 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 0'25.287 12 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 0'26.437 13 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 0'34.992 14 Carmelo Morales Yamaha ESP 0'39.987 15 Giovanni Bussei Honda ITA 0'42.445 16 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 0'43.467
Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'35.746
 Rider Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. James Toseland Honda GBR 151 2. Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 138 3. Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 124 4. Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 101 5. Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 90 6. Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 87 7. Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 83 8. Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 55 9. Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 46 10. Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 37 11. Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 33 12. Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 32 13. Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 30 14. Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 27 15. Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 25 18. Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 12
Manufacturer Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 160 2. Suzuki 138 3. Yamaha 134 4. Ducati 132 5. Kawasaki 53
RACE REPORT 15/04/2007 Parkes brings it home in sixth, Curtain crashes out    Broc Parkes rode through the pain barrier today at Valencia to bring his R6 home in fifth place despite his recent collar bone injury. His team mate, Kevin Curtain, was not so fortunate, crashing out of the race on lap nine whilst battling for first place.
The wet conditions that had plagued much of the weekend's track sessions had cleared going into the Supersport race. With this in mind, both riders were confident of a good ride in the fourth round of the World Supersport Championship today but in the end they were to have quite different results. Kevin got off a good start and maintained his third place, moving quickly up to second on lap two.
Feeling comfortable with the bike and track conditions, he was able to put in a determined ride and was in a four-way battle for first place with Sofuoglu (Honda), Pitt (Honda) and Riba (Kawasaki). On lap five Kevin, showing no sign of discomfort from his broken collar bone, took the lead and temporarily set a new lap record. The battle continued until, on lap nine, Curtain and Riba collided catching Riba's brake lever and taking both riders out as well as Fujiwara
Parkes' race also got off to a good start with him climbing up to eighth place from his start position of 11th. His injuries though, pampered him throughout the race, with him straining to change direction in the twisty middle section of the circuit. He moved up to fourth position as a result of Curtain and Riba's accident and then found himself embroiled in the middle pack of riders for the remainder of the race. He fought on and finished the race in a very credible fifth position, considering the short recovery period he has had since Donington.
Massimo Roccoli, riding in the Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni squad, found himself alongside Parkes for much of the race, with the two riders swapping positions throughout. The dry conditions suited Roccoli's style more than the rain and he was able to much improve his start 16th start position to eventually finish in a solid seventh slot.  Following his crash Curtain was taken to hospital where it was confirmed that his collar bone injury has not been made worse. A long 20cm cut deep into his thigh, caused by his foot peg, has had to be stitched - it was close to an artery but missed it.
Following Curtain and Riba's collision the remaining to riders went on with Sofuoglu finishing in the top spot and ex-Yamaha WSB rider Pitt putting a good performance for second. Rounding up the podium positions was Nannelli (Ducati) who had a good fight with Pitt for second place and narrowly missed out.    Broc Parkes (5th - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I was sore for sure during that race and when the pace picked up I had trouble keeping up because I couldn't change direction so easily due to my shoulder. I had a pack of riders around me for much of the race, which I didn't like as it would have been so easy to collide with one of them, like Kevin did. I'd rather have been in front of them, but I couldn't get past. At least I got some points, which I am happy about and kept it upright this weekend."
Massimo Roccoli (7th - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) "I had a good start and jumped to sixth position. I was riding with the leading group and after a very difficult practice, I am pleased with my final result. I took some points and have saved the weekend."   Circuit Length: 4005 Temp: 19 Crowd: 39,000 Weather: Cloudy     2007 WSS Valencia 15/04/2007 Race 1 - 23 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 38'8.523 2 Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 0'4.911 3 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 0'5.200 4 Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 0'5.619 5 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 0'12.776 6 David Salom Yamaha ESP 0'14.913 7 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 0'15.178 8 Joan Lascorz Honda ESP 0'25.356 9 Vesa Kallio Suzuki FIN 0'28.454 10 Craig Jones Honda GBR 0'29.885 11 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 0'30.422 12 Davide Giugliano Kawasaki ITA 0'30.810 13 Lorenzo Alfonsi Honda ITA 0'31.204 14 David Checa Yamaha ESP 0'35.273 15 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 0'37.610
Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 1'37.570
 Rider Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 95 2. Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 51 3. Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 43 4. Robbin Harms Honda DNK 39 5. Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 30 6. Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 27 7. Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 26 8. Craig Jones Honda GBR 25 9. Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 25 10. Pere Riba Kawasaki ESP 22 11. Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 20 12. Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 17 13. Yoann Tiberio Honda FRA 15 14. Davide Giugliano Kawasaki ITA 14 15. Lorenzo Alfonsi Honda ITA 13 20. Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 10 21. David Checa Yamaha ESP 9 22. Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 9
Manufacturer Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 95 2. Kawasaki 61 3. Yamaha 55 4. Ducati 30 5. Suzuki 24
RACE REPORT 15/04/2007 New boy Pirro shows his potential with a second place    Rookie Superstock rider Michele Pirro showed his race-winning potential today with a superb ride over a challenging two-part race to take second place. In contrast, team mate Corti had a difficult weekend, eventually finishing in 11th place. This result doesn't do credit to the actual first he got in the second half of the race - a bad first heat brought his overall finishing position down.
At the initial race start, Pirro got a good start to take the lead from his second qualifying place. He then proceeded to pull out a lead of almost six seconds by lap three before the rest of the pack regained their composure to attach back. British rider Mark Aitchison (Suzuki) took the lead on lap six but then the race was red flagged after Badovini (MV Augusta) crashed.
The race was re-started with a five-lap sprint to the chequered flag. Pirro once again got a good start, taking the lead briefly before Yamaha-shod rider Baiocco passed him. Corti came back from his first heat difficulties in the re-start to show the fighting spirit that got him second place in the 2006 Superstock Championship. A close battle ensued with van Keymeulen, Corti, Aitchison and Baiocco for the lead with Corti succeeding while van Keymeulen crashed out of second on the penultimate lap.
The final aggregate result, taking into account the re-start, put Aitchison in first place; Pirro in second and Canepa in third.    Michele Pirro (2nd - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) "I had no grip at the front with my front tyre destroyed. I tried to keep hold of first place but it was impossible. I am satisfied though, because my second position has put me back in the fight for the championship."    Claudio Corti (3rd - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) "My big problem was the first start. I took a big risk and almost crashed at one point losing position. I had no such problems in the second heat though and I am pleased to have grabbed some points today."   Circuit Length: 4005 Temp: 16 Crowd: 39,000 Weather: Changeable     2007 Superstock Valencia 15/04/2007 Race 1 - 10 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Mark Aitchison Suzuki AUS 18'4.561 2 Michele Pirro Yamaha ITA 0'0.566 3 Nicolo Canepa Ducati ITA 0'8.556 4 Matteo Baiocco Yamaha ITA 0'12.741 5 Ilario Dionisi Suzuki ITA 0'13.883 6 Xavier Simeon Suzuki BEL 0'14.606 7 Rene Mahr Yamaha GER 0'15.604 8 Matej Smrz Honda CZE 0'23.290 9 Cederic Tangre Yamaha FRA 0'25.773 10 Marko Jerman Suzuki SVK 0'26.178 11 Claudio Corti Yamaha ITA 0'26.428 12 Denis Sacchetti MV Agusta ITA 0'29.667 13 Sheridan Morais Ducati RSA 0'33.732 14 Marko Rohtlaan Honda EST 0'34.541 15 Arne Tode Honda GER 0'41.693
Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Ayrton Badovini MV Agusta ITA 1'38.369
 Rider Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Nicolo Canepa Ducati ITA 41 2. Mark Aitchison Suzuki AUS 38 3. Claudio Corti Yamaha ITA 25 4. Matteo Baiocco Yamaha ITA 24 5. Ilario Dionisi Suzuki ITA 21 6. Michele Pirro Yamaha ITA 20 7. Xavier Simeon Suzuki BEL 19 8. Didier Van Keymeulen Yamaha BEL 16 9. Rene Mahr Yamaha GER 15 10. Marko Jerman Suzuki SVK 11 11. Sheridan Morais Ducati RSA 10 12. Arne Tode Honda GER 9 13. Cederic Tangre Yamaha FRA 9 14. Matej Smrz Honda CZE 8 15. Marko Rohtlaan Honda EST 5
Manufacturer Standings 15/04/2007
Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Ducati 41 2. Yamaha 40 3. Suzuki 38 4. Honda 16 5. MV Agusta 4
Alex Asigno
The enchanting city of Istanbul opens its gates to the MotoGP World Championship for the third time next weekend as the new 800cc era enters a third chapter shrouded in mystery. Unlike the opening two rounds at Losail and Jerez, the Fiat Yamaha Team and their rivals will be racing at a circuit where they have no pre-season testing experience with this year's machines. Not only will they have to set the bikes up from scratch but new regulations limiting the number of tyres each rider can use over the course of the weekend also come thundering into the equation.
Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards will each have just seventeen rear tyres and fourteen fronts at their disposal throughout the four hour-long official practice sessions, 25-minute warm-up and 22-lap race. A variety of different compounds will be available, based on Michelin's assessment of the characteristics of the spectacular 5.378 kilometre track and data gathered during tests following the Grand Prix at Jerez, but the rubber manufacturers will not be allowed to alter each rider's allocation after 5pm on Thursday evening.
The battle against the clock will start on Friday morning, when the riders and their engineers will work methodically through the available tyre options and adjust their bike set-up to the best available choice. Their job will not be made any easier by the demanding nature of the circuit, which features fourteen turns - eight lefts and six rights - several of which are based on famous bends at other circuits, such as the 'Senna Esses' at Sao Paolo, the 'Spoon Curve' at Suzuka and the 'Eau Rouge' at Spa. Like Phillip Island and Laguna Seca, it also has the unusual characteristic of running anti-clockwise.
The challenge is further enhanced by dramatic changes in elevation, with the track built on four different ground levels, and the fastest corner in MotoGP - a 270km/h bend that the riders may even take with the throttle wide open in sixth gear on the new 800cc machines. That hair-raising turn eleven is followed by three ultra-slow chicanes, calling for a balanced set-up that provides front-end confidence as well as the rear-end stability required to cope with the high-speed changes of direction.
A run of six different winners from the last six MotoGP races makes this weekend's proceedings even harder to predict but both Rossi and Edwards are confident of maintaining their strong early season form. After two rounds Rossi defends a World Championship lead of nine points over Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, with Edwards another ten points further back in fourth place. The Italian's victory at Jerez was his 46th of the four-stroke MotoGP era and made him the first man to win on three different capacity machines in the premier-class; 500cc, 990cc and 800cc.  
Valentino Rossi - "Putting the record straight" Istanbul Park is one of only three circuits on the current calendar where Valentino Rossi has yet to take victory in the premier-class of MotoGP, the others being Laguna Seca in the USA and Misano in Italy, which will this year host a Grand Prix for the first time since 1993. It is a figure the 28-year-old is looking to reduce as he aims for his first back-to-back victories since Mugello and Catalunya last year."
"The next two races, Turkey and China, are ones that I don't like so much and I have never won at Istanbul, but it's a great circuit with some very fast corners," says Rossi. "If the bike works well then it will be great fun I think. Last year I made an error early in the race and it cost me the chance for a podium, but I won't be making the same mistake this year! We are leading the championship but it's a long season and we have to aim to get on the podium at every race."
"The difficult thing over the next two races is going to be horsepower, because both Istanbul and Shanghai have very long straights. We tried some new things at the Jerez test to improve this and I know that Yamaha have been working very hard in Japan so hopefully we will have a little bit of improvement in this area when we get to Turkey. The other question is for the tyres, because it's the first time this season that we're going to be racing at a track that we haven't tested at. With the new restrictions it's going to be very important to make the right choices and also we don't know what the weather will do."  
Colin Edwards - "We're counting on Michelin" Colin Edwards heads to Turkey brimming with confidence after his return to the podium in Spain three weeks ago. Third place at Jerez was the Texan's first rostrum finish since the Grand Prix of China almost one year ago and, after relaxing at home during the extended Easter break, Edwards is determined to make sure the team don't have to wait that long for his next visit to those hallowed steps.
"It's been good to have some time at home, relaxing and in the knowledge that we did well in Jerez," reflects Edwards. "Now it's time to get back to work and prove that wasn't a fluke by getting amongst the champagne again in Turkey. It's definitely not one of my favourite tracks and it was a really hard race for us last year, but we had a lot of problems then and things are very different this year. We know we're going to lack a bit on the straights but we also know that our bike is working pretty well and hopefully we can make up time in other parts.
"Obviously everyone's going to be talking about the tyre factor in Istanbul but we're all in the same boat. Nobody has tested there so everyone's going to have to take some risks with their tyre choices. Basically we've just got to trust Michelin - we thought we were in trouble in Jerez but they were confident they had 'the' tyre and they were right. They know what they're doing so hopefully everything will be ok!"  
Davide Brivio - "Let's stay on the attack" With the Fiat Yamaha Team leading both the individual and team World Championship standings after two rounds, Team Manager Davide Brivio is backing his team to keep on the front foot in Turkey. With the long straights of Shanghai sure to provide a stern challenge for the nimble YZR-M1, Brivio has highlighted the need to get another solid pair of results in the bag before the long trip East."
"We head to Turkey looking to attack because China might be difficult for us and we may have to defend more," conceded Brivio. "Of course the big challenge for everybody this weekend is about finding a set-up quickly and making the right choice with the tyres. Istanbul has not been a good track for Yamaha and the cold conditions won't help either, but we have a team of very shrewd engineers and a fantastic relationship with Michelin so we are in a good position to make the difference."
"Even though we haven't tested at Istanbul we have gathered data at a lot of varied tracks during the winter and the bike has worked fairly well everywhere, which is crucially important when it comes to making a consistent challenge for a World Championship. It is still early in the season but the new M1 seems to have a solid base, so we'll see on the Friday what we need to work on. Both our riders are very motivated after their excellent results in Jerez so we are looking forward to another strong challenge from them this weekend."  
Valentino Rossi: Information Age: 28 Lives: London, UK Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 GP victories: 85 (59 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc) First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc) GP starts: 176 (116 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 46 World Championships: 7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP)
Colin Edwards: Information Age: 33 Lives: Conroe, Texas Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 First GP: Japón, 2003 (MotoGP) GP starts: 68 x MotoGP World Championships: 2 World Superbike
Istanbul : Lap Record D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2006, 1'59.318
Istanbul : Best Lap S. Gibernau (Honda) 2005, 1'52.334
Grand Prix Results: Istanbul 2006 1. M. Melandri (Honda) 41'54.065 2. C. Stoner (Honda) +0.200 3. N. Hayden (Honda) +5.458 4. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha +6.209 9. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha +22.847
Alex Asigno
The challenging weather that started on Friday continued throughout today, making riding conditions very difficult and slippery. A damp qualifying session this morning was followed by a wet Superpole, in which the top 16 riders go out at the same time for a maximum of 12 laps during a 50 minute session.
Corser felt happier with engine changes that had been made overnight following on from yesterday's initial qualifying session. These changes included trying some of the settings that had been used at Donington two weeks previously. Haga focused on continuing to find the right wet set-up. Overall, the wet conditions meant that everyone's lap times were slower, with no one improving on their best times from yesterday.
Track conditions did not improve at all for Superpole this afternoon, with sunshine but no dry line anywhere on the circuit. Corser had a good start to the session moving up to third position from yesterday's provisional start position of sixth. With such wet conditions, he then waited to see the progress of other riders.
Honda rider Joshua Brookes took third position on a flying lap, forcing Corser to try and reclaim it. Unfortunately, conditions were too slippery and he was unable to succeed and so will start from fourth tomorrow. Haga was one of the many to struggle with grip throughout the 50 minute session and moved down to ninth from fourth. He managed a flying lap with less than three minutes to go to take seventh place Kagayama.
Team Yamaha YZF rider, Nakatomi, continued to try and improve with his confidence in the wet weather today. Having achieved a best qualifying position of 18th in this yesterday's qualifying, he then spent today's track time doing lots of laps to build up his confidence. The team is also trying various new engine and chassis parts this weekend, so focused on putting in as much track time as possible to maximize the best opportunity from these new parts.
Tomorrow's world superbike races will start with Bayliss (Ducati) in pole position after an impressive day's riding. Local rider Ruben Xaus (Ducati) will start in second and Joshua Brookes (Honda) lies in third.
Troy Corser (4th - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "This morning we went back to the Donington set-up and that seemed to help. The engine and bike are working well and we have made some changes to the rear suspension set-up during the day. Unfortunately, none of these changes have given us the extra grip that they normally would, and that we need. It's partly the geometry of the bike but we still have more work to do.
My objective for tomorrow is to stay upright, especially if the track is as slippery as it was today."    Noriyuki Haga (7th - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "Today I tried some rain settings but I have not yet found the best set-up for this possibility - we still need to work on the best rear tyre option as I can find good grip but no tyre life, or good tyre life but no grip. I am happy with a second row qualifying position and that I didn't crash today in the wet! Today's conditions were unbelievable with no grip anywhere. Tomorrow I will push hard for a podium finish at the very least, whatever the weather."    Shinichi Nakatomi (18th - Team Yamaha YZF) "I really don't like the rain after a nasty incident I had last year, when I lost a lot of confidence. But, we had some success today finding a good set-up for the race. Tomorrow, I am hoping for dry weather though, and I want to finish in the points at the very least." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "This is our first time in the rain here at Valencia with the new R1, so we have been concentrating on preparing the bike as good as possible. Unfortunately, we haven't found the best set-up yet so tonight we will check all the data and see what we can improve for tomorrow.
I am very pleased with the front row position for Troy and the second row is fine for Nori, who has a history of making good starts."   Circuit Length: 4005 Temp: 24 Weather: Changeable     2007 WSB Valencia 14/04/2007 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'51.982 2 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'52.085 3 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 1'52.199 4 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'52.733 5 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'52.801 6 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'52.942 7 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'52.961 8 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'53.634 9 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'53.750 10 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'54.108 11 Giovanni Bussei Honda ITA 1'54.972 12 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'55.196 13 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'55.965 14 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'56.275 15 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'56.332
Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Troy Bayliss AUS 1'34.599 1'53.576 2 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'35.023 9999'0.000 3 James Toseland GBR 1'35.147 1'53.408 4 Noriyuki Haga JPN 1'35.440 1'52.866 5 Max Biaggi ITA 1'35.453 1'55.306 6 Troy Corser AUS 1'35.483 1'52.425 7 Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 1'35.709 1'53.804 8 Max Neukirchner GER 1'35.767 1'53.334 9 Fonsi Nieto ESP 1'35.804 1'55.209 10 Karl Muggeridge AUS 1'35.814 1'53.786 11 Joshua Brookes AUS 1'35.856 1'51.638 12 Yukio Kagayama JPN 1'36.012 1'55.330 13 Giovanni Bussei ITA 1'36.016 1'55.000 14 Carmelo Morales ESP 1'36.032 9999'0.000 15 Michel Fabrizio ITA 1'36.094 1'54.298 16 Shinichi Nakatomi JPN 1'36.755 1'58.322
QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 14/04/2007 Curtain confirms his third place in qualifying    Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes played it sensible today as wet weather made the track slippery and riding conditions difficult. As a result of the rain, today's lap times were slower than during the first qualifying session yesterday and therefore there were no changes from yesterday's provisional qualifying positions. Kevin will start tomorrow in third place on the grid, while Broc will start from 11th.
Data gathered during testing last month allowed both riders to be cautious and not push too much today. Not wanting to risk a crash on top of his collar bone injury, Curtain sat out this morning's free practice session. With conditions no better in the afternoon, he didn't take part in the weekend's second qualifying session either. Under championship regulations he is entitled to do this as he had already qualified within 107% of the fastest time set this weekend. And, with lap times almost 30 seconds slower than Friday, there was little risk of him being knocked off third spot.
With high chances of rain tomorrow, Parkes was keen to get a wet set-up though, so he participated in both practice and qualifying today. Athough knowing he would not be able to improve his best time from yesterday due to the weather conditions, he was keen to try and find a good set-up and get some confidence in the bike and track conditions.
Massimo Roccoli was unable to improve his qualifying position of 16th today, due to the worsening weather conditions. The Yamaha Italia rider made the most of the two sessions, though, to concentrate on improving his mental state and finding the best wet set-up.
With no change to the gird from yesterday's qualifying positions, Sofuoglu (Honda) will start in pole position and Japanese rider Fujiwara (Honda) will start in second. Curtain maintains his third start position for the race.    Kevin Curtain (3rd - 1'37.885 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "Sitting out of today's sessions was hard but it was the right thing for me to do. It has given me an extra day's recovery - and on such a short term every day counts. A broken collar bone isn't a simple injury - any kind of crash at this stage could cause a lot of problems and it just wasn't worth the risk today, especially as I got such a good qualifying position yesterday.
If it rains tomorrow I will have to go out in the morning though, as I need to check my rain set-up. Tomorrow is when we will take more risks than so far this weekend - race day is what counts."    Broc Parkes (11th - 1'38.681 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "It was like riding on ice out there and far too tough for us to find a good wet set-up. It was really difficult and risky with lots of people crashing - I'm just glad I wasn't one of them. I still haven't found the right race set-up though - what with the rain and my collar bone - so I will just have to go out tomorrow morning to find it out before the race."  
Massimo Roccoli (16th - 1'39.016 - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) "The fourth row is not a good position to start in - we tried to improve on this today but it was not possible with the weather conditions. I was very fast here at the Pirelli tyre test in March so I am hoping to be able to regain some of the mental and technical condition I had then for tomorrow's race. I just hope it is dry tomorrow!"   Circuit Length: 4005 Temp: 16 Weather: Wet     2007 WSS Valencia 14/04/2007 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR 1'37.521 2'5.339 2 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN 1'37.729 2'6.995 3 Kevin Curtain AUS 1'37.885 n/a 4 Pere Riba ESP 1'38.095 2'2.363 5 Andrew Pitt AUS 1'38.478 2'2.845 6 Fabien Foret FRA 1'38.524 2'11.158 7 Barry Veneman NED 1'38.532 2'5.999 8 Gianluca Nannelli ITA 1'38.564 2'4.356 9 Robbin Harms DNK 1'38.568 n/a 10 Joan Lascorz ESP 1'38.649 2'2.138 11 Broc Parkes AUS 1'38.681 2'8.183 12 Javier Fores ESP 1'38.734 2'4.583 13 Lorenzo Alfonsi ITA 1'38.753 2'6.852 14 Davide Giugliano ITA 1'38.915 2'0.659 15 David Salom ESP 1'39.008 n/a 16 Massimo Roccoli ITA 1'39.016 2'6.185 19 Gianluca Vizziello ITA 1'39.243 2'3.504 21 David Checa ESP 1'39.283 2'4.693 23 Sebastien Gimbert FRA 1'39.575 n/a
Alex Asigno
Valencia's notoriously changeable track conditions provided an interesting day at the fourth round of the World Superbike Championship at Valencia. The damp track this morning dried out with slightly warmer and drier conditions this afternoon for the first qualifying session of the weekend.
Haga had the most success of the day in the Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team, being third fastest in this morning's free practice. He then went on to finish in fourth in qualifying having spent the session focusing on testing various tyre and suspension options. Having finished the morning practice session second fastest, Corser then fought throughout the afternoon session to find the right set-up. He ended the day in sixth position.
Shinichi Nakatomi, riding for the French Team Yamaha YZF squad, finished the day in 18th position. Nakatomi was keen to try and find a good set up, so spent the day focusing on small suspension and tyre settings.
The day's result is headed by Bayliss (Ducati), who surprised everyone with such a good result in light of the injuries he sustained at Donington. Spaniard Ruben Xaus (Ducati) finished in second today at his home circuit. James Toseland (Honda) finished in third and Haga completes the line up in fourth.
The Ricardo Tormo circuit is renowned for being very changeable in its grips conditions due to the variety of vehicles that use the circuit. Any damp brings out the rubber and oil that has been laid down previously, making it very slippery.
The rapidly changing conditions were nowhere more evident than towards the end of the day's on-track sessions, when thunder and lightning accompanied a sudden downpour, leaving the track under a couple of inches on rainwater.     Noriyuki Haga (4th - 1'35.440 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I managed some improvement in my lap times during today but I struggled with finding the right tyre. We tried three different tyres this afternoon but I didn't find the right one for the race. Although it was still damp on the track this morning, the lower track temperatures actually suited the tyre.
I'm not feeling too bad, tomorrow I hope to find the right tyre and I am hoping it is not raining, as this track gets very slippery when it is wet."    Troy Corser (6th - 1'35.483 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "Today has been tough - all day I have struggled with the engine character. Following the test session here last month and after Donington, we made some engine changes which have completely altered the feel of the bike somehow. The engine character is different between my main and my spare bike, even.
I'm glad we found this out today as it gives us tomorrow to sort out the problem so we are ready for race day. We think we have already worked out the problem and are working on a solution, which we will test out in the morning."  
Shinichi Nakatomi (18th - 1'36.757 - Team Yamaha YZF) "Today we have made many small changes and improvements throughout both sessions. Now we just need to combine the changes for tomorrow's qualifying session. I am hopeful of a higher qualifying position tomorrow - I just hope it is not raining."   Circuit Length: 4005 Temp: 24 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSB Valencia 13/04/2007 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'34.599 2 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'35.023 3 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'35.147 4 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'35.440 5 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'35.453 6 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'35.483 7 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'35.709 8 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'35.767 9 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'35.804 10 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'35.814 11 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 1'35.856 12 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'36.012 13 Giovanni Bussei Honda ITA 1'36.016 14 Carmelo Morales Yamaha ESP 1'36.032 15 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'36.094 18 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 1'36.755
QUALIFYING 1 REPORT 13/04/2007 Curtain and Parkes show their determination in first qualifying  
Kevin Curtain took third place in this weekend's first qualifying session - only two weeks after breaking his left collar bone in four places at Donington Park. Team mate Broc Parkes struggled with his collar bone injury also, managing 11th place during the 45 minute session.
Both riders have broken collar bones - Parkes his right and Curtain his left - after crashing in practice at the previous round at Donington. Since their respective accidents both riders have undergone surgery to plate and bolt the collar bones. They have had less than two weeks recovery since the last round and have surprised everyone by the efforts they have gone to in order to race here this weekend.
Having attending last month's Pirelli tyre test, the team preferred to sit out the damp morning practice session rather than aggravate the riders injuries, confident that they have good set up information from these testing sessions. In the dry afternoon session, Kevin had an unexpected but excellent ride and secured third place whilst Broc found his injuries were more aggravated by the many twists and turns in the middle section of the circuit.
Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni rider, Massimo Roccoli, had an average performance and only managed to qualify in 16th position.
Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) topped today's qualifying session with a best time. Fujiwara (Honda) came in second with Curtain taking third and Riba (Kawasaki) completing the provisional front row in fourth place.    Kevin Curtain (3rd - 1'37.885 - Yamaha Word Supersport Team) "My injuries don't feel too bad - until I have to brake hard. I surprised myself in that session, getting third slot, considering I've just had quite a major operation. The doctor has done a good job! I'm happy with securing third position today because, if it rains tomorrow as it is forecast to, the risk of crashing will be higher. I have to consider my injuries and take it a bit more gently if it rains tomorrow."     Broc Parkes (11th - 1'38.681 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "My collar bone is giving me some trouble in the middle section of a lap when I have to use my right arm a lot. It really hurts when I have to switch from left to right, which makes changing direction quite difficult. I'm okay on the brakes with it, but then I have a different riding style to Kevin. I'd like to qualify in the top eight; hopefully I can get to the second row in tomorrow's qualifying, depending on the weather."    Massimo Roccoli (16th - 1'39.016 - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) "Unfortunately today was a bad day for me. There was no technical problem; it was more of a personal issue with me struggling with my feeling of the track. The bike and the tyre is the same when we tested here in March, but for some reason I am 1.5 seconds slower than at that test. The difference is too big to be technical, it is something I need to try and resolve myself for tomorrow."   Circuit Length: 4005 Temp: 19 Weather: Sunny     2007 WSS Valencia 13/04/2007 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'37.521 2 Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 1'37.729 3 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 1'37.885 4 Pere Riba Kawasaki ESP 1'38.095 5 Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 1'38.478 6 Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 1'38.524 7 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 1'38.532 8 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 1'38.564 9 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 1'38.568 10 Joan Lascorz Honda ESP 1'38.649 11 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 1'38.681 12 Javier Fores Honda ESP 1'38.734 13 Lorenzo Alfonsi Honda ITA 1'38.753 14 Davide Giugliano Kawasaki ITA 1'38.915 15 David Salom Yamaha ESP 1'39.008 16 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1'39.016 19 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1'39.243 21 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'39.283 24 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1'39.575
Alex Asigno
The Ricardo Tormo Circuit will host its first international race of the season this coming weekend, with the fourth round of the World Superbike Championship coming to this popular track for its eighth consecutive year.
Valencia is a tight and twisty circuit built with spectators in mind. The venue was designed to be a 'circuit within a stadium' and this has been achieved with over 65,000 grandstand seats that allow spectators to view the track, and the action on it, from the one position. The popularity of this circuit is evident, with over 3 million spectators visiting since its opening in 1999.  
Valencia's complicated track, excellent facilities and favourable winter weather conditions make this circuit ideal for all kinds of racing. It is in demand by national and international championships and is not restricted to just motorcycles. Everything from trucks to Formula One cars use this circuit which means that grip levels can be unpredictable, causing conditions to change by the hour and requiring constant adjustments to the set-up of the bike.
Pirelli held their official tyre test here in March, with Yamaha's World Superbike, Supersport and Superstock teams all taking part. The data gathered at this test could be of a big help to put all the Yamaha teams in a good position for their race set-up this weekend.
The last round at Donington saw Haga take the team's first win of the season, showing the potential of the new R1. This was supported by Corser's second and third finishes. Haga goes into the fourth round in third place in the championship standings with 88 points with Corser just behind on 81 points. Both riders want to win at this round, so the gloves will be off from the outset.  
In 2006 Haga claimed two fifth places in Valencia but as he has won here previously in 2000 and 2004, he is keen to add another race win to his one from Donington. "Valencia is one of my favourite circuits and I have won there before," he says. "It is a technically challenging circuit though, and chassis and tyre set-up are very important there. With the testing we have done there recently with Pirelli I am hopeful. After winning at Donington I am feeling very positive and looking forward to winning again!"
Team mate, Corser is looking to take some race win glory himself this weekend, after just missing it at Donington. Last year he took second place in both races and is looking to better that result this year.
"Valencia has a good layout and the weather is normally makes for good riding conditions, although it can get a bit windy and, depending on which way it blows, it can sometimes be a problem. The track grip is different every time we go there because it depends on what's been racing there previously - trucks or Formula Ford - and what rubber they've left."
With regard to the bike, Corser says, "The bike feels good following the testing we have done there, although every team has done testing there so it's going to be a close race."  
The third round at Donington was a very tough one for the Yamaha World Supersport Team, with both Curtain and Parkes crashing and breaking their collar bones in practice, putting them out for the race. The team goes into the fourth round with a lot of hard work to do. They know they need a good result to put them back into contention for the championship, but are very conscious of both riders still nursing injuries. Both riders had operations immediately following the race and are determined to ride at Valencia if at all possible. Currently, Curtain lies in fifth in the championship with 25 points and Parkes lies in tenth on 16 points.
"I'm feeling pretty good despite the crash at Donington. A friend in Belgium helped me get operated on straight away and I now have a late and eight bolts in my left shoulder, which is lucky as I'm right-handed. As soon as I was out of surgery I started exercising the injury because the longer you leave it, the longer it takes to get going again. I now have full movement and a fair amount of strength in my left arm, though the scar is a bit tender," says Kevin of his injuries.
When asked about Valencia and his expectations, Kevin said, "I'm looking forward to returning to the championship this weekend. I'd like to get on the podium' that's what I'll be aiming for."
At the time of going to print, it is expected that Broc Parkes will race at Valencia, though this will be confirmed in the next 24 hours.  
Claudio Corti got his Superstock Championship fight off to a good start at Donington with a second place, just in front of Didier van Keymeulen on another new R1. Corti's team mate, Michele Pirro has something to prove this weekend after crashing out of the last race. He had been showing great potential in his rookie season in the Superstock Championship prior to the crash and is keen to make up for his mistakes with a good result at Valencia.
Track length: 4005 Tracked opened: 1999 2006 winner: Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 2006 fastest lap: 1'35.374 (Troy Corser, Suzuki) WSB lap record: 1'35.007 (Neil Hodgson, 2003) Circuit tel: +34 96 2525220