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Yamaha Racing News

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Yamaha riders unveil new YZF-R1 in Las Vegas

 
All four Yamaha MotoGP riders took part in the global unveiling of the all-new Yamaha R1 today in a suitably glittering show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fiat Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, plus Tech 3 Yamaha team-mates Colin Edwards and James Toseland were surprise guests at the unveiling, which took place in front of 3000 Yamaha US dealers at the famous Mirage Hotel. The all-new version of the R1, Yamaha's premium performance road bike, is more closely linked than ever to the YZR-M1 on which the four riders contest the MotoGP championship. The riders each came on stage aboard a different colour version of the machine, before being interviewed about it's qualities in relation to their own MotoGP bikes. Next stop for the foursome will be the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the inaugural MotoGP race at the famous venue, which takes place this Sunday. Valentino Rossi "This is a great bike, it's very like my M1 and it's exciting to see so many MotoGP qualities now appearing on a bike for the road. I think everyone who loves the R1 and Yamaha will be very excited about this new version, it's fantastic!" Jorge Lorenzo "I think this bike will be very popular. Yamaha have worked very hard to try to make it as like our M1 as possible and it seems they have done a fantastic job. The cornering and agility especially is great, which is of course one of the best qualities of the M1."
Alex Asigno

Fifth win of the season takes Rossi fifty points clear

Valentino Rossi moved two races clear at the top of the championship with his fifth win of the season today, enjoying an easy ride home after his closest rival Casey Stoner crashed out on lap seven. Rossi, starting from second, lost some time at the first corner getting past John Hopkins and for the first couple of laps Stoner looked in danger of clearing off, but the Italian soon found his rhythm and was gradually making up time on the Australian when he saw him slide off into the gravel. The pair had already opened out an impressive gap from the chasing pack and Rossi was left to race the remaining 15 laps alone and unchallenged, eventually coming home 15 seconds clear of Toni Elias. The seven-time world champion's 67th premier-class victory takes him within one race of the all-time premier-class record, held by his compatriot Giacomo Agostini. Rossi is now 50 points clear of Stoner with Pedrosa 15 points off in third, whilst Lorenzo's six points see him remain fourth in the standings, ten points ahead of Andrea Dovizioso. Valentino Rossi - Position: 1 Time: 43'28.841 "I was confident today because my bike was fast from Friday practice, and with Jeremy we made a small modification to the front after warm-up to allow me to be a bit faster in some sections, and it worked very well. I lost about half a second getting past Hopkins at the start and Casey was incredibly fast at that stage, like he'd already done ten laps! For a short time I was worried but then, after two laps, I understood that my bike was working very well and that I was fast enough to try to catch him. I had closed a little bit already and gradually the red bike was becoming a bit bigger in front of me, and I think this is when he started to push harder and made his mistake. I was anticipating a very hard battle if I did catch him, so when I saw the red bike slide out I could hardly believe it - this made things a lot easier for me! After that I just enjoyed riding my bike; my Bridgestone tyres worked very well until the end and my M1 felt very good. Of course I can't count this as a complete victory because Casey fell, and I am sorry for him, but this is racing and I have to be happy with this result. We are 50 points clear which is a lot and I am very excited to be going to Misano in this situation. However we know that 50 points is still not always enough when you have someone as strong as Casey and so we won't relax. Now we have two days of testing and we will try some new electronics in order to help me open the throttle earlier and also, of course, test some Bridgestone tyres." Davide Brivio - Team Manager "Of course this is a very important victory for us and we're very happy today. It's clear that Valentino did a very good job at the start not to let Stoner get too far ahead, and he was starting to make up ground and put some pressure on him when he unfortunately crashed. Of course this made our job a lot easier! We need to keep going like this and not lose our concentration, but we've had two very good races and we are confident that we are in good shape. We have two days of testing now which will be very important for the final six races, and then we go to another home race at Misano and try to make up for last year!"
Lorenzo finishes tenth with gutsy ride in Brno Fiat Yamaha Team rookie Jorge Lorenzo finished a creditable tenth in Brno today, making up seven places after starting last on the grid. The Spaniard made the most of the tools he had available to pass several riders, including two on the last lap, and hangs onto his fourth place in the championship as a result. His team-mate Valentino Rossi won his fifth race of the season and was saved another tense battle with Casey Stoner after the Australian crashed out of the lead on the seventh lap. Lorenzo was able to pass Colin Edwards early on and he then gradually settled into a rhythm and passed both James Toseland and Dani Pedrosa to take 12th. During the middle part of the race his lap times gradually improved and brought him closer to the next group and he was rewarded with an exciting final lap, which saw him pass first Sylvain Guintoli and then John Hopkins on the line to take tenth. Six points for Lorenzo see him stay ten points ahead of Andrea Dovizioso in fourth place in the championship, whilst Rossi is now 50 points clear of Stoner. The Fiat Yamaha Team now have two days of testing before they head to the next round at Misano in Italy in two week's time. Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 10th Time: +39.573 "This race is a bit sad for me because we have the potential to do a lot better. However considering what has happened this weekend and, above all, the problems with the front tyre, I think we have done almost as much as we could. At the start I didn't want to take too many risks and I could feel that the front tyre was getting worse on each lap, but on the other hand the rear tyre was getting better each lap! I know that we have had had problems this weekend but I know that Michelin are working very hard, so now we will try to use the test to make some improvements. I want to say thank you to all of my team for their hard work, congratulate Valentino for his victory and finally also Toni Elias for his podium." Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager "Today we couldn't have done any better than this, but we can't be satisfied to finish tenth. But overall Jorge did a great job and a good race, and he was able to find a good rhythm in the middle part of the race, continue until to the end and pass many riders, plus he was able to score some valuable points. Motivation in our team is still high because we have many more races to do and tomorrow at the test we will start again to work very hard with Michelin, look at the problems we have had here and try to find a way to improve things for the remaining races." Tech 3 Yamaha show fighting spirit in Brno Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland and Colin Edwards raced to top 15 results in today's Czech Republic GP. In front of a record crowd of over 146,000 fans at a cool and cloudy Brno, the 22-lap race proved to be a tough challenge for Toseland and Edwards, who both gave their maximum effort in difficult circumstances to claim 13th and 14th places respectively. Starting from the back row of the grid, Toseland made his customary good start, gaining two places on the first lap. The 27-year-old once again showed his never-say-die attitude, despite some traction issues as he scored points for the ninth time in 11 races. Edwards was one place further back as he too encountered some grip issues in an effort to maintain his pursuit of Toseland, as the Tech 3 duo fought closely in the opening stages. The American still remains firmly in the hunt for fourth place in the world championship, lying 18-points behind fellow Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo with six races remaining. Tech 3 Yamaha also remains in contention for a top four finish in the Team World Championship, and is still the leading non-factory team in the standings heading to the Misano round on August 31. James Toseland 13th - 75 points "It was a difficult race and the result is clearly not where we want to be. I don't want to be fighting at the back of the top 15, and neither does my team or Yamaha and it is disappointing. All I can do is go out there with whatever I have got underneath me and give it my maximum and I did that. But this team and Yamaha deserve to be higher up and today wasn't good enough. It would be easy to let my head drop but I have never been that type of rider and I am not going to start now. I was reasonably happy with my start but I had a few moments with the front tyre on the first couple of laps and I soon realised that I was at my maximum and that I wasn't going to be able to do much more. It is disappointing because I have slipped out of the top ten in the standings and that was one of my big goals before the start of the season. We have got to keep working hard as a team and hope that Michelin can quickly turn it around for the rest of the season so we can try and get back into that top ten and keep the morale up of the team. Colin had even more problems than me so it must have been tough for him, but this is the situation we are in. We will all keep pushing hard and see what we can do." Colin Edwards 14th - 102 points "I could see straightaway behind James that he was having some issues with the front tyre, which we expected. I still thought I could put a good pace together but it never happened. I just didn't have the confidence I needed to push harder with the tyres and the more I pushed I didn't seem to go much faster. James was able to leave me pretty easily as my issues started to get worse but I wanted to stay out there and try my best for my guys at Tech 3 and Yamaha, who as always have been working like crazy to help me this weekend. I thank them for that, but there was nothing else I could do. Towards the end I just decided to take a few more risks and I went a bit quicker, but there was no way I was going to catch anybody. I've had a bad run lately but I'm still in contention for fourth in the championship, and I'll keep fighting. But we need big improvements from Michelin. The good start we had to the season seems like a long way away now, and we have to work with Michelin to try and solve some of the issues because I didn't enjoy today at all." Herve Poncharal - Team Manager "We thought the disappointment of Laguna Seca would be forgotten after the summer break and we would have a positive weekend in Brno. Unfortunately from the very beginning of the weekend we understood it was going to be another tough weekend. Clearly we couldn't challenge the tyre opposition. We have been trying a lot of different settings to try and cope with that, but it was difficult. The most difficult was qualifying in the rain conditions and we were far behind. We knew starting from the last two rows it would be a tough race but James and Colin still tried as hard as they could and they stayed on track and scored a few points. But this is not how we started the championship and today was a really difficult day. To see the chequered flag with a few points is a relief but for sure there will be a lot of meetings and a lot of thinking of what to do for the future because we keep on losing ground in the championship and this is very disappointing." Race 1 - 22 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, ITA, 43'28.841 2, Toni Elias, Ducati, ESP, 0'15.004 3, Loris Capirossi, Suzuki, ITA, 0'21.689 4, Shinya Nakano, Honda, JPN, 0'25.859 5, Anthony West, Kawasaki, AUS, 0'29.465 6, Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki, AUS, 0'30.608 7, Marco Melandri, Ducati, ITA, 0'36.453 8, Alex De Angelis, Honda, SMR, 0'36.750 9, Andrea Dovizioso, Honda, ITA, 0'38.822 10, Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha, ESP, 0'39.573 11, John Hopkins, Kawasaki, USA, 0'39.610 12, Sylvain Guintoli, Ducati, FRA, 0'40.892 13, James Toseland, Yamaha, GBR, 1'11.490 14, Colin Edwards, Yamaha, USA, 1'21.133 15, Daniel Pedrosa, Honda, ESP, 1'37.038 16, Randy De Puniet, Honda, FRA, 1'38.407 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Casey Stoner, Ducati, AUS, 1'57.199 Rider Standings 17/08/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, ITA, 237 2, Casey Stoner, Ducati, AUS, 187 3, Daniel Pedrosa, Honda, ESP, 172 4, Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha, ESP, 120 5, Andrea Dovizioso, Honda, ITA, 110 6, Colin Edwards, Yamaha, USA, 102 7, Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki, AUS, 99 8, Nicky Hayden, Honda, USA, 84 9, Shinya Nakano, Honda, JPN, 83 10, Loris Capirossi, Suzuki, ITA, 77 11, James Toseland, Yamaha, GBR, 75 12, Toni Elias, Ducati, ESP, 66 13, Alex De Angelis, Honda, SMR, 49 14, Sylvain Guintoli, Ducati, FRA, 42 15, Marco Melandri, Ducati, ITA, 41 Team Standings 17/08/2008 Pos., Team, Points 1, FIAT Yamaha Team, 357 2, Repsol Honda Team, 256 3, Ducati Marlboro Team, 228 4, Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 178 5, Tech3 Yamaha, 177 6, Honda Gresini, 132 7, JIR Scot Team, 110 8, Team Alice, 108 9, Kawasaki Racing Team, 70 10, Honda LCR, 40 Manufacturer Standings 17/08/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Yamaha, 266 2, Ducati, 212 3, Honda, 210 4, Suzuki, 128 5, Kawasaki, 63
Alex Asigno

First day podium for Albergoni in wet Wales

Starting the second half of the 2008 World Enduro Championship in style Italian UFO Course Yamaha rider Simone Albergoni narrowly missed out on claiming the Enduro 1 class win on day one of the Grand Prix of Wales, claiming an eventual second place behind Yamaha France rider Marc Germain. With the opening day of the fifth round of the series the wettest of the calendar so far, it also proved to be one of the hardest, but despite the atrocious conditions the two Yamaha riders battled one another for the top spot on the podium finishing comfortably ahead of E1 class leader Mika Ahola in third. Due to incredibly difficult circumstances in Wales, being able to complete special tests without any mistakes was the key to good results but seemed impossible to do as over half the event's entry list failed to finish the opening day. Topping the opening two tests on day one it looked like the Germain was going to walk away with the E1 class win but Albergoni maintained pressure on his French rival to ensure the day's result wouldn't be decided until the very last special test. Despite both riders making errors during the outing neither was able to open up and maintain any real advantage with the ninth and final special test deciding the final result. With Albergoni managing to pull back Germain's near 30 second mid-day advantage the two riders were neck-and-neck going into the final test. With just two seconds separating them in Germain's favour the Yamaha France rider collected a well-deserved victory with Albergoni runner-up. Although there was drier weather on Day2 the demanding Welsh course and three challenging special tests ensured the second attempt was almost as difficult as day one. Returning to his best form after placing third on day one Finn Mika Ahola claimed victory followed by Spaniard Ivan Cervantes with Germain and Albergoni 3rd and 4th respectively. Winning three of the day's special tests Germain wasn't able to reproduce the form that had seen him top Day1, missing the second step of the podium by an agonising two seconds. For Albergoni Day2 started well as the Italian looked to be headed toward a repeat of his runner-up result. But a mistake within sight of the finish of the extreme test on lap three cost him close to 20 seconds, which ended his hopes of a podium and saw him place 4th. For UFO Course Yamaha team riders Cristobal Guerrero and Maurizio Micheluz the GP of Wales proved to be a challenging one. Competing with a badly inflamed right forearm Maurizio rode through the pain barrier to claim 8th on both days. Finding the slippery Welsh conditions difficult to master, Cristobal finished 7th on Day1 before improving to sixth on Day2. Simone Albergoni (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 2nd, Day 2 4th: "Day one was really good for me. I had a great fight with Marc Germain, who is really good in slippery, wet and muddy conditions, so to finish second and less than five seconds behind him is not too bad. I made a mistake on the last extreme test on day two, which lost me about 20 seconds. I crashed, had to push the bike, and then fell again. I lost second or third position with that crash but more importantly championship points. It's been a real enduro - very hard but very good." Cristobal Guerrero (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 7th, Day 2 6th: "It's been a tough race for me. It's hard to train in conditions like in Wales when you live in the south of Spain. But I tried to push as hard as I could and I had a pretty good race. The conditions on day one were really hard. With the mud and the rain I found it really hard. I was terrible in the extreme test, having to push my bike at times when I got stuck. It was just a very difficult day. Day two was better for me. I was much closer to the third and fourth place riders, which I was happy about." Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 8th, Day 2 8th: "It's been an especially tough race for me because I have been suffering with my right wrist. It wasn't too much of a problem during the first lap on day one but then it started to become painful. I knew early on that it would be difficult to finish so I was just focused on trying to complete the race. I was eighth on both days but it was so difficult for me. I'm just pleased that I was able to finish." Race 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 54'25.300 2, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 0'4.340 3, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 0'33.690 4, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 0'40.350 4, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 0'40.350 5, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 1'17.890 6, Bartosz Oblucki, Husqvarna, POL, 2'22.210 7, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 2'42.040 8, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 4'51.620 9, Graham Jarvis, Sherco, GBR, 7'9.310 10, Robert Jones, Yamaha, GBR, 9'30.860 11, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 11'13.410 12, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 12'7.460 13, Andy Edwards, KTM, GBR, 14'47.090 14, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 18'12.160 15, Richard Hay, KTM, GBR, 40'58.490 Race 2 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 49'55.000 2, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 0'21.650 3, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 0'23.290 4, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 0'40.710 5, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 0'47.140 6, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 1'6.370 7, Bartosz Oblucki, Husqvarna, POL, 1'24.480 8, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 2'25.730 9, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 3'28.110 10, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 3'32.110 11, Luca Cherubini, TM, ITA, 5'1.920 12, Danielle Tellini, Suzuki, ITA, 5'19.410 13, Andy Edwards, KTM, GBR, 7'3.830 14, Robert Jones, Yamaha, GBR, 7'22.680 15, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 7'30.030 16, Gonzalo Reis, KTM, ITA, 8'53.540 17, Richard Hay, KTM, GBR, 10'43.200 Rider Standings 19/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Ivan Cervantes, KTM, ESP, 234 2, Mika Ahola, Honda, FIN, 231 3, Simone Albergoni, Yamaha, ITA, 205 4, Marc Germain, Yamaha, FRA, 160 5, Cristobal Guerrero, Yamaha, ESP, 147 6, Maurizio Micheluz, Yamaha, ITA, 129 7, Eero Remes, KTM, FIN, 112 8, Jordan Curvalle, Suzuki, FRA, 106 9, Tom Sagar, KTM, GBR, 100 10, Mike Hartmann, KTM, GER, 97 11, Luca Cherubini, TM, ITA, 73 12, Bartosz Oblucki, Husqvarna, POL, 58 13, Daryl Bolter, Husqvarna, GBR, 58 14, Jakub Horak, KTM, CZE, 53 15, Gonzalo Reis, KTM, ITA, 47 Manufacturer Standings 19/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Honda, 231 2, KTM, 221 3, Yamaha, 212 4, Husqvarna, 116 5, Suzuki, 106 6, TM, 73 7, Kawasaki, 47 8, Sherco, 12 ---------- RACE REPORT - 21/07/2008 Excellent Day2 victory for Aubert UFO Corse Yamaha rider Johnny Aubert showed just how determined he is to claim the 2008 Enduro 2 world championship at the Grand Prix of Wales as the current E2 series leader finished on the podium on both days including a stunning 45-second victory over his title rival Juha Salminen on day two. With conditions on Day1 wetter than they have been at any round of the '08 WEC series so far this season Aubert topped the event's opening special test before recording the second fastest time on test two to lead the E2 class at the end of the first lap. But as conditions worsened Aubert was unable to hold his position at the front of the class and although placing no lower than sixth on any of the day's special tests, found himself behind rival Juha Salminen and wildcard rider David Knight come the end of the day. Winning the final test Aubert claimed an eventual 3rd place result having failed to gel with the slippery extreme test. With conditions a little drier on Day2 Aubert started as he intended to go on and comfortably topped the first motocross special test before then recording the fastest Enduro 2 times on the opening seven tests. Winning on the event's motocross test, the event's enduro test, and on the extreme test (that on day one he'd struggled to master) Aubert failed to win just one section and forged a 45-second winning margin ahead of Salminen with Knight third. He now leads the series by 17 points over Salminen. For Aubert's UFO Corse Yamaha team-mate Fabrizio Dini the demanding Welsh conditions saw the Italian placing 10th on day one and 15th on day two. Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1 3rd, Day 2 1st: "After a difficult first day I'm really pleased to have won on day two. I felt good and everything went well. The first day was really tough for me though, but I couldn't work out why I was having problems. I just didn't have a good feeling. I used a rear mousse that was a little bit too hard on day one, which didn't work well. I changed it for the second day and it was much better. The special tests were also a lot drier on day two, which I liked. The Extreme test was where I struggled the most on day one. I didn't have a good feeling, I couldn't find good lines and I struggled. I pushed hard but all I did was tire myself out. I also found things tough in the enduro test. But day two was great. I hope I can carry my winning result into my home race next weekend." Fabrizio Dini (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1 10th Day 2 15th: "This is my third year in the World Enduro Championship and the GP of Wales has been the hardest enduro race I've done. But it's been a good race. It was a real challenge on day one simply to remain on time and not collect any penalties, which I managed to do. In the enduro test I had a problem with my rear mousse because it came out and I had to push the bike to the finish. I changed it at the time control but I lost a lot of time in that special test. The second day was also tough but I didn't have any big problems. I enjoyed the race but it was very difficult." Race 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 52'30.260 3, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 2'8.480 4, Paul Edmondson, Honda, GBR, 3'15.320 5, Joakim Ljunggren, HusaBerg, SWE, 3'21.650 6, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 3'56.130 7, Jari Juha Mattila, Honda, FIN, 4'2.660 8, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 4'29.520 9, Antoine Meo, Husqvarna, FRA, 4'54.130 10, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 6'46.580 11, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 7'11.660 12, Nicolas Deparrois, GasGas, FRA, 7'16.410 13, Rudy Cotton, Beta, FRA, 8'22.100 14, Valtteri Salonen, HusaBerg, FIN, 8'54.210 15, Felipe Zanol, Yamaha, ESP, 14'30.110 16, Kevin Murray, Yamaha, GBR, 15'39.080 17, Justin Wilson, Yamaha, GBR, 20'33.720 18, Darren Wheeler, HusaBerg, GBR, 20'37.260 19, Chris Hockey, Honda, GBR, 21'23.320 20, Rich Warner, KTM, GBR, 29'46.000 Race 2 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 48'12.580 2, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 0'45.310 3, David Knight, KTM, GBR, 1'29.370 4, Paul Edmondson, Honda, GBR, 3'26.700 5, Rodrig Thain, TM, FRA, 3'34.690 6, Jari Juha Mattila, Honda, FIN, 3'38.230 7, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 3'38.730 8, Joakim Ljunggren, HusaBerg, SWE, 3'45.430 9, Antoine Meo, Husqvarna, FRA, 3'57.180 10, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 4'19.290 11, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 4'48.880 12, Felipe Zanol, Yamaha, ESP, 5'51.860 13, Nicolas Deparrois, GasGas, FRA, 5'55.150 14, Rudy Cotton, Beta, FRA, 6'1.740 15, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 6'2.880 16, Fabio Mossini, Honda, ITA, 7'9.650 17, Hans Vogel, KTM, NED, 8'8.550 18, Chris Hockey, Honda, GBR, 8'17.670 19, Kevin Murray, Yamaha, GBR, 8'24.930 20, Aaron Bernandez, Husqvarna, ESP, 8'38.510 21, Mario Patrao, Suzuki, POR, 10'1.180 Rider Standings 19/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Johnny Aubert, Yamaha, FRA, 228 2, Juha Salminen, KTM, FIN, 211 3, Joakim Ljunggren, HusaBerg, SWE, 155 4, Alessandro Belometti, KTM, ITA, 155 5, Rodrig Thain, TM, FRA, 126 6, Fabrizio Dini, Yamaha, ITA, 122 7, Antoine Meo, Husqvarna, FRA, 115 8, Valtteri Salonen, HusaBerg, FIN, 114 9, Simo Kirssi, BMW, FIN, 100 10, Nicolas Paganon, Aprilia, FRA, 91 11, Jari Juha Mattila, Honda, FIN, 88 12, Fabio Mossini, Honda, ITA, 82 13, Alessandro Zanni, Honda, ITA, 78 14, Nicolas Deparrois, GasGas, FRA, 75 15, Felipe Zanol, Yamaha, ESP, 38 Manufacturer Standings 19/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, KTM, 231 2, Yamaha, 228 3, HusaBerg, 176 4, Honda, 142 5, Husqvarna, 140 6, TM, 126 7, BMW, 119 8, Aprilia, 91 9, GasGas, 75 10, Beta, 36 11, Suzuki, 26
Alex Asigno

Parkes and Foret fast in testing at Vallelunga

The Yamaha World Supersport Team arrived in Vallelunga with a clear aim in mind and after exhaustive tests in high temperatures, both Broc Parkes and Fabien Foret found real improvements in the real-world race set-up of their Yamaha YZF-R6 machines. Parkes finished the test outright second fastest but more importantly he found an improved base set-up, even in the hot conditions of a Roman summer. The Qatar race winner also made good work in evaluating Pirelli’s latest batch of development tyres. Foret, who is not a fan of the Vallelunga circuit because it features contrasting fast and ultra-slow sections, made a set-up breakthrough on the final day, after working through several options during this test. Despite punishing track temperatures in the last session, both Foret and Parkes improved on their previous best laps times at the end of two hard days of action. Parkes was only 0.018 seconds from the fastest rider, with Foret only just over a tenth behind his team-mate, making him third quickest of all 17 riders. Broc Parkes (2nd - 1’39.523 - 96 laps - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "It’s been a good test for us over two hard days and the new tyres worked well on our bike. We came with a target to make the bike more secure and still fast and we found a set-up that let us do that. The boys in the garage worked really hard so big thanks to them. We went faster at the end and I was on course to make an even better lap until I made a mistake and lost that last chance. But the test was very good, despite the heat on the track, and I hope we can take the things we found here forward to other races.” Fabien Foret (3rd - 1’39.653 - 101 laps - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "In the end we made what felt like a small change but it had a really big effect. We found that the new tyres were working better and towards the end we tried something new, which worked straight away. I was more than half a second faster! This is not a track I enjoy so much, especially the very slow parts, but we found something good and it is been useful to have lots of new information.” Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team) "We got to where we wanted to be in the end but this morning we struggled a bit. Fabien had a different problem from Broc so we adjusted the bikes of each rider. Fabien is still looking for something more but in the set-up we took the bike to a place where we have never been. It seemed to work for him, even though it was quite a big jump. It was very interesting for Fabien to improve his previous best time by eight tenths of a second, so we are pleased to have actually found something new. But that is what testing is for. The track temperature was unbelievable, more than 60°C to start the session. The new tyres were good and we were happy with them.”
Alex Asigno

Fantastic Philippaerts takes win number two of 2008

Only three rounds remain in the 2008 MX1-GP World Championship after a brilliant meeting for the Yamaha Monster Motocross Team at the Loket circuit for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic represented the twelfth meeting of fifteen on the series schedule. David Philippaerts obtained his second victory of the season and his third moto success to regain control of the standings and snare the red plate once again for the front of his works YZ450FM. Team-mate Josh Coppins was struck by a freak moment of misfortune that contributed to his result of 9th position overall. Under cloudy but dry skies and in front of 28,000 spectators, Loket was an extreme contrast to the rough and physically demanding depths of the Belgian sand last weekend. Hard-pack, slippery and fast, the layout was uncomplicated and offered diversity through the many changes of elevation thanks to the valley setting. The riders spent time finding effective tyre combinations through practice in search of the best traction. The team were pleased with some technical modifications to the YZ450FMs with new engine parts adding more bottom end grunt to the potent motor. Coppins was particularly content and was holding 3rd position in Timed Practice until finally being nudged down to 4th; it was still one of his better qualification performances of the year. Philippaerts was fastest in the first free practice although was unable to get a clean lap in the official chrono and placed 11th. The top sixteen riders were split by less than two seconds. Philippaerts' first race was incredible and saw one of his best performances of the season. More misfortune on the opening lap after a tangle with Tanel Leok witnessed the 24 year old picking up his motorcycle and re-starting outside the top twenty. He then embarked on a heart-pounding recovery with adventurous lines and overtaking manoeuvres to rapidly gain ground.Philippaerts worked his way back, setting the fastest lap on the fifth circulation and passed his team-mate and world champion Steve Ramon to take a dazzling 3rd place. The second sprint was less frantic and he grabbed the lead on the first lap and established a race winning advantage over Sebastien Pourcel to the flag. Coppins was a persistent rider in the battle for third position in Moto1 but his progress was limited when a rock broke his goggles on the second lap. The Czech dirt was littered with small stones so even keeping pace with his rivals and taking 4th was a remarkable achievement. In the second race the New Zealander was still suffering with blurred vision and when he touched a false neutral over a jump; he hit the ground and sacrificed a top three finish to cross the line in 10th. One week after losing the red plate to Ramon, Philippaerts is again in charge of the MX1-GP World Championship by 7 points over the Belgian. Coppins is still third but now 35 behind. Yamaha hold a 14 point lead in the manufacturer's table. A three week break now precedes a hard and rapid finale to the season. Three consecutive Grand Prix, in Ireland, Holland and Italy, will close the campaign by mid-September. The trip to the Fairyhouse horse racing venue for a new track just outside Dublin will represent round thirteen on August 31st. David Philippaerts, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 1st: "This is a great win for me and it has come at a good time. I pushed really hard in that first moto after a stupid crash and passed many riders. I found some good lines and just went for it. The track was very difficult but the team had worked hard in the last week to give me a bike that was perfect and I felt really happy being able to push. My goal was to at least catch Ramon but I found I could keep going and the top three was possible. In the second moto I took one or two risks but then was able to make good lap-times when I was in the lead and had a great race. For me Loket is a very real and natural motocross track and has similarities to some places in Italy. We have three races left now and I will try hard each time to get the best position I can. We will then see if the championship is ours or not! Josh Coppins, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 9th: "If I am honest then I am happy to get out of here uninjured because it was a big crash for me in the second race and I was lucky not to get hurt. I don't seem to get on too well with Loket! Overall it was a disappointing day and nothing went right. I felt like I was riding pretty good but I was struggling with my vision in the first race after a stone whacked my goggles and broke the strap clean off. It was a freak thing. Thankfully it did not happen again in the second race but I was suffering from the first; my eyes were watering and it was very difficult to go fast. I could not race how I wanted because I couldn't glimpse the bumps clearly and things were all blurry; it was even quite dangerous sometimes. I hit a false neutral over the jump in the second race. I went over the bars and it more or less ended the moto. I ripped my pants, broke the buckle and my kidney belt was away somewhere. I feel pretty sore now and have some cuts and bruises. We still have some races left in this championship and the next challenge is to keep positive over this break until the next Grand Prix." Mino Raspanti, Racing Manager, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team: "This was a fantastic response after Lommel. David tried to pass another rider in the first lap of the first moto and the crash meant he had a lot of work to do from outside the top twenty, but wow, what a job. After two laps he had a good lap-time but was still far away and it wasn't until the halfway mark when he reached eighth and the group ahead that we realised a top three was a possibility. It was a great race. He started OK in Moto2 but the first two corners were excellent and he passed three or four riders to lead. He then did not make any mistakes to finish a fantastic weekend. Josh was so unlucky again. To race here without goggles is very tough but he is a strong guy and pushed very hard to finish the moto. The false neutral and the big crash probably cost him a podium. He lost some points in the championship but is still third with three GPs to go. YRRD have been working hard and were able to give us some new parts this weekend so a big thank you to them." Race 1 - 21 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 39'38.255 2, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 0'8.690 3, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 0'16.171 4, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'19.210 5, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'20.225 6, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 0'20.798 7, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 0'23.086 8, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'24.745 9, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 0'37.346 10, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 0'50.532 11, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 0'54.403 12, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'58.941 13, Bradley Anderson, Suzuki, GBR, 1'0.900 14, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 1'8.367 15, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 1'9.294 16, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 1'15.572 17, Alex Salvini, Suzuki, ITA, 1'19.569 18, Martin Michek, Honda, CZE, 1'20.518 19, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 1'30.893 20, Alessio Chiodi, TM, ITA, 1'32.081 Race 2 - 21 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 40'18.466 2, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'4.986 3, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'6.206 4, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'10.184 5, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 0'14.943 6, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 0'17.849 7, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 0'24.837 8, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 0'31.930 9, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 0'39.030 10, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 0'51.460 11, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'52.513 12, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 0'54.687 13, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 0'56.987 14, Alex Salvini, Suzuki, ITA, 0'59.846 15, Bradley Anderson, Suzuki, GBR, 1'0.810 16, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 1'11.377 17, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 1'16.289 18, Kevin Strijbos, Kawasaki, BEL, 1'20.246 19, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'24.554 20, Jiri Cepelak, Yamaha, CZE, 1'34.332 Rider Standings 10/08/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 405 2, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 398 3, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 370 4, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 369 5, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 369 6, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 344 7, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 327 8, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 275 9, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 257 10, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 224 11, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 215 12, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 197 13, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 159 14, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 148 15, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 131 16, Mike Brown, Honda, USA, 107 17, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, 97 18, James Noble, KTM, GBR, 93 19, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 75 20, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 74 23, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 44 Manufacturer Standings 10/08/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Yamaha, 471 2, Suzuki, 457 3, KTM, 452 4, Kawasaki, 420 5, Honda, 362 6, TM, 32 7, Aprilia, 12 ---------- RACE REPORT - 10/08/2008 Aubin 4th in Czech Republic Yamaha Ricci Racing's Nico Aubin missed out on a podium position by just one point at a cloudy but dry Loket circuit for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic and the twelfth round of fifteen in the 2008 FIM MX2-GP World Championship.The Frenchman was 4th overall at the venue where he scored his maiden victory twelve months earlier. The hard and fast Loket mud meant that it was very difficult for riders to make up time on their competitors while even the smallest mistake conceded hard-won ground to pursuers.The 20 year old took 2nd place in his qualification heat on Saturday despite suffering a stomach illness which took the edge from his physical condition.He had an average start in the first of the two 35 minute and 2 lap motos but fought back to capture 3rd spot behind runaway leaders Tyla Rattray and Tommy Searle. The duo battled for the win again in an entertaining Moto2 while Aubin had to strive against countrymen Steve Frossard and Anthony Boissiere for a top five position. Finally abdominal pain meant that 6th position was the best he could manage. Second best Yamaha finisher was 3C Racing's Manuel Monni. The 2008 Italian MX2 champion registered 11th and 8th for a decent top ten standing and 8th overall. Monni spent long periods of the first moto chasing and fighting with sole Red Bull De Carli representative Alessandro Lupino. The teenager notched the best result of his short career to-date with a decent start and 12th behind his fellow Italian. A tougher second moto meant he finished 17th, but 13th overall was a landmark. Aubin's team-mate Davide Guarneri was 12th at the end of the afternoon and although he could only complete the second moto he gained 14 points for 7th spot. The Italian was fighting for 11th in Moto1 until a crash three laps from the line dropped him far behind the pack and he rode into the pit-lane, well out of the points. A more positive outing in Moto2 produced his eighth top ten result this season. Guarneri is missing a ligament in his right knee and is currently reviewing his options to have corrective surgery in order to use the winter months for rehabilitation and come back fully fit for testing and preparation in 2009. Impressive 18 year old American Zach Osborne was on slightly easier ground compared to the demands of his world championship debut last week in the deep Belgian sand. The Utag Yamaha.com rider has signed with the British team to finish the Grand Prix season with the YZ250F and although his lap-times would have guaranteed a top ten finish he suffered a mechanical problem in Moto1 and was knocked off the bike on the fourth corner of Moto2 which meant he had to restart from last and reached 16th position. Yamaha Van Beers Evgeny Bobryshev was back in Grand Prix action after missing the last round in Belgium to win the final meeting of the Russian MX1 series with a YZ450F. The rookie missed the points in Moto1 and had a big crash on a steep downhill in Moto2 but was able to walk away. Aubin's points haul in Loket and Shaun Simpson's absence due to a fractured collarbone in Saturday practice means that he is 3 points from 4th position in the championship standings. Tony Cairoli is still 3rd despite missing the last two events and the rest of the season after the operation on his left knee. Monni is 10th. Three consecutive Grand Prix events - in Ireland (Dublin), Holland (Lierop) and Italy (Faenza) will finish the season after a three week break which now lies ahead for the teams and riders of the MX1-GP and MX2-GP categories. Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 4th: "I am a bit disappointed because I had pain in my stomach today and for sure this affected my speed; I knew before the races that it would be a difficult GP. I had a bad start in the first moto but I made my way to 3rd and then tried to catch Tommy. I started to have some pain and had to ease-off at the end. It was the same problem in Moto2 but this time after a few laps, right at the time I was fighting with a group of riders. 4th overall is not a bad result considering the problem I had and now we have a few weeks before Ireland. It is bad luck for Shaun that he missed this GP because he has ridden well this season but I hope we can fight on the track again and both try for that third position in the championship." Davide Guarneri, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 12th: "It was a bad weekend up until the last moto! I did not ride well on Saturday; I was too tense on the bike and then had a bad start in the heat race. In the first moto I got the start wrong again and my speed was not so good. When a rider put me on the floor I was too far behind by the time I restarted and stopped. I was angry for the second moto and pushed as hard as I could to reach 7th, which was much better. This might be the last race for me, although I will be in Ireland if the doctor cannot do the operation in the next few weeks." Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha Red Bull De Carli, 13th: "Today I had two good starts and this was very important; I was really happy about this and also the fact I could do some good lap-times that were not too far from the front guys. Fighting with Monni was fun and it was like an Italian championship race! Staying in front of him for 17 laps was very hard, so it is something I can be pleased about. It has been a tough time for the team so I am pleased I can give them a small result and show that I am making progress in my first season." Zach Osborne, Utag Yamaha.com, 22nd: "To say I did not have much luck today is a big understatement. I am a bit disappointed because I had the lap-times to be hanging with the top five but it overall it was a good learning experience because I sorted my starts. I will head back to the US to do Southwick on a 450 and then return in time to be ready for Ireland." Race 1 - 21 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 40'20.524 2, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 0'4.493 3, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 0'9.888 4, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 0'11.828 5, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 0'13.149 6, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'14.178 7, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 0'14.995 8, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 0'15.974 9, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 0'17.119 10, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 0'36.511 11, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 0'39.144 12, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 0'42.322 13, Jake Nicholls, Suzuki, GBR, 0'49.717 14, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 0'52.567 15, Jason Dougan, Suzuki, GBR, 0'54.891 16, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 0'56.787 17, Gert Krestinov, KTM, EST, 1'2.672 18, Loic Rombaut, Kawasaki, FRA, 1'5.522 19, Gunter Schmidlinger, Honda, AUT, 1'8.845 20, Petr Smitka, Yamaha, CZE, 1'13.475 Race 2 - 21 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 40'44.956 2, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 0'11.162 3, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 0'14.520 4, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'19.897 5, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 0'23.158 6, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 0'26.136 7, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 0'28.266 8, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 0'28.909 9, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 0'31.683 10, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 0'34.397 11, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 0'43.388 12, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 0'47.232 13, Matti Seistola, Honda, FIN, 0'48.062 14, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 0'50.107 15, Elliott Banks-Browne, Suzuki, GBR, 0'52.827 16, Zach Osborne, Yamaha, USA, 0'53.855 17, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 0'59.025 18, Gert Krestinov, KTM, EST, 1'1.139 19, Loic Rombaut, Kawasaki, FRA, 1'8.502 20, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 1'9.492 Rider Standings 10/08/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 499 2, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 479 3, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 357 4, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 312 5, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 309 6, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 303 7, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 248 8, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 245 9, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 244 10, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 226 11, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 212 12, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 210 13, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 180 14, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 167 15, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 161 16, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 148 17, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 101 18, Gautier Paulin, Kawasaki, FRA, 95 19, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 85 20, Gert Krestinov, KTM, EST, 80 25, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 45 26, Evgeny Bobryshev, Yamaha, RUS, 42 29, Matteo Bonini, Yamaha, ITA, 25 43, Deny Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 7 Manufacturer Standings 10/08/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, KTM, 569 2, Yamaha, 520 3, Kawasaki, 371 4, Suzuki, 296 5, Honda, 234
Alex Asigno

Rossi rules with first American victory

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi took his first career win on American soil today, emerging victorious after an epic duel with Casey Stoner at Laguna Seca. The Italian, who signed a new two-year deal with Yamaha this week, has now won four races this season and is 25 points clear at the top of the championship. Rossi started from second and was able to pass Stoner on the brakes during the first lap to take the lead. From then on it was clear that the pair were in a class of their own today as they gradually pulled out a gap from the chasing pack, trading passes with one another but with no one else able to stay with them. Stoner was often faster than Rossi on the straight but the seven-time world champion had the advantage in the twisty parts of the track and he was able to gain the lead back on the brakes each time the Australian passed him. With only 100ths of a second between them most of the time it looked like being a nail-biting race to the end, but on lap 24 of 32 Stoner made a mistake and ran off the track and into the gravel. This allowed Rossi some breathing space for the final eight laps and he eventually crossed the line 13 seconds clear of Stoner, who had been able to remount and still finish second, such was the gap the pair had pulled out from third-placed Chris Vermeulen. It was a black day for the other side of the garage however as Jorge Lorenzo, Rossi's team-mate, took a huge tumble on the first lap and broke the third and fifth metatarsal bones in his left foot. He now faces a battle to be fit for the next race in Brno, in a month's time. With Dani Pedrosa missing the race this weekend, Stoner has now moved into second in the championship behind Rossi with seven rounds remaining. Valentino Rossi - Position: 1 Time: 44'04.311 "What a race today! We made some modifications to our bike after warm-up and these gave us the last few tenths that enabled me to fight with Casey today; the result was just fantastic. I got a good start and I was able to pass him in the first lap, but I knew I had to try and stay in front of him and it was impossible to relax even for one second. My M1 was brilliant and so were my Bridgestone tyres; I really only made one mistake, at the corkscrew when I went a bit wide but in fact the dirt had quite good grip also! Casey was a bit faster on the straight than me but I was stronger on the brakes so I had to make all my passes there. I don't know how many times we changed the lead but it was a lot and it was great, great racing for me and I think also for the fans, because it's been a while since we've been like this. To stay in front I had to do high 21s at least on every lap and I want to thank my team and engineers for giving me a bike that could do this. I had a great rhythm and I am really so happy to win for the first time in America. About the passes, I am sorry that Casey thinks some of them were a bit strong but I really don't agree; I passed only on the brakes, I braked in the same places every time and we never touched. Of course this was an aggressive race, but it was definitely a fair one. Now we have the summer break and I am looking forward to relaxing a bit, but not too much because it's going to be a hard fight for the final seven races and we must keep the concentration!" Davide Brivio - Team Manager "Although it was not there, we saw the "heart" on Valentino's helmet again today! This is a great victory because throughout the entire weekend we were at a disadvantage, but nobody ever gave up and we worked until the very last minute to find a way to help Valentino to fight with Casey. We tried to optimize everything we had and at the end "The Doctor" completed the operation! This was a race Valentino did not want to lose. This is Valentino, one who never gives up and fights until the end. I would like to make big congratulations to him and thank the team and all the technicians! It is good to go on holidays with a 25 point advantage and now we must recharge the batteries for the last seven races. I hope to see battles like this one until the end of the championship. On another note, we're very sorry for Jorge today and we wish him the best and look forward to seeing him back in Brno." Lorenzo's Laguna debut end in gravel after first-lap crash Jorge Lorenzo suffered a dramatic high-side on the very first lap of the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca today, his debut American race ending in the gravel at turn five. The Spaniard broke the third and fifth metatarsal bones in his left foot and will now face a race to be fit for the next race in Brno, in a month's time. Lorenzo made a good start and was looking promising in fourth place when the crash happened. It was immediately clear that he had injured himself, a depressing realisation for a rider who has already had to cope with two broken ankles and a concussion this season. With the summer break coming before the next race however the outlook is good for the 21-year-old, who has flown home tonight for further assessment in Barcelona this week. There was cause for celebration on the other side of the garage as Valentino Rossi won his first ever US Grand Prix, following a scintillating battle with Casey Stoner. Rossi now leads Stoner by 25 points whilst Lorenzo remains in fourth. Jorge Lorenzo - Position: DNF I'm very sad today because I had a lot of confidence for the race after the qualifying session yesterday and, above all, after the very start of the race when I was fourth and feeling good. Then I crashed; my tyre was not up to temperature, I lost the rear and the next thing I knew I was in the gravel, with pain in my foot. It is one more crash, one more injury and it's another moment that I have to forget as soon as possible. I need to look forward. I am so sad but now I must concentrate on the fact that I have a whole month before Brno in order to be fit and to be able to race in good shape. This is my aim. I would like to congratulate to Valentino for his great victory and race today, he did a fantastic job." Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager "Unfortunately today's result is not what Jorge and the team deserved, after the progress we made in practice. We could have gone for a better result, but the main problem today was the lack of grip on the rear, which was amplified at the beginning of the race when the tyres were not yet at the optimum temperature. Now let's hope for a good rest for Jorge; we wish him a good recovery and we look forward to seeing him come back at Brno ready to fight again with the top riders." Toseland fights hard for ninth, disappointment for Edwards Tech 3 Yamaha rider James Toseland made a welcome return to the top ten this afternoon with a determined ride to ninth place in the American GP. In sunny but cool conditions, the British rider made a fantastic start from the second row and found himself fourth at the first corner. But while cautiously waiting for his Michelin tyres to reach optimum working temperature, he slipped down to eighth at the end of the first lap. Toseland moved back into sixth by lap six to engage in a long battle with Frenchman Randy de Puniet. He slipped back to seventh on lap 12 but reeled off a consistent pace in the 1.23 bracket to maintain constant pressure on de Puniet. His pace saw him get tantalisingly close to the battle for fourth place, but in the final stages of the 32-lap encounter, he lost two more places and finished ninth. It was a disappointing race for Colin Edwards in front of his home crowd as he ended down in 14th. Sporting a special oneoff livery for his home race, the Texan briefly threatened to break into the top ten, but front-end issues prevented him from running his usual consistent pace. The Tech 3 team now starts a deserved summer break before the world championship resumes in Brno on August 17. James Toseland - Position: 9thTime: +0'43.019 "I'm pretty disappointed with that because I feel have put in a lot of effort and done my best to finish only ninth. I got a fantastic start and was fourth but unfortunately it was a tough race after that and I had to ride more defensive than I wanted to. With the harder compound tyres I knew I'd have to wait to get some temperature into them and that cost me a few places early on. Once I got into my pace in the 23s I was pretty happy because I'd hoped that would be good enough for a top six finish looking at the times from earlier in the weekend. I had a good long battle with de Puniet but our lap times were almost identical and I tried everything I could to close him down. At the end I was just trying to block people from passing me but Spies and Elias got me late on and that is a bit frustrating. On paper ninth doesn't look like a great result, and it doesn't feel like much of a reward for the effort that I have put in with my team this weekend. But I really couldn't have done anything else and I feel I got the best out of the package I had today. We'll hopefully be able to come back much stronger after the summer break and be fighting to be back in the top six again where we belong." Colin Edwards - Position: 14th Time: +1'02.380 "I don't think I need to say that this race was well below what I expected. I've had a lot of great support from Yamaha US, the American fans and my family this weekend and they haven't got the result I wanted to give them. My guys at Tech 3 have worked tirelessly all weekend too but nothing really went for us. To be honest I was struggling from the start with the harder compound front tyre I had. I'd have some moment on the brakes while I was trying pass someone and I'd lose a load of time and a bunch of places. I'd gradually work my way back through only for it to happen again and it was frustrating. I just didn't have any confidence in the front and everybody knows I am a front-end guy. It has been a difficult week with the crash in Germany too, so I'm looking forward to the summer break and being able to return stronger in Brno. I'm still fighting for fourth in the championship and Tech 3 is still fourth in the team standings, so we have got a lot to fight for in the last seven races." Herve Poncharal - Team Manager "It was a tough weekend for us. We would have liked to go into the summer break with a better result, but having seen what happened in practice James did a really good race. We didn't expect him to be up there all race long and I'm disappointed for him that he lost two places in the last two laps because he performed to his maximum and as usual he never give up. It was good that he had that kind of race but it was a big disappointment for Colin. His crash in Germany didn't help and he arrived with some neck problems and then had some problems in practice. And he didn't have confidence in the race because that was not the Colin out there that we all know. The only consolation is that he has another race in America later this year where I'm sure things will be better for him. We are still fourth in the team championship and we have to work hard to keep that position. Hopefully the break will be good for everybody and we will be back strong in Brno. Finally, congratulations to Yamaha and Valentino for his first win in Laguna Seca." Race 1 - 32 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, ITA, 44'4.311 2, Casey Stoner, Ducati, AUS, 0'13.001 3, Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki, AUS, 0'26.609 4, Andrea Dovizioso, Honda, ITA, 0'34.901 5, Nicky Hayden, Honda, USA, 0'35.663 6, Randy De Puniet, Honda, FRA, 0'37.668 7, Toni Elias, Ducati, ESP, 0'41.629 8, Ben Spies, Suzuki, USA, 0'41.927 9, James Toseland, Yamaha, GBR, 0'43.019 10, Shinya Nakano, Honda, JPN, 0'44.391 11, Jamie Hacking, Kawasaki, USA, 0'46.258 12, Sylvain Guintoli, Ducati, FRA, 0'55.273 13, Alex De Angelis, Honda, SMR, 0'55.521 14, Colin Edwards, Yamaha, USA, 1'2.380 15, Loris Capirossi, Suzuki, ITA, 1'8.207 16, Marco Melandri, Ducati, ITA, 1'10.962 17, Anthony West, Kawasaki, AUS, -1 Laps Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Casey Stoner, Ducati, AUS, 1'21.488 Rider Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, ITA, 212 2, Casey Stoner, Ducati, AUS, 187 3, Daniel Pedrosa, Honda, ESP, 171 4, Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha, ESP, 114 5, Andrea Dovizioso, Honda, ITA, 103 6, Colin Edwards, Yamaha, USA, 100 7, Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki, AUS, 89 8, Nicky Hayden, Honda, USA, 84 9, James Toseland, Yamaha, GBR, 72 10, Shinya Nakano, Honda, JPN, 70 11, Loris Capirossi, Suzuki, ITA, 61 12, Toni Elias, Ducati, ESP, 46 13, Alex De Angelis, Honda, SMR, 41 14, Randy De Puniet, Honda, FRA, 40 15, Sylvain Guintoli, Ducati, FRA, 38 Team Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Team, Points 1, FIAT Yamaha Team, 326 2, Repsol Honda Team, 255 3, Ducati Marlboro Team, 219 4, Tech3 Yamaha, 172 5, Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 152 6, Honda Gresini, 111 7, JIR Scot Team, 103 8, Team Alice, 84 9, Kawasaki Racing Team, 54 10, Honda LCR, 40 Manufacturer Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Yamaha, 241 2, Honda, 197 3, Ducati, 192 4, Suzuki, 112 5, Kawasaki, 52
Alex Asigno

Yamaha stars roll back the years at Spa

There are few more historic and scenic motorsport circuits in the world than Spa Francorchamps, situated in the depths of southern Belgium. The venue was an appropriate setting for the 2008 Bikers’ Classics, an event attended and enjoyed by 40,000 people over three days that saw a glittering and nostalgic array of machinery and former world champions, Grand Prix victors and racers from a by-gone era turn back the clock. The Bikers’ Classics is unique and nowhere is there such a gathering of motorcycles and riders able to offer such a splendid visual reminiscence of a very different racing age. From the immaculate gleam of the restored and preserved engines to the black leathers and the polished ‘pudding bowl’ helmets, Spa seemed to revel in the echo of the past and brought ‘black and white’ images to life for new generations. Like all those years ago Yamaha was at the core of the paddock and was present through the Yamaha Classic Racing Team with 26 vintage machines, most of which were steered by their original pilots. The team was born from the vast tradition and success of the manufacturer throughout the classes since their entry into world championship racing in the 1960s. One of Yamaha’s star attractions was Giacomo Agostini, winner of the most premier class world titles and Grand Prix, on his Yamaha 500cc 0W23 with which he claimed the 1975 title; the first two-stroke to do so, and the bike which signalled the end of an Italian era of technical dominance. Other Yamaha legends included Christian Sarron (500cc winner in 1985), Steve Baker (world championship contender in 1976), Chas Mortimer (up until recently the last British winner of a 125cc GP), Carlos Lavado (former 250cc champion), Kel Carruthers (250cc champion and the technical force behind names such as Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson), Rodney Gould (250cc number one in 1970) and Dieter Braun (250cc and 125cc champion) to name but a few. Fans were able to see the stars up close, take the opportunity to chat with them and the mechanics, relive old race memories and complete autograph collections. When the hallowed relics and examples of former cutting edge motorcycle racing technology were not the on track then a slew of privately owned machines carefully prepared and lovingly presented by a vast crowd of enthusiastsenjoyed the Spa asphalt. On Sunday the meeting culminated in a parade, a procession that started from the grid and although not competitive still saw heroes of the past such as 65 year old Gould hurtle around famous corners such as La Source and Eau Rouge with fearless abandon. Manager of the Yamaha Classic Race Team Ferry Brouwer, proud owner of most of the machines, commented: “It was a great event and I am very proud to bring Yamaha’s enormous racing heritage to this wonderful circuit again. We have shown what Yamaha stands for, and seeing the faces of all those fans when the bikes were started and passed through corners like Eau Rouge makes it all worthwhile.” The team are due to turn out again in a matter of weeks with the Salzburgring in Austria hosting the next date on July 19/20th.
Alex Asigno

Corser scores miracle podium in tough Donington weekend

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) secured a fine third place in the second race at Donington, in what was otherwise a particularly challenging weekend of action at a wet and dry Donington Park. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) was ruled out of each Donington race after a technical issue in race one saw him penalised for not stopping his machine in time after it developed a fault caused by a rider colliding into him, and then mistiming a subsequent ride through penalty. Neither rider was credited with a finish in the aggregate race one, as they were among several riders not allowed to take part in the restart, which was caused by an oil spill at Coppice corner. Corser had fallen and was not allowed to take his place on the grid for the restart, while Haga had earlier been classified as a retiree after his technical problem. He went out to take his place on the grid, only to be led away by race control. In race two, Haga was not classified as a finisher either after coming in too early for his ride-through penalty, and then being black-flagged. By contrast, Corser, who pushed hard throughout despite suffering multiple crashes this weekend, ignored the pain and stiffness of his body to record a superb third place, his ninth podium of the year. His bravery and skill delivered him an overall second ranking in the championship table, one higher than he started the weekend with. Haga is now fifth overall, on an unchanged 230 points. Both Haga and Corser started their races at Donington wearing unique one-off leathers and riding race bikes clad in special fairings designed by Yamaha Livery Design competition winner Ben Leeves. David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) was 11th in a crash-filled race one, then a faller in race two. His team-mate Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) was a double no scorer. Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) stuck to his task in race one and scored 13th, dropping to 18th in race two. Troy Corser (DNF and 3rd - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)  "This is one of the toughest weekends we have had, and the conditions have been quite slippery in qualifying. I have had lots of crashes so I am pretty sore. Thanks to the guys in the team who have done a great job repairing the bike each time and putting me back on the track. I don't know how many spares the team has left after this meeting!" Noriyuki Haga (DNF and DNF - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)  "In race two I knew I had to come in for a ride through penalty but there was so much spray in the early laps I could not see if there was a board out for me. So I came in to do my ride through on my own. I restarted out of pitlane and then I saw a black flag for me. I could not understand it as I had already done my ride through. But not when they wanted me to, apparently. So I had to pull in. Not a good day for me but thanks to all in the team for all the hard work, and for the support from the fans" Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)  "In some ways it was impossible to do worse this weekend, but we tried our best throughout. Nori had a really difficult day and scored no points. But what Troy did in race two was something incredible. He has had multiple crashes and he was in a lot of pain. As a rider, when you crash even once you lose a little bit of feeling and confidence, but even after several crashes Troy showed he had lost nothing. Troy is now second in the championship and that is a very positive thing to take away from this weekend. We continued to test the new Ohlins electronic suspension this weekend. It has mainly been tried in dry conditions so it was important to gather data in the wet. We have already found an advantage with the limited testing time we've had and plan to use it in Vallelunga where it was first tested six weeks ago." Shinichi Nakatomi (13th and 18th - Team YZF Yamaha)  "The conditions were difficult in race one. We made a mistake when we decided to use intermediate tyres, when the other riders used slicks. After ten laps, my feeling with the bike was coming better. For the second race, we changed a few things on the setting of the bike. In this race, I did my best on this very wet and difficult race track." Race 1  Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 29'55.384 2, Tom Sykes, Suzuki, GBR, 0'1.266 3, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 0'28.636 4, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 0'33.566 5, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 0'35.966 6, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 0'36.034 7, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 0'36.442 8, Leon Haslam, Honda, GBR, 0'41.633 9, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 0'42.075 10, James Ellison, Honda, GBR, 0'43.476 11, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 1'12.578 12, Ayrton Badovini, Kawasaki, ITA, 1'13.147 13, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 1'34.664 14, Shuhei Aoyama, Honda, JPN, 1'56.726 Race 2  Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 40'26.508 2, Cal Crutchlow, Honda, GBR, 0'2.261 3, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 0'9.727 4, James Ellison, Honda, GBR, 0'20.227 5, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 0'27.475 6, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 0'28.051 7, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 0'30.922 8, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 0'38.353 9, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 0'50.196 10, Tom Sykes, Suzuki, GBR, 0'57.346 11, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 1'3.093 12, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 1'6.697 13, Roberto Rolfo, Honda, ITA, 1'8.057 14, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 1'15.276 15, Regis Laconi, Kawasaki, FRA, 1'38.848 16, Makoto Tamada, Kawasaki, JPN, 1'0.000 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 1'31.814 Rider Standings 07/09/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 359 2, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 258 3, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 254 4, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 240 5, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 230 6, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 192 7, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 192 8, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 190 9, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 172 10, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 156 11, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 120 12, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 105 13, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 105 14, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 99 15, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 71 21, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 32 26, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 12 28, Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, FRA, 7 Manufacturer Standings 07/09/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Ducati, 439 2, Yamaha, 366 3, Honda, 335 4, Suzuki, 329 5, Kawasaki, 69 ---------- RACE REPORT - 07/09/2008 Parkes into the top ten as Laverty scores points Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) and Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Supersport Team) had to race on untried settings at Donington, after all practice and warm-up sessions were damp to some degree, but nonetheless each improved form their lowly starting places to record points scoring finishes. Parkes went tenth from 20th on the grid, with Laverty taking his time to get to know his new bike in the dry, and finally posting 12th in his first ever WSS race. As the race progressed Laverty made great strides and set some impressive times as he chased a rider pairing in front that also featured Parkes. Laverty will stay with the Yamaha World Supersport team fo rthe next round at Vallelunga, continuing to ride in place of injured team rider Fabien Foret. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) was 17th on his Yamaha, while David Salom (Yamaha Spain World Supersport) was only 32nd in qualifying, while his team-mate Jason Crowe missed out on a qualifying time. Broc Parkes (10th - Yamaha World Supersport Team)  "Better that we had dry race than a wet one. We were down on dry settings too because we didn't race here last year so we didn't have a base setting to work with. It was not quite right, so we had to work hard to get there. That was the best we could do today. It was not perfect but it could have been worse." Eugene Laverty (12th - Yamaha World Supersport Team)  "I made some good lap times at the end but I had to be so careful at the start because I didn't really know the bike in dry conditions, and when you are riding in such close proximity with other riders, it could have been dangerous to try and push too hard from the beginning. But my lap times improved as I learned the bike and my second to last lap was fast, as quick as anyone really. It has been a difficult weekend but I think everyone can understand that. The weather was a disaster but to get a result out of things was our aim and we reached it." Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team)  "Of course I am not happy with tenth and 12th places but when you look back on the whole weekend it is difficult for many riders, not only for us. Eugene rode well and progressed through the field once he started to get familiar on the bike in the dry and he had to rebuild his confidence after crashing the bike in the wet. Broc was doing some 1'35 lap times in the dry and did well to come through the field to tenth. For the next race we will have a better base set-up, because we didn't have one for here because we had so little track time last year.." Massimo Roccoli (17th - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni)  "With no dry test time this weekend I had to use last year's settings on the machine and it meant that there was a lot of movement from the back end of the machine. Not a great weekend. We continued to test the new electronic suspension this weekend. It has mainly been tried in dry conditions so it was important to gather data in the wet. We have already found an advantage with the limited testing time we've had and plan to use it in Vallelunga where it was first tested six weeks ago. " Race 1  Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 34'53.607 2, Andrew Pitt, Honda, AUS, 0'0.872 3, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 0'4.846 4, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 0'5.066 5, Hudson Kennaugh, Yamaha, RSA, 0'8.604 6, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 0'8.990 7, Joan Lascorz, Honda, ESP, 0'15.660 8, Didier Van Keymeulen, Suzuki, BEL, 0'16.674 9, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 0'17.081 10, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 0'20.474 11, Gianluca Vizziello, Honda, ITA, 0'21.110 12, Eugene Laverty, Yamaha, GBR, 0'26.338 13, Mark Aitchinson, Triumph, AUS, 0'26.597 14, Katsuaki Fujiwara, Kawasaki, JPN, 0'29.104 15, Chris Martin, Kawasaki, GBR, 0'30.603 16, Gianluca Nannelli, Honda, ITA, 0'39.201 17, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 0'39.505 18, Ivan Clementi, Triumph, ITA, 0'40.004 19, Danilo Dell'omo, Honda, ITA, 0'41.030 20, Graeme Gowland, Honda, GBR, 0'53.383 21, Balazs Nemeth, Honda, HUN, 1'10.076 22, Bryan Staring, Honda, AUS, 1'19.610 23, Midge Smart, Honda, NZL, 1'19.931 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 1'34.079 Rider Standings 07/09/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Andrew Pitt, Honda, AUS, 169 2, Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 137 3, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 133 4, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 119 5, Craig Jones, Honda, GBR, 100 6, Fabien Foret, Yamaha, FRA, 97 7, Joan Lascorz, Honda, ESP, 92 8, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 61 9, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 60 10, Gianluca Nannelli, Honda, ITA, 51 11, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 48 12, Gianluca Vizziello, Honda, ITA, 46 13, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 43 14, Chris Walker, Kawasaki, GBR, 36 15, Vesa Kallio, Honda, FIN, 23 25, David Salom, Yamaha, ESP, 9 Manufacturer Standings 07/09/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Honda, 240 2, Yamaha, 162 3, Suzuki, 70 4, Triumph, 61 5, Kawasaki, 42 ---------- RACE REPORT - 07/09/2008 Pirro Sixth After Donington Superstock Battle Michele Pirro (Yamaha Lorenzini by Leoni) was one of several fallers in the 12-lap 1000cc Superstock race, exiting after highsiding at the final hairpin on lap two, and restarting to finish 19th, out of the points. Pirro remains fifth in the championship chase, with 83 points. Claudio Corti (Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team) fell in a first corner multiple-rider incident, and is 11th overall in the series. Michelle Pirro (19th - Yamaha Motor Italia Lorenzini by Leoni)  "I just lost the rear tyre and had to wait to get my bike restarted and that meant I was too far back to challenge. It's a shame but it was very tricky in those conditions." Claudio Corti (DNF - Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team)  "I was out on the first corner, in a collision with other riders, and there was nothing I could do to carry on once we had stopped." Baz Leads Despite Fall and Restart  Loris Baz crashed his Yamaha Motor France Junior Team machine in the Superstock race but remounted to finish 12th, and defend his championship lead. He is now on 146 points to Vostarek's 121, with race winner Bussolotti third, on 106. Gino Rea was third on his Yamaha machine. Race 1  Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Xavier Simeon, Suzuki, BEL, 21'30.092 2, Alessandro Polita, Ducati, ITA, 0'16.109 3, Davide Giugliano, Suzuki, ITA, 0'34.318 4, Brendan Roberts, Ducati, AUS, 0'37.319 5, Jon Kirkham, Yamaha, GBR, 0'44.199 6, Maxime Berger, Honda, FRA, 0'45.533 7, Matteo Baiocco, Kawasaki, ITA, 0'47.888 8, Filip Backlund, Suzuki, SWE, 0'49.623 9, Barry Burrell, Honda, GBR, 0'50.461 10, Jure Stibilj, Honda, SVN, 0'51.416 11, Domenico Colucci, Ducati, ITA, 0'52.516 12, Raymond Schouten, Yamaha, NED, 1'1.720 13, Danny De Boer, Suzuki, NED, 1'2.726 14, Niccolo Rosso, Honda, ITA, 1'2.946 15, Gregory Junod, Yamaha, CHE, 1'5.181 16, Peter Hickman, Yamaha, GBR, 1'7.026 17, Franck Millet, MV Agusta, ITA, 1'10.043 18, Tommaso Lorenzetti, Suzuki, ITA, 1'10.558 19, Michele Pirro, Yamaha, ITA, 1'10.929 20, Yoann Tiberio, Kawasaki, FRA, 1'12.577 21, Aldo Aldrovandi, Kawasaki, ITA, 1'13.377 22, Marko Jerman, Yamaha, SVK, 1'18.026 23, Roy Ten Napel, Suzuki, NED, 1'18.515 24, Cameron Stronach, Kawasaki, AUS, 1'46.326 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Xavier Simeon, Suzuki, BEL, 1'46.033 Rider Standings 07/09/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Brendan Roberts, Ducati, AUS, 122 2, Xavier Simeon, Suzuki, BEL, 120 3, Maxime Berger, Honda, FRA, 119 4, Alessandro Polita, Ducati, ITA, 114 5, Michele Pirro, Yamaha, ITA, 83 6, Davide Giugliano, Suzuki, ITA, 71 7, Andrea Antonelli, Honda, ITA, 57 8, Matej Smrz, Honda, CZE, 48 9, Chris Seaton, Suzuki, AUS, 36 10, Freddy Foray, Yamaha, FRA, 35 11, Claudio Corti, Yamaha, ITA, 33 12, Barry Burrell, Honda, GBR, 31 13, Michele Magnoni, Yamaha, ITA, 30 14, Kenny Foray, Yamaha, FRA, 24 15, Domenico Colucci, Ducati, ITA, 23 30, Sylvain Barrier, Yamaha, FRA, 4 Manufacturer Standings 07/09/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Ducati, 157 2, Honda, 141 3, Suzuki, 135 4, Yamaha, 106 5, Kawasaki, 49 6, KTM, 2
Alex Asigno

Mid-season Review with Masao Furusawa - Executive Officer, Engineering Operations for Yamaha Motor C

1 – What’s been the biggest change to the M1 this year? “We have made many changes to the 2008 M1 compared to the 2007 version and we have improved it a lot; Valentino is satisfied with our work so far. Of course the biggest change for us has affected Valentino’s side only – the change of tyre manufacturer. After the switch we had a hard time learning how to get the best performance from the new tyres and of course we had no data. Last however year Valentino predicted that changing would be the right thing for him and he was right, although of course we weren’t able to predict how differently the tyre would behave.” 2 – What else have you changed on Valentino’s bike? “We have had to work a lot on the chassis setting and we have also changed the geometry of the bike in order to get a good balance with the tyre character. Since we moved from 990cc to 800cc higher corner speed is needed in order to get faster lap times and to win. Therefore we have tried many different chassis settings in order to find out the best of bike geometry, centre of gravity, rider position, wheel-base length, chassis stiffness and so on.” 3 – Do you think that your development since the start of the season has been a success? “MotoGP bikes are not production bikes and that’s why I always say that Valentino, Jorge and all MotoGP riders are not human beings! Valentino has become more and more satisfied race by race and we have been able to find an ideal set-up for him that enabled him to win three races in a row. Since then, Casey Stoner and his team have found new solutions that have allowed them to make a big step forward and now of course we know that the remaining races will be tough, although we are still leading by 25 points after the excellent win in Laguna Seca.” 4 – What is the aim for the rest of the season regarding bike development? “Our competitor’s great performances is a big push to all of us to improve our M1 further, maybe even more than we did during last winter. I would especially like to progress the electronic control system and the engine power. At the moment there is no need to work more on the chassis, although this is something we will have to consider for next season. Lately we have been experiencing some problems with acceleration on the exit of the corner, so we need to work to find better bike geometry and chassis setting alongside the development of the engine control system.” 5 – What is your opinion about the electronics in MotoGP now? Do you think the rules need to be changed? “This is a popular discussion at the moment and we are looking at the overall situation; do we need to change the rules? It’s true that many riders have crashed this year, including Jorge, who had a very bad series of crashes, and also Dani Pedrosa. The question is if these crashes have something to do with the current bike technology. We moved from 990cc to 800cc to have safer bikes, but the new bikes have a higher cornering speed and this might present a danger for some riders. I think that we need to do something and the biggest issue is the electronic control system. In any case, it is clear that we at Yamaha will have to develop a better and better ECS, in order to beat our rivals. I still think that the M1 is best bike out there, although Casey has had a string of very impressive results.” 6 – Valentino has re-signed for two more years and has cited his relationship with you as one of the main reasons he will continue with Yamaha. How do you feel about you relationship with him? “The reason I always continue to be confident is because I trust Valentino so much! I like his way of thinking, he is always positive and this rubs off on everyone else. He never complains or criticizes; on the contrary, he is always looking forward and searching for new solutions! He has exactly the same approach to problems as I have. Valentino always has a positive and logical way of thinking, like me. He has a very good sense of humour, and I like this a lot; I like him as a person very much. The biggest shame is that my age is almost the double his, but the level of thinking is the same! The only difference is that he is just 29. When I was 29, I never thought about tactics and strategies! I have a huge respect for him. He is the genius behind the bike.” 7 – What are your mid-season impressions of Jorge? “I like Jorge very much; he is a good guy and a very good rider. Honestly, he is very different than I had expected before he joined Yamaha; I was impressed by his mature attitude and his fluent English. He is a very smart guy, smarter than I expected! He has a big talent as a rider; he is very smooth and very effective. I am sure that in the future he will dominate in MotoGP. At the beginning of the season we started with no ambitions, we thought it was too early for him to win a race because he was a rookie. He was just supposed to be here to learn about his M1. But then he surprised us with his incredible three pole positions in a row and then with his victory. Everything happened much earlier than we had expected. Generally speaking he is a very good entertainer for Yamaha and for the spectators. His season surpassed expectations early on but of course he has had some problems since then which we are working hard to address.” 8 – How has Jorge reacted since the crashes? “After the bad crashes he has suffered, he has changed his riding style somewhat, aiming to improve his confidence in the electronics, which can help him. Before the crash in Laguna he was recovering and beginning to find a different way to treat a MotoGP bike. Laguna was a great pity, very unlucky and another set-back but I am still confident for the rest of the season, although we will continue not to put any pressure on him and there is no need to hurry his learning process.” 9 – What is your feeling about the current team? "I am very satisfied with Jorge’s new crew chief, who joined us this year, Ramon Forcada. He is a very good crew chief, as is Jeremy Burgess. JB is an easy and sophisticated guy, he hates to worry about political correctness, like me! Now both he and Ramon are combining their wealth of experience with the new technology very successfully. Regarding Jorge’s bike specifically, I understand very well what Ramon is doing with Jorge and with Jorge’s bike. I speak with him regularly and I am satisfied that we have the same recognition about Jorge." "Our entire team is made up of good people and good workers! As far as our riders are concerned, we have a very strong weapon; Valentino is the present and Jorge is the future"
Alex Asigno

Philippaerts fourth at sun-struck South Africa

Low winter sunshine bathed 20,000 spectators at the scenic Nelspruit circuit for the Grand Prix of South Africa and Yamaha Monster Motocross Team's David Philippaerts finished 4th overall and saw just one point chipped away from his lead at the top of the series; the gap now at eleven. Josh Coppins was 6th on the YZ450FM and remains third in the standings. The tenth round of fifteen in the 2008 FIM MX1-GP World Championship visited the southern hemisphere for the first time since 2006 (after three consecutive events were held at the Sun City resort) and represented the sole non-European outing of this year's calendar. The Nelspruit circuit was immaculately prepared for its inauguration as a world championship venue. The narrow and twisty layout involved many sharp turns and technical additions (such as dividers and plenty of jumps) while the dark red dirt varied between soft and rough to hard and slippery. The biggest obstacle for the riders to face was the sunshine with the light dipping low in the afternoon, throwing many shadows on the track and hiding the ruts and jump take-offs. The glare was also problematic over the jumps. Philippaerts, now more or less recovered from his rib injury, benefitted from two decent starts around the top five. In the first moto he rode well to push through from fourth to close on leader Steve Ramon in the final laps, finally sealing 2nd spot. For Moto2 he was circulating in the top six and for some time alongside his team-mate. With the sunshine and the many backmarkers adding an element of danger to the race, the 24 year old overtook a struggling Ramon (who would drop to 8th) and make sure of 6th; missing out on his seventh trophy of the year by just one point. Coppins, who recently extended his association with Yamaha and will enter a third season in 2009, was again a victim of misfortune on the first corner (after two problematic races last time out in Sweden). A tangle with Sebastien Pourcel left the Kiwi almost last and he had to pick his lines carefully to recover to 9th. A more cautious and improved launch in Moto1 saw the 31 year old blast from the lower depths of the top ten to charge Pourcel all the way to the flag for 3rd place, finally taking 4th. It was an excellent performance in which he was one of the few proactive riders making positions in difficult conditions; the fastest lap testimony to his speed. Nelspruit represented only the second time this season that the Yamaha Monster Motocross Team has not scaled the rostrum. Philippaerts holds an advantage of 11 points over Ramon and 23 over Coppins. Ken De Dycker is 43 further back in fourth. After ten events Yamaha still control the manufacturer's ranking by 16 points. The final third of the series will begin in two weeks time with the first of back-to-back races. Round eleven takes place at the sandy Lommel circuit for the Grand Prix of Belgium before the trip to Loket in the Czech Republic. David Philippaerts, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 4th: "I missed the podium by one point but the positives from this weekend were the good race in the first moto and that my physical condition is getting better after a few small injuries. I was a bit tired early in the second moto and with the sun going down it was hard to find the lines. After about twenty minutes I felt a bit better and pushed to pass Mackenzie but there were so many lapped riders that it was very difficult. I did not want to crash and I had already passed Ramon. I think I will be strong for Lommel. All the GPs will be important for the championship now and I will be looking for good positions and to finish ahead of Ramon as much as possible." Josh Coppins, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 6th: "For three motos in a row I have had to start from pretty much last. I knew I had the speed but I lost so many points just from incidents in those three heats. In that second moto today I decided to start a little more cautious, take my turn and then ride my own race. I came out in the top ten but then could start the hunt and move forward; this is not really the way I want to go racing, holeshots would be preferable! It was a tough track but the same for everyone. There were parts that I liked and others that I didn't. I am pleased with that second moto though; if I can improve my starts then I feel that I can push my way back in there for the title." Mino Raspanti, Racing Manager: "It was not an easy Grand Prix by any means but we are happy that David had better starts and was inside the top six in each moto. He took too long to pass Mackenzie in the first race and had to use a lot of energy to overtake. His speed was good and if he could have moved forward quicker then he might have been able to win as he was very close to Ramon. He rode well in the second moto also but was a bit more tired. The result was good for the championship though because he did not make a mistake. Josh had a crash right at the start again and had to come through so it was difficult for him. The second moto was better and although he did not want to take any risks at the start he soon found his speed and actually made the fastest lap of the race. He was physically strong and this showed. We were working out of the crates this weekend but we were well organised and prepared, and overall we can feel content with how things have gone." Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 40'20.469 2, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 0'2.441 3, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 0'5.874 4, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 0'9.979 5, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'18.428 6, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 0'19.584 7, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 0'21.389 8, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'51.965 9, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 0'57.055 10, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 0'57.055 11, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 1'13.389 12, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, 1'44.019 13, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 1'52.455 14, James Noble, KTM, GBR, 1'55.312 15, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 2'15.088 16, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, -1 Laps 17, R Van Der Westhuizen, Suzuki, RSA, -1 Laps 18, Anthony Raynard, Yamaha, RSA, -2 Laps 19, Brandon Wheeler, Suzuki, RSA, -2 Laps 20, K Bowen, KTM, RSA, -2 Laps Race 2 - 20 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 40'35.152 2, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 0'3.151 3, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'6.255 4, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 0'7.594 5, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 0'12.794 6, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 0'18.663 7, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'35.635 8, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'36.797 9, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 1'18.244 10, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 1'23.337 11, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 1'28.326 12, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, 1'37.322 13, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 1'42.692 14, James Noble, KTM, GBR, -1 Laps 15, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, -1 Laps 16, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, -1 Laps 17, r Van Der Westhuizen, Suzuki, RSA, -1 Laps 18, Brandon Wheeler, Suzuki, RSA, -2 Laps 19, J De Bruin, Yamaha, RSA, -2 Laps 20, Anthony Raynard, Yamaha, RSA, -2 Laps Rider Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 339 2, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 328 3, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 316 4, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 296 5, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 284 6, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 274 7, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 253 8, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 235 9, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 234 10, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 178 11, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 173 12, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 160 13, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 141 14, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 115 15, Mike Brown, Honda, USA, 107 16, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 97 17, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, 95 18, James Noble, KTM, GBR, 93 19, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 66 20, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 63 21, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 42 Manufacturer Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Yamaha, 395 2, Suzuki, 379 3, KTM, 364 4, Kawasaki, 350 5, Honda, 314 6, TM, 31 7, Aprilia, 5 ---------- RACE REPORT - 20/07/2008 Aubin takes first podium as Cairoli suffers Yamaha Ricci Racing's Nico Aubin scored his first top three finish of the 2008 FIM MX2-GP World Championship under typically deep blue skies for the Grand Prix of South Africa - the tenth round of fifteen in the FIM series - at the Nelspruit circuit, more than 300km north-east of Johannesburg. The Frenchman took 3rd position on the same day that reigning number one Antonio Cairoli sustained an injury to his left knee and failed to score points in a GP for the first time since the British Grand Prix in 2004; a run of 65 events. The general reaction to the winding turns and many jumps of the new world championship circuit was extremely positive even if the dirt was a little unpredictable, varying between soft and rutted in places and hard and slick in others. Cairoli immediately gelled with the second of three new tracks on the 2008 schedule and collected his eighth consecutive Lovemytime qualification award for winning the second heat race and going to the gate in second position on Sunday. Sadly number '222' lasted no more than a few laps of the first moto as a near-crash around the fourth corner saw the Sicilian catch and turn his left leg, instantly injuring his knee. He tried to complete a few more circulations but then pulled into the pits with overwhelming pain. During the break between races he underwent an examination and treatment and was encouraged by the fact that there was little swelling. He attempted the second moto and started in second position but too small mistakes aggravated the joint further and he was again forced to withdraw. Cairoli now plans to have a scan and possible surgery on a suspected broken meniscus this week. The procedure should not be complicated and there is a chance he could be back on his motorcycle for the Grand Prix of Belgium in a fortnight. Aubin ensured that a YZ250F kept a place on the podium, and his first silverware of the season came largely thanks to his excellent start and second position in Moto1; the finish represented his second best result of the year having previously taken a race win in Italy. Aubin had actually been leading the sprint but was powerless to match pole-sitter Tommy Searle's speed. In the second race he started in the top five and spent a lonely moto avoiding backmarkers and trying to close to the back of Shaun Simpson in 4th. Aubin is the fourth Yamaha rider this season to scale a Grand Prix rostrum. Ricci Racing team-mate Davide Guarneri continues to admirably fight the odds despite a weakened right knee (missing a ligament) and the Italian scored 8th and 15th positions for 11th overall. He hit his limb on the ground twice in the second moto which caused him to slow and miss out on a double top ten finish. 3C Racing's Manuel Monni was 13th overall and rests 10th in the world championship while team-mate Deny Philippaerts - younger brother of David - scored points for the second time this season. Cairoli's championship plight now faces a test against the odds. The double world number one is third and 59 points away (more than two moto victories) from leader Tyla Rattray with five Grand Prix remaining. Aubin cut a few points to Simpson and fourth place in the ranking with 44 points the difference. The eleventh round of the championship will take place through the sand of Lommel for the Grand Prix of Belgium in two weeks time. The hillside Loket circuit in the Czech Republic will host the thirteenth race seven days later. Tony Cairoli, Yamaha Red Bull De Carli, DNF: "I am really disappointed. I liked the track yesterday and had some decent speed. I didn't have a good start in the first moto and tried to pass some riders in the beginning but it was not easy because the track was slippery from the watering. Tyla and Tommy were ahead so I knew I had to gain ground fast. I went to pass Guarneri but he came wide and cut my line. The bike went sideways down the hill and I put out my foot and felt something pull in my knee. I had so much pain that I had to stop. My doctor made a really good job in the break so I tried to start the second moto and came out of the gate in second place. The knee was not inflamed and not too painful but I was not used to the track and I got one set of bumps wrong and felt the knee react. Tommy passed me and I was starting to catch him when I over-jumped and then had shots of pain, which ended my race. The plan now is to have some surgery this week and I really hope I can come back for Lommel. The doctor thinks the ligaments are OK, just maybe stretched a little bit but the meniscus might be broken. With the operation we have planned he said I might be able to ride after one week. The championship looks difficult now and Tommy and Tyla have worked hard to be going for the title. I want to win when I come back and I hope it will be as soon as possible." Nico Aubin, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 3rd: "I am happy but it is a shame I had to wait ten Grand Prix for my first podium. I have had a few problems getting myself up to speed but I had two weeks to get my head together before this Grand Prix and felt better on the bike. The track is very good and I enjoyed the ground and the jumps. I made a great start in the first moto and tried to push, however Tyla and Tommy are very fast at the moment and I have not had too much time leading a race and could not hold the pace until the end. The results were not bad today and a big improvement on the last GPs. I hope this will be a new beginning for me, we go to Lommel next and I like the sand. I would like a top five there before we go to Loket. I want to finish the season well for my confidence and for the team." Davide Guarneri, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 11th: "I am a little annoyed because I was faster on Saturday but could not take the positions today; overall it was a hard GP for me physically. I started well in the first moto but the track was so difficult for me. There were many ruts in the corners and it was tough for my knee. I tried to push but stayed in sixth for most of the race. Towards the end I felt tired because I cannot stand up on the bike for too long. I started OK in the second moto and was going for tenth when I hit my leg quite hard twice on the ground and had to slow down because of pain. I don't know what really happened with Antonio. On the fourth corner there were many riders together. I went for the inside line but it brought me out on the outside, I did not see him and touched his bike." Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 41'4.235 2, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 0'11.221 3, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 0'22.991 4, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 0'30.016 5, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'35.741 6, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 1'12.541 7, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 1'17.182 8, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 1'21.285 9, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 1'22.814 10, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'27.042 11, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 1'29.102 12, Pascal Leuret, Suzuki, FRA, 1'47.438 13, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'57.773 14, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'1.662 15, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 2'19.984 16, Jake Nicholls, Suzuki, GBR, -1 Laps 17, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, -1 Laps 18, Deny Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, -1 Laps 19, Michael Kok, KTM, RSA, -1 Laps 20, Elliott Banks-Browne, Suzuki, GBR, -2 Laps Race 2 - 20 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 41'4.739 2, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 0'4.871 3, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'32.461 4, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 0'37.751 5, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 0'43.469 6, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 0'53.101 7, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 1'3.031 8, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 1'5.999 9, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 1'7.014 10, Pascal Leuret, Suzuki, FRA, 1'8.334 11, Jake Nicholls, Suzuki, GBR, 1'13.750 12, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 1'14.422 13, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'22.643 14, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'26.306 15, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 1'48.709 16, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 1'52.516 17, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 2'16.563 18, Michael Kok, KTM, RSA, -1 Laps 19, Deny Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, -1 Laps 20, Ross Branch, Kawasaki, RSA, -1 Laps Rider Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 416 2, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 395 3, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 357 4, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 287 5, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 243 6, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 241 7, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 211 8, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 197 9, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 196 10, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 187 11, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 173 12, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 170 13, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 158 14, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 140 15, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 133 16, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 101 17, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 99 18, Gautier Paulin, Kawasaki, FRA, 95 19, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 73 20, Wyatt Avis, Honda, RSA, 56 22, Evgeny Bobryshev, Yamaha, RUS, 42 27, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 30 28, Matteo Bonini, Yamaha, ITA, 25 41, Deny Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 7 Manufacturer Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, KTM, 469 2, Yamaha, 451 3, Kawasaki, 316 4, Suzuki, 259 5, Honda, 194
Alex Asigno

Philippaerts takes sixth podium in Sweden

25,000 spectators scaled the rocky hill beside the Uddevalla circuit to watch Yamaha Monster Motocross Team's David Philippaerts take third position and extend his lead in the series at the Grand Prix of Sweden and the ninth round of fifteen in the 2008 FIM Motocross World Championship. Frequent light rain covered the venue and the slippery conditions did not prevent the Italian registering his sixth podium finish from a possible nine on his works YZ450FM. Team-mate Josh Coppins, winner of the last round in Germany, did not enjoy good starts but rode well to claim 10th overall. The climbing undulations of the Scandinavian track provided a small headache for teams and riders across the weekend as the fast curves - newly mixed with sand and a softer soil - was a hard and slippery test on Saturday but with arrival of rain during the night and dark skies on Sunday provided a more technical and slick prospect for the races. 24 year old Philippaerts started poorly in the first moto and was lucky not to crash on the straight as he was clipped when the pack narrowed down to the opening turn. The one-line layout made overtaking very difficult but the red-plate holder slowly worked his way up from 12th place to capture 4th behind Steve Ramon. Winner of the Grand Prix, Jonathan Barragan, sealed his second victory of the year with the runner-up position in the second moto and Philippaerts rode a smart race to take another 4th and the bottom step of the podium behind the Spaniard and Ramon. Josh Coppins was luckless in Moto1 as a bad launch become worse when he could not avoid a fallen Loic Leonce and crashed on the first lap. The New Zealander then had to find and maximise the few overtaking places on the track to grab as many points as possible. He rode to 13th by the end of the 35 minutes and 2 laps and was satisfied with his efforts. Sadly his getaway from the gate could not be improved in Moto2 and another slip relegated him to near the bottom of the top twenty. He then provided one of the highlights of the race as he charged from mid-pack obscurity to pass Billy Mackenzie on the last lap for 5th. Philippaerts now has more podium finishes than any other rider and his total score so far has helped Yamaha to a 19 point lead in the Manufacturer's standings. He has fronted the rider's table since round three and stretched out his margin of 4 points last week to 12, over Ramon. Coppins is third and 16 adrift. UTag Yamaha.com's Kenneth Gundsersen was in attendance at his 'semi-home' Grand Prix and confirmed that he has started exercising as part of his rehabilitation after a knee reconstruction and expects to begin riding again mid-September. After back-to-back events the World Championship now stops for one week before the series moves continents and to the new circuit of Nelspruit next to Kruger Park for the Grand Prix of South Africa. David Philippaerts, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 3rd: "I am very happy to be back on the podium. Physically I have had some problems, with my hand and my rib, but I am getting better and chose to ride a smart race today. The ground behind the gate was very soft and I lost time with my starts; I had to close the gas at the start of the first moto because I did not want to crash but afterwards I could make some good laps. I tried in both races to pass Steve but there was only really one line. It was a good GP for the championship and now I hope I can start training normally again because it has been a hard couple of weeks since the GP of France." Josh Coppins, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 10th: "I was around 11th in the first race when Leonce made a mistake in front of me and I went into the back of him. I restarted more or less last and came back to 13th. It was a tough race, really hard to pass and very tricky with just one single fast line. In the second moto I made a better start but I went a little wide and into the soft mud where they had scraped the mud across the holes. I went down on the fourth corner trying to make a pass and get to the front too fast. I made my way to fifth purely on determination. I am pretty disappointed overall because my riding was good enough to be at the front end of the field. I knew the starts would be difficult with the soft gravel behind the gate; you need a little bit of luck and just have to drop the clutch and go for it, there is no real technique. I lost some points today and need to keep focussing on my riding not the championship; today I was thinking too much about winning instead of trying to have a good GP." Mino Raspanti, Racing Manager: "David is back on the podium after two GPs and a few little mistakes. He was looking good today and he is learning when to push and when to concentrate on not making a mistake; this is the system for a good season. He now has a lead of 12 points although we have seen how easy it is to lose any advantage! Josh was set-back by his starts and small crashes. He did not make a fantastic result but his speed looked very good in both races and he was unfortunate in that it was so hard to pass here. We tried another new pipe with David, there was no big difference but we made a test; overall the bikes were very good this weekend." Race 1 - 21 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 39'23.245 2, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 0'5.231 3, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'7.373 4, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 0'9.689 5, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 0'16.662 6, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 0'22.169 7, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 0'28.086 8, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'29.184 9, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 0'30.064 10, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 0'36.017 11, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'37.062 12, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 0'43.785 13, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 0'50.734 14, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 0'54.043 15, James Noble, KTM, GBR, 0'58.888 16, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'0.653 17, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 1'5.335 18, Bradley Anderson, Suzuki, GBR, 1'24.686 19, Alex Salvini, Suzuki, ITA, 1'33.887 20, Loic Leonce, Yamaha, FRA, 1'36.268 Race 2 - 21 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 40'23.192 2, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 0'16.793 3, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'26.090 4, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 0'34.407 5, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 0'38.064 6, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 0'40.896 7, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 0'52.771 8, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 1'1.706 9, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 1'4.476 10, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 1'5.532 11, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 1'21.000 12, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 1'24.515 13, James Noble, KTM, GBR, 1'27.118 14, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'36.377 15, Luis Correira, Yamaha, POR, 1'39.962 16, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 1'48.027 17, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 1'50.676 18, Loic Leonce, Yamaha, FRA, 1'55.016 19, Scott Columb, Suzuki, NZL, -1 Laps 20, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, -1 Laps Rider Standings 06/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 302 2, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 290 3, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 286 4, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 266 5, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 241 6, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 239 7, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 213 8, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 209 9, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 205 10, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 178 11, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 162 12, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 137 13, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 131 14, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 115 15, Mike Brown, Honda, USA, 107 16, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 97 17, James Noble, KTM, GBR, 79 18, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, 77 19, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 55 20, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 47 24, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 31 Manufacturer Standings 06/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Yamaha, 355 2, Suzuki, 340 3, KTM, 319 4, Kawasaki, 315 5, Honda, 284 6, TM, 31 7, Aprilia, 5 ---------- RACE REPORT - 06/07/2008 Cairoli celebrates fourth win of 2008 Yamaha Red Bull De Carli's Antonio Cairoli kept his hand firmly in the game for the 2008 MX2-GP World Championship by enacting a skilful and impressive performance at a wet Uddevalla circuit for the Grand Prix of Sweden to take his fourth victory of the year. The Sicilian scored 2nd and 1st positions in the two motos of the ninth round of fifteen in the series and currently rests 2nd in the standings. The world champion gained his seventh Lovemytime qualification heat award on Saturday in hot and sunny conditions. The 25,000 spectators saw temperatures plummet and light rain soak the soft terrain of the circuit on Sunday. The track was slippery, technical and overtaking was difficult due to a pre-dominantly fast single racing line. Cairoli did not get the best of starts and had to chase title rivals Tyla Rattray and Tommy Searle in the first moto. Shaun Simpson was leading but was soon overtaken by the South African. Cairoli went for the same piece of track as Searle in a battle for third spot and the Briton crashed. The incident did not disrupt the YZ250F rider as he passed Simpson to finish runner-up to Rattray. With 22 points in the bag Cairoli knew a decent start was imperative for any chance of Scandinavian spoils and duly broke free with the same three protagonists for company. After yet more dicing with Searle the 2005 and 2007 champion unveiled a lightning series of laps, and also considerable guile, to demote Rattray and then Simpson. His seventh moto win ensured his fourth overall triumph, making the 22 year old the most successful rider so far this season. Cairoli's second consecutive Swedish victory means that he lies 14 points behind Rattray in the championship standings (his rival was second overall with Simpson third). Yamaha Ricci Racing's Nico Aubin looked a little more like the rider who won the 2007 Czech Grand Prix after a difficult time last week in Germany when he could not get on the pace. The Frenchman was luckless in Saturday qualification when he was felled by another rider and was forced into the Last Chance session, from which he posted the quickest lap-time and was 25th in the gate. The 20 year old performed decently to take 5th place in the opening moto but a poorer start for race two meant he had to pit for goggles and lost time and positions. 20th by the chequered flag he ended the day 11th overall. Team-mate Davide Guarneri also felt an improvement across the greasy Swedish mud even if - like Aubin - his results did not reflect as much. Still riding with a weak knee, the Italian was impressive in a dry and hot Saturday programme where he took third in the first heat. He rode to a creditable 10th in the first GP moto but suffered with fatigue in the second race and emerged from a heavy crash to take 17th for 13th position overall. 3C Racing's Italian MX2 Champion Manuel Monni obtained 12th spot with moto results of 11th and 16th. Cairoli's team-mate Matteo Bonini did not participate in the Grand Prix after a scan during the week revealed that the Italian had fractured a metacarpal in his left hand. He is expected to be out of action for three to four weeks. Round ten of fifteen will take place in two weeks time at the Nelspruit circuit for the Grand Prix of South Africa and the sole non-European event on the 2008 calendar. Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha Red Bull De Carli, 1st: "I am very happy with this race. My start was not good in the first moto and when I had to pass some riders the track was so slippery and I had to take care not to make a mistake, but second place was possible. The second moto was a strange race. The four of us were close for the lead but then Tommy tried to take my front wheel and I was a bit surprised about what he tried to do. I like to race with him and he is a really good rider and I think he can be better about what he does sometimes. This championship is very hard and a big challenge but it will be more rewarding if I can win it. I have a great feeling on the bike and I want to fight with all the KTM guys. I do not want to make any more mistakes and my goal is now to put Tyla under pressure and catch him." Nico Aubin, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 11th: "My place behind the gate meant that today was always going to be tough. I started well in the first moto and came quickly up to 6th. Searle went down and I was 5th but too far from the rest of the other riders. The race was still good for my confidence andespecially to come back from what happened in Germany. The second moto start was worse and by lap two I had to throw away the goggles as it was impossible to follow anyone and actually see. After some time I had to come in and get some more goggles. It was not a good GP for me but my speed is back and I feel happier than last week." Davide Guarneri, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 13th: "This was a little bit better than last week. I felt good and fast on Saturday and took third. My starts were not so good today and maybe this was to do with my concentration. I was well outside the top ten in the first moto but took tenth position and I was quite fast; at least better than I have been. In the second moto I found my way to twelfth but then started to feel quite tired after twenty minutes and had a little pain in the knee. In one corner I lost control and crashed quite heavily and could only take 17th after that. I finished the day on a low point but I feel there has been an improvement with my speed and now I plan to go to South Africa to see what I can do." Race 1 - 21 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 39'20.658 2, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 0'8.094 3, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 0'9.872 4, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'14.416 5, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 0'22.044 6, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 0'24.014 7, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 0'56.202 8, Matti Seistola, Honda, FIN, 1'0.788 9, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 1'6.988 10, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 1'11.844 11, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'12.287 12, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 1'19.940 13, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 1'21.990 14, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 1'27.184 15, Jason Dougan, Suzuki, GBR, 1'34.802 16, Filip Thuresson, Suzuki, SWE, 1'37.915 17, Yauheni Tyletski, Suzuki, BGR, 1'43.262 18, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 1'44.200 19, Jake Nicholls, Suzuki, GBR, 1'45.455 20, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 1'45.942 Race 2 - 21 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 39'11.405 2, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 0'2.757 3, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 0'3.980 4, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 0'7.080 5, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 0'40.019 6, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 0'40.785 7, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'48.751 8, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 0'57.949 9, Wyatt Avis, Honda, RSA, 0'59.507 10, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 1'3.677 11, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 1'7.621 12, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 1'21.783 13, Matti Seistola, Honda, FIN, 1'22.825 14, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 1'25.188 15, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 1'27.331 16, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'30.692 17, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 1'31.503 18, Evgeny Bobryshev, Yamaha, RUS, 1'41.615 19, Jason Dougan, Suzuki, GBR, 1'52.714 20, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 2'9.143 Rider Standings 06/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 371 2, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 357 3, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 348 4, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 251 5, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 227 6, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 205 7, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 182 8, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 172 9, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 170 10, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 160 11, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 151 12, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 146 13, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 146 14, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 127 15, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 114 16, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 99 17, Gautier Paulin, Kawasaki, FRA, 95 18, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 94 19, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 73 20, Wyatt Avis, Honda, RSA, 56 22, Evgeny Bobryshev, Yamaha, RUS, 42 26, Matteo Bonini, Yamaha, ITA, 25 28, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 19 48, Deny Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 2 Manufacturer Standings 06/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, KTM, 419 2, Yamaha, 413 3, Kawasaki, 280 4, Suzuki, 230 5, Honda, 167
Alex Asigno

Yamaha showcases creative talent at Donington

Yamaha Livery Design Competition winner Ben Leeves is in an enviable position this weekend at Donington as he becomes the first member of the public to see their design realised on a Yamaha Motor Italia YZF R1 Superbike. The design was revealed by Yamaha riders Noriyuki Haga and Troy Corser on stage at the WSB paddock show to an audience of race fans and sporting media, following an exciting Superpole session at the Donington circuit for round 11 of the World Superbike Championship. Ben’s design was amongst hundreds of creative entries submitted by race loving hopefuls across the UK. It was his design along with four others that stood out for a panel of judges that included riders Haga and Corser, representatives of Yamaha Racing and MCN. The five finalist designs were then published in MCN for readers to vote for their favourites. It was a close run thing, but Ben’s design, a clever monochrome depiction of the riders’ faces on a simple yet appealing red, black and white background, caught the imagination of the voting public. Ben’s design was rushed off in secret to Italy where it was recreated on the carbon fibre fairings to be ready in time for Donington. The design was also sent to Alpinestars who created a unique set of leathers for both Haga and Corser to wear on the bike. The five finalists, Ben Leeves, James Grey, John Holland, Stephen Budd and David Brisbourne were all invited as guests of Yamaha for the Donington weekend, completely unaware of which of them would ultimately witness their design fighting for the World Superbike Championship on the legendary GP circuit until 6.30pm this evening as the winning design was revealed. Ben Leeves – Yamaha Livery Design Competition winner  “I’m over the moon, it’s so surreal, I can’t believe my design is actually on the bike! Thank you so much Yamaha, this is such an amazing experience….it doesn’t feel real! I can’t wait to see the bikes racing on Sunday!” Leon Oosterhof ( Yamaha Racing Communications Manager)  “I’d like to thank all the fans in the UK for sending in their designs, we were very happy with the number of entries and with the variety of designs. Some of them really stood out and it’s been nice to meet the producers of the best 5 today. For Yamaha the creation of innovative, stunning bike designs is a big passion and it was great sharing it with our fans in this competition. Ben’s winning bike design looks great on our R1 and on the leathers, he’s done really well and we look forward to see Nori and Troy racing it tomorrow.” Following the race weekend, Yamaha will be auctioning one set of the unique leathers for charity, with all proceeds going to Riders For Health.The leathers will be auctioned on www.riders.org starting on Monday 8th of September and finishing on Friday the 26th. To be in with a chance of owning these unique and instantly collectable leathers, make sure you make a bid!
Alex Asigno

Coppins 7th through tough Belgian sand

The Yamaha Monster Motocross Team endured one of their hardest and most dramatic days of the 2008 FIM MX1-GP world championship as Josh Coppins finished 7th and David Philippaerts 10th through the notoriously heavy and difficult sand of the Lommel circuit for the Grand Prix of Belgium and the eleventh round of fifteen in the current campaign. Arguably one of the toughest tests for man and machine on the GP calendar, the rough and absorbing sand in central Belgium was suitably demanding, and the racing conditions were not helped by occasional light showers. 27,000 spectators saw two action-packed MX1 motos in which constant position changes took place thanks to varying race speed across the bumps and crashes and mistakes due to fatigue and miscalculation. It was not a good day for series leader David Philippaerts who took 15th and 6th and described the track as the hardest he has ridden. A racing incident with Ken de Dycker led to the Italian falling to the floor on the first lap and the YZ450FM also being clipped from his hands from a passing rider when he was trying to restart. Philippaerts regained ground to fifteenth place before another error ruined his work. Google-less, he made his way back to fifteenth and lost the red plate to Steve Ramon for the first time since round three in Portugal by just one point. In the second moto he fought with title rival Ramon - both riders falling in the latter stages as tiredness took hold - and crossed the finish line behind the Belgian, meaning that he trails the world champion by two points with four Grand Prix and eight motos remaining. The team's best placed rider was Coppins but the Kiwi was unsatisfied with his results of 5th and 8th. The 31 year old was sick entering the weekend and felt unprepared for the test ahead. He started around the top ten in the opening race and pulled through in strongly and typical style by the end. Like many riders he struggled in the second moto and lost any chance of a top five overall finish after colliding with Billy Mackenzie and falling. Yamaha Van Beers Aigar Leok took his sixth top ten finish of the season with 9th place in the second moto and was 11th overall. In the championship standings Yamaha still head the manufacturers table by 7 points. Philippaerts has a slender deficit to Ramon while Coppins is only 17 points away in 3rd. The Yamaha Monster Motocross Team will only have a few days to recover from their exertions in Belgium with the Grand Prix of Czech Republic at the Loket circuit, round twelve of fifteen, due to occur next weekend. Josh Coppins, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 7th: "I had Flu coming into the weekend and it was a bit frustrating knowing I was approaching the hardest race of the year not in the best shape. Overall it was a pretty average GP in terms of riding and fitness but in terms of the championship points it was not the end of the world. To try and be champion I have to be better than this. One is example is the move I tried to make on Billy in the second moto. I went for it but ended up taking him down. It was a bit silly and because I was so tired I miscalculated; so sorry to him. The first moto was OK and I came through a bit at the end but in the second I felt I could only go at ¾. I wasn't surprised by how much of a hard test this track would be. Normally my strength is one of my positive points but this GP I could not keep at my maximum. We go to Loket next and I am looking forward to a hard-pack start. Right now I just want to ride better and hopefully feel 100% going into the race." David Philippaerts, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 10th: "What a hard day. I crashed too much and this track was unbelievable. For me it was the hardest track of them all. In the first moto I changed my line in the corner and De Dycker came across and hit my front wheel. There was no time to react. I was so tired in the second that I could not save the bike when the front wheel started to go. I am second in the championship but it is more or less the same and there are four GPs to go. A lot of riders made mistakes today and when you go down in the sand it is hard to recover." Mino Raspanti, Racing Manager, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team: "We knew this weekend would be difficult! Josh was pretty good in the first moto except that his speed was so-so in the first moments of the race but his pace was like the leaders by the end. In the second he was around seventh and doing OK but then came together with Billy when he tried to overtake. He had been really ill during the week so honestly I am happy with what he did today; especially because he took some points away from first position in the championship. David was unlucky with the first moto crash and it was always going to be a very hard and difficult way back from that. We have seen him make some very good recoveries but this was a different scenario. 15th was not good for the championship but it was not a complete disaster with the amount of races we still have. Both Ramon and David exchanged mistakes in the second moto but the result insured that he is not far away at all even if the red plate is gone for the moment. It was a complicated weekend for the bikes as well and we did not have any problems, which was great, and the mechanics and the team worked really hard." Race 1 - 18 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 41'40.370 2, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 0'9.075 3, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'12.520 4, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'13.904 5, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 0'15.320 6, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 0'15.422 7, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'54.062 8, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 0'55.888 9, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 0'57.210 10, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 0'58.543 11, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 0'59.584 12, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 1'33.677 13, Patrick Roos, KTM, NED, 1'42.554 14, Cedric Melotte, Aprilia, BEL, 1'51.555 15, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 1'59.985 16, Danny Theybers, Suzuki, BEL, 2'17.298 17, William Saris, Yamaha, NED, 2'30.997 18, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, -1 Laps 19, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, -1 Laps 20, Bradley Anderson, Suzuki, GBR, -1 Laps Race 2 - 18 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 40'19.697 2, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 0'2.470 3, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'31.172 4, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'39.137 5, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'40.906 6, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 0'42.976 7, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 0'43.557 8, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 0'57.923 9, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 0'59.150 10, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 1'16.595 11, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 1'21.356 12, Bradley Anderson, Suzuki, GBR, 1'23.764 13, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 1'30.584 14, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 1'33.928 15, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'47.989 16, Patrick Roos, KTM, NED, 1'55.287 17, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 2'13.299 18, Danny Theybers, Suzuki, BEL, 2'16.552 19, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 2'19.833 20, Loic Leonce, Yamaha, FRA, -1 Laps Rider Standings 03/08/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 362 2, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 360 3, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 345 4, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 336 5, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 331 6, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 306 7, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 290 8, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 257 9, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 245 10, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 214 11, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 190 12, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 173 13, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 148 14, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 139 15, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 118 16, Mike Brown, Honda, USA, 107 17, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, 97 18, James Noble, KTM, GBR, 93 19, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 72 20, Steve Boniface, Honda, FRA, 63 21, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 42 Manufacturer Standings 03/08/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Yamaha, 426 2, Suzuki, 419 3, KTM, 411 4, Kawasaki, 382 5, Honda, 350 6, TM, 31 7, Aprilia, 12 ---------- RACE REPORT - 03/08/2008 Aubin 7th overall at Lommel but continues progress Nico Aubin now holds Yamaha's main hopes for places of honour upon the YZ250F in the MX2-GP World Championship after the unfortunate injury sustained by reigning number one Antonio Cairoli two weeks ago in South Africa, and the Frenchman responded to his new role with a good showing to 7th position overall and a second moto finish of 2nd place through the demanding sand of Lommel. The eleventh round of fifteen saw the Yamaha Ricci Racing rider tackle the punishing bumps and ruts of the deep sandy circuit for the Grand Prix of Belgium. Aubin fought hard in the first moto under changeable skies and occasional light rain and made a valiant attempt to steal 6th position on the final lap but his last-gasp effort did not pay off and he fell, losing ground to 12th. An excellent start and holeshot in the second sprint saw him lead briefly before settling into a decent and lonely second place behind surprise winner Gert Krestinov. Aubin finished as runner-up and was content with his speed. If his gamble in the opening race would have worked, then he would have claimed overall victory. Team-mate Davide Guarneri was pleased with 10th place in the final classification and handled the physically and technically difficult conditions well considering the weakness of his right knee that misses a ligament. The Italian scored 9th and 13th and is contemplating surgery on the joint after the Grand Prix of Czech Republic next week. An impressive Grand Prix debut was had by America's Zach Osborne. The 18 year old made his first world championship turn for the Utag Yamaha.com squad and could not have picked a harder venue for his baptism! Osborne acquitted himself well though and was holding a top ten position on the YZ250F in the first moto until a mechanical problem ended his participation. In the second race he resumed his speed and gave the team their best finish of the season with a decent 8th spot. World Champion Cairoli was in attendance at Lommel as the Sicilian has an apartment only a few kilometres from the circuit. Still on crutches the 22 year old visited the Grand Prix and was in good spirits, commenting that he hopes to start cycling in the next two weeks. The De Carli team were solely represented by Alessandro Lupino with Matteo Bonini still not recovered from his hand injury. The teenager grabbed two points for 19th place in Moto2. Although out of action Cairoli is still 3rd in the world championship standings and 45 points ahead of fourth position. Aubin is 6th and 5 points away from further promotion. Guarneri is 14th. Round twelve of fifteen (meaning the first of just eight motos remaining) will take place at the Loket circuit next weekend for the Grand Prix of Czech Republic. Nico Aubin, Yamaha Ricci Racing,7th: "I am quite happy with this week because I made two good starts and physically I felt good; so I am coming back to a level that I want step-by-step. The crash in the first moto means that I have to be a bit disappointed with this GP overall, because I rode well in the second race and the podium would have been possible. Still this is something good to build on." Davide Guarneri, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 10th: "This was a really hard track, sometimes it felt like Enduro! There was obviously an advantage for the Benelux riders here, and for me it was hard but then again not so bad; I finished both races and had a good ride in the first moto. I had to take it easy in the second moto because I am not 100% with my knee. Still this is one of my best results in the sand. I will hear from my doctor this week so Loket could be my last race as I want to have surgery and get a good winter of training done ready for 2009." Zach Osborne, Utag Yamaha.com, 14th: "I just did my best today. The track was almost indescribable as to how deep, rough and hard it is to ride on. I have never experienced anything like that or fought so hard for a race position. I wanted to put in a good finish for the team because they have been working so hard to get things right for me and I wanted to give them something back for it. I did not know what to expect here but people tell me that the circuit in Loket should be a bit more regular. The set-up is so professional at the world championship and everyone wants such a good image for the sport. I think this is definitely the premier motocross racing series in the world." Race 1 - 18 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 41'33.589 2, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 0'21.537 3, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 0'34.953 4, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 0'35.986 5, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 0'41.914 6, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 0'46.263 7, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 1'20.468 8, Gert Krestinov, KTM, EST, 1'23.275 9, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 1'50.064 10, Matti Seistola, Honda, FIN, 1'58.396 11, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 2'0.154 12, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 2'6.038 13, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 2'19.383 14, Francisco Jose Millan, KTM, ESP, 2'22.476 15, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, -1 Laps 16, Herjan Brakke, Honda, NED, -1 Laps 17, Jason Dougan, Suzuki, GBR, -1 Laps 18, Jordi Dominguez, Honda, NED, -1 Laps 19, Jake Nicholls, Suzuki, GBR, -1 Laps 20, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, -1 Laps Race 2 - 18 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Gert Krestinov, KTM, EST, 40'41.049 2, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 0'25.053 3, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 0'26.226 4, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 0'27.149 5, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 0'45.602 6, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 0'52.680 7, Matti Seistola, Honda, FIN, 0'55.224 8, Zach Osborne, Yamaha, USA, 1'3.425 9, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 1'6.393 10, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 1'16.197 11, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 1'23.800 12, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 1'36.446 13, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 1'38.574 14, Dennis Verbruggen, Yamaha, BEL, 1'40.468 15, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 1'41.873 16, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'1.046 17, Rob van Vijfeijken, Yamaha, NED, 2'1.451 18, Jake Nicholls, Suzuki, GBR, 2'13.075 19, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, -1 Laps 20, Herjan Brakke, Honda, NED, -1 Laps Rider Standings 03/08/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 452 2, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 432 3, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 357 4, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 312 5, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 279 6, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 274 7, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 232 8, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 224 9, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 215 10, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 203 11, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 178 12, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 174 13, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 173 14, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 153 15, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 140 16, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 133 17, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 101 18, Gautier Paulin, Kawasaki, FRA, 95 19, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 73 20, Gert Krestinov, KTM, EST, 73 24, Evgeny Bobryshev, Yamaha, RUS, 42 27, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 32 28, Matteo Bonini, Yamaha, ITA, 25 43, Deny Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 7 Manufacturer Standings 03/08/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, KTM, 519 2, Yamaha, 485 3, Kawasaki, 335 4, Suzuki, 275 5, Honda, 219
Alex Asigno

Corser goes third after dramatic Brno races

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) moved from fourth to third in the championship standings after securing a second and a fourth place finish at Brno, as his team-mate Noriyuki Haga rode with all his spirit and skill to take sixth in race one and salvage a seventh from a pitlane start in race two. Corser was on top form once more on raceday and in the 500th World Superbike race, the 13 points he took for his race two fourth place put him into overall third place in the championship, 12 points behind Max Neukirchner and 91 behind today's double race winner, Troy Bayliss. Each race saw Corser lead and fight for the podiums, for Haga Brno was a hard fought battle with two brilliant displays of riding to overcome firstly a third row grid position, and then a start from the pitlane. In the first 20-lap race Corser contested the win until the final few laps, when eventual winner Troy Bayliss had taken a lead Corser could not make up, and he had to settle for second. Haga kept his championship points score on the move with a sixth place finish, moving through the field from 12th grid position. In race two Corser's rear tyre spun on the wheel rim, and that caused an out-of-balance vibration that stopped him from taking his second podium of the day and a chance of his first race victory for Yamaha. Haga had a problem with his machine on the sighting lap and had to start the second race from pitlane, slicing through the pack to secure a top seven finish. Haga remains fifth in the championship standings, with a total of 210 points to Bayliss' 309. The battle for second place right now features four riders all separated by only 20 points. Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) was a superb 12th in race one at what is his favourite track, but neither David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) nor Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) finished the race, with Gimbert taken to the medical centre for checks. In race two Nakatomi was 15th, Checa was 16th and Gimbert, who was declared fit to ride again, was a retiree in pitlane. Troy Corser (2nd and 4th - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "In race one I was reasonably happy and the bike was working well for the first half of the race. The rear tyre just dropped off a little bit and we lost a few tenths after that. When Troy came past I tried to go with him but he had a bit more grip coming off the corners. But other than that we were pretty even. I pushed as hard as I could to stay with him but was careful not to throw away second. In race two we had a problem from about lap four or five. As has happened in the past we have spun the tyre on the rim and there was a vibration through the bike in every part of the track. From then on it was a case of just holding on to see where we ended up. I kept looking back to see who was behind and just kept pushing as much as I could. If the tyre had not have spun on the rim then we would have been up the front. It's just disappointing because I was feeling good and the bike was good. We moved up to third today, which is a positive thing, but it could have been much better." Noriyuki Haga (6th and 7th - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "In race one my qualifying position did not help me, but I caught up to pass Neukirchner at the end and got some points. I'm not sure what was the problem with the bike in race two but the engine was not working right and I had to swap my bike. We swapped some settings from race one to race two on that spare bike and it worked quite well. I enjoyed the race because I had to make many passes, which was very exciting. I hope from this point on we can work in a good direction until the end of the year and improve our championship position." Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "Troy rode very well today and took a podium finish that puts him third in the championship. So it is good news that he has moved up the rankings even if he had a problems in race two. There is nothing obviously wrong with Nori's bike in race two, we will find out in the workshop, and he rode really well from a start in pitlane, passing many riders because his race pace was very good. With a normal start he would be in front." Shinichi Nakatomi (12th and 15th - Team YZF Yamaha) "For me today race one was best. I like Brno very much to ride on and enjoyed the race very much. I found the second race to be harder but still enjoyed it and was happy with my result." Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 40'22.724 2, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 0'1.468 3, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 0'3.272 4, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 0'3.475 5, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 0'3.791 6, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 0'9.120 7, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 0'9.358 8, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 0'11.787 9, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 0'17.228 10, Kenan Sofuoglu, Honda, TUR, 0'17.705 11, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 0'22.347 12, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 0'25.563 13, Niccolo Canepa, Ducati, ITA, 0'25.699 14, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 0'34.064 15, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 0'36.545 16, Makoto Tamada, Kawasaki, JPN, 0'43.934 17, Ayrton Badovini, Kawasaki, ITA, 0'44.349 18, Shuhei Aoyama, Honda, JPN, 0'50.092 19, Jason Pridmore, Honda, USA, 0'58.827 20, Jiri Drasdak, Honda, CZE, 0'59.928 21, Christian Zaiser, Yamaha, AUT, 1'21.587 Race 2 - 20 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 40'16.436 2, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 0'0.928 3, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 0'1.259 4, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 0'1.785 5, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 0'3.942 6, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 0'7.910 7, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 0'11.297 8, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 0'11.375 9, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 0'13.103 10, Kenan Sofuoglu, Honda, TUR, 0'18.978 11, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 0'19.106 12, Roberto Rolfo, Honda, ITA, 0'20.556 13, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 0'21.775 14, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 0'26.372 15, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 0'26.922 16, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 0'27.109 17, Makoto Tamada, Kawasaki, JPN, 0'39.711 18, Shuhei Aoyama, Honda, JPN, 0'39.953 19, Jason Pridmore, Honda, USA, 0'56.812 20, Christian Zaiser, Yamaha, AUT, 1'44.073 21, Milos Cihak, Suzuki, CZE, 1'46.620 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 2'0.298 Rider Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 309 2, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 230 3, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 218 4, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 215 5, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 210 6, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 161 7, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 148 8, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 147 9, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 146 10, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 115 11, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 96 12, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 83 13, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 78 14, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 77 15, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 64 19, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 29 23, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 7 24, Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, FRA, 7 Manufacturer Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Ducati, 373 2, Yamaha, 317 3, Suzuki, 277 4, Honda, 247 5, Kawasaki, 64 ---------- RACE REPORT - 20/07/2008 Parkes fourth in tight Brno race Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) fought hard for a podium finish at Brno but had to settle for a fourth place, and third in the championship standings overall. Parkes did not get his customary strong start from pole position, dropping back to 7th in the pack at the start of the race. He then had to expend energy in the early laps making up places to make sure he was in contention near the end. Parkes was unable to jump out of corners with the same sharpness that had helped him to his fifth pole position in a row after qualifying on Saturday, and was unable to attack in the final few laps. The race was won by Jonathan Rea, from Andrew Pitt and Josh Brookes. In the championship standings Broc is now third, on 100 points with Pitt on 133, Brookes 101 and Broc's injured team-mate, Fabien Foret, on 97. Parkes' team-mate Fabien Foret remains in Hospital under observation following a crash on Friday which left him with cracks in his C6 and C7 vertebrae. He is due to be released shortly but will be out of action for up to three months.The Yamaha World Supersport Team are currently considering alternative riders whilst Foret is recovering. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) got into the top ten after a disappointing qualifying session yesterday and now sits inside the top ten in the championship standings, ninth on 40 points. David Salom (Yamaha Spain World Supersport Team) held on for the race to score the final point on offer for 15th position. Broc Parkes (4th - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I'm not too happy really. I felt I couldn't battle with other riders today, in the exits of the corners the other riders pulled a bit on me. My start wasn't too good either but I was with the front guys anyway after a few laps. When I got back right to the front group I couldn't fight for the win. I was hoping for a podium on the last lap but I was on the limit, so I was done." Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team) "We had some problems with the rear tyre during the warm-up, but we solved those and we decided to stay with the gearing we had because it helped the tyre wear. But after the race it is always easy to say we should have done something different. The pace was OK but on braking Broc could not pass. It was our plan to follow the top group anyway but then you have to be able to pass at the end of the race." Massimo Roccoli (10th - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) "Today it was a very good race because the bike was very fast, the settings were OK the grip was good. For me qualifying was terrible and I am sorry for the team because they had to work really hard over these three days. Next Sunday in Misano there will be some Italian championship races, and that will let me prepare my mind for Brands Hatch." Race 1 - 18 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 37'35.093 2, Andrew Pitt, Honda, AUS, 0'0.020 3, Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 0'1.433 4, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 0'1.853 5, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 0'2.237 6, Gianluca Nannelli, Honda, ITA, 0'12.032 7, Russell Holland, Honda, AUS, 0'12.221 8, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 0'12.787 9, Vesa Kallio, Honda, FIN, 0'15.334 10, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 0'15.780 11, Chris Walker, Kawasaki, GBR, 0'23.645 12, Gianluca Vizziello, Honda, ITA, 0'23.758 13, Ivan Clementi, Triumph, ITA, 0'24.074 14, Didier Van Keymeulen, Suzuki, BEL, 0'24.621 15, David Salom, Yamaha, ESP, 0'26.866 16, Katsuaki Fujiwara, Kawasaki, JPN, 0'26.891 17, Danilo Dell'omo, Honda, ITA, 0'29.566 18, Joan Lascorz, Honda, ESP, 0'34.218 19, Balazs Nemeth, Honda, HUN, 0'44.347 20, Denis Sacchetti, Honda, ITA, 0'44.650 21, Javier Hidalgo, Yamaha, ESP, 0'51.768 22, Mark Aitchinson, Triumph, AUS, 0'54.336 23, Lorenzo Alfonsi, Honda, ITA, 0'54.351 24, Ruggero Scambia, Triumph, ITA, 1'28.911 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Andrew Pitt, Honda, AUS, 2'4.062 Rider Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Andrew Pitt, Honda, AUS, 133 2, Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 101 3, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 100 4, Fabien Foret, Yamaha, FRA, 97 5, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 92 6, Joan Lascorz, Honda, ESP, 81 7, Craig Jones, Honda, GBR, 80 8, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 50 9, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 40 10, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 38 11, Gianluca Vizziello, Honda, ITA, 37 12, Chris Walker, Kawasaki, GBR, 36 13, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 36 14, Gianluca Nannelli, Honda, ITA, 33 15, Ivan Clementi, Triumph, ITA, 21 23, David Salom, Yamaha, ESP, 9 Manufacturer Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Honda, 190 2, Yamaha, 138 3, Triumph, 51 4, Suzuki, 47 5, Kawasaki, 40 ---------- RACE REPORT - 20/07/2008 Pirro sixth after Brno Superstock battle Michele Pirro (Yamaha Lorenzini by Leoni) was the top scoring Yamaha rider in the 12-lap Superstock 1000 Cup event, as he took sixth in a lonely race after a bright start. Pirro is now fifth in the championship table on 73 points, 23 points from new leader Brendan Roberts. Brno race winner Maxime Berger was away and clear after Xavier Simeon enjoyed an early lead, with Roberts an eventual second, from Alessandro Polita. Claudio Corti (Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team) ran off track at high speed and skillfully remained on his machine to bring it to a safe halt , but found damage to his bike that stopped him continuing. He scored no points, and is now 12th overall, on 25 points. Michelle Pirro (6th - Yamaha Motor Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) "3rd 4th laps were ok but eventually the tyres began to go and it was impossible to turn properly in the corners and get on the power at the same time" Claudio Corti (12th - Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team) "we were ok for the set up and ready to battle for the victory. The podium was possible today. Unfortunately the engine lost a screw and leaked oil causing me to go off. " Baz still leads after Brno podium finish Loris Baz was close to another win in the European Superstock 600 race at Brno, but a loss of front tyre grip in the last lap stopped him from being able to mount a successful last corner challenge on winner Patrick Vostarek. Baz is still in the overall championship lead, on 117 points to Vostarek's 110. More good news came in a race where Five Yamaha machines filled the top six places, as Gino Rea held of his team-mate Dan Linfoot to secure a podium finish in third. Such was the pace of the front two that Rea was 16 seconds down on Baz at the end of only nine laps, and the lap record was beaten by two and a half seconds. Loris Baz (12th - Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team) "I tried my best to win but in the last couple of laps the front end was tucking under and I had a few slides, so I could not push any more to pass Vostarek. Our bike was good up the hill and it was a close race. We still have the lead in the series, which is the most important thing." Race 1 - 12 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Maxime Berger, Honda, FRA, 24'58.402 2, Brendan Roberts, Ducati, AUS, 0'3.043 3, Alessandro Polita, Ducati, ITA, 0'3.100 4, Andrea Antonelli, Honda, ITA, 0'3.367 5, Xavier Simeon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'5.709 6, Michele Pirro, Yamaha, ITA, 0'10.032 7, Chris Seaton, Suzuki, AUS, 0'13.380 8, Matej Smrz, Honda, CZE, 0'19.510 9, Davide Giugliano, Suzuki, ITA, 0'19.724 10, Michele Magnoni, Yamaha, ITA, 0'20.249 11, Gareth Jones, Suzuki, AUS, 0'20.796 12, Domenico Colucci, Ducati, ITA, 0'20.959 13, Matteo Baiocco, Kawasaki, ITA, 0'21.042 14, Raymond Schouten, Yamaha, NED, 0'21.432 15, Barry Burrell, Honda, GBR, 0'21.609 16, Kenny Foray, Yamaha, FRA, 0'28.875 17, Michael Savary, Suzuki, CHE, 0'28.942 18, Matt Bond, Suzuki, GBR, 0'29.741 19, Rene Mahr, Yamaha, GER, 0'30.015 20, Freddy Foray, Yamaha, FRA, 0'36.569 21, Roy Ten Napel, Suzuki, NED, 0'36.724 22, Pauli Pekkanen, KTM, FIN, 0'38.541 23, Danny De Boer, Suzuki, NED, 0'40.985 24, Filip Backlund, Suzuki, SWE, 0'46.343 25, Jure Stibilj, Honda, SVN, 0'48.163 26, Gregory Junod, Yamaha, CHE, 0'48.667 27, Marko Jerman, Yamaha, SVK, 0'53.103 28, Aldo Aldrovandi, Kawasaki, ITA, 0'54.618 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Maxime Berger, Honda, FRA, 2'3.676 Rider Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Brendan Roberts, Ducati, AUS, 96 2, Xavier Simeon, Suzuki, BEL, 95 3, Maxime Berger, Honda, FRA, 84 4, Alessandro Polita, Ducati, ITA, 83 5, Michele Pirro, Yamaha, ITA, 73 6, Davide Giugliano, Suzuki, ITA, 55 7, Matej Smrz, Honda, CZE, 48 8, Andrea Antonelli, Honda, ITA, 41 9, Michele Magnoni, Yamaha, ITA, 30 10, Chris Seaton, Suzuki, AUS, 29 11, Freddy Foray, Yamaha, FRA, 29 12, Claudio Corti, Yamaha, ITA, 25 13, Kenny Foray, Yamaha, FRA, 24 14, Domenico Colucci, Ducati, ITA, 18 15, Gareth Jones, Suzuki, AUS, 16 25, Sylvain Barrier, Yamaha, FRA, 4 Manufacturer Standings 20/07/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Ducati, 124 2, Honda, 106 3, Suzuki, 103 4, Yamaha, 85 5, Kawasaki, 20
Alex Asigno

Fantastic Coppins win sees Yamaha 1-2 in MX1-GP series

Yamaha Monster Motocross Team's Josh Coppins emphatically aced his first victory of the 2008 MX1-GP World Championship with a double moto sweep at a sun-drenched and packed Talkessel circuit in Teutschenthal for the Grand Prix of Germany. The eighth round of fifteen in the series saw the Kiwi take his first spoils since Bulgaria 2007 and his first double since Mantova 14 months ago; rising to second position in the standings as a consequence. David Philippaerts was fourth and keeps the championship lead, meaning both YZ450FM riders are now 'one and two' and Yamaha head the manufacturer's table by 19 points. The old Talkessel layout provided its usual mix of elevation changes and cambered turns. The majority of the soil of the fast course had been ripped and prepared and grew rougher in places but the grey hard-pack dirt remained slippery and stony in others. 34,000 spectators enjoyed some excellent weather. Philippaerts and Coppins were both on the pace throughout practice. The championship leader even posting the quickest time in the second Free session. For Timed Practice the two YZ450FMs were constantly among the leading group with Coppins eventually sealing fourth place and Philippaerts in seventh, just over half a second away from the pole position time. Coppins started well in both motos and ran in the top three in the formative stages both times. The 31 year old pursued Billy Mackenzie as the Scot broke free twice but the leader tired with after recently recovering from a shoulder injury. Coppins, who finished as runner-up at the previous round in France, bided his time to seize control in Moto1 and Moto2 and comfortably maintained his advantage once ahead. Local favourite Max Nagl was close to within two seconds in the second sprint but the former world championship runner-up was peerless; a new exhaust pipe proving a useful assistance on the speedy curves. Philippaerts had a complicated set of races. The first moto saw an average start that meant he had to work hard to overtake riders in the bottom half of the top ten. Thanks to the mistakes of several others and his improving lap-times he arrived to third place and was pressurising Steve Ramon for second in the last two circulations. A slow start once again in Moto2 was a small handicap but the Italian also had another problem in that a damaged rib from his fall in France two weeks ago worsened and left him struggling for breath. Sixth position meant that he just missed the top three but scaled the podium for the sixth time this season to collect his red-plate. A crash and 18th place finish by Steve Ramon was also positive for the title chase. Yamaha Van Beers' Aigar Leok scored his best result of the year with 7th position overall courtesy of 9th and 8th slots in the races. UTag Yamaha.com's Kenneth Gundersen has begun cycling and light training after recovering from an operation on the knee injury sustained in practice for the opening round in April. The Norwegian could possibly return to action before the end of the season. With Philippaerts leading the championship by 4 points from Coppins, and Ramon 16 points behind in third, the series now moves to Uddevalla for the Grand Prix of Sweden and round nine next week. Josh Coppins, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 1st: "There is a lot of emotion for me with this win and I am very happy today. I would like to thank all the people who have supported me. The results were not what we all expected and there have been some hard times. We knuckled down to work and I knew the results would come; I promised them to the team in fact. My last double was at Mantova in 2007 but to be honest even my last victory feels like a long time ago. It is nice to get that feeling back again and it makes the training tomorrow a lot easier. The championship now looks a lot different. I think only two races ago I was 54 points behind. The important step I made was in my training and approach; working closely with my mechanic, doing the right training at the right tracks.About today, they watered the track a lot and it was really slippery, even dangerous in fact. Billy Mackenzie went into the lead but I knew he did not have the condition after his injury to run that pace the whole time. Sebastien was there also but I thought I could deal with him. My main concern was Max, because he had not done the first moto and it was pretty hot out there; the crowd were obviously with him also. I was thinking about my own race and things went well. We had a new pipe this weekend with a bit more power, which I was happy about." David Philippaerts, Yamaha Monster Motocross Team, 4th: "The track was difficult, certainly for passing, and it was also very hot so I am quite pleased with the result. I started the first moto too slowly but got a lot better and was riding well. I pushed hard to get Ramon but it was too tricky to overtake. I had a similar start in the second moto but after two or three laps I had a lot of pain in my rib. I think it might be a fracture or something from the crash in France. I had some discomfort before this GP but I think I made it worse in the race and need to see if I can get some treatment. Pourcel was a little too fast and I settled for the points because I knew I could not increase my speed. Josh is now up to second in the championship and feeling 100%. He will be very competitive now but we still have a lot of races and points to go. It is great for Yamaha and the team that we are both up there. I really like the bike and for sure it is one of the best out there because it is so easy to ride it fast. Yamaha have helped me so much and I feel very happy where I am right now." Mino Raspanti, Racing Manager: "A great win for Josh this weekend and of course to be first and second in the championship is fantastic for the team, we don't mind which order for either Josh or David but we are happy to be there! Josh continued his improvement from France and I am really happy for him because he has continued to work really hard. David struggled in the beginning to pass other riders because it was not easy but then he made the best lap-time and to finish third was very good. In the second moto he had another start that was not the best and he felt a little tired and had some pain in his rib. The result was not bad and he still leads the championship. We tried a new pipe this weekend to give more power and the response from the riders was positive." Race 1 - 18 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 39'32.337 2, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 0'3.070 3, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 0'6.896 4, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'11.101 5, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 0'14.773 6, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 0'25.707 7, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'41.215 8, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 0'43.714 9, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 0'47.859 10, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 0'53.196 11, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 0'55.972 12, Alex Salvini, Suzuki, ITA, 0'59.697 13, Luis Correira, Yamaha, POR, 1'1.435 14, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 1'10.148 15, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 1'11.334 16, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 1'18.406 17, Cedric Melotte, Aprilia, BEL, 1'22.257 18, Bradley Anderson, Suzuki, GBR, 1'24.362 19, Loic Leonce, Yamaha, FRA, 1'38.600 20, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'52.977 Race 2 - 18 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 40'27.188 2, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 0'7.806 3, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 0'10.916 4, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 0'18.247 5, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'28.423 6, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 0'31.971 7, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 0'37.039 8, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 0'44.990 9, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 0'51.781 10, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 1'1.592 11, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 1'10.237 12, Alex Salvini, Suzuki, ITA, 1'16.744 13, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 1'21.679 14, Bradley Anderson, Suzuki, GBR, 1'26.075 15, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, 1'35.770 16, Scott Columb, Suzuki, NZL, 1'39.564 17, Lauris Freibergs, Yamaha, LVA, 1'42.011 18, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 1'46.550 19, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 1'56.662 20, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 1'59.599 Rider Standings 29/06/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, David Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 266 2, Joshua Coppins, Yamaha, NZL, 262 3, Steve Ramon, Suzuki, BEL, 250 4, Ken De Dycker, Suzuki, BEL, 240 5, Sébastien Pourcel, Kawasaki, FRA, 231 6, Jonathan Barragan, KTM, ESP, 192 7, Tanel Leok, Kawasaki, EST, 186 8, Maximilian Nagl, KTM, GER, 179 9, Billy MacKenzie, Honda, GBR, 176 10, Marc De Reuver, Honda, NED, 156 11, Clement Desalle, Suzuki, BEL, 134 12, Manuel Priem, Kawasaki, BEL, 129 13, Mike Brown, Honda, USA, 107 14, Julien Bill, Honda, CHE, 106 15, Kornel Nemeth, KTM, HUN, 106 16, Aigar Leok, Yamaha, EST, 85 17, Marcus Schiffer, KTM, GER, 77 18, James Noble, KTM, GBR, 65 19, Tom Church, Kawasaki, GBR, 43 20, Alex Salvini, Suzuki, ITA, 37 23, Carlos Campano, Yamaha, ESP, 30 Manufacturer Standings 29/06/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Yamaha, 319 2, Suzuki, 300 3, Kawasaki, 292 4, KTM, 269 5, Honda, 247 6, TM, 31 7, Aprilia, 5 ---------- RACE REPORT - 29/06/2008 Cairoli runner-up at German Grand Prix With a moto victory and second position in front of 34,000 spectators and under hot sunshine at Teutschenthal, Antonio Cairoli took the same points as the winner of the MX2-GP Grand Prix of Germany but walked away from round eight of fifteen in the world championship as runner-up due to the second moto ranking. The fast and hard Talkessel circuit benefitted from bright conditions and warm temperatures as the biggest crowd for more than ten years at the venue close to the city of Halle filled the grassy banks. Cairoli earned his sixth pole position of the season on Saturday after chasing and then easing past Rui Goncalves for victory in the first qualification heat. The Red Bull De Carli rider looked back to his dominant best in the first GP moto as he hunted down early leader Goncalves and proceeded to establish a comfortable distance over Tyla Rattray; it was his sixth chequered flag of the year. The Sicilian entered the gate for the second outing hoping to repeat his double moto victory of 2007 but a mediocre start and some curious lethargy in the first three laps meant that Rattray had long-gone at the front of the field by the time the 22 year old arrived to second place. The South African clinched his second success of 2008 while Cairoli gained some precious points on his other title rival Tommy Searle who finished fifth overall. Still third in the championship standings the world champion is now just 16 points from Rattray at the peak of the table and 5 behind Searle. One week after winning the Italian MX2 Championship Manuel Monni posted good results of 8th and 10th to finish 9th overall and was the second best YZ250F pilot on the day. Yamaha Van Beers' Evgeny Bobryshev was 15th overall, and with 11 points registered his second highest haul of the season so far. Yamaha Ricci Racing's Nico Aubin had a forgettable weekend. The Frenchman had to qualify through the Last Chance session on Saturday after two crashes in the Heat race. Down in 26th position he could not find a good rhythm across the dry and hard German mud and was only able to score points in one moto, finishing 20th overall. He has now slipped to sixth in the championship and is 21 points from his former standing of fourth. Team-mate Davide Guarneri made his Grand Prix comeback after falling and injuring his right knee in practice for the Italian Grand Prix in May. The winner of the Spanish round was lacking confidence on the turns and took only two points in the first moto. Matteo Bonini tried to compete after coming through qualification yesterday but had too much pain in the left hand he injured in France. Although an x-ray confirmed that there was no break, the Italian could not properly hold the bike and pulled out of the first moto. He will now go for a scan to check for possible ligament damage. Round ten takes place next weekend at the Uddevalla circuit for the Grand Prix of Sweden. Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha Red Bull De Carli, 2nd: "After three or four laps in the first moto I got the lead and found a good rhythm. I made a gap over Tyla and the rest was quite easy. In the second moto my start was not the best and after a mistake on the first lap and taking too long to pass Shaun and Steven I had lost too much time to Tyla; he was uncatchable. Tommy is a very fast rider and a good one but Tyla has more experience and I think he is the bigger threat for the title; he makes less mistakes. I lost a lot of points in France so it was important to take a good result here. It will be hard to get the red-plate back because the three of us are so close each week but we still have plenty of races to go." Nico Aubin, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 20th: "Today is a real low point for me. I lost fourth place in the championship and a lot of ground. I wish I could explain why. The weekend began badly with two stupid mistakes in the qualifying heat and I was then right on the outside of the gate. I tried as hard as I could to find a good level of speed but it would not come. It has been a terrible GP and I hope I can ride better in Sweden." Davide Guarneri, Yamaha Ricci Racing, 22nd: "I knew it would be hard this weekend. I crashed in the qualification heat which made things even more difficult. To be honest I struggled in the right-hand corners because I don't have the confidence with my knee, even if I have been building up the muscles around the joint. I want to try again in Sweden and then make a decision about the rest of the season. If I can do well with my condition then I will continue, if not then maybe surgery is the best option." Race 1 - 19 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 41'35.030 2, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 0'6.618 3, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 0'28.061 4, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'32.506 5, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 0'40.131 6, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 0'42.339 7, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 0'51.463 8, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 0'59.353 9, Wyatt Avis, Honda, RSA, 1'7.135 10, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 1'8.823 11, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 1'9.320 12, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 1'16.561 13, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 1'19.762 14, Pascal Leuret, Suzuki, FRA, 1'22.335 15, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 1'26.042 16, Evgeny Bobryshev, Yamaha, RUS, 1'31.146 17, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 1'33.854 18, Dennis Verbruggen, Yamaha, BEL, 1'39.830 19, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 1'41.996 20, Nikolaj Larsen, Suzuki, DNK, 1'42.724 Race 2 - 19 Laps Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 40'17.024 2, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 0'16.362 3, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 0'21.554 4, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'26.046 5, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 0'31.408 6, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 0'32.562 7, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 0'41.856 8, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 0'46.653 9, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 0'55.759 10, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 0'58.704 11, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 1'0.063 12, Matti Seistola, Honda, FIN, 1'7.513 13, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 1'10.506 14, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 1'11.585 15, Evgeny Bobryshev, Yamaha, RUS, 1'13.246 16, Dennis Verbruggen, Yamaha, BEL, 1'15.379 17, Pascal Leuret, Suzuki, FRA, 1'20.441 18, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 1'30.940 19, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 1'35.960 20, Cedric Soubeyras, Yamaha, FRA, 1'46.760 Rider Standings 29/06/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Tyla Rattray, KTM, RSA, 326 2, Tommy Searle, KTM, GBR, 315 3, Antonio Cairoli, Yamaha, ITA, 310 4, Shaun Simpson, KTM, GBR, 209 5, Rui Goncalves, KTM, POR, 198 6, Nicolas Aubin, Yamaha, FRA, 188 7, Xavier Boog, Suzuki, FRA, 173 8, Manuel Monni, Yamaha, ITA, 157 9, Stephen Sword, Kawasaki, GBR, 151 10, Jeremy Van Horebeek, KTM, BEL, 148 11, Anthony Boissière, KTM, FRA, 134 12, Steven Frossard, Kawasaki, FRA, 128 13, Marvin Musquin, Honda, FRA, 126 14, Jeremy Tarroux, KTM, FRA, 103 15, Davide Guarneri, Yamaha, ITA, 99 16, Gautier Paulin, Kawasaki, FRA, 95 17, Joel Roelants, KTM, BEL, 93 18, Gregory Aranda, Kawasaki, FRA, 83 19, Carl Nunn, Suzuki, GBR, 65 20, Erik Eggens, Suzuki, NED, 51 22, Evgeny Bobryshev, Yamaha, RUS, 39 25, Matteo Bonini, Yamaha, ITA, 25 27, Alessandro Lupino, Yamaha, ITA, 19 44, Deny Philippaerts, Yamaha, ITA, 2 Manufacturer Standings 29/06/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, KTM, 372 2, Yamaha, 366 3, Kawasaki, 248 4, Suzuki, 214 5, Honda, 141
Alex Asigno

Haga takes another double win as Yamaha dominate the podium in Vallelunga

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) had an outstanding raceday at Vallelunga, scoring a double win and promoting himself to third in the championship after two 24-lap races of full drama. Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) also had a successful raceday, taking two podium finishes in third, and making up ground on long time points leader Troy Bayliss. The Ducati rider fell in race two, without injury, and in doing so scored no points, despite restarting. Corser now has 290 points to Bayliss's 369, with Haga equal on points with Max Neukirchner, on 280. The overall result of the Vallelunga weekend is that each Yamaha rider is still capable of winning the championship, with four races and 100 points left. In the first 24-lap race Haga and Corser were ever-present in the fight for podium places, with long time race leader Haga taking the reward of victory, by 0.129 seconds from Max Biaggi. Corser looked capable of winning himself as he finally made up all the ground he lost in the mid section of the race in the last few laps, but was unable to get close enough to Biaggi to secure second. Race two was a classic three-way fight in the early laps, with Haga, Corser and Bayliss close together. Later in the race Haga and Bayliss swapped the lead repeatedly, but on the final lap Bayliss crashed and Haga went on to win by 1.5 seconds, from Michel Fabrizio, and Corser, who was another second behind. Haga continued to use the new Ohlins electronic rear shock for both Vallelunga races, the system worked well for the Yamaha rider, an improvement on the standard shock. Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) had his best result of the year with an eighth place finish, followed by tenth. David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) went 17th in race one and ran off on race two, finishing 20th. His team-mate Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha GMT94) retired in race one but scored two points for 14th in race two. Noriyuki Haga (1st and 1st - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)  "I could hear Biaggi's bike all the way but my bike was working very well and I am very happy with the result. In race two I had a very big fight with Troy Bayliss, and I am sorry for his crash. But I enjoyed our battle while it lasted. It was a great day today for our team and thanks to all the team and the fans for the reception. For sure we will be pushing hard at the next round, as we did at this one." Troy Corser (3rd and 3rd - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)  "In race one I got a good start, pushed hard and the tyres were working well, so I felt comfortable. Then I had a bit of a moment when I lost a place to Checa. I went for second gear but hit a neutral and that lost me some time. I was lucky to stay on and I lost a lot of ground to the leaders. I got past Checa again and caught them but I could not get past the leaders. In race two we changed the bike a bit but I lost some time through the Esses. It was a shame for Troy crashing but it kept the championship alive for us." Massimo Meregalli (Team Manager, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team)  "Another great raceday after a strong weekend for our team, which shows how well we work. Noriyuki had another magic weekend and took full points. Troy rode well and two podiums is a good result. Our riders are second and third in the championship and it is not over yet. I am sorry for Troy Bayliss because he is a fantastic racer, and does not want to give up, but the championship is not closed yet." Shinichi Nakatomi (10th and 8th - Team YZF Yamaha)  ""Yesterday, we had problems with the settings. This morning, the feeling was better. We made more changes in the right direction. The first race was good. In the second race, I lost a lot of time in the beginning because of Biaggi's early crash. Then I progressed forward. On the average, it's not so bad. The test we did in July at Vallelunga was useful. I hope to have a good result at the next race in Magny-Cours because this is my French team's home track." Race 1  Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 39'25.030 2, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 0'0.129 3, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 0'0.535 4, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 0'5.188 5, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 0'6.693 6, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 0'7.993 7, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 0'16.976 8, Roberto Rolfo, Honda, ITA, 0'18.359 9, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 0'19.214 10, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 0'19.386 11, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 0'21.230 12, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 0'24.956 13, Matej Smrz, Honda, CZE, 0'25.186 14, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 0'31.799 15, Ayrton Badovini, Kawasaki, ITA, 0'33.949 16, Regis Laconi, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'34.050 17, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 0'34.665 18, Chris Walker, Honda, GBR, 0'52.420 19, Shuhei Aoyama, Honda, JPN, 1'2.555 20, Makoto Tamada, Kawasaki, JPN, 1'6.475 21, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 1'16.985 22, Matt Lynn, Honda, USA, 1'40.616 Race 2  Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 39'10.265 2, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 0'1.507 3, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 0'2.268 4, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 0'11.813 5, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 0'17.922 6, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 0'18.281 7, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 0'19.368 8, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 0'19.717 9, Regis Laconi, Kawasaki, FRA, 0'23.868 10, Roberto Rolfo, Honda, ITA, 0'24.198 11, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 0'25.426 12, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 0'28.384 13, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 0'30.436 14, Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, FRA, 0'36.490 15, Chris Walker, Honda, GBR, 0'42.903 16, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 0'43.758 17, Shuhei Aoyama, Honda, JPN, 0'44.993 18, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 0'48.469 19, Makoto Tamada, Kawasaki, JPN, 0'58.868 20, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 1'18.547 21, Matej Smrz, Honda, CZE, 1'42.272 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 1'37.537 Rider Standings 21/09/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 369 2, Troy Corser, Yamaha, AUS, 290 3, Max Neukirchner, Suzuki, GER, 280 4, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 280 5, Carlos Checa, Honda, ESP, 262 6, Max Biaggi, Ducati, ITA, 212 7, Fonsi Nieto, Suzuki, ESP, 206 8, Michel Fabrizio, Ducati, ITA, 201 9, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, JPN, 193 10, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 160 11, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 136 12, Jakub Smrz, Ducati, CZE, 110 13, Gregorio Lavilla, Honda, ESP, 107 14, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 104 15, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 71 18, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 46 26, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 12 27, Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, FRA, 9 Manufacturer Standings 21/09/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Ducati, 479 2, Yamaha, 416 3, Honda, 357 4, Suzuki, 355 5, Kawasaki, 77 ---------- RACE REPORT - 21/09/2008 Parkes and Laverty win hard fought podiums in Italy Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) and Eugene Laverty (Yamaha World Supersport Team) earned a podium finish apiece after a dramatic WSS race at Vallelunga, eventually capitalising on their strong qualifying performances to go second and third respectively in the race. Parkes was 2.971 seconds from the win, with Laverty hanging on for third, despite riding with broken bones in his feet. Starting from pole, Parkes was held up by other riders in the early laps, letting eventual winner Jonathan Rea run to a clear victory, even though Parkes set a new race lap record more than once in his attempt to catch the start-to-finish leader. Parkes' new record is 1'39.419, set on lap 19 of 22. Laverty and World Championship leader Andrew Pitt collided on lap 19 and Laverty was lucky to stay on, while Pitt slid into the gravel and was unable to restart. Laverty's first WSS podium came in only his second WSS race, as he made a stand-in ride for injured team regular, Fabien Foret. In the overall championship, Parkes is still in with a chance of the title itself, as he sits fourth overall, 30 points from Pitt with a maximum of 50 left to play for in the final two rounds. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) missed points by finishing 17th, while David Salom (Yamaha Spain World Supersport) finished two places behind. Jason Crowe (Yamaha Spain World Supersport) was 24th. Broc Parkes (2nd - Yamaha World Supersport Team)  "It was a great race but at the start of it I was not able to push hard enough to get through the pack quickly enough and there were a few crazy guys in the bunch! I should have probably got past them and away with Jonathan a bit quicker. My bike felt better when it was a bit lighter, but I was a little too far back right at the end to get to Jonathan. Second was great anyway today and the Yamaha worked really well this weekend. We pulled the bike out of the box this weekend and it was great from the start." Eugene Laverty (3rd - Yamaha World Supersport Team)  "I had a little bit more pace on me than Andrew in some places and on one corner I had run a little bit deeper than normal. When I had come back Andrew was there. It was just a racing accident but I am sorry for Andrew. It's brilliant to be on the podium so thanks to the Yamaha team for giving me this opportunity and I have been able to make the most of it." Wilco Zeelenberg (Team Manager, Yamaha World Supersport Team)  "Two good results for us today and it was a pity that Jonathan managed to get away because of all the traffic and overtaking, but we were able to keep the package together for both riders. Broc's feeling became better at the end off the race, he was put under pressure after his team mate past him and I believe that made him sharper as well. Near the finish he was doing 1'39s, faster than the beginning. Eugene did really well to get on the podium and I know we will hear a lot about him in the future. After Andrew's unfortunate crash, we are 30 points behind the leader, so the championship is not over yet. All in all a good weekend for us." Massimo Roccoli (17th - Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni)  "It is very disappointing not to get any points this weekend, because I had no feeling on the bike today. I felt fast, and the bike felt fast, but the time was not competitive and I could not push hard at the front or the rear. I will improve my mind before the next WS race, as I will race in the Italian series next week at Misano before we go to Magny-Cours." Race 1  Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 36'48.656 2, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 0'2.971 3, Eugene Laverty, Yamaha, GBR, 0'6.461 4, Joan Lascorz, Honda, ESP, 0'7.135 5, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 0'10.945 6, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 0'14.412 7, Gianluca Nannelli, Honda, ITA, 0'14.557 8, Didier Van Keymeulen, Suzuki, BEL, 0'19.286 9, Mark Aitchinson, Triumph, AUS, 0'23.854 10, Josh Hayes, Honda, USA, 0'31.193 11, Ivan Clementi, Triumph, ITA, 0'31.327 12, Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 0'39.771 13, Miguel Praia, Honda, POR, 0'40.957 14, Terence Toti, Suzuki, ITA, 0'41.196 15, Gianluca Vizziello, Honda, ITA, 0'41.337 16, Russell Holland, Honda, AUS, 0'43.421 17, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 0'44.790 18, Katsuaki Fujiwara, Kawasaki, JPN, 0'45.564 19, David Salom, Yamaha, ESP, 0'54.098 20, Chris Martin, Kawasaki, GBR, 0'58.063 21, Graeme Gowland, Honda, GBR, 1'1.773 22, Patrick Vostarek, Honda, ITA, 1'16.595 23, David Perret, Honda, FRA, 1'16.917 24, Jeremy Crowe, Yamaha, AUS, 1'17.279 25, Balazs Nemeth, Honda, HUN, 1'17.539 26, Denis Sacchetti, Honda, ITA, 1'28.143 27, Alex Cudlin, Triumph, AUS, 1'29.485 Best Lap Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 1'39.417 Rider Standings 21/09/2008 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Points 1, Andrew Pitt, Honda, AUS, 169 2, Jonathan Rea, Honda, GBR, 158 3, Joshua Brookes, Honda, AUS, 141 4, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 139 5, Joan Lascorz, Honda, ESP, 105 6, Craig Jones, Honda, GBR, 100 7, Fabien Foret, Yamaha, FRA, 97 8, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 72 9, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 70 10, Gianluca Nannelli, Honda, ITA, 60 11, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 48 12, Gianluca Vizziello, Honda, ITA, 47 13, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 43 14, Chris Walker, Kawasaki, GBR, 36 15, Didier Van Keymeulen, Suzuki, BEL, 27 27, David Salom, Yamaha, ESP, 9 Manufacturer Standings 21/09/2008 Pos., Manufacturer, Points 1, Honda, 265 2, Yamaha, 182 3, Suzuki, 81 4, Triumph, 68 5, Kawasaki, 42
Alex Asigno

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