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Alex Asigno
The list of adjectives to describe MX1 World Championship leader Stefan Everts and his YZ450FM is growing perilously short after the reigning number one maintained his 100% record this season by winning the Italian Grand Prix in front of 26,000 fans at Montevarchi today. The 33 year old claimed both motos to stretch his haul of consecutive victories to eleven, and seven from seven Grand Prix. His career total now stands at a phenomenal 94 and he has eight remaining rounds from which to reach a magical 100. Everts claimed his second pole position of the season and his second inside one week on Saturday with a lap-time over a second quicker than nearest pursuer Suzuki's Kevin Strijbos. The result of the Timed Practice ran straight into the first moto where the World Champion enjoyed the holeshot and promptly set his own pace ahead of the Suzuki representative. Despite running close together Everts was again faultless and stretched his run of consecutive moto victories to ten. The Montevarchi course was dry, fast and twisty under sunshine and windy conditions but the Yamaha Intur Sports representative proved that he is a true master of all terrain by leading both races from start to finish. He was handicapped slightly by a cracked exhaust in the second heat. The Yamaha YZ450FM was extremely close to exceeding noise limits and Everts himself had to weather a fiercer attack from Strijbos but he reeled off a series of laps at a crucial stage to again break his countryman. Cédric Melotte was feeling better after his light concussion from Bulgaria last Sunday even though he is still endeavouring to regain full fitness after a recent blood test revealed deficiencies in his body's vitamin levels. The Belgian's confidence can best be described as fragile after his poor luck with physical problems and a lack of results to justify his obvious speed. He did however obtain a decent start in the first moto and was holding third for the first half of the race until he was swamped in the final stages and slipped back to eighth. Later in the afternoon a collision with KTM's Jonathan Barragan led to a broken rear brake and he retired for the third time in the last four motos. Everts has stretched his lead to 89 points with almost half the season gone. Melotte rests in tenth spot. The eighth round of the World Championships will commence the second half of the 2006 campaign and ends a busy three week consecutive run of events. The British Grand Prix will get underway next Saturday at the new Matterley Basin circuit. Stefan Everts, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "I don't get bored with winning because every race is a hard job! Kevin did well today to put some pressure on me, especially in the second moto. He is keeping me focussed lately and I have to keep pushing to stay in front. It was a good close race for the crowd. It is not coming that easily for me. Every weekend is a new challenge, there are still many races to go and I want to stay in good shape." Cédric Melotte, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "I am just riding to do my best and enjoy myself now. In the first race I made a great start and could follow the leaders for four or five laps. I had to slow down because I needed to find my own rhythm. We have a set-up on the bike from the start of the year and because of my problems we have not been able to work on it. I hope to test after the British GP to help get me riding smoother on the bike because I cannot make that same speed from the first ten minutes of the moto for the entire duration. The bike was moving around a lot and it was frustrating to lose those positions but I did my best. In the second race I crashed together with Barragan and he took away my front wheel. I restarted but the rear brake was broken and I had to stop. I enjoyed the first part of the day but the track was horrible." Carlo Rinaldi, Team Manager, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "Stefan once again was close to perfection. He had very good starts and the pattern of the races was similar to one we have already seen this season. He made the gap just big enough to keep the lead and his concentration. Cédric was looking better after Bulgaria and had recovered quite well during the week. In the first moto he proved that the speed is still there but physically he is not 100%. It was a shame that Barragan's bike broke his rear brake and he could not continue. Stefan had a small crack on the exhaust in the second moto but it was not very loud and everything turned out OK." Race classification MX1 Round: 7 - 2006 GP of Montevarchi, Italy Circuit: Montevarchi Circuit Length: 1650 Race 1: 21 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Everts Yamaha  BEL  39' 58.623  2   K. Strijbos Suzuki  BEL  +7.556  3   K. De Dycker Honda  BEL  +15.670  4   S. Ramon Suzuki  BEL  +20.976  5   J. Barragan KTM  ESP  +23.426  6   J. Garcia Vico Honda  ESP  +24.285  7   T. Leok Kawasaki  EST  +27.861  8   C. Melotte Yamaha  BEL  +45.620  9   J. Bill Yamaha  GBR  +1' 1.739  10   P. Leuret  Honda  FRA  +1' 5.510  11   A. Salvini Suzuki  ITA  +1' 9.784  12   L. Freibergs Suzuki  LVA  +1' 10.435  13   G. Crockard Honda  GBR  +1' 10.905  14   R. Jelen Suzuki  SVN  +1' 22.435  15   C. Desalle  Suzuki  BEL  +1' 26.128  16   D. Theybers Suzuki  BEL  +1' 26.501  17   J. Moze  Suzuki  SVN  +1' 31.077  18   B. Jorgensen Honda  DNK  +1' 32.498  19   M. Priem Yamaha  BEL  +1' 37.790  20   K. Salaets Yamaha  BEL  +1' 43.482  Race 2: 21 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Everts Yamaha  BEL  40' 26.487  2   K. Strijbos Suzuki  BEL  +8.683  3   T. Leok Kawasaki  EST  +26.828  4   S. Ramon Suzuki  BEL  +40.982  5   J. Garcia Vico Honda  ESP  +46.607  6   B. Jorgensen Honda  DNK  +1' 7.361  7   K. De Dycker Honda  BEL  +1' 13.155  8   P. Leuret  Honda  FRA  +1' 17.459  9   M. Priem Yamaha  BEL  +1' 23.597  10   M. Van Daele Honda  BEL  +1' 23.750  11   J. Noble Honda  GBR  +1' 33.642  12   A. Pyrhonen TM  FIN  +1' 38.337  13   D. Theybers Suzuki  BEL  +1' 38.801  14   L. Freibergs Suzuki  LVA  +1' 40.490  15   A. Salvini Suzuki  ITA  +1' 41.047  16   J. Bill Yamaha  GBR  +1' 46.482  17   R. Jelen Suzuki  SVN  +1' 47.245  18   W. Avis KTM  RSA  +1' 58.566  19   J. Dobes Suzuki  CZE  +1 lap(s)  20   G. Crockard Honda  GBR  +1 lap(s)  Championship standings MX1 Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Stefan Everts Yamaha  BEL 342  2   Kevin Strijbos Suzuki  BEL 253  3   Tanel Leok Kawasaki  EST 245  4   Ken De Dycker Honda  BEL 231  5   Steve Ramon Suzuki  BEL 227  6   Jonathan Barragan KTM  ESP 166  7   Pascal Leuret  Honda  FRA 147  8   Manuel Priem Yamaha  BEL 120  9   Brian Jorgensen Honda  DNK 120  10   Cedric Melotte Yamaha  BEL 118  11   Javier Garcia Vico Honda  ESP 115  12   Marvin Van Daele Honda  BEL 108  13   Julien Bill Yamaha  GBR 107  14   Sebastien Tortelli KTM  FRA 99  15   Antti Pyrhonen TM  FIN 91  16   James Noble Honda  GBR 89  17   Danny Theybers Suzuki  BEL 73  18   Alex Salvini Suzuki  ITA 47  19   Wyatt Avis KTM  RSA 46  20   Stephen Sword Kawasaki  GBR 40  Manufacturers standings MX1 Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Yamaha 342  2  Suzuki 289  3  Kawasaki 245  4  Honda 241  5  KTM 221  6  TM 91  MX2 : Cairoli runner-up at home Grand Prix thriller Round: 7 - 2006 GP of Montevarchi, Italy Circuit: Montevarchi Date: 11 June 2006 Crowd: 26000 Temp: 26ºC Weather: Sunny World Champion Antonio Cairoli entertained his many fans with two exciting motos at a sunny Montevarchi today for the seventh round of the MX2 FIM World Championship. The De Carli Yamaha rider had the 26,000 attendance on its feet as he fought with friend and rival David Philippaerts for victory until the last laps but eventually had to settle for a brace of runner-up positions. Cairoli aced his qualification heat yesterday and, along with Philippaerts, looked easily the strongest rider on the tight and stony course. 'Toni' started well in both motos but lost the lead to KTM's Philippaerts and then second place to Tyla Rattray in the first race as he struggled with a sore wrist that was numbing his arm. He eventually found a better rhythm to pass Rattray and set off after the leader resulting in the first of two finales that proved to be the highlights of the Grand Prix. The second race quickly became 'part two' of the all-Italian scrap and Cairoli was again powerless to pass Philippaerts who had recovered well from a crash while leading that had dropped him to third. With Christophe Pourcel not enjoying one of his best days, Rattray falling out of the second moto and De Reuver also registering a DNF because of a faulty gearbox, Cairoli has narrowed the margin in the World Championship standings and now lies 15 points from second place. Kenneth Gundersen could, and should, have finished higher than his final classification of 10th. The Norwegian started badly in the first moto and rose only as high as 8th, without a rear brake, on a track that was not easy to pass and afforded varying levels of grip. A promising start and third position was squandered on the first lap when the front wheel of his YZ250F slid out and dumped the number '12' on the floor. His resulting effort terminated with 17th spot by the chequered flag. Davide Guarneri was unlucky not to take pole position on Saturday as the Italian's silencer on the Ricci Racing Yamaha unbelievably came loose again (as in Bulgaria last week) and the resulting one minute penalty for violating noise regulations meant that he had to qualifying for his home Grand Prix via the Last Chance session and confirmed 26th spot. He was 7th in the first moto but could not make the finish in race two. Bike it Yamaha's Billy Mackenzie was no match for the Italian's speed on home turf. The Japanese GP winner was taken out of the race by Luigi Seguy in the first foray and slipped back to 13th after a decent start in the second outing. The 22 year old is still bothered by a broken bone in his left hand. Alessio Chiodi could not avoid the fallen Fabio Mossini on the first lap of the second MX2 heat yesterday and the crash relegated him to the back of the pack. The former multi World Champion left his fast lap late in the Last Chance session (and needed the help of team-mate Guarneri) and disappointedly entered the gate in 28th. During the motos he was always struggling to make up ground but tried his best in front of a willing partisan crowd. He finished the day with 18th and 11th for 14th overall. The eighth round of the series will take place at the new Matterley Basin circuit in England for the British Grand Prix. The visit to the UK will end a hectic three week spell of consecutive races. Antonio Cairoli, Team Yamaha De Carli: "For sure I wanted to win in my country but today David was very fast. I lost concentration in the second heat when I saw Rattray and Goncalves crash. I was riding a bit stiff and didn't have a good feeling but afterwards when David came back I was able to pick up my speed. It was very hard to pass him here and I didn't want to make a mistake because the standings would be much closer. For me and for the Championship this is a good GP." Kenneth Gundersen, Yamaha Team Ricci: "I felt really good in the first race but after twenty minutes I lost the rear brake. Otherwise I believe I could have finished top three in that race. In the second moto I lost the front end and was half a lap behind before I was really going again. Normally I could have finished on the podium at a track like this but again bad luck." Alessio Chiodi, Yamaha Team Ricci: "I have to say thank you to Davide in the Last Chance yesterday because he gave me a tow and helped me qualify. I did not have the speed to make a single lap like that. To be low in the gate was not good but I tried my best. The first moto was not that bad but I crashed and hit my knee again and after that it was so difficult. One point is better than none though so I kept pushing. This was a hard GP for me. I am disappointed for the fans because their support was fantastic. I hope I will be OK for the British GP, I have one more week to recover now."    Race classification MX2 Round: 7 - 2006 GP of Montevarchi, Italy Circuit: Montevarchi Circuit Length: 1650 Race 1: 21 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   D. Philippaerts KTM  ITA  39' 36.141  2   A. Cairoli Yamaha  ITA  +0.574  3   S. Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA  +16.917  4   C. Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA  +17.706  5   T. Rattray KTM  RSA  +23.075  6   G. Swanepoel Kawasaki  RSA  +36.401  7   D. Guarneri Yamaha  ITA  +45.930  8   K. Gundersen Yamaha  NOR  +53.511  9   M. De Reuver KTM  NED  +55.889  10   A. Leok Yamaha  EST  +1' 1.470  11   R. Goncalves KTM  POR  +1' 6.108  12   M. Monni KTM  ITA  +1' 9.536  13   M. Seistola Honda  FIN  +1' 12.376  14   C. Nunn KTM  GBR  +1' 16.020  15   T. Searle Kawasaki  GBR  +1' 16.379  16   C. Campano KTM  ESP  +1' 23.003  17   P A. Renet Honda  FRA  +1' 23.712  18   A. Chiodi Yamaha  ITA  +1' 24.317  19   M. Schiffer KTM  GER  +1' 32.455  20   J. Wing KTM  SWE  +1' 36.226  Race 2: 20 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   D. Philippaerts KTM  ITA  39' 12.775  2   A. Cairoli Yamaha  ITA  +3.369  3   C. Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA  +23.136  4   G. Swanepoel Kawasaki  RSA  +27.544  5   S. Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA  +32.296  6   R. Goncalves KTM  POR  +35.024  7   T. Searle Kawasaki  GBR  +52.100  8   C. Campano KTM  ESP  +56.315  9   M. Seistola Honda  FIN  +56.779  10   L. Seguy Yamaha  FRA  +1' 1.998  11   A. Chiodi Yamaha  ITA  +1' 2.677  12   C. Nunn KTM  GBR  +1' 8.173  13   B. MacKenzie Yamaha  GBR  +1' 13.787  14   F. Mossini Suzuki  ITA  +1' 14.195  15   P A. Renet Honda  FRA  +1' 15.457  16   A. Pellegrini Suzuki  ITA  +1' 25.976  17   K. Gundersen Yamaha  NOR  +1' 30.079  18   A. Meo Honda  FRA  +1' 32.919  19   M. Schiffer KTM  GER  +1' 37.490  20   J. Wing KTM  SWE  +1' 43.147  Championship standings MX2 Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA 274  2   Marc De Reuver KTM  NED 246  3   Tyla Rattray KTM  RSA 235  4   Antonio Cairoli Yamaha  ITA 231  5   David Philippaerts KTM  ITA 210  6   Billy MacKenzie Yamaha  GBR 168  7   Carl Nunn KTM  GBR 159  8   Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA 140  9   Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha  NOR 139  10   Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki  RSA 134  11   Rui Goncalves KTM  POR 132  12   Tommy Searle Kawasaki  GBR 129  13   Alessio Chiodi Yamaha  ITA 124  14   Davide Guarneri Yamaha  ITA 94  15   Luigi Seguy Yamaha  FRA 94  16   Manuel Monni KTM  ITA 73  17   Anthony Boissière Yamaha  FRA 66  18   Aigar Leok Yamaha  EST 64  19   Matti Seistola Honda  FIN 61  20   Patrick Caps Honda  BEL 46    Manufacturers standings MX2 Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  KTM 318  2  Yamaha 306  3  Kawasaki 280  4  Honda 114  5  Suzuki 13 
Alex Asigno
Yamaha XJR Owners Club
The XJR1300 is no ordinary muscle bike – it’s muscle that can hustle. The XJR’s colossal air-cooled engine proves the old saying that nothing succeeds like excess, with 106Nm of torque at 6500rpm for awesome acceleration, whichever gear you happen to be in. It’s the kind of power that’s always right there, ready and waiting. But this is one heavyweight that doesn’t need wrestling into submission. The XJR is awe-inspiring but not overwhelming, because it’s got a sports chassis with box-section aluminium swingarm and trick Öhlins gas shocks that really handle that motor. Which is why this muscle bike is all grunt and no groan.
Whether you have are an owner of a 2003 Yamaha XJR, or an owner of 2006 Yamaha XJR this is a fun club to be a member of. Why don’t you let us know all about your new Yamaha XJR at our Yamaha XJR Owners Club Forums. Here are the Yamaha XJR 1300 Owners Club Forums
 
2006 Yamaha XJR Technical specifications 
XJR 1300 EngineEngine type: 4-stroke, forward inclined parallel 4-cylinder, DOHC Engine cooling: Air cooled Displacement: 1,251cc Bore x stroke: 79 x 63.8mm Compression ratio: 9.7:1 Maximum power: 78.1kW (106.2 HP) @ 8,000rpm Maximum torque: 106.2Nm (10.8 kg-m) @ 6,500rpm Lubrication system: Wet sump Carburettor: Mikuni BS37/4 Clutch type: Wet, multiple-disc Ignition system: TCI Starter system: Electric Transmission system: Constant mesh, 5-speed Final transmission: Chain Fuel tank capacity: 21 litres (4.5 litres) Oil tank capacity: 4.2 litres ChassisFront suspension system: Telescopic fork Front travel: 130mm Rear suspension system: Swingarm Rear travel: 120mm Front brake: Dual discs, Ø 298mm Rear brake: Single disc, Ø 267mm Front tyre: 120/70 ZR17 (58W) Rear tyre: 180/55 ZR17 (73W) DimensionsLength (mm): 2,175mm Width (mm): 775mm Height (mm): 1,115mm Seat height (mm): 790mm Wheel base (mm): 1,510mm Minimum ground clearance (mm): 120mm Dry weight (kg) 224 kg
Alex Asigno
Career win number 93, six Grand Prix in succession, the third double on the trot and nine consecutive moto victories fell to Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross team's Stefan Everts at the fast Sevlievo circuit for the Grand Prix of Bulgaria and the sixth round of fifteen in the 2006 FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship. 25,000 spectators (weekend figure) witnessed the 33 year old Belgian and absolute series leader own another two motos in vastly different weather conditions in which the YZ450FM excelled once more. The wide expanse of the Sevlievo track, situated in the modern and impressive infrastructure of the circuit, was quick and dry for the first moto but then the heavens opened and dropped a plethora of rain onto the venue creating a difficult and technical test, as well as constituting the first wet race of the season. Despite insisting that a repeat of his Japanese domination would be unlikely Saturday afternoon, Everts faced little opposition in both races after taking the lead within the first two laps of both sprints. He controlled the distance assimilated both times over Kevin Strijbos and his superiority has now translated into an 81 point advantage from Kawasaki's Tanel Leok in the World Championship standings meaning that he can afford not to finish three motos and still be in front. Cedric Melotte completed only three laps today during the first outing. The Belgian fell heavily on Saturday and hit his head. Feeling dazed and unable to concentrate he elected to retire frustrated instead of risking further mishap. The 27 year old did not take to the line for the second race. Melotte has also been suffering from reduced energy and stamina possibly brought on by over-training. He had several tests after arriving back from Japan and his body was found to be lacking certain minerals. "Cedric had been training quite hard, as normal but has been feeling bad after the races, which is unusual for the condition he should have," said Team Manager Carlo Rinaldi. "The season has been up and down for him. Portugal was bad but then Teutschenthal was better after he had some rest. Japan was again not so good, so we rested him before this GP. The blood tests said he was low on iron and some B12 among other things in line with the symptoms of over-training. Cedric needs to rest and renew his levels and we should see an improvement." The trip to Bulgaria represented the first of three consecutive meetings. The teams now travel directly to Italy and the Montevarchi circuit before then heading to Matterley Basin and the British Grand Prix. Stefan Everts, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "Any race is a new race so anything can still happen but I have managed to keep the pace up and not make any mistakes. The second moto was difficult because of the conditions and I had to lose my goggles after a few laps. I had to slow down because of all the mud in my eyes but overall I am happy with the day. Coming here I was unsure because this is not the best track for me to try and win like Japan but I was consistent with my speed. The bike has been great on the starts and being able to push hard in the first ten to fifteen minutes really makes a difference." Cedric Melotte, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "I had a big crash on Saturday and I found that I could not concentrate on my riding today. I tried to make some fast laps but it was getting dangerous so I decided to stop. I am having very little luck at the moment." Carlo Rinaldi, Team Manager Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "It was two different races today because of the track conditions and Stefan proved that it doesn't matter what weather or demands he faces. He made two very consistent and error-free races. The rhythm was strong at first but he could deal with it. The bike came through very well because there was a lot of water and you can sometimes have a strange problem like with the electrics. We made some changes between the motos to cope with the changing terrain and they worked out fine." Race classification MX1 Round: 6 - 2006 GP of Sevlievo, Bulgaria Circuit: Sevlievo Circuit Length: 1695 Race 1: 21 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Everts Yamaha BEL 40' 47.650 2 K. Strijbos Suzuki BEL +6.971 3 S. Ramon Suzuki BEL +11.846 4 B. Jorgensen Honda DNK +16.978 5 P. Leuret Honda FRA +27.050 6 W. Avis KTM RSA +31.597 7 K. De Dycker Honda BEL +33.118 8 J. Bill Yamaha GBR +35.635 9 T. Leok Kawasaki EST +47.909 10 J. Garcia Vico Honda ESP +56.167 11 G. Crockard Honda GBR +58.292 12 C. Desalle Suzuki BEL +59.949 13 M. Van Daele Honda BEL +1' 3.002 14 M. Priem Yamaha BEL +1' 11.247 15 C. Federici Kawasaki ITA +1' 17.882 16 A. Pyrhonen TM FIN +1' 19.780 17 A. Salvini Suzuki ITA +1' 27.943 18 B. Verhoeven Kawasaki NED +1' 29.174 19 D. Theybers Suzuki BEL +1' 35.502 20 L. Freibergs Suzuki LVA +1' 38.832 Race 2: 18 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Everts Yamaha BEL 40' 51.233 2 K. Strijbos Suzuki BEL +2.117 3 S. Ramon Suzuki BEL +3.631 4 T. Leok Kawasaki EST +27.962 5 B. Jorgensen Honda DNK +39.143 6 K. De Dycker Honda BEL +1' 40.327 7 P. Leuret Honda FRA +1' 53.287 8 J. Garcia Vico Honda ESP +1' 59.266 9 M. Van Daele Honda BEL +2' 5.055 10 A. Salvini Suzuki ITA +1 lap(s) 11 C. Federici Kawasaki ITA +1 lap(s) 12 C. Desalle Suzuki BEL +1 lap(s) 13 A. Pyrhonen TM FIN +1 lap(s) 14 W. Avis KTM RSA +1 lap(s) 15 B. Verhoeven Kawasaki NED +1 lap(s) 16 L. Freibergs Suzuki LVA +1 lap(s) 17 G. Crockard Honda GBR +1 lap(s) 18 A. Bobkovs Honda LVA +1 lap(s) 19 J. Noble Honda GBR +1 lap(s) 20 M. Norlen Suzuki SWE +1 lap(s) Championship standings MX1 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 292 2 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 211 3 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 209 4 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 197 5 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 191 6 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 150 7 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 123 8 Manuel Priem Yamaha BEL 106 9 Cedric Melotte Yamaha BEL 105 10 Brian Jorgensen Honda DNK 102 11 Sebastien Tortelli KTM FRA 99 12 Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 97 13 Julien Bill Yamaha GBR 90 14 Javier Garcia Vico Honda ESP 84 15 Antti Pyrhonen TM FIN 82 16 James Noble Honda GBR 79 17 Danny Theybers Suzuki BEL 60 18 Wyatt Avis KTM RSA 43 19 Stephen Sword Kawasaki GBR 40 20 Alex Salvini Suzuki ITA 31 Manufacturers standings MX1 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Yamaha 292 2 Suzuki 245 3 Kawasaki 211 4 Honda 205 5 KTM 202 6 TM 82 MX2 : Cairoli takes fourth moto win of the season but leaves Bulgaria disappointed Round: 6 - 2006 GP of Sevlievo, Bulgaria Circuit: Sevlievo Date: 4 June 2006 Crowd: 25000 Temp: 18ºC Weather: Rain World Champion Antonio Cairoli became the rider with the most moto victories this season after taking his fourth success at Sevlievo for the Grand Prix of Bulgaria and the sixth round of the MX2 World Championship. The Italian would limp away from the impressive venue however after two crashes in a very wet and slippery second moto forced a second DNF from the twelve heats in total held so far. The track was fast, dry and bumpy in the first sprint but showers during the lunch break meant a far muddier and more slippery prospect for the MX2 riders later in the afternoon. Cairoli weathered a late first race attack from Championship leader Christophe Pourcel for a very convincing win in a moto he had pretty much set the pace from the start. In contrast he crashed on the first corner of the second heat and was on the fringes of the top ten in very tricky conditions when he crashed on the rhythm section and went down heavily. The Sicilian hurt his knee in a spill that snapped his brace and damaged his Yamaha too much to continue. Kenneth Gundersen shared a similar fate in race1 when he fell on the first lap and collected fellow Yamaha compatriot Billy Mackenzie. The Norwegian pulled into the pits. He was however able to obtain 11 points for tenth later on. Winner of the Japanese Grand Prix two weeks ago Bike it Yamaha UK Dixon Racing's Mackenzie was also to leave Bulgaria disappointed. The 22 year old was last after falling when Gundersen hit the deck right in front of him and slipped off again before retiring far behind any possible points. The Scot had broken his left hand a week prior at the fourth round of the British Championship and despite using painkillers could only trail Gundersen in the second moto for a lowly ten point haul from the whole meeting. Gundersen's team-mate Davide Guarneri was eigth in the first moto but was given a one minute penalty in the second race due to a damaged exhaust exceeding the permitted noise limit. JK Racing's Luigi Seguy was ninth overall although he did suffer a spill in the opening forray. Yamaha Team Ricci's Alessio Chiodi had to miss the meeting after his injured knee, sustained as a result of his Japanese practice accident, was diagnosed as a torn muscle. The Italian should be back for his home Grand Prix and round seven next week at Montevarchi. The standings reveal four Yamaha riders in the top ten. Cairoli is fourth 32 points behind Tyla Rattray and just 27 points in front of Billy Mackenzie who has dropped one position to sixth. The Grand Prix was won by KTM's Marc de Reuver with David Philippaerts second and Christophe Pourcel third. The World Championship continues at pace now with two more Grand Prix - in Italy and Great Britain - taking place in the next two weeks. Antonio Cairoli: "This year is not going so well at the moment. When I finish the first lap in the top three I can win but when I don't start OK or go down early on then my result is not great. I felt fast here and even though I was at the back in the second moto by the fifth lap I was near the top ten. The track was very slippery and I made a small mistake and it was a big punishment. I lost a lot of points and I don't feel very lucky so far this season. Physically I am OK but I feel bad inside for the loss today." Kenneth Gundersen: "In the first race I had a crash with Mackenzie when I was running fifth on the first lap. My bike was destroyed so I could not finish. In the second heat I was right near the front but on the first corner I almost crashed so I went from virtually first to last. I came back to ninth and could not do any better than that. In terms of riding I am happy with the last race. I am not having much luck at the moment. During practice yesterday there was a haybale on the track and I landed on it and hurt my wrist. I got some points today though and for that I am happy." Billy Mackenzie: "I was really looking forward to this GP but as the weekend it went on the track became more hard-pack and faster and I felt like I was losing speed and holding people up on the uphill sections purely because of my weight. It became a horsepower race rather than any technical ability and my hand was bothering me a little bit because I could not grip the bike like I wanted. Anyway, I could not avoid Gundersen in the first race and it went from bad to worse at the back of the pack. In the second moto I lost my goggles early on but I was still able to pass a few people. It was disappointing to lose so many points. I was on a real downer after the first race and with Philippaerts making the podium it has been a poor weekend in terms of the Championship Race classification MX2 Round: 6 - 2006 GP of Sevlievo, Bulgaria Circuit: Sevlievo Circuit Length: 1695 Race 1: 21 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 A. Cairoli Yamaha ITA 40' 35.110 2 C. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +1.274 3 D. Philippaerts KTM ITA +11.806 4 S. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +23.350 5 T. Rattray KTM RSA +26.069 6 M. De Reuver KTM NED +36.806 7 N. Aubin Kawasaki FRA +41.223 8 D. Guarneri Yamaha ITA +49.615 9 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA +52.725 10 A. Boissière Yamaha FRA +58.522 11 C. Nunn KTM GBR +1' 2.918 12 M. Monni KTM ITA +1' 5.056 13 L. Seguy Yamaha FRA +1' 8.415 14 A. Leok Yamaha EST +1' 9.178 15 C. Campano KTM ESP +1' 19.566 16 M. Seistola Honda FIN +1' 25.012 17 M. Schiffer KTM GER +1' 30.278 18 T. Searle Kawasaki GBR +1' 35.721 19 R. Goncalves KTM POR +1' 37.503 20 X. Boog Yamaha FRA +1' 53.541 Race 2: 19 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 M. De Reuver KTM NED 41' 34.286 2 T. Rattray KTM RSA +2.234 3 D. Philippaerts KTM ITA +19.618 4 C. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +45.692 5 S. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +55.654 6 R. Goncalves KTM POR +56.996 7 C. Nunn KTM GBR +1' 0.230 8 M. Monni KTM ITA +1' 2.588 9 L. Seguy Yamaha FRA +1' 36.083 10 K. Gundersen Yamaha NOR +1' 42.325 11 B. MacKenzie Yamaha GBR +1' 44.308 12 M. Schiffer KTM GER +1 lap(s) 13 M. Kohut Honda SVK +1 lap(s) 14 S. Simpson Honda GBR +1 lap(s) 15 T. Church Kawasaki GBR +1 lap(s) 16 A. Boissière Yamaha FRA +1 lap(s) 17 P A. Renet Honda FRA +1 lap(s) 18 D. Guarneri Yamaha ITA +1 lap(s) 19 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA +1 lap(s) 20 T. Searle Kawasaki GBR +1 lap(s) Championship standings MX2 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 236 2 Marc De Reuver KTM NED 234 3 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 219 4 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 187 5 Billy MacKenzie Yamaha GBR 160 6 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 160 7 Carl Nunn KTM GBR 143 8 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 122 9 Alessio Chiodi Yamaha ITA 111 10 Tommy Searle Kawasaki GBR 109 11 Rui Goncalves KTM POR 107 12 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 104 13 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 101 14 Luigi Seguy Yamaha FRA 83 15 Davide Guarneri Yamaha ITA 80 16 Anthony Boissière Yamaha FRA 66 17 Manuel Monni KTM ITA 64 18 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 53 19 Patrick Caps Honda BEL 46 20 Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 45 Manufacturers standings MX2 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 KTM 268 2 Yamaha 262 3 Kawasaki 240 4 Honda 94 5 Suzuki 6
Alex Asigno
The dramatic scenery of the Mugello circuit in Tuscany provided the backdrop to one of the most exciting MotoGP races in living memory today as Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi clinched his second victory of the season in a heart-stopping Italian Grand Prix. The local hero produced one of his best ever performances in front of the adoring 89,200 crowd, emerging from an intense battle with his compatriot Loris Capirossi (Ducati) and a host of other riders to take the chequered flag with a 0.575 second advantage after 23 laps of pure drama.
Rossi got an excellent start from the front row of the grid, passing early leader Sete Gibernau (Ducati) on the first lap and attempting to escape a hungry chasing pack. However, the Spaniard refused to lie down and after a brief battle between the pair the Italian took control to lead for ten laps. Capirossi soon recovered from a bad start and by lap fourteen he was in the hunt for the lead, passing both Gibernau and Rossi, who dropped back to fifth place as Marco Melandri and Nicky Hayden (both Honda) also came through. Within four laps Rossi was back on Capirossi's tail and the pair went head-to-head in a thrilling finale, which saw the Yamaha rider snatch the lead on the last lap and open out a crucial gap that carried him to the line. Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards, meanwhile, battled through another tough race after being run wide into the gravel on the second lap. The Texan fought back from last place to finish in the points in twelfth place but has lost ground in the championship, dropping to eighth. Rossi's win moves him up to fifth overall, 34 points behind leaders Capirossi and Hayden, who are currently tied on points. In addition to the activity on the track, Valentino's dance around the Mugello hills were enjoyed today 1,500 Yamaha fans at the Factory's Materassi stand. Every time the Yamaha riders passed the Yamaha tribune, the sound of the engines was accompanied by a standing ovation from a sea of yellow.
Valentino Rossi (1st; 42'39.610) "That was for sure one of the toughest battles of my entire career. I got a really good start and after I passed Sete I tried to escape but it was impossible, he was so strong today. For a long time I didn't know where Loris was because he had a bad start but once he arrived I knew I was in for a hard fight. I decided to let him pass and run behind him for a while but I didn't realise so many other riders were so close and they all came through! Suddenly I was down in fifth and had it all to do again. It was just an amazing fight for everybody and I think it is fantastic that it went down to the final lap between two riders, two factories, two tyre manufacturers but just one Country! This is great news for our sport. If I had to bet on who would win the last lap I honestly wouldn't have been able to choose. I don't think I took a breath over the last two laps but I made it and I am unbelievably happy. To do it in front of so many fans, family and friends is a special emotion and I won't be thinking about the championship tonight - just this wonderful race." Colin Edwards (12th; + 0'30.678) "We made a dramatic change this morning and I went for the new chassis with Valentino's settings because I knew the bike we had from yesterday was not going to be good enough for the race. Basically I braked a little earlier than normal into turn one and Makoto Tamada drafted up the inside, pulled straight in front of me and left me with nowhere to go but the grass. After that the race was just a test session for me really with the new chassis. It felt good but we need to adapt the setting to me because I didn't have enough grip on the rear. We've got a day of testing tomorrow so we will have time to do that and get the chance to complete some of the work that we weren't able to do during the Grand Prix." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "It has been a perfect day for Valentino and for Italy after this fantastic battle to the final corner. It was just what we needed after the bad luck of recent races - Valentino needed to win and you could see how much it meant to him. Yamaha have done a great job to bring our package back up to a competitive level and now I hope we can keep fighting for wins until the end of the season. My sincere thanks to all our staff because it has been difficult over the last few weeks but once again we have seen that this is a team that never gives in and this is a great reward for all the hard work and belief. Colin's race didn't go as we had hoped it might, after the problem he had on the second lap, but he's taken some important information away from here and hopefully he can come back to the top in Barcelona next week." Disappointment for Tech 3 Yamaha Team in Italy The encouraging signs of qualifying for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team turned to disappointment in the Grand Prix of Italy as Carlos Checa and James Ellison struggled throughout with tyre problems to finish in 15th and 16th places respectively at the undulating and technically demanding Mugello circuit situated in the picturesque hills of Tuscany. Both Carlos and James had encouraging starts to be among a hard battle with a group of riders but after just a handful of laps encountered problems that negated their charge. The team will remain at the Mugello track for a day of testing tomorrow. Carlos Checa (16th, Fastest lap 1'51.652: lap 3) "I am very disappointed in the result as I really expected that we would have a good race pace especially after what we learnt at the Le Mans test. We thought the tyre we chose for the race was a strong one but it only lasted a few laps. After three laps the performance dropped off, then after eight laps it dropped again and so for the final half of the race the feeling from the rear was very bad. "I was in a good battle with some riders on factory bikes and I was sure that I could stick with them and fight hard but unfortunately this didn't last very long. "Again the problem is with the consistency of the rear tyre and this is why I couldn't keep the right pace for the whole race. We tried one way to go and everyone was optimistic after the Le Mans test and what we learnt during practice and qualifying for this race. "Now we have lost that optimistic feeling so I guess we just have to keep on trying to improve. We have the test tomorrow so hopefully we can learn some more things and find another direction that we can move forward. James Ellison (16th Fastest lap 1'52.224: lap 2) "The race wasn't too bad at the start. I got off the line well and picked off a few riders through the first few turns. I thought that I could get away from them and stick with Carlos but only a few laps later the rear tyre lost grip and I couldn't maintain the pace of the opening laps. "It's very frustrating as before the grip drops off, we know we can run with these guys and you can see where you are faster. We lose out when the tyres start moving about. "There are some good tyres in Dunlop. It's a matter of finding the mixture and obviously going to all the different circuits it's always changing. I'm sure for the test tomorrow we will get some better results but truthfully it is really, really frustrating not being able to race so hopefully we will find some solutions very soon and we can all get back to riding hard for the entire race." Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "Honestly this is a disappointing result because after qualifying yesterday we thought we would be much closer to Vermeulen an de Puniet . Although we did an ok start and the first few laps were quite quick, we lost grip so the second part of the race was quite long. Carlos tried everything but it was impossible to finish in a better place. After the good test in Le Mans and the first two days at Mugello we thought we would be much closer. We hope we will have good weather tomorrow for our one day test and we also have something to try from Yamaha. We just have to keep on working "For James his first three or four laps were quite fast as well but then the same thing happened, so it is all very frustrating. "We knew this year would be hard but to get a good direction that lifted the team and for this to happen is difficult to accept but this is racing and we have to understand that sometimes it will be very hard. We can just hope for better weather at the next race in Barcelona and that we can continue the direction we were heading before this race." Race classification MotoGP Round: 6 - 2006 MotoGP Mugello Circuit: Mugello Circuit Length: 5245 Lap Record: 1' 50.117 (Max Biaggi, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 48.959 (Sete Gibernau, 2006) Race: 23 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 42' 39.610 2 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA +0.575 3 N. Hayden Honda USA +0.735 4 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP +2.007 5 S. Gibernau Ducati ESP +3.070 6 M. Melandri Honda ITA +11.793 7 T. Elias Honda ESP +18.999 8 K. Roberts Team Roberts KR USA +19.172 9 M. Tamada Honda JPN +19.231 10 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA +19.821 11 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN +19.863 12 C. Edwards Yamaha USA +30.678 13 R. De Puniet Kawasaki FRA +37.198 14 C. Vermeulen Suzuki AUS +41.712 15 C. Checa Yamaha ESP +56.256 16 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR +1' 13.387 17 J. Cardoso Ducati ESP +1 lap(s) Fastest Race Lap: Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA 1' 50.195 Championship standings MotoGP Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 99 2 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 99 3 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 89 4 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 86 5 Casey Stoner Honda AUS 65 6 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 65 7 Toni Elias Honda ESP 53 8 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 49 9 Sete Gibernau Ducati ESP 44 10 Makato Tamada Honda JPN 40 11 Shinya Nakano Kawasaki JPN 37 12 Kenny Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 28 13 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 27 14 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 21 15 Carlos Checa Yamaha ESP 16 18 James Ellison Yamaha GBR 5 Manufacturers standings MotoGP Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Honda 131 2 Ducati 99 3 Yamaha 94 4 Suzuki 41 5 Kawasaki 37 6 Team Roberts KR 28 Team standings MotoGP Pos. Team Points 1 Repsol Honda Team 185 2 Ducati Marlboro Team 143 3 Fortuna Honda Team 142 4 Camel Yamaha Team 114 5 Honda LCR 65 6 Rizla Suzuki 48 7 Kawasaki Racing Team 48 8 Konica Minolta Honda 40 9 Team Roberts KR 28 10 Tech3 Yamaha 21 11 Pramac D'Antin 6 Race classification GP250 Round: 6 - 2006 GP250 Mugello Circuit: Mugello Circuit Length: 5245 Lap Record: 1' 54.332 (Alex de Angelis, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 54.332 (Alex de Angelis, 2005) Race: 21 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 J. Lorenzo Aprilia ESP 40' 35.185 2 A. de Angelis Aprilia SMR +0.111 3 A. Dovizioso Honda ITA +0.320 4 Y. Takahashi Honda JPN +0.334 5 A. Debon Aprilia ESP +3.315 6 R. Locatelli Aprilia ITA +3.327 7 M. Simoncelli Gilera ITA +7.930 8 A. West Aprilia AUS +26.048 9 S. Aoyama Honda JPN +26.616 10 A. Ballerini Aprilia ITA +30.570 11 S. Guintoli Aprilia FRA +32.854 12 M. Poggiali KTM SMR +33.743 13 S. Porto Honda ARG +1' 13.549 14 A. Tizon Honda ESP +1' 16.159 15 F. Perren Honda ARG +1' 18.533 Fastest Race Lap: Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 R. Locatelli Aprilia ITA 1' 54.749 Championship standings GP250 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 108 2 Jorge Lorenzo Aprilia ESP 88 3 Yuki Takahashi Honda JPN 80 4 Hector Barbera Aprilia ESP 78 5 Hiroshi Aoyama KTM JPN 75 6 Roberto Locatelli Aprilia ITA 67 7 Alex de Angelis Aprilia SMR 55 8 Sylvain Guintoli Aprilia FRA 43 9 Marco Simoncelli Gilera ITA 40 10 Shuhei Aoyama Honda JPN 34 11 Jakub Smrz Aprilia CZE 27 12 Anthony West Aprilia AUS 27 13 Martin Cardenas Honda COL 22 14 Sebastian Porto Honda ARG 20 15 Manuel Poggiali KTM SMR 17 Manufacturers standings GP250 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Aprilia 131 2 Honda 113 3 KTM 79
Alex Asigno
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi will start from the front row of the grid for the first time this season in tomorrow's Grand Prix of Italy after the home hero set the third quickest time in today's single qualifying practice. The session took place under a blanket of thick grey cloud, with cool ambient temperatures of 16ºC and just 18ºC on track, but the threat of rain held off and the teams and riders were afforded crucial dry track time as they adjusted their machine set-up ahead of tomorrow's 23-lap race. Rossi's best lap of 1'49.167 came on his penultimate effort and was inside his previous pole record here by almost a tenth of a second. However, it wasn't quite enough to dislodge Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi (both Ducati) from the top two grid spots as the Spaniard took his first pole position of the season for the Italian factory. After falling behind with set-up work due to adverse weather conditions yesterday, Rossi's Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards was unable to make up for lost time today and he could only manage the 14th fastest time, meaning he will start from the middle of the fifth row tomorrow. This afternoon Rossi will present a brand new R6 in unique Yamaha MotoGP colours to Marco Ponti, from Gallarate in the Varese region of Italy, who took part in a contest as part of the 'Yamaha Open Weekend.' Valentino Rossi (3rd - 1'49.167; 26 laps) "It is a good feeling to be back on the front row - I don't think I've been there since Phillip Island last year so it is a long time and I'm glad it came here at Mugello. For sure this is one of my favourite tracks and with all my fans, family and friends here I really want to get a good result. The front row is important for this because in the past few races I have had to fight really hard at the start of the race to pass riders so hopefully I can get a better start tomorrow. We're not on pole but Michelin and Yamaha have worked really hard to improve our performance on a qualifying tyre and this is a big step forward. Anyway my race pace is quite good so I hope to give my fans a lot of reasons for a party tomorrow night. My new helmet design is by a famous Italian cartoonist called Milo Manara. He has drawn a kind of mythical story of my life, with some of my heroes like Steve McQueen, Enzo Ferrari and Jim Morrison, with other characters like my dog Guido, Osvaldo the chicken and lots of beautiful women! I really like it and Milo is somebody I have admired for a long time."  Colin Edwards (14th - 1'50.405; 26 laps) "I'm not too happy at all. This track seems to have a curse over me because I always seem to be unlucky here. Yesterday the weather played against us when we were trying to find some settings for the new chassis so we had to stick to the old one today and for whatever reason it hasn't worked. We haven't managed to work out the root of the problem yet but it seems everything that was good at China and Le Mans has evaporated here. It's not for a lack of trying - I'm pushing really hard but maybe I'm pushing in the wrong place, I don't know! We've had no time this weekend to test and use the new chassis so maybe we're paying the price for that. All we can do is squeeze the most out of what we have in the warm-up and see how much progress I can make in terms of positions in the race." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "I'm very happy for Valentino, it's nice for him to be back on the front row. We've made some improvements to the performance of the bike on qualifying tyres, which is an area we have struggled with so far this season, so we are very satisfied with that. It looks as though Valentino also has confidence with the race setting and he set a good rhythm on race tyres so we hope he can put on a great show tomorrow. Unfortunately Colin was unable to get anything extra out of the qualifying tyre so he is starting from a difficult position. He isn't comfortable with the setting of the bike so our goal is to improve this situation during the warm-up and give him a chance of producing the kind of ride he showed in the last race at Le Mans, when he fought back from a lowly position to score some good points."     Round: 6 - 2006 MotoGP Mugello Circuit: Mugello Circuit Length: 5245 Lap Record: 1' 50.117 (Max Biaggi, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 48.959 (Sete Gibernau, 2006) Date: 3 June 2006 Temp: 16ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  S. Gibernau  Ducati  ESP   1' 48.969   2  L. Capirossi  Ducati  ITA   1' 49.058   3  V. Rossi  Yamaha  ITA   1' 49.167   4  N. Hayden  Honda  USA   1' 49.212   5  S. Nakano  Kawasaki  JPN   1' 49.328   6  M. Melandri  Honda  ITA   1' 49.343   7  J. Hopkins  Suzuki  USA   1' 49.478   8  D. Pedrosa  Honda  ESP   1' 49.516   9  C. Stoner  Honda  AUS   1' 49.915   10  M. Tamada  Honda  JPN   1' 50.084   11  K. Roberts  Team Roberts KR  USA   1' 50.181   12  T. Elias  Honda  ESP   1' 50.196   13  C. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 50.347   14  C. Edwards  Yamaha  USA   1' 50.405   15  C. Vermeulen  Suzuki  AUS   1' 50.430   16  R. De Puniet  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 50.597   17  J. Ellison  Yamaha  GBR   1' 51.866
Alex Asigno
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi kicked off his preparations for the Italian Grand Prix in positive fashion today as he set the fastest lap time in both of the opening free practice sessions of the weekend. After a dry morning practice, when the Italian topped the time sheets with a lap of 1'51.238, a heavy rain shower just before the afternoon session played havoc with the team's work programme, hindering Colin Edwards' adaptation to the new chassis and preventing either rider from improving their best times despite drying track conditions towards the end.It meant that Edwards was forced to settle for tenth place on the provisional time sheets but a more pressing issue for the Texan is the remaining set-up work to be done before Sunday's eagerly anticipated 23-lap race. The most likely scenario is that he will revert to the original chassis, used to excellent effect at Le Mans two weeks ago, before continuing development on the modified version with a view to the next race in Catalunya. Rossi only completed eight laps in the afternoon but it was enough to fend off the close attentions of fellow local Loris Capirossi (Ducati), who was second fastest. Valentino Rossi (1st - 1'51.238; 25 laps) "We have had a good start to the weekend, especially this morning. Unfortunately the rain in the afternoon meant that we only got four good laps in but even in that short time we were able to see that the base setting of the bike is good. It is basically the same as the bike we had at Le Mans so I'm pleased to see it working well at such a different circuit. We still need to make some improvements to the setting but we are working in the right way and that is the most positive thing about today. We definitely need to work hard tomorrow but hopefully we can continue to improve. Now I just hope it doesn't rain, this is a very special race for all the Italians, both the riders and the people who come to watch, and we need the weather to be on our side!" Colin Edwards (10th - 1'52.513; 34 laps) "We've been playing around a little bit with the new chassis but I need more time in the dry to set it up before we can start to work with it properly. We didn't get enough of a chance at the Le Mans test because of the weather and it seems to have chased us over here. I don't want to have to start all over again in the morning so I think the best thing for us is to go back to what we know for tomorrow. It worked well for us in France and it seems ok here too so there is no point wasting time trying to use the new chassis here just for the sake of it. Hopefully the weather will hold out for us tomorrow so we can get through the set-up work we missed out on today and get ready for what promises to be a really tough but exciting race on Sunday." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Today was not so bad, even though we had only one session in the dry, and Valentino was able to confirm that the bike he used so well in Le Mans is also working here. Unfortunately we haven't had enough time in the dry for Colin to make the adequate comparisons so it seems that the situation for tomorrow will be that our riders will be working in different directions. Anyway this is not such a problem because we know Colin is comfortable on the original chassis and worked well with it in France, so it is just a case of him concentrating on getting a good result here and waiting a little longer for his opportunity. Despite the weather it has been a good day, we've done a good job and in general we have made a promising start to what is an important weekend for us."  Round: 6 - 2006 MotoGP Mugello Circuit: Mugello Circuit Length: 5245 Lap Record: 1' 50.117 (Max Biaggi, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 49.223 (Valentino Rossi, 2005) Date: 2 June 2006 Temp: 16ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  V. Rossi  Yamaha  ITA   1' 51.732   2  L. Capirossi  Ducati  ITA   1' 51.756   3  S. Gibernau  Ducati  ESP   1' 52.012   4  J. Hopkins  Suzuki  USA   1' 52.082   5  C. Stoner  Honda  AUS   1' 52.101   6  N. Hayden  Honda  USA   1' 52.177   7  M. Melandri  Honda  ITA   1' 52.339   8  K. Roberts  Team Roberts KR  USA   1' 52.350   9  M. Tamada  Honda  JPN   1' 52.466   10  S. Nakano  Kawasaki  JPN   1' 52.667   11  T. Elias  Honda  ESP   1' 52.789   12  D. Pedrosa  Honda  ESP   1' 52.819   13  C. Edwards  Yamaha  USA   1' 52.830   14  R. De Puniet  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 53.129   15  C. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 53.453   16  A. Hofmann  Ducati  GER   1' 54.103   18  J. Ellison  Yamaha  GBR   1' 55.354  
Alex Asigno
Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd is delighted to announce that Valentino Rossi will remain with the Japanese factory in 2007, racing for a fourth year with Yamaha's Factory Team in the MotoGP World Championship. Rossi will continue to spearhead Yamaha's Grand Prix challenge and bike development, as MotoGP enters a new era of 800cc racing in 2007. Rossi has enjoyed huge success with Yamaha since he joined the factory just over two years ago and every one of his races has captured the true spirit of 'Kando', the Japanese word for the sensation of intense excitement that we experience when we encounter something of supreme quality. The Italian won the championship with the YZR-M1 on his first try in 2004 and again in 2005, when Yamaha took a clean-sweep of Riders', Team and Manufacturers' Championships in the year of it's 50th Anniversary. 2006 has proved more difficult for the World Champion, with just one win so far this season after a series of unfortunate occurrences, but Yamaha has every faith that Rossi will recover his winning-form, starting at his home Grand Prix in Mugello this weekend. Speaking from Mugello today, Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director Lin Jarvis commented, "We are firstly delighted that Valentino has chosen to stay in MotoGP. He is a great ambassador for motorcycle racing in general and extremely important to the global image of this sport. He is the most talented and the fastest rider on the grid and the benchmark to which others aspire.  "We are extremely happy that Valentino has chosen to continue his illustrious MotoGP career with Yamaha in 2007. Yamaha and Valentino have an excellent relationship and we have enjoyed great success together since our partnership was born in 2004. It's exciting news for Yamaha's fans; Valentino's worldwide appeal unites them under one banner and brings more and more people daily into the Yamaha 'family'. "Of course it's of key importance to us that Valentino will now be in a position to lead the development of Yamaha's new 800cc project for 2007. His input will be invaluable and we believe we will be able to challenge to win the title next year with the new bike. Both Valentino and Yamaha relish the new challenge ahead. "In the meantime our short term goal is to provide him with the means to defend his MotoGP title this year. We are confident that Valentino can recover from an unlucky start to his title defence, starting at our Factory Team's home race in Mugello this weekend." "I'm very pleased to be staying with Yamaha next year", announced the 27-year-old from Tavullia, "These past two years with Yamaha have been two of the best of my career and I am extremely happy to stay with them and with my team. I believe I have made the right choice and I am very excited about the challenge of a new class of racing with Yamaha next year."
Alex Asigno
The Camel Yamaha Team heads into its home Grand Prix this weekend looking to turn a stuttering start to the season into a consistent challenge for MotoGP World Championship honours. The fast and flowing Mugello circuit in Italy presents an entirely different challenge to the tight complexities of recent tracks such as Le Mans and Shanghai and both Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards hope it can also deliver a similar contrast in the fortunes that have followed them around the world during a dramatic opening five rounds of the campaign. Rossi, in particular, is keen to get his fifth title defence back on track in front of his adoring Italian public. The Tavullia-born superstar, who was last week honoured with the 'Spirit of Sport' award at the prestigious Laureus Sports Awards, is aiming to add another prize to his trophy cabinet by claiming his fifth consecutive victory at the Mugello circuit. Edwards is equally focused on the top step of the podium after again demonstrating winning potential at the last round in France. The American was forced into the gravel in the first turn but he battled through from last place to take sixth overall and finish just eleven seconds down on the race winner. Like Rossi, he knows that if things play in his favour this weekend it can be a glorious return home for the Monza-based team. Valentino Rossi: Eleven wins should do it! After failing to score points at the last two rounds because of freak tyre and engine problems, Rossi now trails series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) by 43 points and lies eighth in the championship - his worst ever start to a World Championship season in any class. However, with a typical air of optimism based on confidence in his unrivalled ability, the Italian refuses to consider defeat at this early stage of the season and says this weekend is the ideal time to turn things around. "Mugello has been very good to me over the past few years - it is a very special race and this season it is even more important than ever," admits Rossi. "I have had some incredible emotions there over the years and it is always a very busy weekend for me, but it is crucial that we maintain our focus on the job because we have to be at 100% if we want to win again. The new chassis worked well at Le Mans and we have some good data from the test to improve it at Mugello so I have reason to be confident."  If Rossi did go on to win the title this year he would be the first rider ever to do so having had only one podium finish in the first five races of the year. It is the kind of challenge he relishes. "We have had a lot of bad luck but I don't think 43 points is such a big gap when there are still twelve races left," he says. "It will be difficult to win them all but I will settle for taking eleven wins and one second place! When you look at what has happened to us this season, mostly things out of our control, I probably lost 25 points in France, 16 in China and 14 in Jerez so if it wasn't for all that I would be in a much better situation in the championship now. I think we showed our true potential last weekend and it is just a matter of our luck changing now. Mugello would be the perfect place for that." Colin Edwards: A family affair Colin Edwards has more than one reason to look forward to Mugello, both on and off the track. During a gruelling run of races visiting all corners of the globe over the last two months the Texan has not had much chance to see his young son Hayes, but the baby, who was born in December, will be making his first visit to Europe this week and staying on the road with the whole family during the upcoming run of races on the continent. The proud father hopes family life on the road can provide the foundation to a series of positive results. "Hayes will be coming over with my daughter Gracie and my wife Alyssia so obviously I'm really looking forward to that," admits Edwards. "I love being with the family and living out of the motorhome instead of travelling all over the place staying in hotels. I find it helps me to focus on my performance on the track and hopefully it can give me an extra edge this weekend. That is the most important thing and at this stage of the season, with the way things have gone recently, we need every advantage we can get." Another plus point for Edwards this week will be the delivery of a new chassis for his YZR-M1 machine, used by Rossi with positive results at the last round in Le Mans. "My bike has been the same since Turkey and whilst I have got comfortable with it now I think we have reached the limit in some areas. I did thirty laps with the new chassis at the Le Mans test and I could clearly see the extra potential. Now I'll have one from the start at Mugello and so that's something for us to get our teeth into from the first session and see how far we can go." Davide Brivio: Excitement at home! Whilst recognising that recent results have not lived up to expectations, Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio remains upbeat that his riders are still on course to meet their objectives for the season. The Italian has been encouraged by recent progress made by Yamaha's engineers and says a simple turn in fortune is now all that is required for both Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards to be challenging at the sharp end of the field. "In the last race at Le Mans we had a lot of bad luck but it was a very important and encouraging weekend for us to confirm the general progress we are making with the bike," says Brivio. "Valentino was riding steadily in the lead and probably would have won quite comfortably, whilst Colin also had an excellent race to come through from last place and finish sixth so we know we have something to build on and we want to continue with this progression. "We have twelve races left to get points back and the first stage of the recovery is this weekend at Mugello. All we can do is try to gather as many points from race to race and that means taking victory on Sunday. It is a home race for Valentino and for half of the team so it will be important for us to have the support of the big Italian crowd to help us do this. This has been an unpredictable championship so far but something we can be certain of at Mugello is that it will be very hot and very exciting!" Technically speaking: Mugello according to Daniele Romagnoli At 5.245km the Mugello circuit is one of the longer contemporary MotoGP circuits, in no small part due to the fact that it has retained its original length and layout. Running across two sides of an impossibly scenic Tuscan valley, Mugello differs from other fast circuits in its frequent changes of gradient and the speed of its chicanes. There is a mix of slower and high-speed corners, although even the slowest corners are wide, allowing several 'ideal' lines and putting the emphasis on rider skill as well as chassis set-up precision. "Mugello is a very technical track," explains Daniele Romagnoli, Colin Edwards' Italian Chief Mechanic. "Chassis set-up is perhaps the most important thing but you also need a good engine for the straight because there is around 950m with the throttle fully open. The gearing is also important at this point - you need small gaps between fourth, fifth and sixth gear to get the most out of the engine. "Generally it is a very complex track and the rider can make the difference. It has a very hard braking into turn one, where the riders go from around 330km/h to just 85km/h. Then there is a sequence of 'esses' where it is important to have a bike that has good turning capabilities and agility. There are some quick changes in direction, with uphill and downhill turns, so you need a good compromise with the set-up to make it turn well in both types of corner." Romagnoli adds that the delivery of a new chassis for Edwards at this round could not have come at a better time. "The new chassis has improved the performance of the front end of the bike, particularly in terms of turning and stability on corner entry. It has also improved the chatter problems that we have experienced and this will be crucial at Mugello because there are some very fast corners and a lot of lateral load on the bike." Valentino Rossi: Information Age: 27 Lives: London, UK Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 GP victories: 80 (54 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc) First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc) GP starts: 162 (102 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 40 World Championships - 7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP) Colin Edwards: Information Age: 32 Lives: Conroe, Texas Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 First GP: Japan, 2003 (MotoGP) GP starts: 53 x MotoGP World Championships - 2 World Superbike Mugello Lap Record: Max Biaggi (Honda) 2005 - 1'50.117 Mugello Best Lap: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 - 1'49.223 2005 Results 1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha, 42'42.994 2. Max Biaggi (ITA) Honda, +0.359 3. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati, +3.874
Alex Asigno
Yamaha Motor Italia enjoyed its best day of the season at Silverstone today, with Noriyuki Haga racing to two second places and Andrew Pitt fighting through from 11th on the grid to take fourth and fifth place finishes. Haga raced into the lead in both outings, only to be caught by championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati). The pair had a fantastic battle each time, with the Ducati rider just managing to pull a slight gap on the charging Haga in both races. Having had only limited dry weather practice, the ever-popular Japanese star made a few minor suspension changes to his YZF-R1 for the second race, allowing him to run closer to Bayliss than in the first but unable to quite make a decisive move on the dominant Australian. For Pitt the Silverstone races were made difficult after qualifying on the third row in Saturday's wet conditions, although the Australian was able to show his true pace in the dry races. In both races Pitt made a good start and lapped faster than the leaders as he scythed through the field to challenge James Toseland (Honda) for the third step on the podium. However, the Yamaha rider used up too much of his front tyre and was unable to close the gap on the Brit, using his head to bring his YZF-R1 home for 24 points over the two races. Race one had been delayed following two huge crashes on the first lap. Thankfully no riders were injured but the incidents brought the red flags out and a delay while marshals cleared up the carnage. Both races followed a similar pattern with local favourite Toseland winning the battle for third. In the championship Bayliss extends his lead to 76 points over second placed Troy Corser (Suzuki). Haga moves up two places to third in the championship, just 16 points behind Corser, with Pitt maintaining his sixth place in the points standings. Yamaha Motor France's Norick Abe retained his ninth place in the championship, finishing 10th and 11th in the races. It was a difficult weekend for the Japanese star, who was troubled by the wrist injury he sustained in Monza. Team-mate Shinichi Nakatomi did not race after crashing on a wet patch in the morning warm-up. The Japanese rider has broken the radius bone in his right arm but hopes to be fit to race in Misano in four weeks time. Sebastien Gimbert retired from both races with electrical problems on another Yamaha Motor France bike. Twenty-one-year-old wild-card Tommy Hill, who grabbed the headlines by setting pole position in Saturday's wet superpole rode sensibly to take a pair of 12th place finishes on his Virgin Mobile Yamaha. Round six of the series takes place at Misano on 25 June. Copyright-free photography (for editorial use) and further information on Yamaha's racing activities, including a regular column by Noriyuki Haga, can be found at www.yamaha-racing.com. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I enjoyed the battles with Troy today and all weekend I had a good feeling with the bike in both the wet and dry. It's a shame that we weren't able to test much in the dry. I had to make some suspension changes between the races and it improved the bike but still I did not have enough traction in the last laps. But I am happy with the results and to move up the championship. We have some more testing planned before the race in Misano. We have already had a good test at Misano so I am looking forward to a good race there as well." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I'm fairly happy with that. I felt I was in with a good shot at the podium but I just couldn't keep the lap times going at the end. I was using the softest front tyre, which I think the other guys had too, but my style pushes the front quite hard and I had to ride very aggressively in the opening laps. At the end the front was moving around a fair bit and it was getting hard to hang on to Toseland. What I've got to do now is make sure that I get the Saturdays right so that I don't give myself as much to do on the race day because I have proved that the bike is working well and I am capable of getting up on the podium." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "I did my very best and our settings were not so bad, considering we had so little set-up time in dry conditions. We changed the settings between the two races and the lap times were better, even if the position went down. I would not normally be happy with 10th or 11th places, but today we did our best. A very hard track, and a very physical race considering my wrist is still not 100 percent." Tommy Hill (Virgin Mobile Yamaha) "I was very nervous on the grid, until remembered that I was on pole because I won superpole, which calmed me down a bit. We finished pretty much were we expected to finish, but I couldn't believe the speed of the world superbike guys from the very first lap. Normally in a British championship race people build up to speed but here everyone races at 110 percent from the very first lap." Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "Three big crashes were not what I needed this weekend. My bike misfired with an electrical problem in both races. The problem seems to be some wires damaged in the practice crashes but it is disappointing because it is now three races and no results." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "I crashed on a slippery part of the track and my arm is broken. I will miss the tests we have planned but I am hoping to be back for the races in Misano." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "Both our riders did an excellent job today and we have reached our goals for the weekend. Our target was to take points from Corser and leave with Nori third in the championship, which we have achieved. Andrew also rode very well from the third row, especially in the second race when he was so close to a podium finish. Again we made some small steps forward with the bike. They are small steps but it is encouraging that they are working and we are going in the right direction. We now have a test at Brno with all the other Pirelli development teams before Misano, where I am confident of a good performance." Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France) "A very difficult weekend for us and a bad day for Nakatomi, who broke his right radius bone. A simple break but a break all the same. Gimbert had three crashes and we saw the result of that today. The wiring loom had been damaged, but we did not realise at the time and in each race he had a misfire, which caused him to retire. Only Abe saved our honour, with two hard rides after a lack of practice time - although he is not so happy because he expected more." Race classification WSB Round: 5 - United Kingdom Circuit: Silverstone Circuit Length: 3619 Lap Record: 1' 26.299 (Troy Bayliss, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 26.299 (Troy Bayliss, 2006) Race: 28 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   T. Bayliss Ducati  AUS  40' 49.894  2   N. Haga Yamaha  JPN  +0.890  3   J. Toseland Honda  GBR  +1.705  4   R. Xaus Ducati  ESP  +8.285  5   A. Pitt Yamaha  AUS  +12.303  6   C. Walker Kawasaki  GBR  +23.716  7   R. Laconi Kawasaki  FRA  +25.483  8   K. Muggeridge Honda  AUS  +26.049  9   A. Barros Honda  BRA  +29.650  10   N. Abe Yamaha  JPN  +32.208  11   F. Nieto Kawasaki  ESP  +39.607  12   T. Hill Yamaha  GBR  +41.550  13   L. Lanzi Ducati  ITA  +41.935  14   Y. Kagayama Suzuki  JPN  +50.385  15   G. Nannelli Honda  ITA  +52.726  Race 2: 28 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   T. Bayliss Ducati  AUS  40' 42.003  2   N. Haga Yamaha  JPN  +1.585  3   J. Toseland Honda  GBR  +12.058  4   A. Pitt Yamaha  AUS  +14.561  5   A. Barros Honda  BRA  +16.826  6   T. Corser Suzuki  AUS  +21.230  7   R. Xaus Ducati  ESP  +22.056  8   C. Walker Kawasaki  GBR  +22.549  9   K. Muggeridge Honda  AUS  +22.708  10   F. Nieto Kawasaki  ESP  +34.025  11   N. Abe Yamaha  JPN  +34.739  12   T. Hill Yamaha  GBR  +35.112  13   Y. Kagayama Suzuki  JPN  +35.518  14   R. Laconi Kawasaki  FRA  +36.322  15   M. Fabrizio Honda  ITA  +47.850  Fastest Race Lap:   Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   T. Bayliss Ducati  AUS  1' 26.299  Championship standings WSB Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Troy Bayliss Ducati  AUS 225  2   Troy Corser Suzuki  AUS 149  3   Noriyuki Haga Yamaha  JPN 133  4   James Toseland Honda  GBR 129  5   Alex Barros Honda  BRA 113  6   Andrew Pitt Yamaha  AUS 103  7   Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati  ITA 62  8   Ruben Xaus Ducati  ESP 56  9   Norick Abe Yamaha  JPN 51  10   Chris Walker Kawasaki  GBR 51  11   Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki  ESP 48  12   Roberto Rolfo Ducati  ITA 46  13   Karl Muggeridge Honda  AUS 45  14   Regis Laconi Kawasaki  FRA 42  15   Michel Fabrizio Honda  ITA 37  17   Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha  JPN 18  23   Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha  FRA 7  Manufacturers standings WSB Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Ducati 226  2  Suzuki 161  3  Honda 156  4  Yamaha 153  5  Kawasaki 75  6  Petronas 4  WSS : Silverstone brings double podium for Yamaha Motor Germany Round: 5 - United Kingdom Circuit: Silverstone Date: 28 May 2006 Crowd: 71000 Temp: 15ºC Weather: Dry Yamaha Motor Germany riders Broc Parkes and Kevin Curtain took advantages of development work on their Yamaha YZF-R6s to finish second and third in a sunny fifth round of the Supersport World Championship at Silverstone today. Having brought a new development of the YZF-R6 engine with more mid-range power to Silverstone, the Australians pushed defending world champion Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) hard over the opening laps. Parkes set the fastest lap of the race on lap four, however a lack of dry-weather set-up time, brought on by two day's of wet practice, meant that the Yamaha riders dropped off the pace slightly as the rear end grid decreased from around half distance. The team-mates then engaged their own personal duel before Parkes was able to pull out a slight advantage on his more senior colleague and take second at the flag. Yamaha Team Italia rider Massimo Roccoli had a good race at Silverstone, ending the day in sixth place after a thrilling race-long battle with Yamaha privateer Xavi Fores and Honda riders Robbin Harms, Mattieu Lagrive and Johan Stigefelt. Harms just finished at the front of the train, with Fores ending the day in seventh. Yamaha GMT94's David Checa came from dead last at the end of the first lap to finish 11th. The result sees Curtain consolidate his second place in the championship, 40 points behind Charpentier after five of the 12 championship rounds. Parkes moves up to fourth place with Roccoli sixth. The sixth round of the championship takes place at Misano in Italy in one month's time. Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) "The bike is working really well at the moment but we didn't have a lot of time to set it up this weekend. But on Sunday afternoon I found something that was working pretty well. I felt a lot better at quarter distance into the race, but at that time I really didn't get the chance to get past Sebastien. But things are good for me, getting better and better, but it hasn't been easy for me this year, after some good qualifying performances but problems in the races. So I'm happy to score this and I'm looking forward to getting better and better." Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) "Things were going ok until I ran out of rear grip. I changed to my second bike this morning, after the free practice of warm-up. In general we did not have a lot of dry time for set-up because it has been raining so much this weekend. But it was important to get a good haul of points after losing a whole bunch in Monza." Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia) "A difficult race because Silverstone is a physically demanding circuit and we had very little time in the dry. I couldn't hold Harms off in the end but I'm pleased with sixth and getting some more good championship points." Terrell Thien (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor Germany) "We are really happy with the results today, especially with all the new parts we've brought this weekend. Seeing both riders on the podium is good for the team spirit, especially after the DNF in Monza. We are looking forward to the three day test in Brno. This is a track that really suits the Yamaha. We should be able to make some improvements to the suspension because the bike is so new and we are learning about it with every lap we do." Race classification WSS Round: 5 - United Kingdom Circuit: Silverstone Circuit Length: 3619 Lap Record: 1' 29.027 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 28.750 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2005) Race: 28 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Charpentier Honda  FRA  41' 54.640  2   B. Parkes Yamaha  AUS  +2.802  3   K. Curtain Yamaha  AUS  +6.767  4   P. Riba Kawasaki  ESP  +17.116  5   R. Harms Honda  DNK  +26.102  6   M. Roccoli Yamaha  ITA  +27.097  7   X. Fores Yamaha  ESP  +27.492  8   M. Lagrive Honda  FRA  +27.492  9   J. Stigefelt Honda  SWE  +29.073  10   K. Fujiwara Honda  JPN  +41.265  11   D. Checa Yamaha  ESP  +41.615  12   M. Berger Kawasaki  FRA  +43.602  13   K. Andersen Suzuki  NOR  +44.079  14   Y. Tibero Honda  FRA  +47.538  15   S. Easton Ducati  GBR  +49.619  Championship standings WSS   Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Sebastien Charpentier Honda  FRA 116  2   Kevin Curtain Yamaha  AUS 76  3   Robbin Harms Honda  DNK 63  4   Broc Parkes Yamaha  AUS 58  5   Yoann Tibero Honda  FRA 50  6   Massimo Roccoli Yamaha  ITA 46  7   Xavi Fores Yamaha  ESP 39  8   Johan Stigefelt Honda  SWE 35  9   Kenan Sofuoglu Honda  TUR 27  10   Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda  JPN 22  11   Joshua Brookes Ducati  AUS 21  12   Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha  ITA 17  13   Christian Zaiser Ducati  AUT 15  14   Pere Riba Kawasaki  ESP 13  15   Sebastien Le Grelle Honda  BEL 12  19   David Checa Yamaha  ESP 8  Manufacturers standings WSS Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Honda 125  2  Yamaha 93  3  Ducati 34  4  Kawasaki 27  5  Suzuki 10  FIM Superstock 1000 Cup : Corti takes first win on R1 at Silverstone Round: 3 - United Kingdom Circuit: Silverstone Date: 28 May 2006 Crowd: 71000 Temp: 19ºC Weather: Dry Yamaha Team Italia rider Claudio Corti took his first win in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup at Silverstone today. Starting from pole position the Italian protégé battled intensely with championship leader Alessandro Polita (Suzuki) in the opening laps, before pulling away to take a comfortable win at the end of the 15-lap race. Polita held off Ayrton Badovini (MV Agusta) for second. Emilio Rocamora took fifth place on his YZF-R1SP with Ilario Dionsi making it three Yamahas in the top six. In the championship Polita remains in the lead, with a 22 point advantage over second placed Badovini. Corti moves up to third in the standings, 31 points behind the leader. Claudio Corti (Yamaha Team Italia) "It was a hard race because Alessandro was very fast, especially on the first half of the track. We were able to have a good battle and eventually I was able to build a small gap. I'm really happy to have taken my first world championship win on the R1 and I'm hoping to close the gap in the championship in Misano." Race classification FIM Superstock 1000 Cup Round: 3 - United Kingdom Circuit: Silverstone Circuit Length: 3619 Lap Record: 1' 29.615 (Massimo Roccoli, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 29.392 (Massimo Roccoli, 2005) Race: 15 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   C. Corti Yamaha  ITA  22' 38.681  2   A. Polita Suzuki  ITA  +1.251  3   A. Badovini MV Agusta  ITA  +2.118  4   L. Scassa MV Agusta  ITA  +2.266  5   E. Rocamora Yamaha  ESP  +11.713  6   I. Dionisi Yamaha  ITA  +12.548  7   S. Morais Suzuki  RSA  +12.682  8   D. Sacchetti Kawasaki  ITA  +15.355  9   M. Baiocco Yamaha  ITA  +17.405  10   L. Napoleone Suzuki  FRA  +18.546  11   R. Chiarello Kawasaki  ITA  +20.826  12   A. Martinez Mas Kawasaki  ESP  +21.952  13   R. Cooper Honda  GBR  +23.090  14   M. Smrz Honda  CZE  +24.975  15   C. Tangre Suzuki  FRA  +26.119  Fastest Race Lap:   Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   C. Corti Yamaha  ITA  1' 29.661  Championship standings FIM Superstock 1000 Cup Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Alessandro Polita Suzuki  ITA 70  2   Ayrton Badovini MV Agusta  ITA 48  3   Claudio Corti Yamaha  ITA 39  4   Luca Scassa MV Agusta  ITA 35  5   Enrique Rocamora Yamaha  ESP 29  6   Denis Sacchetti Kawasaki  ITA 27  7   Riccardo Chiarello Kawasaki  ITA 27  8   Alex Martinez Mas Kawasaki  ESP 24  9   Ivan Silva Kawasaki  ESP 20  10   Matteo Baiocco Yamaha  ITA 19  11   Ilario Dionisi Yamaha  ITA 19  12   Sheridan Morais Suzuki  RSA 18  13   Danilo Dell'omo Suzuki  ITA 13  14   Loic Napoleone Suzuki  FRA 10  15   Simone Saltarelli Kawasaki  ITA 9
Alex Asigno
Yamaha-riding British wild-card Tommy Hill, who normally competes in his national championship, had a sensational world championship debut, taking pole position on his Virgin Mobile Yamaha YZF-R1 at Silverstone today. For the first time this year superpole was run under wet weather regulations, giving each rider 50 minutes and 12 laps in which to set their qualifying time, rather than the usual one flying lap in dry conditions.  The 21-year-old former British R6 Cup champion did all his laps in one stint, riding spectacularly to head the times for much of the superpole session. Hill slid off on his final lap while try to improve his pole position time of 1:38.001. Despite the slip-up, no other rider could knock the Virgin Mobile Yamaha rider from the top of the time sheets and he will start his first ever world superbike races from the front of the grid tomorrow. Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga grabbed a front row start at Silverstone, powering his YZF-R1 to the fourth fastest time at the British circuit. The Japanese star has been consistently strong in both the wet and dry, although he was forced to use his spare machine for the superpole after his number one machine developed a a vibration in the preceding free practice session. Haga used all his experience to stay upright in the slippery conditions and get a valuable front row start at a circuit where he has excelled in the past. With the rain stopping and the sun making its first appearance of the day the track prior to the session, the Yamaha Motor Italia duo stayed in the pits until 20 minutes into the session in the hope that the conditions would improve. With heavy rain falling throughout the day, the riders have been unable to work on improving the settings for what are expected to be dry conditions for tomorrow's races. Haga's team-mate Andrew Pitt was a disappointed 11th after superpole. The Australian rode strongly in the dry conditions, going into superpole as the sixth fastest rider, but the rider and his team could not find an ideal wet weather setting and Pitt struggled for grip in the wet superpole session. Yamaha Motor France riders Sebastien Gimbert and Norick Abe completed the five YZF-R1 riders competing in superpole. Gimbert crashed on his first lap in superpole, his third tumble of the weekend, but came back to 12th on his spare machine. Abe, no fan of the wet conditions, finished 15th after superpole - improving his position from regular qualifying by one position. Shinichi Nakatomi will start the race from 20th position after failing to make the top 16 in yesterday's opening qualifying session. The Japanese newcomer is making his first visit to the historic British circuit and is looking to score some more championship points despite having completed only one session in dry conditions. Tommy Hill (Virgin Mobile Yamaha) "I can't believe that I'll be starting my first world superbike races ahead of the guys that I am used to watching on television! I'm not sure what to expect from the races and I think that it'll only really sink in when I'm sitting on the grid tomorrow. It was probably just as well that I crashed as we are so far down the pit lane that I couldn't read my lap board properly. I was feeling really comfortable and I would probably have stayed out even longer if I hadn't come off and been penalized for doing too many laps! It's great to be here and riding on the same tyres as everyone else. I like the wet but it'll be nice for the fans if it's dry tomorrow as we have had so many wet races in the British championship this year. In the dry I'd love to get a top eight but for now I'm just enjoying what we've achieved today." Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "This circuit has no grip and is very scary in the rain. We waited a while to see if the track would dry but it was still very slippery out there. I almost crashed many times so I am really happy to be on the front row. We have a good setting for wet or dry, so I think I can make a good race tomorrow. I hope for sunshine but this is England and no-one ever knows what the weather will do here!" Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "We are struggling for rear grip in the wet and it didn't matter what we did we couldn't improve the situation. We've got a good set-up for the dry so I'm hoping that there's no rain tomorrow. It will be tough from the third row of the grid though." Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "Not so bad but I was not feeling 100 percent after the crash in superpole. I have had quite a few crashes this weekend and need to rest up and get ready for the race." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "I am still trying to find a good feeling with the superbike and the Pirelli tyres in rain conditions, so I was not pleased that qualifying was wet today. The forecast for tomorrow is dry so I am hoping that we can have some good races." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "I'd have liked at least one more hour in dry conditions today as it has been difficult trying to learn the circuit in these conditions. I have never ridden at Silverstone before and it was difficult to find out about the circuit while I am still learning the characteristics of this bike and the wet-weather Pirelli tyres." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "Nori is running strongly in both conditions and is ready to fight at the front tomorrow. His bike developed an unusual vibration before the superpole so we decided not to risk anything and switch to the spare bike. The set-ups are almost identical so this was not such a problem. Andrew had some problems with the back of the bike coming around when he backed off the throttle and this has dropped him back a little. Tonight we will follow the weather forecast. It looks like being dry but we will prepare a wet weather bike and a dry weather bike for each rider. In case of a dry race we already know which front tyre to use and will have the 20 minute warm-up to make our final decision on the rear."    Round: 5 - United Kingdom Circuit: Silverstone Circuit Length: 3619 Lap Record: 1' 27.130 (Regis Laconi, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 26.679 (Yukio Kagayama, 2005) Date: 27 May 2006 Temp: 11ºC Session 2 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying  2nd Qualifying   Superpole  1  T. Hill  Yamaha  GBR   1' 27.807     N/A     1' 38.001  2  T. Bayliss  Ducati  AUS   1' 27.011     N/A     1' 38.254  3  C. Walker  Kawasaki  GBR   1' 27.656     1' 58.930     1' 38.265  4  N. Haga  Yamaha  JPN   1' 27.364     1' 46.090     1' 38.546  5  M. Fabrizio  Honda  ITA   1' 28.078     1' 52.640     1' 38.899  6  A. Barros  Honda  BRA   1' 27.940     1' 45.802     1' 39.082  7  R. Xaus  Ducati  ESP   1' 27.810     N/A     1' 39.388  8  K. Muggeridge  Honda  AUS   1' 27.648     N/A     1' 40.023  9  R. Laconi  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 27.721     1' 51.550     1' 40.042  10  T. Corser  Suzuki  AUS   1' 27.068     1' 45.726     1' 40.181  11  A. Pitt  Yamaha  AUS   1' 27.539     1' 51.876     1' 40.552  12  S. Gimbert  Yamaha  FRA   1' 27.730     N/A     1' 40.574  13  F. Nieto  Kawasaki  ESP   1' 27.205     1' 46.955     1' 40.729  14  J. Toseland  Honda  GBR   1' 27.418     N/A     1' 41.004  15  N. Abe  Yamaha  JPN   1' 28.246     1' 51.269     1' 42.069  16  Y. Kagayama  Suzuki  JPN   1' 27.599     1' 48.928     1' 42.262  20  S. Nakatomi  Yamaha  JPN   1' 28.503     1' 53.912       WSS : Rain means no improvements for supersport riders Round: 5 - United Kingdom WSS Circuit: Silverstone Date: 27 May 2006 Temp: 14ºC Weather: Wet Heavy rain throughout the day meant that the grid positions for tomorrow's world supersport round at Silverstone were decided by the times from Friday's damp session. No riders improved their times in the soaking conditions, although Yamaha Motor Germany riders Broc Parkes and Kevin Curtain both took to the circuit for a handful of laps to test some components and their wet weather settings. Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) will start from pole position, with Curtain and Parkes alongside him in second and third place respectively. Yamaha Team Italia rider Massimo Roccoli heads the second row, in fifth, with Xavi Fores seventh on his privately-entered YZF-R6. Dry conditions are predicted for tomorrow's race, with the supersport competitors having had no practice in completely dry conditions.   Round: 5 - United Kingdom WSS Circuit: Silverstone Circuit Length: 3619 Lap Record: 1' 29.027 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 28.750 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2005) Date: 27 May 2006 Temp: 14ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying  2nd Qualifying  1  S. Charpentier  Honda  FRA   1' 30.516     N/A   2  K. Curtain  Yamaha  AUS   1' 30.711     1' 55.269   3  B. Parkes  Yamaha  AUS   1' 31.001     1' 46.493   4  P. Riba  Kawasaki  ESP   1' 31.492     N/A   5  M. Roccoli  Yamaha  ITA   1' 31.657     1' 46.085   6  M. Lagrive  Honda  FRA   1' 31.692     1' 56.255   7  X. Fores  Yamaha  ESP   1' 31.963     1' 58.969   8  J. Stigefelt  Honda  SWE   1' 32.136     1' 48.307   9  K. Fujiwara  Honda  JPN   1' 32.320     1' 51.224   10  Y. Tibero  Honda  FRA   1' 32.450     N/A   11  M. Sanchini  Yamaha  ITA   1' 32.533     1' 49.784   12  K. Andersen  Suzuki  NOR   1' 32.595     1' 46.573   13  D. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 32.649     1' 45.873   14  B. Veneman  Suzuki  NED   1' 32.732     1' 47.055   15  G. Vizziello  Yamaha  ITA   1' 32.755     1' 47.946   16  M. Berger  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 32.920     1' 48.332   17  J. Enjolras  Yamaha  FRA   1' 32.995     1' 46.427   27  A. Corradi  Yamaha  ITA   1' 34.645     N/A   29  V. Ivanov  Yamaha  RUS   1' 35.041     1' 58.005   30  B. Martinez  Yamaha  ESP   1' 35.154     1' 53.001
Alex Asigno
Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga shone in first qualifying at a damp and windy Silverstone today, ending the day in fourth place with team-mate Andrew Pitt an equally strong sixth. Morning practice took place in wet conditions and although the track was mostly dry for the one-hour afternoon qualifying, the tricky conditions caught out many big name riders and led to two stoppages caused by riders crashing. Haga, who gave the Yamaha YZF-R1 its first world superbike podium finish at Silverstone 12 months ago, looked comfortable in both the wet and dry conditions, setting the third fastest time in the rainy morning session. The Japanese rider declared himself happy with the basic set-up of his Yamaha but will work overnight with his team to further improve the machine ahead of Sunday's two 28-lap races.  Pitt made a big improvement in the closing stages of the session to end as the day's sixth fastest rider at one of his least favourite circuits. Having spent the session experimenting with the set-up of his YZF-R1, the Australian effectively switched back to his base settings to jump up the grid. With quarter of an hour to go Yamaha Motor France's Sebastien Gimbert topped the leader board. The Frenchman had suffered a spectacular crash in the morning practice, when he slid off his R1 going down the start-finish straight. The accident wrecked his machine and left him with abrasions on his back. Despite the handicap he finished the day 11th. Yamaha Motor France's Japanese duo had tougher days, with Norick Abe 16th and Shinichi Nakatomi 20th on his first visit to the circuit. Local wild-card Tommy Hill was 12th on another YZF-R1. Grid positions will be decided in tomorrow's superpole session for the top 16 riders from qualifying. With rain a strong possibility tomorrow morning, the superpole participants could well be decided on today's times. Fastest rider today was championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati), ahead of world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki). Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "Not so bad although I am a little bit angry not to get pole as I had a small problem on what should have been my fastest lap. The feeling with the bike is already good in both the wet and dry but we will work more tomorrow to try and make it better for the races." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "The track was a bit patchy: you'd go in on the dry but then hit a wet bit, but it went ok for us and I'm quite happy. We started the session off well but got a bit lost with the changes we made, before going back to basics to get the lap time. We've still got a bit of a problem with the bike wheelying too much but that's the only point where I think I'm losing some time." Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "I am happy with how things have gone today. The times are very close with just 0.7 second between me and the pole. It was good to be at the top of the timesheets but at the end I went out to test the race tyre rather than going for an improved time. Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "This morning the feeling with the bike was not so good, but then I have never been able to feel comfortable with the superbike in wet conditions. The afternoon was not so bad but the conditions were quite strange, with many riders going down at one corner. Every lap I would see someone else go down there and as a result I was not able to fully attack that corner until the very end. I am still having some problems with the right hand I injured in Monza. This might cause me some problems in the race, as there is a lot of hard braking at this circuit. I am happy to be in the top 16 as I will be in superpole if it rains tomorrow morning, although I hope it is dry and I can show my best." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "I had a crash at the same corner as all the other riders and this meant I could not be as high as I like. I went out on a different tyre option and it caught me out but I am not injured and hope we can have some dry conditions tomorrow." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "A good day. Nori's lap times are very consistent and he seem to be as fast as anyone, while Andrew made just a few changes to the set-up we have used at Monza and Mugello, suggesting that he has found a base setting that really works for him. He started out by following Toseland for a few laps but found that he could pass and go faster on his own. Compared with last year he is looking very strong and I'm pleased because both the riders are happy with their set-ups and seem to have good tyre life around this circuit."    Round: 5 - United Kingdom Circuit: Silverstone Circuit Length: 3619 Lap Record: 1' 27.130 (Regis Laconi, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 26.679 (Yukio Kagayama, 2005) Date: 26 May 2006 Temp: 17ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  T. Bayliss  Ducati  AUS   1' 27.011   2  T. Corser  Suzuki  AUS   1' 27.068   3  F. Nieto  Kawasaki  ESP   1' 27.205   4  N. Haga  Yamaha  JPN   1' 27.364   5  J. Toseland  Honda  GBR   1' 27.418   6  A. Pitt  Yamaha  AUS   1' 27.539   7  Y. Kagayama  Suzuki  JPN   1' 27.599   8  K. Muggeridge  Honda  AUS   1' 27.648   9  C. Walker  Kawasaki  GBR   1' 27.656   10  R. Laconi  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 27.721   11  S. Gimbert  Yamaha  FRA   1' 27.730   12  T. Hill  Yamaha  GBR   1' 27.807   13  R. Xaus  Ducati  ESP   1' 27.810   14  A. Barros  Honda  BRA   1' 27.940   15  M. Fabrizio  Honda  ITA   1' 28.078   16  N. Abe  Yamaha  JPN   1' 28.246   20  S. Nakatomi  Yamaha  JPN   1' 28.503 WSS : Curtain and Parkes shine in Silverstone gloom Round: 5 - United Kingdom WSS Circuit: Silverstone Date: 26 May 2006 Temp: 17ºC Weather: Cloudy Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes gave a good showing on the opening day of supersport action in Silverstone, ending a damp day second and third on the overnight grid. After a morning of rain, supersport qualifying started in damp conditions. Running dry weather tyres the fastest men lapped around two seconds off lap record pace in the difficult conditions. Despite a clear dry line having formed around the circuit, the riders were faced with standing water streaming across the circuit at several points and the mental problem of a light drizzle being blown into onto their visors. Fastest in the session was championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda), who set a best lap of 1:30.516 - one-and-a-half seconds off his own lap record. Curtain set a best of 1:30.711 in the closing stages of the session, with Parkes a further three-tenths behind on 1:31.001. Both YZF-R6 riders declared themselves happy with their day's work, believing that they would have set quicker times had a red flag not stopped the session prematurely. Wild-card Pere Riba (Kawasaki) completes the provisional front row with Yamaha Team Italia rider Massimo Roccoli leading the second row. Spaniard David Checa was 13th fastest on the Yamaha GMT94 YZF-R6 with Gianluca Vizziello 15th on the other Yamaha Team Italia machine.    Round: 5 - United Kingdom WSS Circuit: Silverstone Circuit Length: 3619 Lap Record: 1' 29.027 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 28.750 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2005) Date: 26 May 2006 Temp: 17ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  S. Charpentier  Honda  FRA   1' 30.516   2  K. Curtain  Yamaha  AUS   1' 30.711   3  B. Parkes  Yamaha  AUS   1' 31.001   4  P. Riba  Kawasaki  ESP   1' 31.492   5  M. Roccoli  Yamaha  ITA   1' 31.657   6  M. Lagrive  Honda  FRA   1' 31.692   7  X. Fores  Yamaha  ESP   1' 31.963   8  J. Stigefelt  Honda  SWE   1' 32.136   9  K. Fujiwara  Honda  JPN   1' 32.320   10  Y. Tibero  Honda  FRA   1' 32.450   11  M. Sanchini  Yamaha  ITA   1' 32.533   12  K. Andersen  Suzuki  NOR   1' 32.595   13  D. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 32.649   14  B. Veneman  Suzuki  NED   1' 32.732   15  G. Vizziello  Yamaha  ITA   1' 32.755   16  M. Berger  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 32.920   17  J. Enjolras  Yamaha  FRA   1' 32.995   27  A. Corradi  Yamaha  ITA   1' 34.645   29  V. Ivanov  Yamaha  RUS   1' 35.041   30  B. Martinez  Yamaha  ESP   1' 35.154
Alex Asigno
Britain's Silverstone circuit is the venue for this weekend's fifth round of the 2006 Superbike World Championship. So far the season has been a case of so near but so far for the Yamaha Motor Italia squad. In the eight races run so far this year, Noriyuki Haga has twice finished on the third step of the podium and never finished lower than fifth place. One DNF (crashing on the final lap while contesting the lead at the first race in Qatar) puts Haga fifth in the championship, although the Japanese star knows he now needs to start winning races if he is to stop the so far dominant Troy Bayliss (Ducati) from running away with the championship. Silverstone has proved a successful track for Haga in the past. He took a first and second position there in 2004 and gave the still-developing Yamaha YZF-R1 its first ever world superbike podium finish at last year's race. With the R1 now developed into a consistent front runner, the Yamaha Motor Italia squad sees Silverstone as a great opportunity to make their presence felt in the championship. "I have done well at Silverstone in the past so I am looking forward to racing there again this weekend," says Haga. "The last round at Monza was not so bad. I don't normally get on the podium there so to finish third in race two was a good result for me and the team. Silverstone is a track that we know suits me and the R1. We got our first podium there last year and we should be able to fight with the fastest riders again this year." Team-mate Andrew Pitt lies one place behind Haga in the championship standings. The Australian has also been very consistent this season and is looking to forget a nightmare outing at the British track last year. Pitt struggled to come to terms with the shorter International layout used for the first time last year and picked up a nasty leg injury during practice. Despite this, Pitt insists a top three finish is not out of the question this year, commenting: "I was a little disappointed not to be on the podium at Monza, because the improvements we've made to the bike means that this is a realistic target for us at every circuit. Silverstone wasn't the happiest of races for me last year and I'm not a big fan of the shorter circuit we use now. But at the end of the day it's just another race and you go there with the same target as always, which means getting on the podium." Yamaha Motor France rider Norick Abe arrives in Silverstone in the championship's top ten, despite failing to score in Monza. The Japanese star had a tough weekend in Italy, missing Saturday's practice session and bravely riding but failing to score in the races. Rapidly improving team-mate Shinichi Nakatomi had his best result in Monza with a tenth in race one and will be looking to continue his superbike education at the short and technical British circuit. In the Supersport World Championship Yamaha Motor Germany's Kevin Curtain will look to get his season back on track after the heartache of retiring through mechanical problems in Monza. The Australian remains second overall in the championship, 31 points behind defending world champion Sebastien Charpentier (Honda).
Alex Asigno
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi's unfortunate start to his MotoGP World Championship defence continued today as the Italian rider was hit by another bout of bad luck at Le Mans, where he was forced to retire from the lead with an engine problem. This time his team-mate Colin Edwards was also hit by the jinx, the American being pushed wide in the second corner of the race and running into the gravel traps. The silver lining to the day for the team on a cloudy day in France was that Edwards did manage to get back on track and charge through from last place to finish in sixth - arguably the individual rider performance of the race.  Rossi started the fifth round of the season in confident mood after finding a good set-up for his YZR-M1 machine during the dry practice sessions and he quickly translated that pace to the race, moving from seventh on the grid up to second place by lap three. After two laps behind early leader John Hopkins (Suzuki) the World Champion took control and opened out a comfortable advantage over Dani Pedrosa (Honda), who also got past Hopkins. With eight laps remaining Rossi looked on course to become the first rider this season to win two races but to his despair disaster struck, leaving Pedrosa to fight it out with Marco Melandri (Honda) for the win. Melandri made the decisive move for victory with five laps remaining before Pedrosa was also passed for second place by Loris Capirossi (Ducati). Colin Edwards (6th; + 11.519 seconds) "To be honest I don't quite know what happened at the start. I had my plan which was to run it around the outside like I did last year but things just went haywire from the start and riders were coming at me from everywhere. I got baulked by somebody - it might have been Dani Pedrosa but I'm not sure - and I couldn't get to the outside so I had to move where the space was and go tight. Everybody was wide through the right and came across me as we went left into the chicane so I had nowhere to go but the gravel. Last year it would have probably been okay but the changes they made to the track played against me. I lost four or five seconds there and probably lost another four or five trying to get past people during the first six laps. I wanted to overtake on the exits but they all had so much grip at that stage of the race that it was impossible and I just had to wait for opportunities on the brakes. The setting of the bike was good - the only thing I was missing was a bit of rear grip at the end but with the pace I had we should have been on the podium today." Valentino Rossi (DNF) "The team did a great job with the new chassis this weekend and I really enjoyed being able to ride so fast during the race, so it is a real shame that it ended like that and of course I am very disappointed. Everything was working really well, the bike and tyres felt perfect but then the engine went. A bike stopping on me like this has only happened to me a couple of times in my career, and never with a four-stroke, so for it to happen today is typical of our luck at the moment. Something seems to have gone wrong for us at each of the first few races of the season, apart from Qatar, and it has put us in a difficult situation with regards to the championship. We know that championship is a big challenge now but the last word has not been spoken yet. Now we need to look at it race by race, maybe not think about the championship for a while and concentrate on trying to win as many races as possible from the remaining 12." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "We are trying to smile but obviously we are all very disappointed - especially Valentino. Our engineers did a great job to get the bikes prepared for this race and both Valentino and Colin were ready to fight for a top result. It was great watching Valentino in harmony with the bike and it looked as though it was going to be a classic Valentino Rossi race, making his way to the front and then controlling his advantage over second place. Unfortunately the engine broke and we are analysing it now to find out why. I have to say Colin rode a great race after being forced wide in the first corner and in general we will take a lot of positives from this weekend, even if we don't feel too great right now. Today we should have had two riders on the podium, but we have 12 more chances to try!" Most impressive result of the season so far for Tech 3 Yamaha Team The home Grand Prix for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team provided the best result of the season so far as lead rider, Carlos Checa finished 11th overall with teammate James Ellison also scoring championship points finishing 14th. In his 100th appearance for Yamaha in the premier class, Checa was involved in an exciting battle with factory riders Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), Tony Elias (Honda) and Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki). Carlos is now the second longest serving Yamaha rider in the premier class behind Norick Abe who had 162 starts for the innovative Japanese company The result added further confirmation to the improvement in the Dunlop race tyres the team is using during the 2006 season with Carlos the closest he has been to the leading pack at the end of the race. The team will remain at the Le Mans circuit for a further two days to evaluate a range of the latest Dunlop rubber with various specifications for wet and dry conditions. Carlos Checa (11th, Fastest lap 1'36.781) "It was a good result and I also feel it is the best progress for the year as well. At the beginning I was putting in good lap times but after lap 11 or 12 the rear tyre dropped down and I couldn't keep the pace and of course I was thinking about finishing the race. I tried to keep in the 37's and keep the battle going with Vermeulen and Elias but I had a lot of movement at the rear and I thought 'ok I want to keep the tyre as good as possible.' Then Nakano was coming and I tried to push more to keep Nakano behind and I managed to do this. It was good to have a fight for most of the race. We will take a lot of information away from here. We know where we are and where we want to go. I was very happy with the progress of the bike and now we have two days of testing. I hope we can test many things that we have planned whether it is wet or dry especially on tyres and also to confirm all the settings on the bike that we think can help. I'm looking forward to this as at Turkey and China I was a little bit depressed as we seemed to keep hitting the same wall all the time but now I think we have jumped over the wall and we are much more in front than what we were and this is very satisfying for the team. Even if we are a bit behind we have improved the areas a lot more than before. I hope in two days we can finish everything because you always want to test more. I'm ready to test the two days and I have a lot of motivation to do this so we now know we have some direction to head and what we need to go faster. Dunlop has brought many things and has many ideas so it should be a big help for the next few races. James Ellison (14th Fastest lap 1'37.572) "The race wasn't so bad actually and I'm happy when I see my lap times are getting closer to Carlos all the time. We really made some positive progress this weekend. The way the race went was a good boost to myself as besides getting closer to Carlos's time I feel that I'm moving forward as I'm getting closer to the leaders in race time by the end of the race as well, but we have to improve so we can keep doing those lap times for most of the race. I'm looking forward to Monday and Tuesday where we have a full two-day test and I think we can make big improvements. It'll be great to get in two solid days of testing. I don't care what the weather's like as long as we get through the allocation of tyres we have. There's a lot of things I want to try on the bike as well so hopefully it will be dry so we can do all the work. What we want to do is start playing around with angles swingarm length and all that sort of stuff to find the best settings as obviously the tyres have a lot different characteristics to what the other Yamaha riders are using. Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director This has been the best weekend of the season so far. We have the best race position with 47 seconds to the leaders which is the closest gap we have ever had so far. Most important was the first half of the race as we were together with Vermeulen and Elias lapping at the same pace and I think that is the first time that has happened too. Unfortunately the second part of the race we struggled a little bit to keep the same pace and that is what we have to work on. In China we had the consistency without the performance. Now we have the performance but we have lost a little consistency so clearly this is what we have to work on. We are testing here Monday and Tuesday and Dunlop has brought plenty of tyres to test. The test will now be a lot easier when you have a more positive frame of mind because although it is not the best thing that can happen to finish 11th, it is not too bad when you know how competitive the MotoGP grid is. James also had his best race with both riders in the points and he continues to improve and get faster every time he rides the bike. We had a lot of laps in the dry and wet as we closed the gap to everyone else so we know now we're heading in the right direction and after this test I think things will be even better. Race classification MotoGP Round: 5 - 2006 MotoGP Le Mans Circuit: LeMans Circuit Length: 4180 Lap Record: 1' 35.078 (Valentino Rossi, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 33.990 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Race: 28 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   M. Melandri Honda  ITA  44' 57.369  2   L. Capirossi Ducati  ITA  +1.929  3   D. Pedrosa Honda  ESP  +2.269  4   C. Stoner Honda  AUS  +5.494  5   N. Hayden Honda  USA  +5.709  6   C. Edwards Yamaha  USA  +11.519  7   M. Tamada Honda  JPN  +16.692  8   S. Gibernau Ducati  ESP  +18.142  9   T. Elias Honda  ESP  +23.645  10   C. Vermeulen Suzuki  AUS  +39.362  11   C. Checa Yamaha  ESP  +47.730  12   S. Nakano Kawasaki  JPN  +47.782  13   A. Hofmann Ducati  GER  +1' 9.092  14   J. Ellison Yamaha  GBR  +1' 16.172  15   J. Hopkins Suzuki  USA  +2 lap(s)  Fastest Race Lap:   Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   V. Rossi Yamaha  ITA  1' 35.087  Championship standings MotoGP   Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Nicky Hayden Honda  USA 83  2   Marco Melandri Honda  ITA 79  3   Loris Capirossi Ducati  ITA 79  4   Daniel Pedrosa Honda  ESP 73  5   Casey Stoner Honda  AUS 65  6   Colin Edwards Yamaha  USA 45  7   Toni Elias Honda  ESP 44  8   Valentino Rossi Yamaha  ITA 40  9   Sete Gibernau Ducati  ESP 33  10   Makato Tamada Honda  JPN 33  11   Shinya Nakano Kawasaki  JPN 32  12   John Hopkins Suzuki  USA 21  13   Kenny Roberts Team Roberts KR  USA 20  14   Chris Vermeulen Suzuki  AUS 19  15   Carlos Checa Yamaha  ESP 15  18   James Ellison Yamaha  GBR 5  Manufacturers standings MotoGP   Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Honda 115  2  Ducati 79  3  Yamaha 69  4  Suzuki 35  5  Kawasaki 32  6  Team Roberts KR 20  Team standings MotoGP Pos. Team Points  1  Repsol Honda Team 156  2  Fortuna Honda Team 123  3  Ducati Marlboro Team 112  4  Camel Yamaha Team 85  5  Honda LCR 65  6  Rizla Suzuki 40  7  Kawasaki Racing Team 40  8  Konica Minolta Honda 33  9  Tech3 Yamaha 20  10  Team Roberts KR 20  11  Pramac D'Antin 6  Race classification GP250 Round: 5 - 2006 GP250 Le Mans Circuit: LeMans Circuit Length: 4180 Lap Record: 1' 37.594 (Randy de Puniet, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 37.594 (Randy de Puniet, 2005) Race: 26 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   Y. Takahashi Honda  JPN  43' 42.773  2   A. Dovizioso Honda  ITA  +0.098  3   S. Aoyama Honda  JPN  +2.215  4   H. Aoyama KTM  JPN  +2.484  5   A. de Angelis Aprilia  SMR  +11.270  6   R. Locatelli Aprilia  ITA  +14.597  7   H. Barbera Aprilia  ESP  +16.829  8   M. Simoncelli Gilera  ITA  +17.041  9   S. Guintoli Aprilia  FRA  +17.589  10   J. Smrz Aprilia  CZE  +17.805  11   A. West Aprilia  AUS  +39.032  12   A. Ballerini Aprilia  ITA  +41.728  13   M. Cardenas Honda  COL  +45.150  14   S. Porto Honda  ARG  +46.545  15   A. Vincent Honda  FRA  +55.747  Fastest Race Lap:   Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   H. Aoyama KTM  JPN  1' 39.733  Championship standings GP250   Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Andrea Dovizioso Honda  ITA 92  2   Hector Barbera Aprilia  ESP 78  3   Hiroshi Aoyama KTM  JPN 75  4   Yuki Takahashi Honda  JPN 67  5   Jorge Lorenzo Aprilia  ESP 63  6   Roberto Locatelli Aprilia  ITA 57  7   Sylvain Guintoli Aprilia  FRA 38  8   Alex de Angelis Aprilia  SMR 35  9   Marco Simoncelli Gilera  ITA 31  10   Shuhei Aoyama Honda  JPN 27  11   Jakub Smrz Aprilia  CZE 27  12   Martin Cardenas Honda  COL 22  13   Anthony West Aprilia  AUS 19  14   Sebastian Porto Honda  ARG 17  15   Manuel Poggiali KTM  SMR 13  Manufacturers standings GP250   Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Aprilia 106  2  Honda 97  3  KTM 75
Alex Asigno
Stefan Everts collected his fifth win in a row after pole position, two holeshots and two complete victories in front of 17,400 spectators this afternoon at a sun-bathed Sugo circuit for the Grand Prix of Japan and the fifth round of the 2006 FIM MX1 Motocross World Championship. The Belgian guided his YZ450FM to both chequered flags to extend his 100% record this season and walked away with a 92nd career success. After his seventh consecutive moto triumph Everts is now controlling the series by 61 points at the top of the standings. The Sugo circuit had been meticulously prepared; the natural terrain was carefully mixed with sandy soil and wood chippings to maintain a soft texture. The surface created various racing lines but became rough and bumpy very quickly, meaning that the smallest of errors would prove costly. The 33 year old gained his second pole position of the season on Saturday with a lap-time a second faster than Kawasaki's Tanel Leok. Fine weather conditions blessed raceday for the fourth consecutive Grand Prix. Everts blasted out of the gate for the first moto of 35 minutes and two laps duration and the potency of the YZ450FM was again apparent as he gained the holeshot and had a lead of almost five seconds after three laps. The World Champion was on cruise control from that point and led the pack until the chequered flag for his second consecutive Japanese moto triumph after owning the second sprint last year. For nine circulations (from 21) the Yamaha Intur Sports team flew in formation as Cedric Melotte held second spot. The Belgian eventually fell back into a frantic scrap for podium positions with Ken De Dycker, Steve Ramon and Tanel Leok. A mistake on the final lap demoted the disappointed number '4' to sixth. Everts re-enacted his authoritative performance in race two for a clear victory ahead of Steve Ramon, who clinched second spot on the podium. A holeshot and rapid few opening laps was the main difference in one of the Champion's more straight-forward Grand Prix. He deservingly went on a lap of honour to acknowledge the support and cheers of the Japanese public. Former AMA competitor and now contesting the Japanese Championship, Akira Narita was 11th on his YZ450FM and finished in the top ten with ninth in the second moto after a decent race fighting with some of Europe's fastest riders. Reigning national champion Takeshi Koikeda was 22nd with the YZ250. Yamaha now hold a 41 point lead in the Constructors Championship. In two weeks time round six will take place at the Sevlievo circuit in Bulgaria. Stefan Everts, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "I won my first Championship in 1991 and to win here in Japan in my final year feels very nice. I have had a long career and a lot of support from many people and manufacturers so I must say thank you to the Japanese people for the memories. We have a lot of wins now but I am looking ahead, not behind, and I have to try and keep this form. I would like to win everything so we will keep on working hard and see what happens. It was special to win here for Yamaha. They have given us a lot of support and it has been great to be a part of the family; I hope we can do many things together in the future." Cedric Melotte, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "I always seem to start well but cannot carry the speed. It was better at the beginning of the season. Last week I made a blood test and I am missing some iron and vitamins. I took some tablets for this GP but after the first 15 minutes of each moto I felt empty. I was light-headed and my muscles were heavy. It is frustrating and I don't know what is wrong. This has been a bad weekend." Carlo Rinaldi, Team manager: "It has been another great victory; Stefan was just perfect and there is not much more that we can say. The bike was great and the rider was great so that is excellent for us. The distance over the others was big because Stefan was so strong. Cedric had the speed to compete with the top riders but not the physical condition and at this stage it is a bit of a mystery. He is working hard and has satisfied many physical tests but the results say that something is wrong. We are in Japan but there was not more pressure on us because the preparation and organisation was very good. It was like racing at home because the Japanese people helped us so much, they fulfilled all of our requests and then some more." Laurens Klein Koerkamp: "In 2005 we won both MX1 and MX2 in the first Japanese GP for ten years in Yamaha-land so we thought that it would not be easy to do it again this time. To win all four heats at this GP was amazing and very good for Yamaha. We have always said the standard of the motorcycles was already very high, obviously there are some small changes for top level racing but the decent base is there and this is the best thing we can give to the Yamaha guys." Race classification MX1 Round: 5 - 2006 GP of Sugo, Japan Circuit: Sugo Circuit Length: 3737 Race: 22 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Everts Yamaha  BEL  40' 42.166  2   K. De Dycker Honda  BEL  +14.150  3   T. Leok Kawasaki  EST  +15.944  4   S. Ramon Suzuki  BEL  +23.606  5   B. Jorgensen Honda  DNK  +29.783  6   C. Melotte Yamaha  BEL  +42.607  7   J. Noble Honda  GBR  +48.686  8   J. Barragan KTM  ESP  +54.238  9   M. Priem Yamaha  BEL  +55.718  10   M. Van Daele Honda  BEL  +57.720  11   J. Bill Yamaha  GBR  +1' 9.842  12   K. Strijbos Suzuki  BEL  +1' 14.101  13   D. Theybers Suzuki  BEL  +1' 15.622  14   A. Narita Yamaha  JPN  +1' 30.186  15   A. Pyrhonen TM  FIN  +1' 34.744  16   J. Lindhe KTM  SWE  +1' 44.269  17   K. Masuda Honda  JPN  +1 lap(s)  18   J. Garcia Vico Honda  ESP  +1 lap(s)  19   K. Kaga Suzuki  JPN  +1 lap(s)  20   T. Koikeda Yamaha  JPN  +1 lap(s)  Race 2: 21 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Everts Yamaha  BEL  39' 44.664  2   S. Ramon Suzuki  BEL  +23.136  3   J. Barragan KTM  ESP  +30.861  4   K. Strijbos Suzuki  BEL  +37.393  5   M. Van Daele Honda  BEL  +40.505  6   M. Priem Yamaha  BEL  +46.230  7   J. Noble Honda  GBR  +49.265  8   K. De Dycker Honda  BEL  +54.644  9   A. Narita Yamaha  JPN  +58.827  10   D. Theybers Suzuki  BEL  +1' 2.228  11   K. Kaga Suzuki  JPN  +1' 7.661  12   T. Leok Kawasaki  EST  +1' 14.840  13   A. Pyrhonen TM  FIN  +1' 20.349  14   K. Masuda Honda  JPN  +1' 21.317  15   C. Melotte Yamaha  BEL  +1' 39.598  16   S. Idehara Yamaha  JPN  +1' 44.791  17   J. Lindhe KTM  SWE  +1 lap(s)  18   K. Ohkawara Yamaha  JPN  +1 lap(s)  19   T. Koikeda Yamaha  JPN  +1 lap(s)  20   M. Hiratsuka Kawasaki  JPN  +1 lap(s)  Championship standings MX1 Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Stefan Everts Yamaha  BEL 242  2   Tanel Leok Kawasaki  EST 181  3   Ken De Dycker Honda  BEL 168  4   Kevin Strijbos Suzuki  BEL 165  5   Steve Ramon Suzuki  BEL 151  6   Jonathan Barragan KTM  ESP 150  7   Cedric Melotte Yamaha  BEL 105  8   Manuel Priem Yamaha  BEL 99  9   Sebastien Tortelli KTM  FRA 99  10   Pascal Leuret  Honda  FRA 93  11   Julien Bill Yamaha  GBR 77  12   Marvin Van Daele Honda  BEL 77  13   James Noble Honda  GBR 77  14   Antti Pyrhonen TM  FIN 69  15   Brian Jorgensen Honda  DNK 68  16   Javier Garcia Vico Honda  ESP 60  17   Danny Theybers Suzuki  BEL 58  18   Stephen Sword Kawasaki  GBR 40  19   Johnny Lindhe KTM  SWE 23  20   Aigar Bobkovs Honda  LVA 21  Manufacturers standings MX1 Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Yamaha 242  2  Suzuki 201  3  Kawasaki 181  4  KTM 180  5  Honda 171  6  TM 69  MX2 : Mackenzie repeats Japanese success at Sugo Round: 5 - 2006 GP of Sugo, Japan Circuit: Sugo Date: 21 May 2006 Crowd: 17400 Temp: 25ºC Weather: Sunny Bike it Yamaha UK Dixon Racing rider Billy Mackenzie remains undefeated at the Japanese Sugo circuit as the Scot went 1-3 on his YZ250FM in the two MX2 motos to claim his second career Grand Prix success and Yamaha's first of 2006. The second race was won by World Champion Antonio Cairoli to give manufacturer a perfect 4-from-4 score at their home event. The track was dry, bumpy and technical as the organisers at the Sugo circuit again excelled in presenting a tough and interesting layout for the riders. The warm conditions aided towards a hard day's work for the stars of the MX2 class as 17, 400 spectators looked on. 22 year old Mackenzie, who celebrated his maiden triumph at Sugo in 2005, passed Ricci Racing's Kenneth Gundersen on the second lap of the first race to control the rest of the pack. Kawasaki's Christophe Pourcel was closing at one stage but 'Mac' kept a steady three second advantage to notch his first 25 point haul of the season and the fourth of his career. Cairoli had ended the first lap in the lead but crashed in an incident that also involved Marc de Reuver. The Italian had to fight hard to gain fourth place while Gundersen was not content with the set-up on his machine and crossed the finish line in ninth, taking 11th later in the day for a lacklustre eigth overall. Cairoli was strong off the start in the second moto and his holeshot was swiftly converted into a sizzling series of laps that dragged him away from Mackenzie and the pursuing de Reuver. Mackenzie was demoted to third from that position he kept a small distance over Gareth Swanepoel to ensure overall victory. Cairoli was alone at the front and his win marked the third of the season and fifth from ten motos for Yamaha. Ricci Racing's Alessio Chiodi struggled through the weekend after crashing and injuring his right knee during the second practice session. The Italian was taken for a scan that revealed that nothing was broken but the former Champion was in a lot of pain. He manfully tried to complete the qualification heat but withdrew after a few laps. Thanks to only 30 riders contesting the MX2 class Chiodi was also able to discount the Last Chance session and took to the gate in last place to bravely aim for some points. He managed to score 5 for 16th in race one and repeated the position in race two despite a small spill just before the finish line. The World Championship picture now looks more interesting as series leader Tyla Rattray crashed and could not pick up any points from Moto2. Cairoli is currently fourth and 32 points behind new number one Christophe Pourcel while Mackenzie is only 12 points behind his Yamaha compatriot in fifth. The teams and riders now start the long journey back to Europe before beginning to prepare for the Grand Prix of Bulgaria, due to take place at the Sevlievo circuit in two weeks. Billy Mackenzie, Bike it Yamaha UK Dixon Racing: "I always like coming to Japan! To leave here with a win is incredible and everything that I could have asked for. We have been working hard on the bike and we had some new parts supplied by Rinaldi this weekend and they really helped. The bike had a little bit more bottom-end which is what I needed. The track was really nice. I have to get my starts sorted but when that happens I'm sure I will be upfront more often. Last year I had some good races but also some bad ones so I have been working on being more consistent this season. There are still many GP's left and I am confident that we can move up the championship standings still." Antonio Cairoli, De Carli Yamaha: "We changed the bike last week and I practiced my starts and it really helped today. I took the holeshot twice and the situation is better now off the line. In the first moto Marc passed me after the whoops for the lead but I stayed close to him and when he went down after hitting some wet mud I fell also. I was fast but I lost a lot of time because I crashed again and it meant that I was always fighting back. Now I must work a little bit more on my condition and hope for some more luck!" Alessio Chiodi, Ricci Racing: "I had some bad luck yesterday because I had a good feeling with the track in practice but I crashed in next session when I lost the rear end of the bike. I'm not sure if it was my mistake but right afterwards my knee was hurting so much I was sure something was broken. The doctor said the bone was OK but now I need to get the ligaments checked out. Ten points today is better than nothing and a big injury." Kenneth Gundersen, Ricci Racing: "It was a hard day. In the first race I had a good start and was leading for a lap or two but then I crashed and finished ninth. In the last race I had a really bad start and I was struggling. We had some set-up problems. It wasn't a good weekend for me and will hopefully be better next time."    Race classification MX2 Round: 5 - 2006 GP of Sugo, Japan Circuit: Sugo Circuit Length: 3737 Race: 22 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   B. MacKenzie Yamaha  GBR  40' 27.246  2   C. Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA  +12.249  3   M. De Reuver KTM  NED  +22.606  4   A. Cairoli Yamaha  ITA  +26.790  5   D. Philippaerts KTM  ITA  +28.677  6   T. Rattray KTM  RSA  +38.296  7   G. Swanepoel Kawasaki  RSA  +41.888  8   T. Searle Kawasaki  GBR  +52.492  9   K. Gundersen Yamaha  NOR  +54.515  10   S. Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA  +55.594  11   A. Boissière Yamaha  FRA  +57.845  12   C. Nunn KTM  GBR  +1' 0.655  13   R. Goncalves KTM  POR  +1' 2.793  14   M. Nagl KTM  GER  +1' 24.448  15   L. Seguy Yamaha  FRA  +1' 43.036  16   A. Chiodi Yamaha  ITA  +1' 51.859  17   Y. Kojima Suzuki  JPN  +1' 57.798  18   M. Monni KTM  ITA  +1 lap(s)  19   Y. Ozaki  Yamaha  JPN  +1 lap(s)  20   M. Watanabe Yamaha  JPN  +1 lap(s)  Race 2: 21 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   A. Cairoli Yamaha  ITA  40' 1.774  2   M. De Reuver KTM  NED  +5.927  3   B. MacKenzie Yamaha  GBR  +10.002  4   G. Swanepoel Kawasaki  RSA  +13.618  5   C. Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA  +33.536  6   C. Nunn KTM  GBR  +36.838  7   T. Searle Kawasaki  GBR  +41.246  8   A. Leok Yamaha  EST  +43.951  9   R. Goncalves KTM  POR  +44.995  10   D. Guarneri Yamaha  ITA  +54.406  11   K. Gundersen Yamaha  NOR  +54.586  12   M. Nagl KTM  GER  +1' 6.943  13   M. Monni KTM  ITA  +1' 26.580  14   S. Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA  +1' 42.911  15   L. Seguy Yamaha  FRA  +1' 44.950  16   A. Chiodi Yamaha  ITA  +1' 51.338  17   D. Philippaerts KTM  ITA  +2' 9.160  18   M. Watanabe Yamaha  JPN  +1 lap(s)  19   K. Fukaya Honda  JPN  +1 lap(s)  20   Y. Ozaki  Yamaha  JPN  +1 lap(s)  Championship standings MX2 Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA 196  2   Marc De Reuver KTM  NED 194  3   Tyla Rattray KTM  RSA 181  4   Antonio Cairoli Yamaha  ITA 162  5   Billy MacKenzie Yamaha  GBR 150  6   David Philippaerts KTM  ITA 120  7   Carl Nunn KTM  GBR 119  8   Alessio Chiodi Yamaha  ITA 111  9   Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha  NOR 111  10   Tommy Searle Kawasaki  GBR 105  11   Rui Goncalves KTM  POR 90  12   Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki  RSA 87  13   Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki  FRA 70  14   Davide Guarneri Yamaha  ITA 64  15   Luigi Seguy Yamaha  FRA 63  16   Anthony Boissière Yamaha  FRA 50  17   Aigar Leok Yamaha  EST 46  18   Patrick Caps Honda  BEL 46  19   Maximilian Nagl KTM  GER 45  20   Manuel Monni KTM  ITA 42  Manufacturers standings MX2 Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Yamaha 225  2  KTM 223  3  Kawasaki 200  4  Honda 81  5  Suzuki 6
Alex Asigno
Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards will start from the third row of the grid in the Grand Prix of France tomorrow after setting the seventh and ninth fastest times respectively in this afternoon's qualifying practice. The session took place in dry conditions with ambient temperatures reaching 18ºC after the sunshine finally overpowered the thick black clouds that hovered over the Le Mans circuit and caused the third free practice session to be held in wet conditions during the morning.  The improved weather allowed Valentino Rossi to continue the evaluation of Yamaha's latest chassis, with both of his YZR-M1 machines fitted with the updated specification following positive initial results yesterday. Edwards continued working on the standard version, with similar updates planned for the American at the next round in Italy, and again lapped consistently as one of the fastest riders throughout the session. After setting the pace in yesterday's dry free practice sessions, both Rossi and Edwards have found a good race set-up for their machines but they were unable to turn their pace into a top grid position after struggling to use their qualifying tyres to full potential in the late push for times. Valentino Rossi (7th; 1'34.840, 28 laps) "Today I am happy because we worked in the right way and found a good race setting for the bike. When we used the very soft tyre at the end of the session we again found some vibration problems caused by the extra grip but it's not such a problem on the race tyres. Anyway, looking at the qualifying results from the last few rounds the third row is an improvement and I think there is the possibility of a good result tomorrow. Myself and Colin have been at the top through all the practice on race tyres so we know we have a good pace compared to the other riders. To be honest I expected a better position this afternoon so I am a little disappointed but it is not a disaster. Now we wait to see what the weather does tomorrow, hope for a dry race and then try to turn around our recent bad luck in the race." Colin Edwards (9th; 1'34.970, 28 laps) "The track was a little slippery today, I guess after the rain this morning, and I didn't have the same level of grip on the front tyre. I wasn't as comfortable but we did a good job on the race tyres and my pace is decent. I think there's only three of us lapping in the 1'35s on race tyres so we've got every chance to do something in the race - it's just a shame about the chatter on the qualifying tyres because we could have been much further forward on the grid. I did four or five laps trying to break the 1'35 mark and eventually hit 1'34.9 on the last one but there was no way to go any faster. All things considered the third row isn't bad - there are a few guys who will go backwards tomorrow and a few others who will be tough to get past but, as I said before, we have the pace. Now it's a case of holding that throttle open longer than anyone else into turn one and seeing where we can get from there." 
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Unfortunately we missed out a little on the qualifying tyres because we couldn't use them properly but we're not too worried. On the whole the two days of practice have been very good for both riders and they both have good race pace. The only concern now is that they both have a good start in the race. We were able to set-up the new chassis for Valentino but also the older bike is working very well for Colin. Tomorrow is a good opportunity to get more information and confirm our direction with development but of course we also need points. Our aim for tomorrow is to close the gap between us and the championship leaders." Weather again plays havoc for Tech 3 Yamaha Team For the third time in as many races, the weather had a detrimental effect on progress for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team and tyre suppliers, Dunlop. All plans were thrown out of the window when the heavens opened before the morning's final practice session ensuring a wet track. The afternoon's qualifying battle although dry, was overshadowed by strong winds that added to the team's woes. Riders, Carlos Checa and James Ellison qualified in 14th and 17th positions respectively, but in a carbon performance from Friday's encouraging sessions the overall gap to the leaders in qualifying also narrowed. Additionally, relative novice Ellison is getting closer to his teammate and in doing so both riders are amidst a bunch of more fancied teams on other tyre brands on the grid. Carlos Checa (14th, 1'36.260, 49 laps) "This morning we tried an intermediate rear and we gained some information if it's conditions like that tomorrow. At this stage we know what tyres we will try no matter whether wet or dry. It is clear in my mind the tyres we will use depending on the conditions to fight with the guys that are close to us. On the qualifying tyres I had a wheelie problem and couldn't open the throttle fully in some areas of the track as the grip is good enough to make a good lap and also we had some chattering when we tied to be faster in qualifying. If it's a strange situation like this morning when it was wet then dry or the opposite we must make a strategy. We know we have nothing to lose so we can take a risk and then our choice will not be conservative, it will be risky. The bike is working quite well and we know some tyres that work ok but we only did 50% of the race total on this tyre The Yamaha is very suited to this track and we also have the speed to match it with many of the other teams. The other Yamaha with Edwards is not too far in front of me and this gives me confidence but like everyone else we have lost much time because of the weather but I'm quite confident the bike will work quite well here tomorrow. Our position hasn't changed so when we make the top 10 we will make a party. We tried our best and we know the limitations we are facing. I hope that we can grow together with Dunlop and finally get something to fight for the next level. We know the gap we must close with the top guys and that we must continue to improve which Dunlop is trying very hard to do." James Ellison (17th 1'37.019, 48 laps) "I'm not too unhappy as I am closer to Carlos than ever being less than 0.8 second behind. We also had a problem right at the end of the session that slowed us a bit. The Dunlop qualifying tyres need a few laps to get right up to speed and we just ran out of time as I was quite confident I had another half a second improvement. If we had got that last lap in I would've been a lot closer to Carlos. He knows how to ride the bike and had a lot more experience and my main aim to get right on his times. I know we're down the back but we had a lot of things we wanted to try this weekend. It's the same old story but again the weather played its part. I don't care what it is tomorrow I'm not really bothered although I'd prefer it to be dry because we now have a pretty good set up for the dry. This morning was a bit of a waste as the circuit was very greasy with all the oil coming through so we didn't get a very good wet setup. So if it's not dry I want it to be lashing down - nothing in between." Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "Today was not an easy day with the weather conditions we have had. Soaking wet to start this morning then finishing almost dry. Then it was dry this afternoon with a lot of wind so it has been difficult for everybody. We did quite a few laps with some of the race tyres and we had some interesting results. Then we tried some qualifying tyres and we continued to supply Dunlop with more information so they can continue the development program. This is definitely a good track fro Carlos, who has had some good results here and being at home of course the team wants to do well. The first day was very encouraging because we were just over a second off the best lap but today has been so different. Because of the wet morning, in half of the qualifying session we had to do many laps to find a race tyre. It went reasonably well but after yesterday we thought we could have been better on the grid so we are a little disappointed, especially with the weather. It is supposed to be very wet tomorrow and we have been going quite well with a lot of water on the track so who knows what will happen. Compared to what we have I don't think we are doing a lot worse than the others when you look at the other Yamaha team on another brand of tyre. We also are surrounded by other teams with other tyre brands as well. At this stage we are making improvements at every race as we test and race all in the same weekend. It may not be what everyone on the outside wants to see, we would love to be fighting at the front but, the reality is that in such a competitive sport as MotoGP we can't expect to have immediate success overnight. It all takes time and we should look at how long some others have taken to taste the success they are now enjoying." Round: 5 - 2006 MotoGP Le Mans Circuit: LeMans Circuit Length: 4180 Lap Record: 1' 33.678 (Valentino Rossi, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 33.678 (Valentino Rossi, 2005) Date: 20 May 2006 Temp: 18ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  D. Pedrosa  Honda  ESP   1' 33.990   2  S. Nakano  Kawasaki  JPN   1' 34.201   3  J. Hopkins  Suzuki  USA   1' 34.636   4  R. De Puniet  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 34.780   5  M. Melandri  Honda  ITA   1' 34.795   6  L. Capirossi  Ducati  ITA   1' 34.802   7  V. Rossi  Yamaha  ITA   1' 34.840   8  S. Gibernau  Ducati  ESP   1' 34.870   9  C. Edwards  Yamaha  USA   1' 34.970   10  N. Hayden  Honda  USA   1' 34.988   11  C. Stoner  Honda  AUS   1' 35.430   12  C. Vermeulen  Suzuki  AUS   1' 35.705   13  M. Tamada  Honda  JPN   1' 36.058   14  C. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 36.260   15  K. Roberts  Team Roberts KR  USA   1' 36.501   16  T. Elias  Honda  ESP   1' 36.582   17  J. Ellison  Yamaha  GBR   1' 37.019
Alex Asigno
The Camel Yamaha Team get back to European territory this weekend as they look to bring their MotoGP World Championship points quest back on track in France, following a disappointing run of races on unfamiliar shores. The legendary Le Mans circuit, which has intermittently played home to the MotoGP World Championship since 1969, has been a fixture on the calendar for the last six seasons and this year plays host to the fifth round of an incredible campaign that has already seen four different winners. Reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi is one of those - his sole victory so far coming in the second round at Qatar - but he is aiming to put an end to the parity this weekend as he aims to recover from a largely disappointing run of early season results. A first-corner crash at Jerez and technical problems in the last two rounds at Istanbul and Shanghai mean the Italian lies 32 points adrift of current leader Nicky Hayden (Honda), but the most pressing issue for Rossi is to finally overcome the problems that have restricted development of the 2006 version YZR-M1 machine so far. The 4,180m track holds happy memories for the Camel Yamaha Team, with Rossi having taken pole position and the lap record on his way to victory last season, when he was joined on the podium by his team-mate Colin Edwards. A repeat result is the target for both riders this Sunday, with Edwards having recorded his first top-three finish of the season just days ago in China, when he also extended his run of points-scoring finishes to 25 - a number only previously achieved by Grand Prix legends Mick Doohan, Wayne Gardner, Eddie Lawson and Valentino Rossi. Valentino Rossi: A critical time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi knows that the time is right to turn around his early misfortune and start picking up serious points in his bid to defend motorcycling's premier-class crown for the fifth successive season. The Italian currently lies sixth in the general standings but he is well aware that a change in fortune can spark a good run of results over the next few weeks and dramatically improve his situation. "Sunday was the second time in the first four races that we've scored virtually zero points and on both occasions it hasn't been our fault," reflects Rossi. "Luck has definitely not been on our side but the most important thing now is to sort our problems out as soon as possible because we have a run of important races coming up - starting at Le Mans. The next four or five rounds in Europe are the 'main course' of the season and it is a critical time for us. "We have got some new things to try at Le Mans so hopefully they can help us find a good base set-up but still have enough room for improvement to keep the pace with our rivals over the weekend. We are up against good riders on good machinery and we have to be at our maximum level to be able to beat them. I am already a few points behind the leader but the championship is very long, I have a lot of confidence in my team and we have time to put things right. "Le Mans is not one of my favourite tracks but last year it was very good for us. I took pole position, the fastest lap of the race on the final lap and the victory and Colin was also on the podium, so it was a perfect weekend for us. We hope this weekend can be the same."  Colin Edwards: Repeat podium the target Colin Edwards has his sights firmly set on consecutive podium finishes following his first top-three result in nine months at China on Sunday. Edwards also scored his maiden rostrum of 2005 in round four, which took place at Le Mans one year ago, when he led the race for several laps before eventually conceding positions to Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau. The Texan is hoping that can be a good omen for a repeat success this time around. "I seem to like round four of the season and I was really pleased it came good for me again in China," smiled Edwards. "Last year's podium at Le Mans was the kick-start to a decent run of results for me so I hope that can prove to be the case this time around. It's no secret that we've been having problems with the bike but we're working hard and if we're capable of winning races and taking podiums when we're in trouble then just think what we can do when everything is running smoothly! "I don't mind Le Mans as a circuit too much - it's a real 'stop and go' track, as everybody says, with hard braking, tight corners and hard acceleration. We'll have some work to do with the set-up of the bike but this track was good for us last year so hopefully it can prove a little bit easier to adapt to and not as critical in terms of the problems we've had at the last few circuits." Davide Brivio: Keeping our heads down Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio is looking forward to the relative normality of life on the road as the MotoGP World Championship returns for a seven-week spell on European shores. After a gruelling start to the season including flyaway trips to Qatar, Turkey and China, the team's trucks - home to their travelling workshops and offices - will roll into Le Mans this week to provide a focal point for the hard work to begin. "After such a difficult start, which nonetheless has given us one win with Valentino and Colin's recent podium, I hope the next few weeks in Europe will be like a new beginning to the season for us." says Brivio. "The races coming up are crucial but all we can do is keep our heads down and continue to work hard on solving the problems we have found this year. There is clearly a lot of room for improvement but we know from the performances of Valentino and Colin already this season that the bike has real potential, so we are excited about finally seeing it performing to its maximum. Hopefully that can be at Le Mans. "The engineers at Yamaha have been working very hard to make sure that is the case and Valentino will have a new chassis available from the first practice session on Friday. We will compare it with the current one and will decide later if we will use it or not. We will also remain there for a test on Monday to continue with our development. Last year we had a very good weekend at Le Mans, which finished with both of our riders on the podium, so it would be nice to repeat that result! If we can shake off the bad luck that has been following us around the world recently then we have plenty of reason to be confident." Technically speaking: Le Mans according to Jeremy Burgess Le Mans is an archetypal stop-go track, with the added complication of one of the highest speed turns on the calendar, just after the short start-finish straight. There are several hairpins and chicanes, calling not just for balance and control under hard and repeated braking, but a neat and swift transfer from full braking to full acceleration on the exit of the corners. With nine right-handers and only four lefts, the track is also particularly hard on one side of the tyres, but according to Valentino Rossi's Chief Mechanic Jeremy Burgess there are no hidden secrets to the track in terms of machine set-up. "Le Mans as a circuit is probably the least technical on the whole calendar - it doesn't really have any stand-out features or characteristics that set it out from the rest, certainly not in a positive way," says Burgess. "You need good acceleration out of the slow corners, which is why we struggled there on our first visit with the M1 in 2004 because we were trying out new engines before tackling the true horsepower tracks like Barcelona, Mugello and Assen. "Last year we had a fully-developed bike so we were able to make the minor adjustments that this circuit requires and both Valentino and Colin were fast. Clearly with so much hard braking you need firmer fork settings and spring rates on the front, and then a slightly softer spring on the rear so that the rider can hold his line on the exit. That's it really - there are no secrets to Le Mans!" Valentino Rossi: Information Age: 27 Lives: London, UK Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 GP victories: 80 (54 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc) First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc) GP starts: 161 (101 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 40 World Championships - 7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP) Colin Edwards: Information Age: 32 Lives: Conroe, Texas Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 First GP: Japan, 2003 (MotoGP) GP starts: 52 x MotoGP World Championships - 2 World Superbike ,p> Le Mans Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 - 1'33.678 Le Mans Best Lap: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 - 1'33.226 2005 Results 1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha, 44'12.223 2. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Honda, +0.382 3. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha, +5.711
Alex Asigno
The UFO Corse Yamaha team claimed their best results of the 2006 World Enduro Championship at round three of the series, the GP of Euskadi staged at Gernika, Spain, where team riders Stefan Merriman and Johnny Aubert claimed a day win each in the highly competitive Enduro 2 class. Having both performed well at the GP of Portugal, where they also claimed a day win each, it was Merriman who was first to top the E2 class podium in Gernika after a consistent and incident free performance on day one. On day two Aubert claimed the win and moved to the top of the 2006 Enduro 2 world championship standings. With conditions wet and slippery on day one Merriman claimed the E2 class win and 25 important world championship points largely due to making fewer mistakes than his rivals. Remaining upright on all tests Stefan finished 15 seconds ahead of team-mate Johnny Aubert to make it a Yamaha one-two. Finishing third was Finn Samuli Aro. On day two WEC debutant Aubert simply proved too fast for his Enduro 2 class rivals and placed 47 seconds ahead of Merriman who claimed the runner-up spot. Despite having reversed their finishing order from day one Aubert's and Merriman's performances again ensured that Yamaha claimed a decisive one-two result with Aubert also moving to the head of the E2 world championship standings. Placing third, as he did on day one, was Samuli Aro. Johnny Aubert Enduro 2 class - Day 1 Second, Day 2 First: "I know that I am fast in muddy and rutted conditions but when I heard that the race was going to be difficult I thought that I would struggle, especially in the time checks. Finishing second on day one and winning day two is much better than I ever thought I could do. I am so happy to have won again, especially now that it puts me in the lead of the Enduro 2 world championship. I made one big mistake on the extreme test on day one, which cost me some time, but apart from that it went well. I did also make one mistake on one of the difficult up hills on the enduro test but I was pushing hard at the time so mistakes happen when you are riding hard. Despite my errors I wasn't so far behind Stefan so I knew that if I could ride well on day two I could win. Day two went really well for me. I felt good all the day, although a little tired at the end, and put in some really good test times. I didn't make any big mistakes, in fact my only mistake was hitting neutral once on the motocross test on lap two. I am really, really happy with the way the race has gone for me. Leading the world championship is fantastic." Stefan Merriman Enduro 2 class - Day 1: First, Day 2: Second: "It's been a good weekend for me finishing in first and second in the Enduro 2 class, which I'm pleased with. Obviously I would have liked to have won on both days but Johnny Aubert was really fast on day two. Mika Ahola was actually a little faster than me on day one but he made a big mistake on the enduro test, which lost him a lot of time. I rode consistent on day one and that really helped me. I didn't have any problems and things went really well. On day two I found things really hard. Not being the biggest of riders it takes every bit of my energy to hold on to the bike when I'm pushing hard, especially on a long enduro test like we had. The race was a little too hard, I think. All the riders were really tired at the end of the first day and then at the end of the second day they were absolutely exhausted. We were lucky with the weather really because if it had rained hard on either day then it would have been extremely difficult." Race classification Enduro 2 Round: 3 - Gernika, Spain Circuit: Gernika Race: 1 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Merriman Yamaha  AUS  39' 58.620  2   J. Aubert Yamaha  FRA  +40' 13.180  3   S. Aro KTM  FIN  +40' 36.810  4   M. Ahola Honda  FIN  +41' 43.410  5   P. Edmondson Honda  GBR  +41 ' 43.410  6   F. Planet KTM  FRA  +41' 50.300  7   C. Guerrero GasGas  ESP  +42' 15.530  8   X. Galindo KTM  ESP  +42' 23.910  9   A. Belotti KTM  ITA  +42' 34.130  10   A. Beconi Beta  ITA  +42' 53.710  11   N. Paganon Husqvarna  FRA  +42' 57.500  12   E. McConnell TM  GBR  +43' 19.960  13   C. Nambotin Husqvarna  FRA  +43' 25.640  14   E. Albepart Honda  FRA  +43' 39.360  15   F. Dini Yamaha  ITA  +43' 51.510  16   A. Botturi Aprilia  ITA  +43' 58.500  17   J. Curvalle Kawasaki  FRA  +44' 30.900  18   E. Memmi Sherco  FRA  +45' 31.110  19   J. Simoncini Suzuki  ITA  +46' 23.360  20   V. Salonen HusaBerg  FIN  +46' 43.080  Race 2: 1 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   J. Aubert Yamaha  FRA  51' 41.940  2   S. Merriman Yamaha  AUS  +52' 29.600  3   S. Aro KTM  FIN  +52' 55.990  4   C. Guerrero GasGas  ESP  +53' 11.890  5   M. Ahola Honda  FIN  +53' 11.500  6   P. Edmondson Honda  GBR  +53' 50.290  7   X. Galindo KTM  ESP  +54' 50.570  8   A. Belotti KTM  ITA  +54' 27.520  9   C. Nambotin Husqvarna  FRA  +55' 21.260  10   F. Dini Yamaha  ITA  +55' 2.510  11   N. Paganon Husqvarna  FRA  +55' 21.260  12   E. McConnell TM  GBR  +55' 23.440  13   A. Botturi Aprilia  ITA  +55' 31.660  14   V. Salonen HusaBerg  FIN  +56' 44.240  15   F. Planet KTM  FRA  +56' 52.920  16   F. Mancinelli Beta  ITA  +59' 52.920  17   J. Simoncini Suzuki  ITA  +59' 45.060  Championship standings Enduro 2 Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Johnny Aubert Yamaha  FRA 130  2   Samuli Aro KTM  FIN 128  3   Stefan Merriman Yamaha  AUS 123  4   Mika Ahola Honda  FIN 122  5   Fabien Planet KTM  FRA 83  6   Cristobal Guerrero GasGas  ESP 81  7   Xavier Galindo KTM  ESP 73  8   Paul Edmondson Honda  GBR 62  9   Fabrizio Dini Yamaha  ITA 52  10   Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg  FIN 49  11   Andrea Beconi Beta  ITA 47  12   Euan McConnell TM  GBR 44  13   Andrea Belotti KTM  ITA 43  14   Alessandro Botturi Aprilia  ITA 41  15   Nicolas Paganon Husqvarna  FRA 31  16   Petteri Silvan KTM  FIN 28  17   Emmanuel Albepart Honda  FRA 27  18   Thierry Klutz Sherco  BEL 21  19   Christophe Nambotin Husqvarna  FRA 20  20   Riku Rihelainen HusaBerg  FIN 19  Manufacturers standings Enduro 2 Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Yamaha 140  2  KTM 128  3  Honda 122  4  GasGas 85  5  Beta 52  6  HusaBerg 49  7  TM 43  8  Aprilia 41  9  Husqvarna 39  10  Sherco 31  11  Suzuki 13  12  Kawasaki 10  Enduro 1 : Micheluz faces gruelling conditions succesfully Round: 3 - Gernika, Spain Circuit: Gernika Date: 14 May 2006 Crowd: 6000 Temp: 24ºC Weather: Sunny Just as at the second round of the 2006 World Enduro Championship the UFO Corse Yamaha team were without the services of Spaniard Arnau Vilanova for the GP of Euskadi, staged in Gernika, Spain, due to the team's number one Enduro 1 class rider being unable to compete through injury. In his absence Italian Maurizio Micheluz, who claimed his best ever world championship result at the GP of Portugal one week earlier, again performed well aboard his WR250 to finish in sixth on both days of competition.  Hoping to improve on his fourth place finish on day two at the second round of the WEC series Micheluz rode consistently on day one in Spain despite the wet and extremely challenging conditions. Finishing close behind former 125cc World Enduro Champion Petri Pohjamo on day one, Maurizio was one of just 12 Enduro 1 class finishers on day two - an indication of just how tough the race was. Having placed in sixth on both days Maurizio is now placed in sixth in the Enduro 1 world championship standings just 12 points behind the fifth placed rider. Reigning Enduro 1 world champion Ivan Cervantes topped the E1 class on both days finishing ahead of team-mate Alessandro Belometti on day one and ahead of Italian Simone Albergoni on day two. Maurizio Micheluz Enduro 1 class - Day 1 sixth, Day 2 sixth: "It has been a good weekend for me really. It was an extremely hard race on both days, but a good one. I crashed several times on day one and lost a lot of time, which affected my result a little. I wasn't able to match the pace of the top three riders in the E1 class, so I know I have some work to do on my speed, but I was happy with my riding. I finished in sixth on both days, which I am happy with so it has been a good enough race for me."     Race classification Enduro 1 Round: 3 - Gernika, Spain Circuit: Gernika Race: 1 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   I. Cervantes KTM  ESP  40' 50.200  2   A. Belometti KTM  ITA  +41 ' 8.170  3   B. Oblucki Husqvarna  POL  +41' 9.540  4   S. Albergoni Honda  ITA  +41' 35.040  5   P. Pohjamo TM  FIN  +42' 44.750  6   M. Micheluz Yamaha  ITA  +43' 2.440  7   H. Rodrigues Yamaha  POR  +43' 36.600  8   N. Deparrois Husqvarna  FRA  +43' 41.860  9   P. Bergvall Suzuki  SWE  +44' 5.900  10   J. Gauthier Honda  FRA  +44' 16.400  11   M. Hartmann KTM  GER  +44' 47.850  12   J. Jou Yamaha  ESP  +46' 42.170  13   E. Gutkin TM  FRA  +47' 57.040  
Alex Asigno
Camel Yamaha Team rider Colin Edwards charged from the front row of the grid to the podium today with a determined performance in the Grand Prix of China. Whilst his team-mate Valentino Rossi was denied the chance to challenge for a top three spot after pulling in with a tyre problem on the sixteenth lap, Edwards reaped the rewards of a blistering start to the race, when he snatched the hole-shot and led the field over the opening stages. In sunny and warm conditions Edwards set a scorching pace that only a handful of riders were able to follow, but finally succumbed to pressure from Dani Pedrosa (Honda) on lap ten, the young Spaniard forcing his way past and taking his team-mate Nicky Hayden along for company. Rossi, meanwhile, had been making positive progress through the field, working his way up from thirteenth on the grid to fifth place in the race before bad luck struck once again. The Italian began to feel that there was something wrong with his bike and initially thought it was being caused by the rear tyre. After a swift change he attempted to rejoin the race, only to return to the pits next time around after realising the problem was coming from the front tyre. Edwards consolidated third place for his first podium appearance of the season as Pedrosa held off the challenge of Hayden to clinch his maiden MotoGP win. Colin Edwards (3rd; + 14.634) "I got a really good start and just decided to go as fast as I could over the opening laps. I was close to losing control on a couple of occasions but I decided that I'd rather crash out of the lead today than miss my chance of finishing on the podium, which meant I just couldn't back off. I had some chatter and I could only push the bike so hard; if I went any faster than 2'00.7 then the chatter forced me to slow down, so I didn't have much choice but to hang in there! The freight train came past with Dani and Nicky but I couldn't hang on to the back, they were both just too fast. We've had some problems this weekend and I didn't expect to be on the podium but I can't thank my team, Yamaha and Michelin enough for the way they worked to put me in a competitive position. I think I scored my first podium in round four last season too, so hopefully this can be a sign to kick on from here." Valentino Rossi (DNF) "I didn't get a bad start to the race and I passed a lot of riders but I had a battle with Marco Melandri that cost me some time. Some of his moves were quite strong, which I could understand if we were fighting for the win on the last lap but not for eighth place at that stage of the race. Anyway, the bike felt good but just as I got my pace to 2'00.1 it suddenly started to feel wrong and I thought I had a problem with the rear tyre. I came in to change it but as I went back out I realised it was actually the front tyre, so that was the end of the race for me. I'm really disappointed because I felt in the race that I had the pace to at least pass Hopkins and Edwards, so as far as I am concerned we have lost 16 points and a podium, which would have been a good result after the problems we've had this weekend. We've lost some ground in the championship so I am feeling very disappointed right now but there is a long way to go yet." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "First of all my congratulations to Colin and all his crew - they have kept going after a difficult start to the season and today they got their reward. Third place is good and I hope it can be the start of much better things from him for the rest of the season. Valentino had a bad day, and even if we had changed the front tyre the first time he came in, it would have taken too long and the race would have already been lost. He has been very unlucky this year - firstly with the incident in the first corner at Jerez and now this time with the tyre. It's always upsetting when your results are decided by things that are out of your control but there is nothing he can do about it, only look forward to making up for lost ground over an important run of races in the next few weeks."  Step forward in tyre consistency for Tech 3 Yamaha Team Some may say that finishing 14th and 17th in the Polini Grand Prix of China is an unacceptable result, but the Tech 3 Yamaha Team believes that after a weather effected weekend, positive steps have been made in the consistency of the Dunlop tyres, and are confident that now that has been attained, it will lead to further progression in the remaining races of 2006. By the completion of the today's race, Carlos Checa and James Ellison finished closer to many teams than in any of the season's previous races. Now that the question of the durability of Dunlop tyres has been answered, the next item on the team's agenda is to increase the performance and believe that the next level will be possible in the near future. Carlos Checa (14th, Fastest lap 2'02.610) "We have been working hard through the weekend and we knew that it was going to be difficult but our mission has been to reduce the difference to the large second group of bikes. We have come far in making the tyres last the distance but now our objective is to ensure that we improve our level of performance to lower our lap times over the entire distance. We haven't got the speed in the middle of the turn, especially in acceleration at the moment, but now that the tyres are lasting we need to increase the performance so we can go faster for longer and not be so far off in lap times. What Dunlop has been able to do in these four races makes me confident that they will be able to improve in the areas we need, to bring the lap times down and get even closer to those that are in front. I don't want to be negative but when the lap times are not there, everyone should be concerned. I knew that this was the situation in Dunlop when I came here so it is no surprise. I must carry on and fight against this situation and improve. We must not give up, - completely the opposite - we must work harder, more harder than the others if we want to catch them. I think we can improve one or two steps. The top level will be difficult if we compare with the other tyre rivals but we have to keep trying". James Ellison (17th, Fastest lap 2'03.139) "We're improving the durability of the tyres, but then the side grip dropped away and at a place like China where you're on the side of the tyre for a long period this is going to cost you a lot. To compensate for this I couldn't run the lines I wanted to, so I had to get over the front more. Don't get me wrong, we've made a big step with consistency but towards the end of the race I couldn't carry the corner speed I wanted. Obviously we still have work to do with the bike and the tyres to get the whole package working. The Dunlop guys have got a heap of new stuff coming to Le Mans and the test afterwards. They have been working very hard to improve the situation so we'll see what happens". Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "I am reasonably happy, although you can't jump up and down when you are finishing 14th and 17th, but I think that is the best race of the season for us so far. There was no major drop off in the lap times, the pace wasn't good enough to be in front but we were quite close to Kenny (Roberts Jr) with a factory engine on Michelin's and not far from de Puniet. We are happy with race distance durability but now we have to upgrade the performance because I think we need to be a second a lap quicker to be with the group we are looking at. "We have made some quite big improvements since the start of the project. There are another 13 races to go; Carlos working the way he is working, giving good feedback; James being closer than where he has been before; we have a two-days test after the French Grand Prix next week: hopefully Dunlop will continue the progression we are seeing. We go out of China with the feeling we have done quite a good Grand Prix". "We are seeing progress, everyone is working so hard and we must not stop. We must continue pushing and pushing."    Race classification MotoGP Round: 4 - 2006 MotoGP Shanghai Circuit: Shanghai Circuit Length: 5451 Lap Record: 1' 59.318 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 59.009 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Race: 22 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   D. Pedrosa Honda  ESP  44' 7.734  2   N. Hayden Honda  USA  +1.505  3   C. Edwards Yamaha  USA  +14.634  4   J. Hopkins Suzuki  USA  +19.265  5   C. Stoner Honda  AUS  +23.061  6   M. Tamada Honda  JPN  +23.879  7   M. Melandri Honda  ITA  +24.101  8   L. Capirossi Ducati  ITA  +24.467  9   S. Gibernau Ducati  ESP  +28.358  10   S. Nakano Kawasaki  JPN  +33.851  11   T. Elias Honda  ESP  +35.316  12   R. De Puniet Kawasaki  FRA  +52.004  13   K. Roberts Team Roberts KR  USA  +56.293  14   C. Checa Yamaha  ESP  +1' 3.575  15   A. Hofmann Ducati  GER  +1' 11.172  16   J. Ellison Yamaha  GBR  +1' 23.075  17   J. Cardoso Ducati  ESP  +1' 35.150  Fastest Race Lap:   Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   D. Pedrosa Honda  ESP  1' 59.318  Championship standings MotoGP   Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Nicky Hayden Honda  USA 72  2   Loris Capirossi Ducati  ITA 59  3   Daniel Pedrosa Honda  ESP 57  4   Marco Melandri Honda  ITA 54  5   Casey Stoner Honda  AUS 52  6   Valentino Rossi Yamaha  ITA 40  7   Toni Elias Honda  ESP 37  8   Colin Edwards Yamaha  USA 35  9   Shinya Nakano Kawasaki  JPN 28  10   Sete Gibernau Ducati  ESP 25  11   Makato Tamada Honda  JPN 24  12   John Hopkins Suzuki  USA 20  13   Kenny Roberts Team Roberts KR  USA 20  14   Chris Vermeulen Suzuki  AUS 13  15   Carlos Checa Yamaha  ESP 10  17   James Ellison Yamaha  GBR 3  Manufacturers standings MotoGP Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Honda 90  2  Ducati 59  2  Yamaha 59  3  Suzuki 29  4  Kawasaki 28  5  Team Roberts KR 20  Team standings MotoGP Pos. Team Points  1  Repsol Honda Team 129  2  Fortuna Honda Team 91  3  Ducati Marlboro Team 84  4  Camel Yamaha Team 75  5  Honda LCR 52  6  Kawasaki Racing Team 36  7  Rizla Suzuki 33  8  Konica Minolta Honda 24  9  Team Roberts KR 20  10  Tech3 Yamaha 13  11  Pramac D'Antin 3
Alex Asigno
Camel Yamaha Team rider Colin Edwards will start from the front row of the MotoGP grid in tomorrow's Grand Prix of China after setting the third fastest time in a dramatic single qualifying session today. After battling through torrentially wet conditions yesterday, the riders enjoyed a cloudy but dry free practice this morning as they sought to find a suitable dry set-up for their machines. The afternoon started in similar conditions but a brief rain shower midway through the session confined the riders to a tense spell in their pit garages before a thrilling late shootout for grid positions. Whilst Edwards battled for the top spot with eventual pole setter Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and second-fastest John Hopkins (Suzuki), his Camel Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi was unable to repeat the kind of form that saw him dominate proceedings in the wet conditions yesterday. The Italian was one of several riders to struggle with a lack of dry practice time as he looked to iron out set-up problems and find his pace. He now faces another battle through the pack after setting the 13th fastest time, meaning he will start from the fifth row of the grid. Colin Edwards (3rd; 1'59.383, 15 laps) "This has been a really strange weekend because we started off by finding a setting for the wet and then converted it to the dry - usually it is the other way around! I felt so comfortable with the bike yesterday and I was disappointed when I saw that I was down in thirteenth, but I knew the reason for that and I was really confident about today. I can't really explain why we were off the pace in Turkey but have been right on it here in China, because we have hardly touched anything with the bike, just played around with the suspension. We've got some chatter in certain areas of the track but it's worse when the grip is good, especially when we put a qualifying tyre on. On race rubber you can hardly notice it so I think we have a good setting to go the distance tomorrow and I am happy with my tyre choice. I've had some decent starts to races so far this season but haven't been able to maintain the pace, so hopefully I can turn that around tomorrow. It feels good to be back on the front row." Valentino Rossi (13th; 2'00.720, 18 laps) "For sure we have a lot of problems and it's disappointing to be back in this position again after such a good day yesterday. When the grip becomes normal again, like today, we have a lot of chatter and it's very hard to ride the bike. Really this situation is quite bad, as the chatter has returned again today and it is similar to how it was in Jerez. Now we have to start from the fifth row and so it's going to be a very hard race. We have talked a lot tonight in the garage and now we will try some things in the morning during warm-up and hope that we can make some final improvements. Now I need to ride a defensive race, try not to make any mistakes and try to take as many points as possible."  Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "A very good result for Colin - it's been a while since he was on the front row so it is good to see him back there. He seems much more comfortable on the bike and it's good to see that he is able to ride it so effectively. Unfortunately Valentino wasn't able to follow up his good performance from yesterday with a similar result today, so we will have to take a look at the data with the engineers and try to come up with some ideas for the warm-up tomorrow." Clouds clear to allow progress for Tech 3 Yamaha Team The rain clouds of the opening day cleared sufficiently to permit steady progress for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team during Day Two of the Polini Grand Prix of China at the technically demanding Shanghai International Circuit. However, the solitary qualifying session for all important grid positions was briefly interrupted when a light sprinkling of rain covered the circuit to curtail proceedings for a quarter of the one-hour period. With a new batch of Dunlop qualifying tyres, team riders Carlos Checa and James Ellison secured 14th and 17th positions respectively, the most encouraging aspect for the team being both riders are closer to the leading lap times than in previous Grands Prix. With race weekend's doubling as tyre tests, it has confirmed that the team is heading in a positive direction in both wet and dry conditions. Carlos Checa (14th, 2'01.052, 18 laps) "Considering everything that has happened with the weather, it hasn't been too bad. In the morning session on race tyres we have found a direction to move forward and now physically I'm feeling ok after my injuries from Jerez. I have all my strength and gives me more confidence to push hard for the entire race which is quite important to me. I hope tomorrow can be a dry race as we have a few solutions to try in the warm-up and we'll see if we can improve a few other areas to make better and better. The front tyre is working quite well, but the rear we need to increase grip and stability. We already know the race tyre but after the break in qualifying we couldn't run any more race tyres tests as we had to use the new qualifying tyres to make sure we kept within range of the others". James Ellison (17th. 2'02.088, 16 laps) "The qualifying tyres are working quite well now. We've made a massive improvement compared to what we have done previously. I'm also just a second from Carlos and that is the closest I've been all year which is another encouraging sign for me. Tomorrow in warm-up we're going to try the race tyre I prefer which is a slightly bigger one and run the whole session with it. With the bigger tyre we have found the stability we were missing so that's a good confidence boost and if the temperature is hotter as the forecast indicates that's going to help us as well. We've been making big improvements every session this weekend and we're getting closer on the race set up considering we really only had that one hour session this morning. During a meeting we have to test qualifying, slicks and wet tyres so it's hard to find a race setup but that's what we have to do. After four races we've now found a good direction to push forward and unlike other teams we have no data from previous years to work on so with everything considered I think that we are finally making the progress we have been aiming for". Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "We've had a good two days and given a lot of information to Dunlop about wet weather tyre development. Carlos found a good feeling with his tyre for the dry and so did James. We've done all our times since Qatar on race tyres but now the qualifying tyres seem to be working well. Carlos is in between Elias and Rossi which shows we are between good riders and different bikes. I'm very pleased with James this afternoon. I'm sure when James gets some more confidence he will improve a lot. Hopefully the race will be dry, because nobody has done a lot of laps but we are happy. We are progressing and we are improving. We won't win the race or be on the podium tomorrow but we are performing our mission as we started from scratch with Dunlop. Also, now that Carlos is recovered I think it will help him racing more aggressively and more comfortably".     Round: 4 - 2006 MotoGP Shanghai Circuit: Shanghai Circuit Length: 5451 Lap Record: 2' 13.716 (Alex Barros, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 59.009 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Date: 13 May 2006 Temp: 19ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  D. Pedrosa  Honda  ESP   1' 59.009   2  J. Hopkins  Suzuki  USA   1' 59.373   3  C. Edwards  Yamaha  USA   1' 59.383   4  S. Nakano  Kawasaki  JPN   1' 59.570   5  N. Hayden  Honda  USA   1' 59.574   6  S. Gibernau  Ducati  ESP   1' 59.639   7  C. Stoner  Honda  AUS   1' 59.890   8  M. Melandri  Honda  ITA   2' 0.014   9  R. De Puniet  Kawasaki  FRA   2' 0.044   10  L. Capirossi  Ducati  ITA   2' 0.078   11  M. Tamada  Honda  JPN   2' 0.176   12  C. Vermeulen  Suzuki  AUS   2' 0.304   13  V. Rossi  Yamaha  ITA   2' 0.720   14  C. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   2' 1.052   15  T. Elias  Honda  ESP   2' 1.275   16  A. Hofmann  Ducati  GER   2' 1.972   17  J. Ellison  Yamaha  GBR   2' 2.088
Alex Asigno
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi returned to the top of the MotoGP time sheets today as hard work during practice and testing following the last round at Istanbul began to bear fruit on the opening day of the Grand Prix of China. In soaking conditions caused by a steady downpour of fine rain throughout the day, Rossi repeated the form that saw him take a wet victory at the Shanghai circuit last season with the fastest times in both today's free practice sessions.  After setting the pace by just 0.002 seconds from Casey Stoner (Honda) in the morning, the Italian moved up a gear in the afternoon to improve his time by almost three seconds, holding off the challenge of Loris Capirossi (Ducati) by 0.355 seconds with an exemplary display of wet-weather riding. Meanwhile, his Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards also reported improved feeling with his YZR-M1 machine following positive progress during the Turkish test session, although the American was struggled to turn that into outright pace this afternoon. Valentino Rossi (1st; 2'09.393, 36 laps) "In Turkey we were able to understand some of the problems we were having with the bike and we found some good solutions. The modifications we made using that data here this morning were really good and now I can ride the bike at 100%. Even though it was wet the grip levels were very good, I was able to get a lot of lean angle in the corners and it was really good fun to ride as I want to. I'm really happy because I was fastest in both free practices today and this is a good sign for the weekend. The bike is working well in the wet but I think the solutions we have found for the setting will also work in the dry. Hopefully we will get the chance to find out tomorrow because the worst scenario would be to have another day of wet practice and then a dry race on Sunday." Colin Edwards (13th; 2'11.838, 24 laps) "I'm reasonably happy with today. We did some good work on the setting of the bike but when we got it to where I wanted to push for a good time we had a minor setback with the tyre and I had to go for a different compound, which didn't quite work out. The main thing is that I'm comfortable with the bike and I'm confident I can go much quicker tomorrow whether it's wet or dry. We basically started out with the dry setting we found in Turkey and made small adaptations for the wet conditions here. We found a really good suspension solution at the end so now we just need to put the whole package together with the right tyres tomorrow and run with it." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "That was a very good session, especially after the problems we had in Istanbul. The engineers made some good steps with the setting and, thanks to their good work at the test in Turkey, Valentino was able to be fast again today. Watching him ride to the best of his ability is always very enjoyable and the situation here is clearly very different to what we found when it rained in Turkey. As far as Colin is concerned his lap time today does not reflect his true potential here. He has found a good setting and, although he couldn't finish the session off as he would have liked, there is a lot more to come from him. We have started off well at other races this year and not ended up with the right result so we have to make sure this good work continues right through until Sunday afternoon."  Rain dampens proceedings for Tech 3 Yamaha Team Although the rain overshadowed proceedings, the conditions gave the Tech 3 Yamaha Team an excellent chance to continue testing the ever improving range of Dunlop wet weather tyres. Both riders tested many different combinations of tyres during the two, one-hour practice sessions and recorded valuable data should the showers continue for the remainder of the weekend with Carlos Checa and James Ellison in 16th and17th positions respectively. Carlos Checa (16th, 2'14.914, 36 laps) "It has been a busy day testing tyres and these wet conditions have given us a perfect chance to find a direction to head with the amount of wet-weather tyres Dunlop has for us. But it's what we have to do to continue and hope we can improve further soon. I am not very happy as I'm five seconds off but that is what happens sometimes when we are testing at the same time as trying to find a setup. Now we have to find the tyre to settle on should these conditions continue over the weekend". James Ellison (17th. 2'15.880, 36 laps) "From this morning we made some adjustments by lowering the bike and softening the bike right off and it worked well as the lap times started to come down. We tried a few different tyres during the session and the last tyre we tried was pretty good. Carlos liked it as well so we have something to work on in the morning but we just have to find a way of generating more heat in the side of the tyre which is the problem we're having. Once we do that we should be in much better position. Testing during a meeting is a bit hard but at the end of the day that is what we are here for". Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "Although the positions of Carlos and James are not the best, we are quite satisfied with the work that has been done today because again, we have done a few hours in the rain and they both have been through a lot of different tyres. "It's a tough job but this is "year one" with Dunlop in MotoGP with a factory bike and they have a lot to learn and a lot to understand to catch up to the other brands. We have to go through this testing program - that is something we have to do - and not everything we test is always suitable. But this is our mission and we have to continue. I'd like to thank my riders - especially Carlos - for the good job he is doing. Hopefully, by the end of the season, with all the tyre testing we do during a Grand Prix, we will be a lot closer. The target is to be a pretty competitive in 2007 but we're not going to catch up with the other two immediately."    Round: 4 - 2006 MotoGP Shanghai Circuit: Shanghai Circuit Length: 5451 Lap Record: 2' 13.716 (Alex Barros, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 59.710 (Sete Gibernau, 2005) Date: 12 May 2006 Temp: 17ºC Free Practice :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  Free Practice  1  V. Rossi  Yamaha  ITA   2' 9.393   2  L. Capirossi  Ducati  ITA   2' 9.748   3  J. Hopkins  Suzuki  USA   2' 10.007   4  S. Gibernau  Ducati  ESP   2' 10.187   5  N. Hayden  Honda  USA   2' 10.247   6  M. Melandri  Honda  ITA   2' 10.411   7  D. Pedrosa  Honda  ESP   2' 10.815   8  C. Stoner  Honda  AUS   2' 11.016   9  M. Tamada  Honda  JPN   2' 11.313   10  R. De Puniet  Kawasaki  FRA   2' 11.425   11  C. Vermeulen  Suzuki  AUS   2' 11.438   12  K. Roberts  Team Roberts KR  USA   2' 11.615   13  C. Edwards  Yamaha  USA   2' 11.838   14  S. Nakano  Kawasaki  JPN   2' 12.496   15  T. Elias  Honda  ESP   2' 12.807   16  C. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   2' 14.914   17  J. Ellison  Yamaha  GBR   2' 15.880
Alex Asigno
The whirlwind start to the 2006 MotoGP World Championship continues next weekend as the paddock's globetrotting journey heads eastwards across Asia to the Shanghai International Circuit in China. After visiting Spain, Qatar and Turkey in the opening three rounds of the series, the Camel Yamaha Team take their points quest back to the skies for another 'flyaway' race, before returning to start a European road trip that covers seven races in nine weeks - starting at the Le Mans circuit in France only seven days after the Chinese event. Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards arrive in the country known locally as 'The Big Land' with a mixed bag of results under their arms after an unpredictable start to the campaign. Rossi followed up a first-corner fall at Jerez with victory in Doha before battling to fourth place in Istanbul after a weekend dogged by technical difficulties and bad weather. It has been a similar story for his Texan team-mate, who has shown excellent pace in practice but has yet to find a set-up package that will enable him to compete for race victories and podiums. The Shanghai circuit was designed by architects Hermann Tilke and Peter Wahl and its layout was inspired by the shape of the Chinese character 'shang', which stands for 'high' or 'above'. Other symbols represented in the architecture of the circuit facilities originate from Chinese history, such as the team buildings, which are arranged like pavilions on a lake to resemble the ancient Yuyan-Garden in Shanghai. One of the circuit's most impressive features is the extraordinary main grandstand, which holds capacity for 29,000 spectators and provides a spectacular view of almost 80 percent of the circuit. Valentino Rossi: Tight and technical After taking a surprise wet-weather victory at this circuit last season, Valentino Rossi is hoping for an identical result in different conditions this time around. The torrential rain that fell during the inaugural event at Shanghai one year ago set the scene for one of the most impressive performances of Rossi's career but, given the choice, the World Champion is hoping for a much more straightforward way to demonstrate his superiority next Sunday. "Out of all the victories in my career, China last year was the one I least expected because of the problems we had with the bike during the weekend and with the rain on race day," explains Rossi, who became the all-time record points scorer in Grand Prix history thanks to his fourth place finish in Turkey last week - a result that outs him fifth in the championship. "It was the first time I had won in the wet on the Yamaha, so it was a special victory, but this year I would definitely prefer a dry race. The 2006 version M1 didn't work as well as we had hoped in the wet practice sessions in Turkey and we need as much dry track time as possible to get the bike setting as I like it." Like Turkey the Shanghai circuit was designed by Hermann Tilke, but it is much more similar to the German architect's other effort at Sepang in Malaysia, with tight bends and long straights that, according to Rossi, make the rider's skill in setting the bike up even more important. "My first impressions of the circuit last year were very good but then it wasn't as much fun as I expected," explains the Italian. "It is actually quite tight and technical and is very much a Formula 1 track, so all the riders have a lot of hard work to do finding the right setting for the bikes. It is not ideal for MotoGP - it is a very demanding circuit and it will test the riders and the bikes to the maximum."
Colin Edwards: Expect the unexpected Colin Edwards says he is unsure about what to expect in China after experiencing such mixed fortunes at each of the opening three rounds this season. Like his team-mate, the American is hoping for favourable circumstances from the opening practice in order to gather crucial set-up data for the 2006 version YZR-M1 machine. "Because we had so little dry time at Shanghai last year I think there is a big question mark for everybody about what is going to happen," says Edwards, who currently lies ninth in the championship on 19 points. "It will be important to find a good setting for the bike as quickly as possible so that we can get some endurance testing in before the race and make sure we don't have the problems we've struggled with in previous weekends. This is a very important Grand Prix for us and we simply have to end it with a decent result before the championship heads back to Europe. "The test at Istanbul on Monday was quite beneficial because it gave us an idea of the lap times we could have done in the race if we weren't interrupted by the rain on Saturday, which was encouraging, although it didn't win us any points back! We got a lot of laps in, which is what we need right now, so the engineers have some good data to work on over the next week before the race and I'm confident they can come up with something for us in China." Davide Brivio: Positive thinking Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio is looking towards the Grand Prix in China as a major opportunity to turn around the team's early-season fortunes. Having enjoyed a particularly fruitful weekend in Shanghai at this stage last season, the Italian is hoping the event can prove to be a turning point for the team at the start of a critical phase of the championship. "Last year's race in China was very important for us because we won, and won well, in the wet and this helped us to find the solutions to some problems we had with the dry setting, so we are hoping it can be the same this time," says Brivio. "It has been a difficult start to the season but despite the bad luck of Valentino's crash in the first round at Jerez he is still very close to the top. We're looking forward to seeing what both he and Colin are capable of when the problems are solved and hopefully that can start in China. "Now we have eight races in eleven weekends, which is a lot and puts pressure on everybody. For example our drivers will be going straight from China to pick up the trucks and driving them to France without a break, but I think it is worse for the riders because they have no time to rest. In any case the next three months are the core of the season and a period where the situation regarding the championship becomes much clearer. The conditions are the same for everybody so we have to make sure we work to the best of our abilities and come through with a good share of the points." Technically speaking: Colin Edwards' suspension technician Robert Gronlund Despite being drawn by the same hand as the Istanbul Circuit in Turkey, Shanghai has different characteristics that bring to mind closer comparisons with the other Herman Tilke circuit of Sepang. Combining fast straights and hard braking zones with a series of slow and difficult corners, bike set-up is again a question of finding a compromised balance, whilst the big unknown this weekend will be the conditions - with last year's mixed bag of weather and the typically hot and humid climate making grip levels a complete mystery until Friday morning practice. "In some ways Shanghai is similar to Turkey but in other ways it is very different," explains Robert Gronlund, Colin Edwards' Ohlins suspension technician. "For instance, it doesn't flow as much as that track but it does have a mixture of fast corners and very hard braking zones, so in terms of the set-up the key is again to have a good compromise - especially with the suspension. The bike needs to turn well into the slow corners because, like with the final section in Turkey, you can lose a lot of time there. "The thing about Shanghai is that we have only been once and it was sometimes wet and sometimes dry, so we have a very limited amount of data. Really we're not worried about that though because we feel we made an important step during the test in Turkey. We have reduced the vibration problems we had at Jerez and Qatar and found a solution to the difficulties we had at Istanbul - just generally making the bike easier to ride. A lot will depend on the grip levels at Shanghai and it certainly won't be easy, but we are looking forward to it." Valentino Rossi: Information Age: 27 Lives: London, UK Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 GP victories: 80 (54 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc) First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc) GP starts: 160 (100 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 40 World Championships - 7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP) Colin Edwards: Information Age: 32 Lives: Conroe, Texas Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 First GP: Japan, 2003 (MotoGP) GP starts: 51 x MotoGP World Championships - 2 World Superbike Shanghai Lap Record: Alex Barros (Honda) 2005 - 2'13.716* Shanghai Best Lap: Sete Gibernau (Honda) 2005 - 1'59.710 Shanghai 2005 Results*: 1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 50'02.463 2. Olivier Jacque (Kawasaki) +1.700 3. Marco Melandri (Honda) +16.574 8. Colin Edwards(Yamaha) +31.033 * Wet Race
Alex Asigno
Having produced two impressive results at the opening round of the '06 WEC series, his first ever world championship enduro competition, UFO Corse Yamaha rider Johnny Aubert again showed just how talented a rider he is by claiming his first ever WEC win on day two in Portugal. In doing so Aubert made it the perfect weekend for the UFO Corse Yamaha squad as Stefan Merriman claimed top honours in the E2 class on day one.  On day one Merriman made up for his disappointments at the opening round of the series in Sweden and placed 19 seconds ahead of Finn Mika Ahola and a further 13 seconds ahead of Finn Samuli Aro. Finishing in fourth position, due in part to having struggled on the event's difficult extreme special test, Johnny Aubert placed in fourth. On day two Aubert made none of the mistakes that had slowed his progress on day one and wanting to simply stand on the podium the former motocross racer claimed his first WEC victory. Winning seven of the day's eight special tests Aubert placed 23 seconds ahead of Mika Ahola with Merriman in third. In the E2 world championship standings Aubert is placed third, five points behind class leader Aro, with Merriman fourth. Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha Enduro 2 class - Day 1 fourth, Day 2 first: "It's absolutely fantastic to have had such a great weekend and to have won my first ever world championship enduro race. I still can't believe it. When I saw the motocross and enduro tests I was confident that I could do well, but when I saw the extreme test I thought that I would really struggle. On day one I did find it difficult on the extreme test, and that affected my result. I also had a one big crash on the enduro test. "On day two I wanted to improve my extreme tests and fight for a position on the podium, and I did that. I felt really good on day two - on all the special tests. Winning my first world championship race in my first season of enduro is fantastic. I want to thank the UFO Corse Yamaha team for all there help and support and I hope I can continue with my good results. " Stefan Merriman (UFO Corse Yamaha Enduro 2 class - Day 1: first, Day third: "Winning on day one was great because things certainly didn't go to plan at the first round of the series in Sweden. I had a really good day, and enjoyed the event although it was really difficult. I got stuck on the extreme test, like most riders did, but that was my only real problem. "Day two was also good but Johnny was just faster than me. The tests got a lot rougher and I struggled a little with the long ruts in the corners. I pushed as hard as I could but it just wasn't enough. I know that with refinements to the bike's set-up I will be able to go faster so I'm looking forward to the next race in Spain. " 'Manxman' David Knight claimed top honours on both days in the Enduro 3 class finishing ahead of Finn Marko Tarkkala with Sweden's Bjorne Carlsson claiming third on both days.    Race classification Enduro 2 Round: 2 - Guimaraes, Portugal Circuit: Guimares Race: 1 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Merriman Yamaha  AUS  37' 16.200  2   M. Ahola Honda  FIN  +37' 21.550  3   S. Aro KTM  FIN  +37' 34.670  4   J. Aubert Yamaha  FRA  +37' 47.050  5   P. Edmondson Honda  GBR  +38' 10.500  6   F. Planet KTM  FRA  +38' 32.600  7   X. Galindo KTM  ESP  +38' 33.410  8   C. Guerrero GasGas  ESP  +38' 36.440  9   E. Albepart Honda  FRA  +39' 13.660  10   A. Beconi Beta  ITA  +39' 16.980  11   A. Botturi Aprilia  ITA  +39' 44.240  12   A. Belotti KTM  ITA  +39' 46.550  13   F. Dini Yamaha  ITA  +39' 51.230  14   A. Toresson Suzuki  SWE  +39' 56.700  15   J. Curvalle Kawasaki  FRA  +40' 9.680  16   N. Paganon Husqvarna  FRA  +40' 38.680  17   E. Memmi Sherco  FRA  +40' 41.140  18   J. Pedrero Sherco  ESP  +40' 51.120  19   V. Salonen HusaBerg  FIN  +41' 19.670  20   G. Canova Husqvarna  ITA  +41' 26.190  Race 2: 1 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   J. Aubert Yamaha  FRA  36' 37.550  2   M. Ahola Honda  FIN  +37' 0.790  3   S. Merriman Yamaha  AUS  +37' 31.980  4   S. Aro KTM  FIN  +37' 48.920  5   C. Guerrero GasGas  ESP  +38' 22.910  6   P. Edmondson Honda  GBR  +38' 37.720  7   F. Planet KTM  FRA  +38' 40.320  8   F. Dini Yamaha  ITA  +38' 56.140  9   A. Beconi Beta  ITA  +39' 2.520  10   X. Galindo KTM  ESP  +39' 4.900  11   E. McConnell TM  GBR  +39' 7.430  12   A. Belotti KTM  ITA  +39' 8.620  13   E. Albepart Honda  FRA  +39' 47.060  14   A. Botturi Aprilia  ITA  +39' 54.450  15   N. Paganon Husqvarna  FRA  +39' 55.110  16   V. Salonen HusaBerg  FIN  +40' 1.390  17   E. Memmi Sherco  FRA  +41' 10.880  18   J. Pedrero Sherco  ESP  +41' 26.730  19   F. Mancinelli Beta  ITA  +41' 38.640  20   G. Canova Husqvarna  ITA  +41' 47.760  Championship standings Enduro 2 Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Mika Ahola Honda  FIN 88  2   Samuli Aro KTM  FIN 88  3   Johnny Aubert Yamaha  FRA 83  4   Stefan Merriman Yamaha  AUS 76  5   Fabien Planet KTM  FRA 62  6   Cristobal Guerrero GasGas  ESP 49  7   Xavier Galindo KTM  ESP 46  8   Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg  FIN 41  9   Andrea Beconi Beta  ITA 36  10   Fabrizio Dini Yamaha  ITA 35  11   Paul Edmondson Honda  GBR 31  12   Alessandro Botturi Aprilia  ITA 28  13   Petteri Silvan KTM  FIN 28  14   Euan McConnell TM  GBR 26  15   Thierry Klutz Sherco  BEL 21  16   Emmanuel Albepart Honda  FRA 20  17   Riku Rihelainen HusaBerg  FIN 19  18   Andrea Belotti KTM  ITA 18  19   Patrik Wicksell KTM  SWE 15  20   Nicolas Paganon Husqvarna  FRA 11  Manufacturers standings Enduro 2 Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Yamaha 90  2  Honda 88  2  KTM 88  3  GasGas 53  4  HusaBerg 41  5  Beta 36  6  Sherco 28  6  Aprilia 28  7  TM 25  8  Husqvarna 17  9  Suzuki 7  10  Kawasaki 6  Enduro 1 : Micheluz scores best career result at Guimaraes Round: 2 - Guimaraes, Portugal Circuit: Guimares Date: 7 May 2006 Crowd: 7000 Temp: 20ºC Weather: Dry UFO Corse Yamaha team rider Arnau Vilanova was still unable to compete in the second round of the '06 World Enduro Championship due to having injured his left foot while practicing at his home in Spain prior to the event. Portuguese rider Helder Rodrigues and UFO Corse Yamaha rider Maurizio Micheluz produced Yamaha's best results in the Enduro 1 class. With Rodrigues placing fourth on day one, Micheluz finished in fourth on day two to claim his best ever world championship result and in doing so lifted himself to sixth position in the Enduro 1 world championship standings. At the head of the class Italian Simone Albergoni claimed his first win of the '06 season by topping the podium on day one. Locked in a close battle with reigning E1 world champion Ivan Cervantes just four seconds separated the pair at the end of the day. Placing in third on day one was Italian Alessandro Belometti. On day two the top two finishing positions from day one were reversed with Cervantes claiming the win, 30 seconds ahead of Albergoni. Again placing third was Belometti. Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1 eighth, Day 2 fourth: "The race was really difficult - not only the special tests but also the course because of the rocks and dust. But it has been a good weekend for me. I am really pleased to have finished fourth on day two because it is my best result in the WEC so far. Day one went pretty well for me and I was pleased with the way I was riding. But day two was much better. "I had a big crash on the enduro test, which made things hard for me but on day two I felt a lot better. The tests were really difficult but I enjoyed them. I didn't really have any problems so I am really happy. "    Race classification Enduro 1 Round: 2 - Guimaraes, Portugal Circuit: Guimares Race: 1 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Albergoni Honda  ITA  38' 8.000  2   I. Cervantes KTM  ESP  +38' 12.900  3   A. Belometti KTM  ITA  +38' 50.090  4   H. Rodrigues Yamaha  POR  +39' 16.780  5   B. Oblucki Husqvarna  POL  +39' 53.930  6   M. Hartmann KTM  GER  +39' 46.830  7   P. Pohjamo TM  FIN  +40' 7.030  8   M. Micheluz Yamaha  ITA  +40' 14.910  9   N. Deparrois Husqvarna  FRA  +40' 55.980  10   P. Enes KTM  FRA  +41' 2,152.000  11   J. Jou Yamaha  ESP  +41' 35.030  12   F. Blanc KTM  FRA  +41' 38.290  13   F. Ferreira Yamaha  POR  +41' 5,255.000  14   M. Patrao Suzuki  POR  +42' 48.000  15   A. Mendes Yamaha  FRA  +43' 342.000  16   R. Hubers Yamaha  NED  +49' 2.330  17   S. Helio Yamaha  ESP  +1,13' 14.100  18   A. Fernandez Yamaha  POR  +1.14' 2,712.000  Race 2: 1 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   I. Cervantes KTM  ESP  37' 38.210  2   S. Albergoni Honda  ITA  +38' 8.640  3   A. Belometti KTM  ITA  +38' 29.650  4   M. Micheluz Yamaha  ITA  +39' 0.610  5   P. Pohjamo TM  FIN  +39' 3.150  6   F. Blanc KTM  FRA  +39' 28.410  7   H. Rodrigues Yamaha  POR  +39' 35.800  8   B. Oblucki Husqvarna  POL  +39' 48.210  9   M. Hartmann KTM  GER  +40' 8.100  10   N. Deparrois Husqvarna  FRA  +40' 35.300  11   A. Raphael Kawasaki  FRA  +40' 35.930  12   J. Gauthier Honda  FRA  +40' 38.550  13   J. Jou Yamaha  ESP  +41' 20.350  14   M. Patrao Suzuki  POR  +41' 38.500  15   A. Mendes Yamaha  FRA  +42' 46.410  16   F. Ferreira Yamaha  POR  +42' 51.880  17   R. Hubers Yamaha  NED  +43' 39.260  18   A. Fernandez Yamaha  POR  +59' 27.900  Championship standings Enduro 1 Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Ivan Cervantes KTM  ESP 94  2   Simone Albergoni Honda  ITA 83  3   Petri Pohjamo TM  FIN 73  4   Alessandro Belometti KTM  ITA 68  5   Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna  POL 65  6   Mauricio Micheluz Yamaha  ITA 61  7   Helder Rodrigues Yamaha  POR 55  8   Mike Hartmann KTM  GER 46  9   Peter Bergvall Suzuki  SWE 40  10   Freddy Blanc KTM  FRA 37  11   Robert Carlsson Yamaha  SWE 26  12   Frederik Georgsson KTM  SWE 23  13   Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna  FRA 23  14   Pär Olsson Yamaha  SWE 19  15   Joan Jou Yamaha  ESP 18  16   Leit Holm KTM  FIN 15  17   Mario Patrao Suzuki  POR 14  18   Fernando Ferreira Yamaha  POR 13  19   Alexandre Mendes Yamaha  FRA 12  20   Pedro Enes KTM  FRA 11  25   Andre Fernandez Yamaha  POR 6  27   Santos Helio Yamaha  ESP 4  Manufacturers standings Enduro 1 Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  KTM 94  2  Honda 83  3  TM 73  4  Yamaha 66  5  Husqvarna 65  6  Suzuki 54  7  Kawasaki 10
Alex Asigno
Noriyuki Haga gave the Tifosi plenty to cheer about with a fine podium finish at Monza today. The ever-popular Yamaha Motor Italia star equaled his best ever result around the historic circuit with third place in race two to the delight of his locally based team and a large and passionate crowd. Race one saw Haga involved in a three-way battle for second place with Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Alex Barros (Honda), which ultimately saw him finish fourth at the end of 18 grueling laps. For race two the Japanese star made some small changes to the suspension of his YZF-R1, allowing him to lead the way with Corser and Troy Bayliss (Ducati) until a lack of grip in the closing stages forced him to consolidate his podium finish. Team-mate Andrew Pitt also gave two stirring performances despite failing to get off the line cleanly. The Australian found himself boxed in at Monza's notoriously slow first chicane, which meant that he was unable get away with the leading group. In both races Pitt was able to run similar lap times to the leaders, allowing him to work his way up to the second group. In both instances he was able to finish at the head of the pack, for fifth place in race one and sixth in race two. Bayliss won both races to extend his lead in the championship to 36 points over Corser, who was third and second in today's races. Haga lies fifth in the championship but with a reduced gap to third. The Yamaha rider is just four points behind James Toseland (Honda) and two adrift of fourth placed Barros. Yamaha Motor France's riders had mixed fortunes in Monza. World superbike rookie Shinichi Nakatomi continued to impress with a season best tenth in race one and 12th in race two. The Japanese rider came from 20th on the grid and was dicing with illustrious company throughout the races, one of whom was team-mate Sebastien Gimbert, who finished 12th in race one before retiring with clutch problems in the second. But Norick Abe suffered a nightmare in Monza and received no reward for a gritty performance. After missing the Saturday practice sessions through injury, Abe must have wished he had stayed in his motorhome after becoming one of seven riders to go down in a first corner pile-up in race one. For race two he came from 27th on the grid to finish the race 16th, a fine performance for a rider suffering neck and wrist injuries but unfortunately not one which brought any championship points. Despite his failure to score, Abe remains in the championship's top ten, dropping just one place to ninth. Nakatomi moves up to 17th and Gimbert 22nd. The next race takes place at the Silverstone circuit in three weekend's time. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I'm very happy to finally get on the podium in Monza. We had two hard races and in the second I thought that I could stay with Bayliss and Corser but I had a small problem with rear grip. Our bike has worked very well this weekend and I am pleased for that I can make this good result at the home race of my team. I am now looking to get another good result in Silverstone as this is a track I like very much and where we had the first podium for the R1 last year." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "It was all about making a good start and unfortunately in both races I couldn't get cleanly through the first chicane. I thought that I rode well and my lap times were the same as the guys in the front group but they had already made a break and it was impossible to catch them. I'm disappointed as I expected more and thought we could be on the podium today but in both races I beat the guys I was racing with and that's about as much as I could do." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "I was too far behind on the start but on the track I could catch people. After ten or 11 laps I was catching again but l missed a gear and lost about five positions. After that, I had to work very hard but we got some points in both races. It was a positive for us." Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "It was a difficult weekend, for the team and for me. We had big problems with the clutch. In the first race it was not so bad but the second race was no good for me." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "We had very bad luck this weekend. My big crash on Friday was my mistake but also caused by the rainy conditions. So in first race I made a good start but somebody made a big mistake and many riders went out. That one was not my fault. In race two my right hand was in more pain than the first race and we didn't not have ideal settings because we had to miss practice sessions." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "On Friday we felt that a podium was possible and although it didn't go so well in final qualifying I was confident that both riders could challenge after a good performance in the warm-up this morning. I'm pleased for Noriyuki because on Thursday he said to me that he never finishes on the podium here. Andrew also rode well and has been strong all weekend, so we can go to Silverstone confident of challenging for the podium again." Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France) "Nakatomi confirmed his good result of the first race in the second one, although this time there was no big crash like in race one, so more riders finished. Gimbert had a big problem with the clutch so he could not ride the bike. For Abe the situation was clear and he only rode for the team, only for us, so true thanks to him. He tried his heart out but missed a point by only one position in race two." Race classification WSB Round: 4 - Italy Circuit: Monza Circuit Length: 5792 Lap Record: 1' 46.815 (Troy Bayliss, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 46.815 (Troy Bayliss, 2006) Race: 18 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   T. Bayliss Ducati  AUS  32' 23.100  2   A. Barros Honda  BRA  +3.982  3   T. Corser Suzuki  AUS  +4.216  4   N. Haga Yamaha  JPN  +4.395  5   A. Pitt Yamaha  AUS  +13.605  6   K. Muggeridge Honda  AUS  +13.665  7   R. Laconi Kawasaki  FRA  +14.066  8   R. Rolfo Ducati  ITA  +19.170  9   L. Lanzi Ducati  ITA  +25.729  10   S. Nakatomi Yamaha  JPN  +28.350  11   C. Walker Kawasaki  GBR  +29.639  12   S. Gimbert Yamaha  FRA  +30.354  13   F. Foret Suzuki  FRA  +43.838  14   L. Alfonsi Ducati  ITA  +44.312  15   I. Clementi Ducati  ITA  +44.530  Race 2: 18 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   T. Bayliss Ducati  AUS  32' 17.705  2   T. Corser Suzuki  AUS  +1.916  3   N. Haga Yamaha  JPN  +6.479  4   A. Barros Honda  BRA  +10.227  5   J. Toseland Honda  GBR  +11.910  6   A. Pitt Yamaha  AUS  +17.551  7   K. Muggeridge Honda  AUS  +17.720  8   F. Nieto Kawasaki  ESP  +17.825  9   C. Walker Kawasaki  GBR  +22.873  10   R. Rolfo Ducati  ITA  +31.603  11   L. Lanzi Ducati  ITA  +31.610  12   S. Nakatomi Yamaha  JPN  +34.282  13   F. Foret Suzuki  FRA  +35.273  14   M. Fabrizio Honda  ITA  +35.306  15   R. Xaus Ducati  ESP  +40.552  16   N. Abe Yamaha  JPN  +51.516  Fastest Race Lap:   Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   T. Bayliss Ducati  AUS  1' 46.815  Championship standings WSB Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Troy Bayliss Ducati  AUS 175  2   Troy Corser Suzuki  AUS 139  3   James Toseland Honda  GBR 97  4   Alex Barros Honda  BRA 95  5   Noriyuki Haga Yamaha  JPN 93  6   Andrew Pitt Yamaha  AUS 79  7   Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati  ITA 59  8   Roberto Rolfo Ducati  ITA 46  9   Norick Abe Yamaha  JPN 40  10   Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki  ESP 37  11   Michel Fabrizio Honda  ITA 36  12   Ruben Xaus Ducati  ESP 34  13   Chris Walker Kawasaki  GBR 33  14   Regis Laconi Kawasaki  FRA 31  15   Karl Muggeridge Honda  AUS 30  17   Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha  JPN 18  22   Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha  FRA 7  Manufacturers standings WSB   Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Ducati 176  2  Suzuki 149  3  Honda 124  4  Yamaha 113  5  Kawasaki 57  6  Petronas 4  WSS : Roccoli tops the R6s in Monza Round: 4 - Italy Circuit: Monza Date: 7 May 2006 Crowd: 90000 Temp: 22ºC Weather: Sunny Italian youngster Massimo Roccoli had his best result as a world supersport rider, bringing his Yamaha YZF-R6 home fourth at Monza today. The Yamaha Team Italia rider survived a last lap scare when he touched Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) as he entered Parabolica corner for the final time. The pair, who had an intense battle in last year's superstock 1000 race at Monza, crossed the line side-by-side with the Yamaha man getting the verdict by just two-tenths of a second. Roccoli had been running a quiet race just behind the leading group for much of the 16 laps, only to be caught as he succumbed to arm pump in the latter stages of the race. He was unable to fend off the challenge of championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda), who was charging through the field after a ride-through penalty, but successfully defended his place from Sofuoglu and the intense race-long battle between Yamaha Motor Germany's Broc Parkes and Ducati rider Stuart Easton. After qualifying down in 11th position Parkes had a difficult race. He found himself baulked at the first chicane and after picking off a few places he was unable to find a way past Easton and came home a disappointed seventh. It was day that promised so much but delivered so little for Yamaha Motor Germany. Kevin Curtain led for much of the way, until a technical problem halted him with four laps remaining. The Australian had been involved in a thrilling battle with eventual winner Yoann Tiberio (Honda) when his engine expired at the end of the home straight. Despite failing to score Curtain retains his second place in the championship standings. Third place for Charpentier sees him extend his lead over Curtain to 31 points with second-placed Monza finisher Robbin Harms (Honda) a further eight points adrift in third. Parkes remains fifth in the championship with Roccoli sixth. Roccoli's team-mate Gianluca Vizziello was another rider to leave Monza without any points. The Italian had been in sparkling form to qualify second but he spectacularly crashed out of sixth place after being baulked by another rider on lap three. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia) "I got a good start and felt that I could fight for the podium today, but in the end I had some problems with my arm. When Charpentier came past me I wanted to try and stay with him but he was just too fast and I had to concentrate on getting the best result possible. The pain in my arm made it hard for me when entering the corners but I was determined to get a good result and when Sofuoglu passed me I fought straight back. I'm happy to get a good result today and finishing so close to the podium has only made me more determined." Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) "The main problem was qualifying back on the third row. I was able to make some good progress until I came across a Ducati that I had difficulty getting past. Sometimes I was able to get past on the brakes but I was never quite able to make enough of a break to stop him coming back at me down the straights." Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) "It's disappointing not to be able to take advantage of Charpentier's penalty and to take some points back but that's life and no one will go through a season without some bad luck, so hopefully this is ours for the season. There are still a lot of positives to take from this weekend and we just have to work hard and focus on Silverstone." Gianluca Vizziello (Yamaha Team Italia) "I'm not happy because I knew that I could fight for a good position and possibly the podium today. Someone cut across me going into Ascari so I had to brake hard and this made me crash out with Fujiwara." Race classification WSS Round: 4 - Italy Circuit: Monza Circuit Length: 5792 Lap Record: 1' 51.403 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 51.403 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2006) Race: 16 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   Y. Tibero Honda  FRA  30' 14.618  2   R. Harms Honda  DNK  +1.924  3   S. Charpentier Honda  FRA  +4.255  4   M. Roccoli Yamaha  ITA  +7.224  5   K. Sofuoglu Honda  TUR  +7.499  6   S. Easton Ducati  GBR  +9.015  7   B. Parkes Yamaha  AUS  +9.117  8   J. Stigefelt Honda  SWE  +10.866  9   X. Fores Yamaha  ESP  +10.997  10   S. Chambon Kawasaki  FRA  +21.842  11   T. Lauslehto Honda  FIN  +25.332  12   S. Cruciani Honda  ITA  +25.478  13   D. Checa Yamaha  ESP  +26.654  14   V. Kallio Yamaha  FIN  +34.012  15   K. Andersen Suzuki  NOR  +38.406  Fastest Race Lap:   Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   S. Charpentier Honda  FRA  1' 51.403  Championship standings WSS   Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Sebastien Charpentier Honda  FRA 91  2   Kevin Curtain Yamaha  AUS 60  3   Robbin Harms Honda  DNK 52  4   Yoann Tibero Honda  FRA 48  5   Broc Parkes Yamaha  AUS 38  6   Massimo Roccoli Yamaha  ITA 36  7   Xavi Fores Yamaha  ESP 30  8   Johan Stigefelt Honda  SWE 28  9   Kenan Sofuoglu Honda  TUR 27  10   Joshua Brookes Ducati  AUS 21  11   Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha  ITA 17  12   Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda  JPN 16  13   Christian Zaiser Ducati  AUT 15  14   Sebastien Le Grelle Honda  BEL 12  15   Stuart Easton Ducati  GBR 10  25   David Checa Yamaha  ESP 3  26   Didier Van Keymeulen Yamaha  BEL 2  Manufacturers standings WSS   Pos. Manufacturer Points  1  Honda 100  2  Yamaha 73  3  Ducati 33  4  Kawasaki 14  5  Suzuki 7  European Superstock : Corti tenth in Monza Round: 2 - Italy Circuit: Monza Date: 7 May 2006 Crowd: 90000 Temp: 22ºC Weather: Sunny Yamaha Team Italia rider Claudio Corti finished tenth in today's second round of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup at his local Monza circuit. Starting from tenth on the grid following a gear selection problem in the second qualifying session, the YZF-R1 SP rider made a superb start to lie third at the end of the opening lap. The 18-year-old from Como struggled for traction and slipped back into a fierce battle for seventh place but found himself slipstreamed across the finish line. In a photo finish, fellow R1 SP riders Ilario Dionsi and Matteo Baiocco passed Corti across the line - the three Yamahas covered by just one hundredth of a second at the finish. Emilio Rocamora was 11th on another Yamaha, a further two hundredths of a seconds behind. Italian Alessandro Polita (Suzuki) led from start to finish to take his second win of the season, with Riccardo Chiarello (Kawasaki) and Ayrton Badovini (MV Agusta) making it an all Italian podium. With two of the ten rounds gone, Polita leads with a perfect 50 points, 18 ahead of second placed Badovini. Corti is the top placed Yamaha rider, with 14 points in ninth place. Claudio Corti (Yamaha Team Italia) "I made a good start but after a few laps I lost all feeling with the bike. From then all I could think about was getting some points for the championship. It's not good but at least I have scored some points today."   Race classification FIM Superstock 1000 Cup Round: 2 - Italy Circuit: Monza Circuit Length: 5792 Lap Record: 1' 51.212 (Alessandro Polita, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever:  1' 51.212 (Alessandro Polita, 2006) Race: 11 Laps  Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   A. Polita Suzuki  ITA  20' 31,118.000  2   R. Chiarello Kawasaki  ITA  +0.357  3   A. Badovini MV Agusta  ITA  +9.079  4   A. Martinez Mas Kawasaki  ESP  +9.449  5   L. Scassa MV Agusta  ITA  +9.531  6   D. Dell'omo Suzuki  ITA  +10.066  7   D. Sacchetti Kawasaki  ITA  +15.548  8   I. Dionisi Yamaha  ITA  +16.711  9   M. Baiocco Yamaha  ITA  +16.714  10   C. Corti Yamaha  ITA  +16.725  11   E. Rocamora Yamaha  ESP  +16.979  12   L. Napoleone Suzuki  FRA  +19.278  13   S. Saltarelli Kawasaki  ITA  +25.388  14   M. Jerman Suzuki  SVK  +28.751  15   P. Solli Yamaha  NOR  +30.366  Fastest Race Lap:   Pos.  Rider Manufacturer  Nat. Total Time  1   A. Polita Suzuki  ITA  1' 51.212  Championship standings FIM Superstock 1000 Cup   Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat. Points  1   Alessandro Polita Suzuki  ITA 50  2   Ayrton Badovini MV Agusta  ITA 32  3   Luca Scassa MV Agusta  ITA 22  4   Riccardo Chiarello Kawasaki  ITA 22  5   Alex Martinez Mas Kawasaki  ESP 20  6   Ivan Silva Kawasaki  ESP 20  7   Denis Sacchetti Kawasaki  ITA 19  8   Enrique Rocamora Yamaha  ESP 18  9   Claudio Corti Yamaha  ITA 14  10   Danilo Dell'omo Suzuki  ITA 13  11   Matteo Baiocco Yamaha  ITA 12  12   Ilario Dionisi Yamaha  ITA 9  13   Simone Saltarelli Kawasaki  ITA 9  14   Sheridan Morais Suzuki  RSA 9  15   Richard Cooper Honda  GBR 4
Alex Asigno
Yamaha Motor Italia riders Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga go into tomorrow's Monza races in good spirits after a strong showing in today's final qualifying sessions. Both riders have run consistently at the top of the timesheets, with Pitt third and Haga fourth at the end of the two one-hour qualifying sessions. Both men were to lose places in their grid deciding one-lap superpole runs, but with the leading riders covered by just fractions of a second around this long and fast circuit, Pitt and Haga are confident they can challenge at the front in what looks like being a pair of thrilling races. Haga, who was fastest in yesterday's practice session, went into superpole as the fourth fastest rider but was hampered by a vibration from the rear of his machine. The Japanese star parked his machine immediately after crossing the finish line, with the source of the vibration being traced to a faulty component. The problem caused Haga to slip back to 10th on tomorrow's grid, although the rider is confident of running with the leaders in tomorrow's races. Pitt ended regular qualifying as one of only three riders to break into the 1:46 bracket but was unable to replicate his best time on his superpole lap. The Australian was hampered on his flying lap due to the engine mapping switch not being set to the optimum position. Despite this handicap, Pitt was on schedule to take pole position at the second intermediate point, only to make a mistake on entry to the Parabolica corner. He ended the day in sixth position, confident he can make a good start and join the leading slipstreaming group around this unique circuit. Yamaha Motor France's three riders missed out on superpole at Monza. Frenchman Sebastien Gimbert was 18th fastest in the two one-hour sessions, only just missing out on a top 16 superpole place when his best time was eclipsed in the dying moments of the second session. Norick Abe missed the morning's final qualifying session as a result of the crash he had yesterday. Abe's best time of 1:49.497, set in Friday's less favourable conditions, was still good enough to qualify him for the races and the former MotoGP rider has been passed to ride by medical staff. Should he be fit enough to ride, he will start tomorrow's races from 27th. Team-mate Shinichi Nakatomi improved his Friday time by over a second to start from 20th place in his first visit to the historic circuit. Pole position for tomorrow's races goes to world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki) from his countryman Troy Bayliss (Ducati). Alex Barros (Honda) and Regis Laconi (Kawasaki) complete the front row. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "My superpole lap wasn't that great. We only realized afterwards that we were using the wrong engine map setting and that would have cost us a little bit of power. Probably someone knocked it when they were taking the bike back to the pits after I ran out of fuel, but it's not a big deal, as I made a mess going into the last corner of my superpole lap and that has probably cost us a place on the front row. I'm quite happy though, because we are able to do good lap times on the race tyre. It's all about getting away with the leading group around here and from the second row I'm quite confident that won't be a problem for us." Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I felt a problem from the back of my bike throughout the superpole lap, a banging or vibration that said something was not right. I also had some fluid come up on my visor as I went into Parabolica, so I thought that it was best to park the bike at the end of the straight, just in case something serious was wrong. Superpole was not so good but for the race I think we are in good condition. The races will be close but I will try my hardest to go for the win." Massimo Meregalli (Team Corodinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "Noriyuki wasn't as fast today as he was yesterday but I am confident that he will find his best form for the races as he always does. Andrew was also able to do a good race simulation today and we are ready for what should be some interesting races." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "We made some progress today and I was able to go faster in the afternoon practice session than I did in qualifying. This looks good for the race and after some good results in Valencia hopefully we can find some more points in the races tomorrow." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "I am planning to race tomorrow but today I had too much pain in my back and wrists to ride. It was a very big crash and thankfully I cannot remember anything about it. Nothing is broken and the doctors say that I can race, although I decided not ride today so that I can be in the best condition for tomorrow." Round: 4 - Italy Circuit: Monza Circuit Length: 5792 Lap Record: 1' 47.434 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 46.058 (Troy Corser, 2006) Date: 6 May 2006 Temp: 23ºC Session 2 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying  2nd Qualifying   Superpole  1  T. Corser  Suzuki  AUS   1' 47.591     1' 46.564     1' 46.058  2  T. Bayliss  Ducati  AUS   1' 47.043     1' 46.984     1' 46.360  3  A. Barros  Honda  BRA   1' 47.769     1' 47.218     1' 46.511  4  R. Laconi  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 47.763     1' 47.352     1' 46.597  5  C. Walker  Kawasaki  GBR   1' 48.530     1' 47.866     1' 46.978  6  A. Pitt  Yamaha  AUS   1' 47.793     1' 46.985     1' 47.015  7  K. Muggeridge  Honda  AUS   1' 49.764     1' 47.414     1' 47.082  8  J. Toseland  Honda  GBR   1' 47.751     1' 47.094     1' 47.133  9  Y. Kagayama  Suzuki  JPN   1' 48.828     1' 47.199     1' 47.156  10  N. Haga  Yamaha  JPN   1' 47.007     1' 48.026     1' 47.627  11  R. Rolfo  Ducati  ITA   1' 48.334     1' 47.959     1' 47.975  12  F. Foret  Suzuki  FRA   N/A     1' 47.935     1' 48.009  13  L. Lanzi  Ducati  ITA   1' 48.575     1' 47.937     1' 48.170  14  F. Nieto  Kawasaki  ESP   1' 49.578     1' 47.869     1' 48.240  15  M. Fabrizio  Honda  ITA   1' 48.070     1' 47.927     1' 48.969  18  S. Gimbert  Yamaha  FRA   1' 48.871     1' 48.208       20  S. Nakatomi  Yamaha  JPN   1' 49.890     1' 48.414       27  N. Abe  Yamaha  JPN   1' 49.497     N/A       WSS : Vizziello speeds to second in Monza Round: 4 - Italy WSS Circuit: Monza Date: 6 May 2006 Temp: 22ºC Weather: Sunny Gianluca Vizziello was the leading Yamaha rider in today's final world supersport qualifying session at Monza. The Yamaha Team Italia rider gunned his R6 around the fast Italian circuit in 1:51.753, an average speed of over 186kph, to take second on the grid for tomorrow's 16-lap race. The local rider won a national championship race at the circuit last weekend and would love to become the first man to win a world championship race on the latest model YZF-R6 in what is just his and the bike's fourth race in the class. In a close qualifying session, Yamaha Motor Germany's Kevin Curtain continued his run of front row starts, claiming fourth spot with a best time of 1:51.878. Vizziello's team-mate Massimo Roccoli had his best performance of the season in fifth but, by contrast, Yamaha Motor Germany's Broc Parkes suffered his worst qualifying of the year at Monza. He was one of the few riders who failed to improve his Friday time and will start from the third row, in 11th position. The Australian put his lowly position down to nothing more than being unable to put a consistent lap together but is confident of improving in the race. Pole position for tomorrow's race goes to championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda).   Round: 4 - Italy WSS Circuit: Monza Circuit Length: 5792 Lap Record: 1' 52.635 (Chris Vermeulen, 2003) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 50.580 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2006) Date: 6 May 2006 Temp: 22ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying  2nd Qualifying  1  S. Charpentier  Honda  FRA   1' 51.061     1' 50.580   2  G. Vizziello  Yamaha  ITA   1' 52.460     1' 51.753   3  K. Fujiwara  Honda  JPN   1' 51.844     1' 51.829   4  K. Curtain  Yamaha  AUS   1' 52.038     1' 51.878   5  M. Roccoli  Yamaha  ITA   1' 53.501     1' 52.006   6  R. Harms  Honda  DNK   1' 53.021     1' 52.082   7  K. Sofuoglu  Honda  TUR   1' 52.313     1' 52.645   8  Y. Tibero  Honda  FRA   1' 52.444     1' 52.466   9  S. Le Grelle  Honda  BEL   1' 53.479     1' 52.525   10  J. Stigefelt  Honda  SWE   1' 52.861     1' 52.530   11  B. Parkes  Yamaha  AUS   1' 52.602     1' 52.687   12  C. Zaiser  Ducati  AUT   1' 52.706     1' 52.915   13  S. Chambon  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 53.722     1' 52.762   14  B. Veneman  Suzuki  NED   1' 53.526     1' 52.877   15  S. Cruciani  Honda  ITA   1' 53.221     1' 52.922   16  K. Andersen  Suzuki  NOR   1' 54.575     1' 52.949   18  X. Fores  Yamaha  ESP   1' 54.949     1' 53.235   20  V. Kallio  Yamaha  FIN   1' 53.755     1' 53.612   21  D. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 53.863     1' 53.623
Alex Asigno
Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga gave his team reason to cheer at their home race as he sped to provisional pole position for Sunday's races at Monza. Light drizzle throughout the afternoon's one-hour qualifying session meant a reduced number of laps for the 30 superbike entrants but, despite the tricky conditions, Haga's best lap of 1:47.007 was only a fraction slower than Neil Hodgson's three-year-old ultimate lap record. Team-mate Andrew Pitt was happy with his day's work. The Australian ended the day in seventh but felt he could have been higher after taking a cautious line through the fast Parabolica curve. Both riders have been able to take advantage of improvements to their YZF-R1 machines, including a new specification swingarm. The team is hoping for dry conditions in tomorrow's final practice and qualifying sessions to allow them to make further improvements for Sunday's two 18 lap races, for which the final grid positions will be decided in tomorrow's superpole session. Yamaha Motor France had a tough day in Monza with Norick Abe destroying his machine in a spectacular highside mid-way through the session. The Japanese rider lost control of his YZF-R1 while exiting the Ascari chicane and was taken to hospital for precautionary checks. Tests confirmed that the rider has not broken any bones, although the team will wait until the morning before deciding if he is fit enough to take any further part in the weekend. Frenchman Sebastien Gimbert was the team's fastest rider, in 15th, with Japanese rookie Shinichi Nakatomi ending the day 23rd on his first visit to the circuit. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "A good session. We've made some changes to the bike and they seem to be working well here. The team has brought a new swinging arm for us to try and it seems to have some benefits, although there are also a few disadvantages too. We need to test more tomorrow to make a final decision, but the bike feels good. I ran a lot of laps along with Troy Bayliss and we were able to have some fun passing and repassing each other. Hopefully we can make some more improvements for the race. The team has many fans and sponsors here this weekend and I have some friends coming over from Japan tonight. I hope that we can put a good performance on for them." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "We've come to Monza with a new set-up and so far it's working well for us. I'm feeling really confident with the bike and should probably be higher than seventh. On my fastest lap I was up at the first two splits but lost it all at the end. I probably just took it too easy going into Parabolica as I could see the spots of rain beading on my visor and wasn't sure how much grip there actually was. I'm quite happy though. We should be able to make some more improvements tomorrow and I'm confident that we'll be up there on Sunday." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "It's a shame we couldn't do as many laps as we'd like because of the conditions today, as I must learn this circuit. We are not sure what the weather will be tomorrow but I am ready to improve whatever the conditions." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "It's been a good day but I don't want to get carried away as it is only Friday. We weren't sure what to expect here as this is a fast track and top speed isn't perhaps our strength but the riders are happy with their bikes and it seems that the new swingarm we are using is also a step forward. We'll see what tomorrow brings but for now we are all satisfied with our day's work." Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France) "Norick had a bad crash today and we will decide tomorrow if he can race or not. He had a bit of a bang on the head, although the doctors say that nothing is broken. We will let him rest and see how things are in the morning."     Round: 4 - Italy Circuit: Monza Circuit Length: 5792 Lap Record: 1' 47.434 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 46.981 (Neil Hodgson, 2003) Date: 5 May 2006 Temp: 19ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  N. Haga  Yamaha  JPN   1' 47.007   2  T. Bayliss  Ducati  AUS   1' 47.043   3  T. Corser  Suzuki  AUS   1' 47.591   4  J. Toseland  Honda  GBR   1' 47.751   5  R. Laconi  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 47.763   6  A. Barros  Honda  BRA   1' 47.769   7  A. Pitt  Yamaha  AUS   1' 47.793   8  R. Xaus  Ducati  ESP   1' 47.852   9  M. Fabrizio  Honda  ITA   1' 48.070   10  R. Rolfo  Ducati  ITA   1' 48.334   11  C. Walker  Kawasaki  GBR   1' 48.530   12  L. Lanzi  Ducati  ITA   1' 48.575   13  M. Neukirchner  Ducati  GER   1' 48.712   14  Y. Kagayama  Suzuki  JPN   1' 48.828   15  S. Gimbert  Yamaha  FRA   1' 48.871   16  I. Clementi  Ducati  ITA   1' 49.226   19  N. Abe  Yamaha  JPN   1' 49.497   23  S. Nakatomi  Yamaha  JPN   1' 49.890   WSS : Curtain third fastest in Monza Round: 4 - Italy WSS Circuit: Monza Date: 5 May 2006 Temp: 19ºC Weather: Dry Yamaha Motor Germany star Kevin Curtain was the leading R6 rider in qualifying for Sunday's fourth round of the Supersport World Championship at Monza in Italy. In dry but overcast conditions, the 40-year-old Australian was under the lap record pace as he set the third fastest time around the historic speedbowl, recording a best lap time of 1:52.038. Curtain was satisfied on what is his first visit to Monza with the latest YZF-R6. The squad are are taking advantage of a new specification front tyre from Pirelli. Both Curtain and his team-mate Broc Parkes have tested the tyre with good results and are delighted to have it available on a race weekend.  Yamaha Team Italia rider Gianluca Vizziello, who won the national supersport championship race at Monza the previous weekend, ended the day sixth with Parkes alongside him on the provisional second row of the grid, in seventh. Massimo Roccoli was 14th fastest on the second Yamaha Team Italia R6, with Yamaha GMT94's David Checa 19th in his first world supersport outing of the year. Championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) was the fastest man today with a 1:51.061 lap. Final practice for Sunday's race takes place tomorrow afternoon.   Round: 4 - Italy WSS Circuit: Monza Circuit Length: 5792 Lap Record: 1' 52.635 (Chris Vermeulen, 2003) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 51.061 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2006) Date: 5 May 2006 Temp: 19ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  S. Charpentier  Honda  FRA   1' 51.061   2  K. Fujiwara  Honda  JPN   1' 51.844   3  K. Curtain  Yamaha  AUS   1' 52.038   4  K. Sofuoglu  Honda  TUR   1' 52.313   5  Y. Tibero  Honda  FRA   1' 52.444   6  G. Vizziello  Yamaha  ITA   1' 52.460   7  B. Parkes  Yamaha  AUS   1' 52.602   8  J. Stigefelt  Honda  SWE   1' 52.861   9  R. Harms  Honda  DNK   1' 53.021   10  S. Cruciani  Honda  ITA   1' 53.221   11  T. Lauslehto  Honda  FIN   1' 53.307   12  S. Le Grelle  Honda  BEL   1' 53.479   13  M. Roccoli  Yamaha  ITA   1' 53.501   14  B. Veneman  Suzuki  NED   1' 53.526   15  M. Berger  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 53.662   16  S. Chambon  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 53.722   17  V. Kallio  Yamaha  FIN   1' 53.755   18  D. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 53.863   24  J. Enjolras  Yamaha  FRA   1' 54.695   25  X. Fores  Yamaha  ESP   1' 54.949   27  C. Peris  Yamaha  CAN   1' 55.100   29  D. Garcia  Yamaha  ITA   1' 55.472