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 Click here to view the news

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 Click here to view the news

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 Click here to view the news

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 Click here to view the news

Rain interrupts Camel Yamaha Team test on Rossi's birthday Bad weather again today meant that track time for Yamaha duo Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards was severely limited on their last day of testing in Sepang. The riders were unable to complete their planned long-runs but Rossi, who turned 27 today, made the most of the inactivity and celebrated with a large birthday cake in the team garage. Despite the rain the riders declared the test valuable and now head back to Europe looking forward to the final stages of preparation, before the first race in Jerez on 26th March. With track conditions patchy throughout the day, times were slightly slower across the board than yesterday. Rossi and Edwards only completed 34 and 28 laps respectively, Rossi setting the second fastest time of 2'02.06 and Edwards the fourth fastest with a lap of 2'02.33. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) was quickest in a time of 2'01.92. The Camel Yamaha Team now return home for a short holiday before they reconvene at the Montmelo circuit, outside Barcelona, for the Official MotoGP Tests on 3rd, 4th and 5th March. Valentino Rossi (2'02.06, 34 Laps) "27 years is quite a lot and I am definitely getting old, although most of the time I still feel like I am only 16! Today we couldn't do much because of the weather but overall it's been a very interesting test. I am especially happy because we have made some good progress to solve the problem with the vibration. We have some new data now and we understand better why it's happening, and how to finally fix it. We're not yet at 100% and I think we can go faster, but I am feeling confident. Before the Jerez GP we might receive a small improvement for the engine, and hopefully we will have a bit more power. The test in Barcelona isn't so important for us but the final one in Jerez is very useful, as it's just a week before the first race and the conditions will be similar. Now we're close to the start of the season and it's already becoming clear who the main challengers will be; Melandri and Pedrosa especially are looking very fast and it also seems like Ducati are strong. I think it's going to be a very exciting year with some wonderful races!" Colin Edwards (2'02.33, 28 Laps) "Today was a bit of a wash-out for me! This morning we only tested a couple of tyres and then it looked like it might rain, so we decided to get started on our long run. Unfortunately I only had time for my warm-up and half a lap before it rained, so that was kind of it for the day! Anyway it's been a good test, we've learned a lot more about the bike and we've been able to try quite a lot of new things which seem to make sense. We're definitely not chasing our tails anymore and the bike is better than it was on Tuesday when we started; that's the most important thing. In general the new bike is great, pretty much everything is better than last year and now I am just counting down the days to the start of the season." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director We have concluded our overseas testing sessions and now we're going back to Europe for the final two tests. The conditions in Barcelona won't help us so much with the bike development but anyway we will try to make the most of it. The important test will be Jerez, which will be the final opportunity for some key preparation before the first race. At the moment we still have a small problem to solve with vibration but apart from that everything is going well. Now we have to work in cooperation with Michelin to find the best combination between the new bike and the new tyres, because both have great potential." The Yamaha Tech 3 outfit again surprised with very competitive times of Carlos Checa, who seems to have made the chance to Yamaha and Dunlop effortlessly. Yamaha debutant James Ellison however could not progress on the strong last day test results he achieved in Qatar. He will need some time to digest the input of the last tests to recalibrate himself for the Barcelona IRTA test starting on March 3. Carlos Checa (2'02.66) "The times have been really good this week and I am quite happy and surprised with the progress we have made so far. We didn't know what would happen coming here after the good first test we made in Qatar and we were prepared to have some problems, but things have been better than we expected and I am happy. The new bike is excellent, as I said before, and now we're starting to understand more about the tyres with Dunlop and how to work together with what we have. We have tried quite a lot of new things with Dunlop this week and there are some good improvements; we have found much better grip here which is helping me to have more confidence. "Anyway despite all this and the times we have set, I don't want to be overconfident or to start to think that things are going to be easy. We have only done two tests and, although the initial signs are good, we can't afford to relax. We have a lot of work to do and a long way to go. The conditions here have been quite strange and now we go to Barcelona, which is a very different track and with much colder weather. Let's wait and see what happens there. Of course it's my home track so it's always nice for me to ride there, but we have a lot of hard work ahead of us so I won't let anything distract me." James Ellison (2'05.70) "This test has really been one that I would like to forget! We started with the settings we had in Qatar because everything felt good there, but they were a mile off for this track so we gradually started to go back to what we had here in January. We got the times back to what they were then but I couldn't go any faster. My riding style is all wrong for here, comparing the data with Carlos' it's clear that I am still carrying way to much corner speed - a hang-over from my Superbike days - and I am having a real problem to make the change. I need to be running in fast on the brakes, stopping the bike, turning it and then firing it out, but it's not easy at this circuit, which I find very difficult. The encouraging thing is that I have been losing all my time on just three corners, so if I can crack my corner style, which I know I can, then I believe I can start to be more in touch with Carlos. "We've been pretty unlucky with the weather as well. Most of the time I spent on the old tyres, and then when we put some new stuff in yesterday it immediately started to rain! Exactly the same thing happened today; we tried some of the good tyres and the grip was much better straight away, but then we needed to change the bike at the front and as soon as we did that it started to rain again. "Anyway, I think I've just been thinking about everything too much! Now I am going to go home and spend some time mountain-biking - my second passion after riding motorcycles and my best form of training. I hope that I can clear my head a bit and go to Barcelona in a new frame of mind. I think I just need to just go there, ride the bike, trust in my ability a little bit and stop trying to think about too many things at once! I really like Barcelona so I hope it will be a big improvement there." Herve Poncharal - Tech 3 Yamaha Team Director "We are really happy and pleasantly surprised with the performance of Carlos this week. He was fast in Qatar, but it was only the first test and we knew that Qatar has always been a good track for Dunlop. We didn't know what would happen here, since Sepang has always been one of the more difficult tracks for Dunlop. Anyway, Carlos has been fast all week and it's looking very promising, we're very pleased with the situation with him. We certainly didn't expect this level of results that quickly so well done to Yamaha, Dunlop and Carlos for the work they've done together in a short space of time. "With James things have been more difficult and we haven't made as much progress as we had hoped. He's done a lot of laps but we haven't been able to find the right way forward for him. This is a difficult track for him and I think, after three tests here, he needs a break and a change of scenery. I hope that a bit of time to rest now will help him so that we can make a new start in Barcelona. "Overall it's been an important test and once again we've learned a lot. We also got the chance to do a couple of runs in the rain which was good. The most important thing is that we're leaving with bikes and riders in good shape for the tests in Spain and we're looking forward to the start of the season." Unofficial Lap Times: 1. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati, 2'01.92 2. Valentino Rossi(ITA) Yamaha, 2'02.06 3. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki, 2'02.20 4. Colin Edwards(USA) Yamaha, 2'02.33 5. John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki, 2'02.34 6. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki, 2'02.47 7. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati, 2'02.65 8. Carlos Checa (SPA) Yamaha, 2'02.66 9. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda, 2'02.70 10. Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda, 2'02.86 11. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Honda, 2'02.87 12. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda, 2'03.00 13. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda, 2'03.64 14. Alex Hofmann (GER) Ducati, 2'04.18 15. Kenny Roberts (USA) KR Honda, 2'04.30 16. Jose Luis Cardoso (SPA) Ducati, 2'04.82 17. James Ellison (GBR) Yamaha, 2'05.70 Sepang Lap Record: Nicky Hayden (Honda) 2005 - 2'02.993 Sepang Best Lap: Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2005 - 2'01.731 Ambient temperature: 33 degrees Track temperature: 48 degrees Humidity: 74% Click here to view the news

Rain shower calls early halt to second day of Sepang test Work ended early for Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards today when day two of the Camel Yamaha Team's Sepang Test was cut short by a mid-afternoon rainstorm. The Team spent the morning working on different settings and testing tyres with Michelin, looking to eliminate the vibration that the riders have been experiencing lately, before the rain came down after lunch. Both riders ventured out in the wet on the 2006-spec M1, the first time they have been able to see the performance of the new bike in these conditions, but the track soon started to dry out in patches and they decided to call it a day after just a few laps. Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki) set the fastest time of the day with a lap of 2'01.80, followed by Loris Capirossi (Ducati, 2'01.87). Rossi, who celebrates his 27th birthday tomorrow, was close behind him with a time of 2'01.89 after 47 laps, whilst team-mate Edwards completed 57 laps and set the seventh fastest time with a lap of 2'02.20. The Camel Yamaha Team has one final day of testing remaining tomorrow. Valentino Rossi (2'01.89, 47 Laps) "This morning we did quite a lot of laps and we were quite fast and consistent, so I was happy. We worked very well with Michelin and with one or two new tyres that they brought we made some good improvements to the vibration. Unfortunately in the afternoon it rained and we couldn't go on as we wished. We made a few laps in the rain just to see how the new bike was in the wet; we had some new things to try with the electronic mapping in these conditions, but we needed more time. After a few laps the track started to dry and then with the conditions half wet and half dry, we had to stop. Tomorrow we might do a long run and we will also continue with the work we started today." Colin Edwards (2'02.20, 57 Laps) "The weather was a real disappointment today because we had a lot of work to do and we weren't able to complete as many laps as we had hoped. Anyway in the morning we concentrated on a new front fork setting and generally played around, looking for some improvements to the chatter issue. We didn't have enough time to do everything but we definitely made some steps in the right direction. We tested a couple of tyres for Michelin but then the rain came down. We did a few laps in the rain, just to check some settings and try out a couple of new things for Yamaha, and everything seemed okay in that area. Tomorrow we're going to get started nice and early as we've got a lot still to do; I really hope the weather is better!" Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Unfortunately the rain stopped us from completing all the work we wanted to do, but anyway we tried to use these conditions as best we could to check some things with the new bike. Tomorrow is our final day of testing in warm conditions before we return to Europe and we have to try to use all the time we have available to us." Unofficial Lap Times: 1. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki, 2'01.80 2. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati, 2'01.87 3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha, 2'01.89 4. John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki, 2'01.90 5. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda, 2'01.93 6. Carlos Checa (SPA) Yamaha, 2'02.06 7. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha, 2'02.20 8. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki, 2'02.37 9. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda, 2'02.62 10. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda, 2'02.65 11. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Honda, 2'02.66 12. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati, 2'02.87 13. Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda, 2'02.93 14. Kenny Roberts (USA) KR Honda, 2'02.95 15. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Suzuki, 2'03.18 16. Alex Hofmann (GER) Ducati, 2'04.23 17. Jose Luis Cardoso (SPA) Ducati, 2'04.65 18. James Ellison (GBR) Yamaha, 2'05.08 Sepang Lap Record: Nicky Hayden (Honda) 2005 - 2'02.993 Sepang Best Lap: Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2005 - 2'01.731 Ambient temperature: 31 degrees Track temperature: 45 degrees Humidity: 74% Click here to view the news

Camel Yamaha Team returns to Sepang for final 'winter' test Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards began their last three-day test in Sepang today, where they rejoined the rest of the MotoGP grid at the popular Malaysian venue. Fresh from their test in Qatar last week, Rossi and Edwards completed more valuable development work with the 2006-spec YZR-M1, both finishing the day in the top five on the unofficial time sheets. Focusing almost entirely on ironing out the small vibration problems they have been suffering from lately, fast lap times were not the aim of the day for the Yamaha pair. Despite this however, Rossi and Edwards were on the pace and well inside lap record time. Edwards was third behind Marco Melandri (Honda, 2'01.66) and Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2'01.89) with a best lap of 2'02.00 from 54 laps whilst Rossi, who also completed 54 laps, was fifth with a time of 2'02.20. Colin Edwards (2'02.00, 54 Laps) "It was seriously hot out there today and pretty exhausting! Today we concentrated on fixing the little bit of chatter we've had and played around with some front fork settings, just trying to dial it in. We made some good progress and we have a new front-end setting to try in the morning; we hope that this will be the final key. Honestly we didn't really concentrate much on lap times but it seems that they came anyway, so I'm pretty happy! The bike already feels even better than it did here in January, the new stuff we have from both Yamaha and Michelin is great and after Qatar I am feeling really confident, especially with the front-end. It's all going well so hopefully we can make the final steps we need over the next two days." Valentino Rossi (2'02.20, 54 Laps) "Today we worked almost entirely on trying to solve the vibration problems that we have had. We changed many things, tried various different settings and collected a lot of important information throughout the day. Now we are looking forward to using all this information over the next two days and we are confident that we are close to fixing the problem. Once we've been able to fix it, we will be able to use this bike to its full potential. Yamaha has done a great job and the potential of this bike is very high, it's a big improvement to last year's M1 and I am sure that once we've solved this one remaining issue, things will be very good." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Of course fixing this vibration is now our main focus and today we worked a lot with the entire team to try to find the right way forward. We had great cooperation between the two riders and both crews, exchanging information and experience and this is very important for the team's progress. We've been working on data collection today and we will continue tomorrow, trying some new things and gathering more information to help us. We've already done many days testing with this new bike and mostly it's going very well, now we have two more days here to continue with our improvement." Unofficial Lap Times: 1. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda 2'01.66 2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda 2'01.89 3. Colin Edwards(USA) Yamaha 2'02.00 4. John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki 2'02.15 5. Valentino Rossi(ITA) Yamaha 2'02.20 6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati 2'02.64 7. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki 2'02.75 8. Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda 2'02.86 9= Carlos Checa (SPA) Yamaha 2'03.40 9= Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda 2'03'40 11. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati 2'03.51 12. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda 2'03.52 13. Kenny Roberts (USA) KR Honda 2'03.58 14. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Honda 2'03.66 15. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki 2'04.02 16. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Suzuki 1'04.10 17. Alex Hoffman (GER) Ducati 2'05.40 18. Jose Luis Cardosa (SPA) Ducati 2'05.81 19. James Ellison (GBR) Yamaha 2'05.90 Sepang Lap Record: Nicky Hayden (Honda) 2005 - 2'02.993 Sepang Best Lap: Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2005 - 2'01.73 Ambient temperature: 37 degrees Track temperature: 54 degrees Humidity: 79% Click here to view the news

With a second place and two heat wins Stefan Everts claimed victory for the third consecutive time in the Starcross di Mantova race in Italy. Riding in perfect harmony with his new aluminum framed Yamaha YZ450FM, the nine times world champion from Belgium opened the 2006 motocross season in the best possible way. In the first heat Everts had to give in to Sebastian Tortelli, the French MX250 world champion of 1998 who returned from the US to campaign the 2006 MX1 world championship. In the other two heats Tortelli experienced bike trouble and could not prevent Everts claiming the other two heat wins. Other then Tortelli in the first heat there were no other riders to really challenge Everts. Unfortunately this also the case for Stefan's teammate Cédric Melotte who was not yet able to go all the way, due to a wrist injury that needs more time to heal. Stefan Everts obviously was pleased with his season opener; "It is always nice to start the season with a victory. It was a pleasant surprise because it was impossible to tell how the race would go by looking at the qualifying results. Saturday and this morning I did not have a very good feeling with the track because the surface was still frozen, which makes the racing rather unpredictable. In the end everything went okay, the track started to soften throughout the day and thankfully my bike was in excellent condition. We will have to do more racing to find the perfect setting for the machine, but we are progressing well." On the other hand Stefan's teammate Cédric Melotte needs to further nurture his injury to arrive at full race fitness; "After my wrist operation in September I started practicing again mid December with the bike, but still I have too much pressure on my wrist. I have tried some pain killers and it did feel better, but I do not prefer to take any unnecessary risks, I simply have to think of the world championship. I will try to enter the international race in Pernes-les-Fontaines or Hawkstone Park to see how my wrist will hold." The Italian David Philippaerts won the MX2 class, while Yamaha supported rider Aigar Leok (Van Beers Yamaha) made an impressive start of the year, classifying fifth overall, with fifth, sixth and seventh position heat finishes. Davide Guarneri of Yamaha Team Ricci ended the day dramatically by crashing at the start of the third heat in a spill with several other riders. Two retirements of teammate Kenneth Gundersen were a disappointment for the Norwegian, who qualified in first position." Kenneth Gundersen has positive outlook on the season ahead, despite the fact that he and his bike are not yet 100%:"I am satisfied with this first race, considering the fact that we had some problems with the front fork. Even though we still have to improve things further I am still very happy with the performance of the YZ250F. My riding technique has to further improve too over the next few months, but this should come when my knees get better, at the moment they are not yet 100% recovered. The world championship start is still two months away and I expect to be completely ready by then. Despite crashing in the third heat Davide Guarneri was able to make a good judgment of his bike and competitors; "I wanted to race here to have a good practice session before the start of the season and to judge the level of my competitors. We rode with the new suspension and other new parts on the bike and I'm rather pleased with my results. I expected that the others would go a bit faster, but I found it quite easy to match the pace of the leaders. It was a shame I crashed during the start of the third heat, brake problems forced me to retire from the race." MX1 Overall result 1. Everts (Yamaha); 2. Strijbos (Suzuki); 3. Garcia Vico (Honda); 4. Ramon (Suzuki); 5. Leok(Kawasaki); 6. Salvini (Suzuki); 7. Sword (Kawasaki); 8. Jorgensen (Honda); 9. Beggi (Honda); 10. Correia (Suzuki); 11. Tortelli (KTM); 12. Verhoeven (Kawasaki); 13. Kovalainen(Honda); 14. Parshin (Suzuki); 15. Teybers (Suzuki). MX2 Overall result 1. Philippaerts (KTM); Rattray (KTM); 3. Meo (Honda); 4. Goncalves (KTM); 5. Leok A. (Yamaha); 6. Lombrici (KTM); 7. Pellegrini (Suzuki); 8. Guarneri (Yamaha); 9. Baima Besquet (Honda); 10. Boscolo (KTM); 12. Gundersen (Yamaha). Click here to view the news

The Camel Yamaha Team finished their third day of testing at the Losail International Circuit with the track to themselves today, all other teams having begun testing one day earlier and finished yesterday. Alone on the track, Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards were quickly able to complete the remaining Michelin tyre work they needed to do, before concluding the test with long runs in the afternoon. Neither Rossi nor Edwards improved on their times from yesterday of 1'56.53 and 1'56.81 respectively, and these remain the fastest times from the three days of testing. However both riders still lapped under lap record pace today, Rossi setting a best time of 1'56.78 after 49 laps and Edwards 1'57.07 from 57 laps. The Yamaha riders and team members now have a five day break before they rejoin the rest of the MotoGP paddock for the final 'winter' test in Sepang, Malaysia on 14th, 15th and 16th February. Valentino Rossi (1'56.78, 49 Laps) "Today was not quite as good as the last two days, mainly because the condition of the track was slightly worse and we didn't have such good grip. I think that last night there was a lot of wind and with only two bikes on the track today it wasn't enough to clean the surface properly. Anyway we continued to work, did our long run and found out some more information about the new M1 in different conditions. We have some vibrations and our top priority now is to find a way to fix this; I hope we can do that in Sepang. Anyway, in general this has been a good test and we have made some more improvements. The times have been quite good and we've done some important work with Michelin. Now I go home for a few days to rest before we start again in Sepang next week." Colin Edwards (1'57.07, 57 Laps) "Overall I am really happy with this test and I am looking forward to the season ahead. I am especially pleased with the setting of the bike, which we seem to be improving all the time. Both Yamaha and Michelin have worked really hard over the winter and, together with the new tyres, we've got a really good package. My long run was not bad this afternoon and the encouraging thing was that my times were consistent, even later on as the tyres started to go off slightly in the heat. It's difficult to compare to last year's race since the conditions are so different, but this year's Qatar race is only two months away now, so we hope that the work we've done at this test will put us in a good starting position for that weekend. The general progress of the bike has been great over just two tests this year so now we will hopefully be able to keep working like this in Sepang next week." Davinde Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "It was interesting to come here in very good conditions and we got some good information which we can work on for the start of the season. It's good to now go immediately to Sepang to check again the settings that we found there at the first test in January. Sepang is the last really important test for us before the start of the season." Unofficial Lap Times: Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha, 1'56.78 Colin Edwards(USA) Yamaha, 1'57.07 Qatar Lap Record: Nicky Hayden (Honda) 2005 - 1'57.903 Qatar Best Lap: Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2005 - 1'56.917 Ambient temperature: 28.1 degrees Track temperature: 44.0 degrees Humidity: 50.3% Click here to view the news

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 Click here to view the news

Yamaha Motor Italy WSB Team riders Troy Corser and Noriyuki Haga will start tomorrow's second round of the Superbike World Championship from the front row of the grid after impressive superpole performances at Phillip Island today. High winds made life difficult for the riders at the coastal circuit today. Haga was the first of the R1 riders to head out on his grid-deciding qualifying lap after finishing regular qualifying in eighth place. The Japanese star put together a smooth lap of 1:32.879 to head the time sheets with seven riders remaining. Four men came and went without besting the Yamaha rider until Corser, third in regular practice blasted to a 1:32.605 lap. World champion Troy Bayliss (Ducati) was the last man to go out on his superpole lap and grabbed the pole position with James Toseland (Honda) second. With no new parts available since last weekend's race in Qatar, today's testing programme focused mainly on fine tuning the R1's chassis and suspension to make maximum use of the front tyre in tomorrow's 22-lap races. Both Corser and Haga were able to make considerable headway in their preparations, completing race simulations in both the morning and afternoon practice sessions. Shinichi Nakatomi of Team YZF Yamaha will start from 17th on the grid after improving his Friday time by half-a-second. The Japanese rider was denied an opportunity to make the afternoon superpole when rain started to fall 15 minutes from the end of the morning's second qualifying session. Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italy WSB Team) "I almost got blown off the bike as I rolled out on my warm-up lap and that prepared me for the big gust of wind that hit me as I went into turn one on my superpole lap. That caused me to lose the front end and I ended up running wide through the Southern Loop as I tried to make up time. That's not normally the way I would attack superpole but it worked out fine in the end. I hope it (the weather) is a bit more calm because it can get a bit hectic when you go into a corner three abreast and get hit by a gust of wind. The bike's going real well here and I'm pleased to be on the front row. We just need to see how it goes tomorrow." Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italy WSB Team) "The wind made the superpole lap very difficult and I am very surprised, but of course happy, with the result. Because of the wind it was easy to make a mistake, especially coming into the corners. I took some tight lines and did not really make mistakes. It's my best lap time of the weekend so I am pleased. I expect a difficult race tomorrow. We know that the tyre can work very well for around 10 laps but we still need to try and make it work longer. We have already decided which tyre we will use but I still have to think about the suspension settings, so maybe I will not sleep so well tonight!" Shinichi Nakatomi (Team YZF Yamaha) "Yesterday we had many problems with chatter but today we were able to get a better feeling with the bike. Unfortunately it started to rain 15 minutes before the end of the morning qualifying session and I was unable to make a time to qualifying for superpole. We are still working to improve the set-up but I am hopeful we can make up some positions in the races tomorrow." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italy WSB Team) "It's always good to have both riders on the front row so of course it has been a good day today. We have been lacking a little bit in the final section of the track but our lap times are good and I think that we can challenge for the podium tomorrow." Circuit Length: 4445 Temp: 22 Weather: Windy 2007 WSB Phillip Island 03/03/2007 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'32.145 2 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'32.198 3 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'32.605 4 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'32.879 5 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'32.928 6 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'33.132 7 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'33.188 8 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'33.367 9 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'33.368 10 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'33.969 11 Steve Martin Honda AUS 1'33.994 12 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 1'34.731 13 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'35.215 14 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'35.327 15 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 1'36.295 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'31.887 2 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'32.040 3 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'32.666 4 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'32.769 5 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'32.774 6 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'32.795 7 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'32.799 8 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'32.961 9 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'33.154 10 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'33.260 11 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'33.453 12 Steve Martin Honda AUS 1'33.678 13 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 1'33.683 14 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'33.690 15 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'33.783 18 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 1'35.088 QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 03/03/2007 Curtain so close to home pole Yamaha World Supersport team rider Kevin Curtain missed out on pole position for tomorrow's Australian round of the Supersport World Championship by the narrowest of margins today. The local fans' favourite got to within three-hundredths of a second of pole sitter Fabien Foret (Kawasaki) but crashed out when he pushed too hard and lost the front end of his YZF-R6 in the closing minutes of the 45-minute qualifying session. Curtain and his R6, pole sitters in Qatar eight days ago, have been fastest in three of the weekend's four sessions but Foret's time from yesterday's first qualifying session proved untouchable in today's final session. Curtain and team-mate Broc Parkes were both able to fractionally improve upon their Friday times in today's session, although the circuit generally seemed 'slower' - most likely due to high winds and a mid-morning rain shower. Curtain today posted a 1:35.199 lap time while Parkes' Saturday time was just seven-thousandths of a second quicker than his best from Friday, a 1:35.830. As a result of today's action, the Yamaha men retain their overnight grid positions with Curtain second and Parkes sixth. Of the other Yamaha riders, David Checa was one of the big improvers - taking almost a second from his Friday time to qualify in tenth. His Yamaha GMT94 team-mate Sebastien Gimbert joins him on the third row, in 12th, although Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni rider Massimo Roccoli failed to improve and will start 17th. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha World Supersport team) "It would have been nice to have gotten the pole but front row is the main thing. The wind made things difficult this afternoon but I pushed hard and got close but unfortunately I got caught out going into Honda corner and lost the front. It's all good though and I'm happy with what we've got for the race. That's when we get the points, not today." Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport team) "I'm happy with my set-up and am confident we can have a good race. I'd have liked the front row but I couldn't quite find that last little bit this afternoon. Generally I'm stronger in the race than in qualifying and I'm able to run strong lap times over the distance. If I can make a good start and get away with the leaders I'm confident that we can be right up there tomorrow." Circuit Length: 4445 Temp: 24 Weather: Sunny 2007 WSS Phillip Island 03/03/2007 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 1'35.166 2 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 1'35.199 3 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 1'35.346 4 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'35.480 5 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 1'35.814 6 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 1'35.830 7 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 1'35.867 8 Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 1'36.230 9 Yoann Tiberio Honda FRA 1'36.248 10 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'36.372 11 Pere Riba Kawasaki ESP 1'36.398 12 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1'36.403 13 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 1'36.404 14 Vesa Kallio Suzuki FIN 1'36.522 15 Vladimir Ivanov Yamaha RUS 1'36.656 17 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1'36.922 Click here to view the news

Yamaha Motocross Team rider Joshua Coppins cut through driving rain in Great Britain yesterday to claim third position overall in the MX1 class at the Hawkstone Park International. Team-mate Marc de Reuver also grabbed a top five position withfourth. Only two motos from three were completed after a heavy shower washed out the surprisingly well-attended meeting. The ‘reliable’ English rain coated the Shropshire venue throughout the day and transformed the dark, deep and rough Hawkstone sand into a thick and very demanding terrain. After riding on dry, hard surfaces in Italy and through wet mud in France last week this was another set of conditions for the two new riders in the Rinaldi line-up to cope with on their 2007 YZ450FMs. Coppins fronted the first moto from Kevin Strijbos and Ken de Dycker but in the end was powerless to defend his lead from the sand-schooled Belgians. Strijbos took the win and would also scoop the overall from his countryman while the New Zealander was third. De Reuver, who had registered pole position in morning qualification, was as high as third behind Coppins and De Dycker in the formative stages of the race. The Dutchman was feeling comfortable but lost control momentarily on a jump around the ten minute mark causing a crash. He remounted and confirmed fifth. The second moto saw the MX1 field even more spread out with the sand proving tough to consistently conquer without mistakes. On this occasion the Yamahas flew in formation with De Reuver sealing third spot by over ten seconds from a more conservative outing from Coppins. The Superfinal, which traditionally sees the top 20 MX2 finishers go against the best 20 placed MX1 riders, was cancelled after being red flagged two laps into the 25 minute and 2 lap distance. A rain flood then closed the meeting with spectators already sparse around the soaked inclines. The moto was halted after a heavy crash by Bike it Yamaha UK Dixon Racing’s Carl Nunn. The MX2 British Champion had earned seventh overall in the smaller category but had to be taken to hospital after needing medical attention on the circuit. Initial fears concerned the 27 year old’s back but so far the indication is that Nunn is OK. “Qualifying went better than in the last few races, which I was happy about,” remarked Coppins. “I was pretty happy with my starts, apart from the second race, but this is something I wanted to improve and it worked out well. I had some arm-pump in the first moto and did not ride that well. In the second I went down once and found it difficult out there. I was right behind Strijbos in the last heat until Nunn unfortunately went down; I hope he is OK. We were starting to look better in that last race; I was smoother and carrying mote corner speed.” ”It seems like at the moment when we go to different tracks it takes me a little while to adjust well in a variety of conditions,” he evaluated. “Today there was a lot of mud and in Valence it was also wet but the track was hard, and then in Italy the weather has been ideal. It takes me a little bit of race day to find the strong parts of the bike but that is good because we are finding different kinds of races and getting a broader idea. I feel that I still need to improve in conditions like today and in France last week but all-in-all I can’t complain with another podium result; that’s four Internationals in a row with two wins. I am now looking forward to having a little break and then working on my physical training. I am also pleased because this is the first time that I am leaving the Hawkstone International healthy. Last year I hurt my back, the year before it was my shoulder and then before that I couldn’t even race here so I am happy to come away in good shape!” “Pole position in the morning felt very good, I was riding quite smooth and feeling confident for the race,“ said De Reuver. “In the first heat I was behind De Dycker and Coppins and I made a mistake on the first lap but I caught up so easily that I was sure that it was going to be my race. I was too nonchalant because I lost the bike just once and it made me crash. I fell on my head and it took me a lap or two to realise where I was but then I could make some good times again.” ”I had the holeshot in the second heat but over-ran the corner and Strijbos and De Dycker got past me,“ he continued. ”I stayed in third the whole race and did my laps ahead of Josh and with the same speed as De Dycker but Strijbos was faster today. I was third at the start in the Superfinal and I pushed my way past a lot of riders to reach sixth inside half a lap! Then Nunn crashed; I hope he is OK. I was pleased with today and hope I can keep things going like this a little bit.” De Carli Yamaha rider Antonio Cairoli meanwhile took second place overall at Castiglione del Lago for the second round of the MX2 Internazionali d'Italia series and leads the competition overall by 12 points from Manuel Monni. The Yamaha Motocross Team now have a break before heading to Gemert for the first race in the 2007 Dutch Championship. After this final pre-season test the team head for Valkenswaard in the Netherlands for the inaugural meeting of 15 Grand Prix in the FIM World Championship on April 1st. Moto One MX1: 1. Kevin Strijbos 2. Ken de Dycker 3. Joshua Coppins 4. Max Nagl 5. Marc de Reuver 6. Gordon Crockard 7. Steve Ramon 8. Bas Verhoeven 9. Marvin van Daele 10. Jussi Vehvelainen 11. Marco Kovalainen 12. Mike Brown 13. Sven Breugelmans 14. Patrick Roos 15. Brad Anderson Moto two MX1: 1. Kevin Strijbos 2. Ken de Dycker 3. Marc de Reuver 4. Josh Coppins 5. Max Nagl 6. Tanel Leok 7. Steve Ramon 8. Billy MacKenzie 9. James Noble 10. Marvin Van Daele 11. Gorden Crockard 12. Mike Brown 13. Lauris Freibergs 14. Patrick Roos 15. Jussi Vehvilainen Click here to view the news

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd announces that it has concluded a two-year agreement with 250cc World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. The 20-year-old Spaniard will make his MotoGP debut in 2008 aboard a YZR-M1, with direct Factory support. Lorenzo, who won the 250 title in 2006, is currently leading the championship, after winning six out of the first ten races this season. "Yamaha has been watching Jorge's career with interest for some time and we are delighted that he will be joining our MotoGP line-up from next season” - commented Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing. “We are sure that he will be a valuable asset for the future and we look forward to the commencement of his MotoGP career with Yamaha.” The exact structure of Yamaha’s team and rider organization is still under consideration at the present time. Further details, including Lorenzo’s team structure, will be announced in due course. Click here to view the news

The Yamaha Motor Italia World Superbike Team today announces a three-year sponsorship agreement with Santander Consumer Bank Italy, the leading consumer credit bank in the automotive industry. The deal will see the YZF-R1 machines ofrun in the red and white corporate colours of the financial giant, which also works with Yamaha Motor Italia as a partner in the Yamaha Credit System - a finance programme available to Yamaha's Italian customers facilitating the purchase of their machines. Santander Consumer Bank is part of the Gruppo Santander, the leading financial institution in Spain and one of the top ten international banks in the world. Gruppo Santander operates in 46 countries with 10,000 franchises servicing 59 million clients, with more than 126,000 employees. Santander Consumer Bank (SCB) is an important contributor to the success of the group. In Italy, SCB achieved much of its business success developing financial products for the automotive industry. Laurens Klein Koerkamp - Yamaha Motor Europe, Racing Division "We're pleased to have secured a three-year partnership with Santander Consumer Bank. It is a very positive development that such a leading financial company values the marketing potential of motorcycle racing, and following their existing relationship with Yamaha Motor Italia this partnership is a perfect fit for us and a valuable new contribution to world superbike racing as a whole. Superbike is all about racing production machines which can be bought in our dealerships and this sponsor also has a strong presence in Yamaha's Italian dealerships providing financial services to our customers. I am sure it will be a very fruitful relationship giving our team the opportunity to further improve its competiveness, while Santander will surely raise their public profile in and outside the motorcycle population." Mauro Viotto - C.E.O. of Santander Consumer Bank Italy "For us the partnership with Yamaha Motor Italia is very important from a commercial point of view. For many years we have been developing products, services and operations tailored for automotive partners. We want to support Yamaha Motor Italia and its dealer network with all these tools and with new ones that we will be developing following their needs through the Yamaha Credit System. We've already reached the lead between independent companies in the whole automotive market. Our aim is to increase our market share in motorcycle financing, in order to expand our existing leadership based largely upon consumer credit within the car segment. We think that the sponsorship of the Yamaha Motor Italia World Superbike Team will strengthen our relationship with the Yamaha dealer network, enabling us to reach our business goals together." Click here to view the news

The World Superbike Championship's next stop this coming weekend is the historic circuit of Monza in Italy for the sixth round in the 2007 series. The championship first came to the circuit in 1990 and this year will be its 14th visit. The Monza circuit is located northeast of Milan and was built in 1922 by 3,500 workers with funding from the Milan Automobile Club. Monza is the fastest track to appear on the World Superbike calendar with riders often reaching speeds of over 300kph on the start/finish straight. As well as hosting the WSB Championship, the circuit features on the Formula 1 calendar. The circuit actually consists of three tracks - GP, Junior and the Speed track which includes the oval banking for which the circuit is famous - though WSB uses the GP circuit. The track has been modified many times over the years to increase safety and provide better facilities for race teams and spectators. The last modification was in 2000 when amendments were made to the two chicanes to improve safety. Grandstand seating was also increased in 1997 to 51,000. Monza is the home circuit for the Yamaha Motor Italia Team, who will be hoping for better luck than at Assen. In a weekend of mixed fortune at the last round Haga took second in race one but failed to finish race two. Corser had an equally turbulent time crashing out of third on the penultimate lap when fluid was sprayed on the rear tyre. Despite pain from the injuries he received in the accident Corser went on to finish fourth in race two and take away some much needed points. Haga finished third and fourth last year at Monza. Though he is yet to win there Haga goes to Monza determined to provide the team with a win following his second place at Assen. "Even though Monza is the team's home circuit it is not my favourite track because it has a long start/finish straight but not many corners. This makes it more of a machine's track than a rider's track," says Haga of the circuit. "After the disappointment of Assen though, the show must go on. I need to win at Monza to keep my championship fight alive and to erase the bad memories of the last round. I am always looking to win and nowhere more so than at Monza." Monza was a good round for Corser in 2006 with second and third position finishes in addition to taking pole position and setting a new Superpole record. He also won there in 2005. For 2007 Corser goes to Monza with the opportunity to take his 40th pole of his Superbike career. "I've been checked out by a sports therapist and nothing's broken from the crash in Assen, there's just a lot of deep bruising. I've had worse in a lot of other crashes so I'll be fine for Monza," he says of his injuries. "Monza should be a good race. The circuit is all about speed and the bike has enough of it so I'm confident of what we can achieve there. I've got a good history at that place. As for my 40th pole, well I'd love to get it at Monza for the team but my focus is more on getting on the front row. Pole would be an added bonus. The race is the most important thing." The Yamaha World Supersport Team also had a mixed round at Assen with Parkes crashing out of the race in second place when he lost the front on the penultimate lap. Steve Martin stood in for Kevin Curtain who is recovering from a leg injury sustained at Valencia, and finished in a credible tenth place considering he had only had three hours on the bike prior to the race. Parkes goes to Monza knowing he needs to finish on the podium and claim points to get him back in contention for the championship. He has shown his capability at Monza finishing second previously. "We need to get some points on the board and I am aiming for some wins now to get myself back into the championship fight. We were heading in the right direction at Assen until the crash," he says. "There are still eight rounds to go and catching Sofuoglu is going to be tough but not impossible. If I had got second at Assen then I would have been third in the championship now. It's that tight so I'm confident I can move up the championship board if I can get a good finish. Anything can happen when everyone is this close in the points." Regarding Monza, Parkes says, "I like Monza and even though the last couple of years there haven't been great for me I have finished second there in the past so I know I can do it again. Monza is all about horsepower and set-up and we've got a few more chassis and suspension adjustments to try that we didn't get time to do at Assen." The Yamaha World Supersport Team had been hoping to welcome back Kevin Curtain at Monza but his recovery is taking longer than expected. He is still resting in Australia where he is seeing a specialist following an accident at Valencia in mid April when he cut the muscle in his right thigh. Kevin is making a good recovery and is now walking without crutches though he has recently got an infection in the wound which has delayed his return to the championship. Following a course of antibiotics it is hoped that he will be back for the Silverstone round later this month but he may need a further operation on the wound if the antibiotics don't work. WSB rider Steve Martin stood in for Kevin at the last round in Assen but has not been released by the DFX squad for the Monza round. Instead, 250 GP race winner Anthony West will be stepping in to Curtain's shoes for Monza. Yet another Australian, West is racing in the 2007 250 GP Championship though he has raced in the World Supersport Championship previously at Brands Hatch in 2004. His biggest challenge this weekend will be to get used to the four-stroke engine characteristic against the two-stroke he is used to. The weight of the bike will also be a difference for him with the 600cc bike much heavier than the 250cc machine. "I'm excited to be riding in Kevin's place this weekend though I wish him well. It will be good to ride a different bike in a different championship and at a track that I have never been to before. My GP season hasn't been great so far so this will be a good chance for me to have a really good race," he says. "Though I have ridden four-stroke bikes before, it's quite a while since I slung my leg over one. I would like to finish in the top five this weekend." Massimo Roccoli, riding in the Yamaha Team Italia squad, went to Assen boosted by a win in the national Italian championship at Mugello the week before. Although he qualified in fifth Roccoli finished the race in 14th due to a wrong tyre choice. Roccoli goes to Monza determined to put in a good performance throughout the whole weekend. Yamaha had great success in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup at Assen, walking away with first, second and third place on the 2007 new YZF-R1. Pirro took his first Superstock win after moving up this year from the 125 MotoGP World Championship. Team mate Corti came second after being penalized for overtaking under a yellow flag and Belgian rider Didier van Keymeulen took the third podium space. Pirro and Corti go into this third round both on 45 points and are second and third in the championship respectively. Van Keymeulen lies in seventh but with only a small points margin up to the Yamaha Team Italia riders. All three riders will be targeting the top spot at this weekend's round ensuring some close race action. Track length: 5792m Track opened: 1922 2006 winner: Bayliss (Ducati), Bayliss (Ducati) 2006 fastest lap: 2'00.061 (Haga, Yamaha) WSB lap record: 1'59.696 (Bayliss, Ducati) Circuit tel: +39 039 24821 Circuit website: www.monzanet.it Click here to view the news

Yamaha Motor Italia riders Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga gave a strong showing in Friday's qualifying for this weekend's world superbike round at EuroSpeedway Lausitz, ending the day fourth and seventh after the first qualifying. Having attended July's Pirelli test at the same venue, the squad arrived in Germany with good base settings for their YZF-R1s and spent the day working to further refine the machine performance for Sunday's two 24 lap races. Pitt's best time of 1:38.871 was just half a second down on provisional pole sitter Troy Bayliss (Ducati), who was over a second quicker than Ruben Xaus' four year old lap record. Suzuki team-mates Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama complete the provisional front row. The Australian was largely satisfied with his day's work. With lower temperatures and higher winds requiring a slightly different machine setting from last July's test, Pitt and his crew made subtle changes to his machine throughout the sessions. The team will make a few more changes, including revised gearing, tomorrow in a bid to give their man the best possible machine for Sunday's races. Haga spent the day's two one hour sessions switching between his two machines, completing more laps than any other rider in the afternoon session. The Japanese rider has often ran with two differing specification machines on a race weekend but, with the team now certain of their best set-up, Haga worked on fine-tuning his 'spare' machine to give the same feeling as his number one bike. As always, the Japanese stuck worked on finding a good race tyre and suspension setting but still managed to set a lap time less than eight tenths of a second behind Bayliss. Norick Abe was the leading Yamaha Motor France rider in 18th place, while team-mate and countryman Shinichi Nakatomi ended the day 26th on his competitive debut at the twisting Lausitz circuit. Noriyuki Haga Yamaha Motor France's Sebastien Gimbert misses the Lausitz race after injuring his back in Assen last weekend, however the R1 ranks are boosted by the inclusion of last year's FIM Superstock 1000 Cup winner Didier van Keymeulen. The Belgian is entered as a wildcard on board the YZF-R1 he normally campaigns in the German championship and ended first qualifying in 22nd position. Final practice and the grid deciding superpole session takes place tomorrow (Saturday) with the races scheduled for Sunday. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "Not a bad day. The bike feels a little different from when we tested here, which I think could be down to the higher winds today. We've got a few things to try out for tomorrow. The bike's working well so we are just trying to make it a little easier and more consistent to ride. The rear tyre is the critical thing just now. The temperatures are lower today than when we tested and as a result we're seeing much higher wear today." Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "The feeling with the bike is good but the lap time could be better, so maybe I must ride faster! I did a lot of long runs today and also did quite a lot of laps on my number two bike. We came here with a good setting and now both bikes have the same feeling, so I am happy. I have a few things to try tomorrow and I am confident that we can be in good condition before superpole." Norick Abe Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "We still have a few things to try and make the bike better for tomorrow but overall it's not too bad. The times are all very close so if we can make a small improvement then we can make it into superpole." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "This is a very tight circuit so I am learning all the time. Normally I can expect to make an improvement for Saturday and I think that the more I learn the faster I can go." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "Both riders had a good practice today. The riders are all working on finding a good race setting and they are quite happy with how it went. We will make a few small adjustments to the settings for both riders tomorrow but today we did a good job and hope to continue that tomorrow." Circuit Length: 4265 Weather: Dry 2006 WSB Lausitzring 08/09/2006 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'38.331 2 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 1'38.550 3 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'38.869 4 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 1'38.871 5 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'38.948 6 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'39.048 7 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'39.101 8 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'39.347 9 Alex Barros Honda BRA 1'39.572 10 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 1'39.591 11 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'39.609 12 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'39.709 13 Steve Martin Petronas AUS 1'39.771 14 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'40.041 15 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'40.149 18 Norick Abe Yamaha JPN 1'40.732 26 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 1'41.786 QUALIFYING 1 REPORT 08/09/2006 Curtain quickest in opening Lausitz practice Kevin Curtain Championship leader Kevin Curtain continued his fine run of form in opening practice for Sunday's tenth round of the Supersport World Championship at EuroSpeedway Lausitz, setting the fastest time in today's first qualifying session. The Australian Yamaha Motor Germany rider was almost seven tenths of a second quicker than second placed Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) in the 45 minute session. Johan Stigefelt and Sebastien Cherpentier (both Honda) complete the provisional front row ahead of tomorrow's final session. Yamaha Team Italia's Gianluca Vizziello ended the day in eighth position, just three tenths of a second slower than third placed Stigefelt. Fabien Foret, standing in for the injured Broc Parkes on the second Yamaha Motor Germany machine, ended his first day on the YZF-R6 in 14th, one place ahead of Massimo Roccoli on the other Yamaha Team Italia bike. Circuit Length: 4265 Weather: Dry 2006 WSS Lausitzring 08/09/2006 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 1'41.167 2 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'41.862 3 Johan Stigefelt Honda SWE 1'42.569 4 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 1'42.571 5 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 1'42.613 6 Yoann Tibero Honda FRA 1'42.706 7 Kai Borre Andersen Suzuki NOR 1'42.712 8 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1'42.866 9 Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 1'42.921 10 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 1'42.956 11 Christian Zaiser Ducati AUT 1'43.039 12 Matthieu Lagrive Honda FRA 1'43.106 13 Stephane Chambon Kawasaki FRA 1'43.171 14 Fabien Foret Yamaha FRA 1'43.239 15 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1'43.485 20 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'44.227 Click here to view the news

The weather was kind to the World Superbike Championship today as the rain disappeared and the sun came out while Haga and Corser took three podiums between them; one on each step of the podium. Haga took the win in race one and rounded it up with a second place in race two, while Corser finished third in the first race and fifth in the second. Race one started well for Haga as he went from eighth to second in the first few laps. Undeterred by the gap that Bayliss had created between first and second, Haga just put his head down and reduced the margin lap by lap until the two riders were tyre to tyre on lap 14. Haga made his move on the next lap with a traditional Haga-style close pass and then just kept going. He finished the race a clear 11 seconds ahead of the rest of the field; his fourth win of the season. Corser got off to a poor start in race one, almost high-siding in the second corner, and he slid back to ninth before turning the power back on and making way up through the field again. By lap eight he had made his way to fourth position and was hunting down Biaggi 6.2 seconds ahead in third. By lap 18 the gap had reduced to nothing and Corser tried valiantly to pass Biaggi In the end he had to settle for third as his tyres wore off. The second race of the day got off to a mixed start with Corser dropping to sixth and Haga climbing to fifth. Haga wasted no time in passing through the field to once again chase down lead-man Bayliss. Corser meanwhile was challenging Xaus for fifth; a challenge he won going into the first turn. He then focused on finding a way past Toseland for fourth place; a battle which was to last the rest of the race with the riders in the order in which they had begun. By lap nine Haga and Bayliss were dicing with each other and, on lap 14, a mistake by Bayliss gave Haga the chance he was looking for and he grabbed it to take the race lead. But, four laps from the end Bayliss managed to get past Haga, who was forced to settle for second. Team Yamaha YZF rider Shinichi Nakatomi had a good day's racing taking 11th in race one and 15th in race two. Race one was the highlight of the day for the young Japanese rider and he takes six points away with him. Today's results have boosted Haga's second place standing; he is now only 41 points behind first with two rounds still to go. Noriyuki Haga (1st and 2nd - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I feel happy with my result in both races today. The first race was the perfect result; even though my tyre started to wear off I was able to take the win. I made a minor suspension change for race two but then didn't get as good a start as I wanted because of a small mistake. This meant I had to use more rear tyre during the race to chase and challenge Bayliss. Towards the end the tyre started sliding and I just couldn't keep up the pace with Troy. Today has reduced the margin on my championship challenge; it has given me more potential to win and I'm now feeling more focused than ever and I'm going to push right to the end for the title. I'd like to thank the team and Öhlins for all their efforts in getting the bike working right this weekend." Click here to view the news

Noriyuki Haga put in an exceptionally fast lap in today's Superpole at Monza to take his first pole of the season. This success at the team's home circuit was made even better by Troy Corser completing the front row of tomorrow's grid in fourth. The team now goes into tomorrow's race ready to fight for the World Superbike Championship. The day started well with both riders making good progress in this morning's qualifying session. Haga put in several long runs during the qualifying session to check his set-up and took third qualifying position going into Superpole. Corser and his team worked on improving the braking and front end set-up of his bike with the results quickly showing as he moved up from 12th to finish in sixth, with only 0.3 seconds gap up to second. Corser was the first rider in the team to do his Superpole lap and comfortably beat the Superpole lap record he had set last year. He just missed the top of the leader board by under 0.09 seconds. Haga was one of the final riders to complete his lap and took the pole position as well as setting a new Superpole lap record of 1'44.941 - taking off almost 2 seconds from the standing record. Today's track action puts both Yamaha Motor Italia riders on the front row which will be important as they go into the first tight chicane. Both riders will need to be in front when they reach this corner if they are to contend for the lead. The front row grid is completed by Bayliss in second and Biaggi in third. Shinichi Nakatomi's weekend took a turn for the worse today as he crashed out of qualifying and ended his race hopes for Monza. He had been progressing well in this morning's qualifying practice and had secured 20th qualifying place when he lost the front of the bike and crashed into the gravel trap at the Ascari corner. He re-mounted and re-joined the circuit but a collision with another rider sent him back into the gravel where the bike fell on his foot, braking two toes and cutting short his weekend. It is hoped he will return at Silverstone. Noriyuki Haga (1st - Yamaha Motor Italia) "I am very happy with pole but tomorrow is the most important day - that is when it all counts. The weekend so far has gone very well for myself and the team and I am confident for tomorrow. We have already fixed a race setting and tyre and have only a few minor suspension changes to do before the race." Troy Corser (4th - Yamaha Motor Italia) "Today has gone well. We got a good set-up in practice this morning and put in some good lap times. Then Superpole went well, I was just a bit cautious going into the first chicane as I have overshot there twice already this weekend. It feels good to be on the front row at the team's home round. The bike feels really good and I am looking forward to tomorrow a lot." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator Yamaha Motor Italia) "This round is at the team's home of Monza. To have both riders on the front row with good set-ups and tyre choices done is excellent. Haga's Superpole lap was fantastic and I am very happy that we have solved Corser's problems from yesterday. The weekend has come together very well so far and we are now ready to fight for the championship tomorrow." Circuit Length: 5792 Temp: 30 Weather: Hot and Sunny 2007 WSB Monza 12/05/2007 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'44.941 2 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'45.345 3 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'45.415 4 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'45.430 5 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'45.824 6 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'46.232 7 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'46.437 8 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'46.696 9 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'46.753 10 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 1'46.758 11 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 1'46.948 12 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'46.067 13 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'47.145 14 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'47.146 15 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'47.553 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Regis Laconi FRA 1'46.548 1'45.593 2 James Toseland GBR 1'45.953 1'46.691 3 Noriyuki Haga JPN 1'46.316 1'46.097 4 Max Biaggi ITA 1'47.205 1'46.155 5 Roberto Rolfo ITA 1'46.960 1'46.173 6 Troy Corser AUS 1'47.321 1'46.277 7 Troy Bayliss AUS 1'46.918 1'46.361 8 Karl Muggeridge AUS 1'46.462 1'47.137 9 Michel Fabrizio ITA 1'47.384 1'46.475 10 Joshua Brookes AUS 1'46.686 1'48.050 11 Max Neukirchner GER 1'47.351 1'46.705 12 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'46.775 1'47.199 13 Fonsi Nieto ESP 1'47.125 1'46.827 14 Yukio Kagayama JPN 1'46.972 1'46.875 15 Marco Borciani ITA 1'47.828 1'47.267 20 Shinichi Nakatomi JPN 1'48.384 1'48.093 Rider Standings 29/04/2007 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. James Toseland Honda GBR 196 2. Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 164 3. Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 144 4. Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 128 5. Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 114 6. Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 99 7. Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 98 8. Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 71 9. Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 64 10. Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 47 11. Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 46 12. Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 43 13. Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 41 14. Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 37 15. Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 35 16. Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 19 Manufacturer Standings 29/04/2007 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 205 2. Ducati 173 3. Yamaha 167 4. Suzuki 164 5. Kawasaki 69 QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 12/05/2007 Yamaha on front row for Supersport race The Yamaha World Supersport Team showed its determination today and was rewarded with a front row start position for tomorrow's race. Having spent the morning practice session focusing on finding the right race setting, Parkes went on to claim fourth position on tomorrow's grid. Parkes spent the morning practice trying a series of small setting changes and was looking positive in second position for most of the session. In this afternoon's qualifying session he went on to knock 0.5 seconds off his best time from yesterday to move up to fourth slot. The front row tomorrow is headed by Sofuoglu (Honda) with fellow team mates Charpentier and Fujiwara completing the grid alongside Parkes. Anthony West, who is standing in this weekend for the injured Kevin Curtain, had only his second day on the YZF-R6 and spent the morning session continuing to familiarise himself the bike's handling and weight characteristics. As the pace quickened throughout the day the 250 GP star found himself hampered by his non-standard leathers and was unable to improve upon his time from yesterday, eventually qualifying in 14th place. Massimo Roccoli made better progress today after completely reviewing and revising his set up from yesterday. In qualifying he rapidly moved up from 13th place to eighth, taking almost a second off his best time so far this weekend. Broc Parkes (4th - 1'50.903 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "Today has been good, especially as the lap times have been so fast this weekend. We have made a series of small changes and found a good direction in today's qualifying. A new front fork setting and other changes have given me much better braking feeling, which we have been trying to solve since Assen. The team has worked hard to achieve this and I feel we have a pretty good bike for tomorrow's race now. It's going to be tough out there tomorrow but I'm looking forward to it." Anthony West (14th - 1'51.867 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I have learnt a lot more about the bike today and I have a much better understanding of what needs to be done to set it up for me. We are very short on time though. The biggest things for me to get used to have been the weight of the bike and the way it handles when flicking from corner to corner. I'm not happy with fourteenth by any means. I want to be in the top five tomorrow and I need to get a good start tomorrow to have any chance of achieving that." Massimo Roccoli (8th - 1'51.420 - Yamaha Team Italia) "This morning I went back to the beginning and slowly changed everything about the set up of my bike and it worked because I have got a much better setting than yesterday now. The second row is a decent place to start and the front row is very close. I need to get a good start tomorrow which I am confident I can do." Circuit Length: 5792 Weather: Sunny 2007 WSS Monza 12/05/2007 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR 1'50.791 1'50.459 2 Sebastien Charpentier FRA 1'50.711 1'51.167 3 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN 1'50.866 1'50.817 4 Broc Parkes AUS 1'51.557 1'50.903 5 Gianluca Nannelli ITA 1'51.889 1'51.006 6 Fabien Foret FRA 1'51.098 1'51.071 7 Barry Veneman NED 1'51.837 1'51.370 8 Massimo Roccoli ITA 1'52.315 1'51.420 9 Robbin Harms DNK 1'52.570 1'51.664 10 David Salom ESP 1'52.851 1'51.711 11 Gianluca Vizziello ITA 1'52.148 1'51.766 12 Joan Lascorz ESP 1'52.989 1'51.833 13 Pere Riba ESP 1'51.848 1'52.256 14 Anthony West AUS 1'51.867 1'51.937 15 Vesa Kallio FIN 1'52.672 1'51.873 20 David Checa ESP 1'52.960 1'52.167 25 Sebastien Gimbert FRA 1'53.148 1'52.872 Rider Standings 29/04/2007 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 120 2. Fabien Foret Kawasaki FRA 67 3. Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 43 4. Andrew Pitt Honda AUS 40 5. Robbin Harms Honda DNK 39 6. Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 30 7. Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 30 8. Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 28 9. Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 27 10. David Salom Yamaha ESP 27 11. Pere Riba Kawasaki ESP 26 12. Craig Jones Honda GBR 25 13. Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 25 14. Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 23 15. Vesa Kallio Suzuki FIN 21 17. David Checa Yamaha ESP 18 22. Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 9 Manufacturer Standings 29/04/2007 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 120 2. Kawasaki 77 3. Yamaha 66 4. Suzuki 37 5. Ducati 30 Click here to view the news

The Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team had mixed fortunes in today's Superpole session but are confident of a good race tomorrow following a weekend of consistent lap times and good practice sessions. Having made some adjustment alterations overnight Corser was confident of improving his provisional fifth place from yesterday. This confidence was rewarded with a move up to second place in this morning's qualifying session. A small mistake on his Superpole lap saw Corser slip to sixth position. Haga's Superpole lap was looking good for a front row start until he almost lost the front tyre going into Mandeveen and had to take to the grass. He remained on board and re-joined the circuit but was unable to push for the remainder of the lap due to dirty tyres. Haga had been running in sixth place going into the Superpole session but had to accept the near miss putting him on the fourth row for his 137th race start with Yamaha. Shinichi Nakatomi had less success in today's qualifying when setting changes made prior to the morning's session failed to improve the rider's position. Even though Nakatomi managed to go almost half a second faster compared to yesterday's qualifying, he dropped to 17th overall as other teams made more progress than the Team Yamaha YZF squad. James Toseland will start in pole position with team mates Lanzi and Bayliss in second and third respectively. Biaggi rounds up the front row. Troy Corser (6th - 1'39.422 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "Superpole was disappointing, there's no denying it. I made a small mistake on the back part of the circuit and went into one corner a bit fast and ran a bit wide. But the second row is okay, I'm confident in the lap times so I just need to get a good start tomorrow. I'm happy with the race set up and I have done several long runs on the tyres in free practice so I am comfortable with those." Noriyuki Haga (15th - 1'41.093 - Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I lost the front tyre at Mandeveen corner in the middle section of the lap and I had to pick the bike up to save it. Up until that point the bike had been feeling good, though we still need to make some suspension modifications - the data from the Superpole lap will help us with that. I am not thinking about the race win tomorrow right now, I just want to focus on getting our set-up completely sorted and adding to my championship points." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator, Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team) "I am still confident despite our Superpole results because we have been in the top five in practice all weekend. It will be okay for Troy because he starts from the second row and had more opportunity to push through to the front row. It will be more difficult for Nori but we have performed miracles in races before now. We will make some more adjustments overnight and I am sure we will be ready to race tomorrow." Shinichi Nakatomi (17th - 1'40.824 - Team Yamaha YZF) "I am disappointed today after such a good start yesterday. We just need to continue working on our set-up tomorrow morning to see where we can make improvements. Seventeenth is not a good start but we must focus on finishing in the points now." Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 24 Weather: Sunny 2007 WSB Assen 28/04/2007 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'38.603 2 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'39.226 3 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'39.256 4 Max Biaggi Suzuki ITA 1'39.320 5 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'39.411 6 Troy Corser Yamaha AUS 1'39.422 7 Max Neukirchner Suzuki GER 1'39.648 8 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'39.928 9 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'40.057 10 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'40.288 11 Roberto Rolfo Honda ITA 1'40.328 12 Jakub Smrz Ducati CZE 1'40.376 13 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'40.561 14 Joshua Brookes Honda AUS 1'40.674 15 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'41.093 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Troy Bayliss AUS 1'39.806 1'39.245 2 Troy Corser AUS 1'39.938 1'39.386 3 James Toseland GBR 1'39.603 1'39.391 4 Ruben Xaus ESP 1'39.765 1'39.567 5 Lorenzo Lanzi ITA 1'40.445 1'39.655 6 Noriyuki Haga JPN 1'39.750 1'40.111 7 Fonsi Nieto ESP 1'40.201 1'39.955 8 Jakub Smrz CZE 1'40.355 1'39.956 9 Max Neukirchner GER 1'40.537 1'39.987 10 Karl Muggeridge AUS 1'40.092 1'40.280 11 Regis Laconi FRA 1'41.155 1'40.377 12 Max Biaggi ITA 1'40.804 1'40.378 13 Joshua Brookes AUS 1'40.480 1'41.172 14 Michel Fabrizio ITA 1'40.844 1'40.480 15 Roberto Rolfo ITA 1'41.109 1'40.666 17 Shinichi Nakatomi JPN 1'41.032 1'40.824 QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 28/04/2007 First and second row starts tomorrow for Yamaha in World Supersport Both Parkes and replacement rider Steve Martin put in excellent performances today to take third and sixth qualifying places respectively on the grid for tomorrow's race. Having both done two long runs during this morning's free practice session to test out two tyre options for tomorrow, the riders went into the second qualifying session of the weekend confident of their setting choices. In qualifying Parkes lost his provisional second place that he achieved yesterday in the early stages of the session but sliced off over 0.4 seconds to take third qualifying slot in the last five minutes of the session - his highest qualifying position so far this season. This puts Broc in an ideal position to fight for the race win tomorrow and move up the championship standings board. Martin put in a strong show in only his second day on the YZF-R6 and came up from 13th, where he started the day, to sixth position. The ex-World Superbike rider has not ridden in the Supersport series since 2000 but has adapted to the team and the bike with speed and ease. He is replacing fellow Australian Kevin Curtain while he recuperates from the leg injury he suffered at Valencia two weeks ago. Just in front of Martin, Massimo Roccoli continued his positive weekend by securing fifth qualifying place this afternoon. The young Italian's confidence has been boosted by his win in the national championship at Mugello last week as well as finding a good set-up during the day. Broc Parkes (3rd - 1'41.595 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "This is my best qualifying result so far this year. I'm happy because it means I can get on the pace from the very start tomorrow rather than having to battle through the field first. This morning we did two long runs trying two tyre options for tomorrow but we have yet to decide which to use. We will now sit down and look over the data gathered and make the choice." Steve Martin (6th - 1'41.684 - Yamaha World Supersport Team) "I'm pretty happy with sixth considering this is only my second day on the bike. We have constantly made steps forward this weekend so far and if we keep doing that then tomorrow will be even better. I was going for the front row, naturally, but second row is okay. The team has made the transition for me really easy and that has helped enormously. We are in a good position for tomorrow's race." Massimo Roccoli (5th - 1'41.672 - Yamaha Team Italia) "Last week's win has been a huge boost to my confidence. I found my race set-up very quickly and I feel my bike is very competitive. I must thank my chief engineer Vanni Lorenzini for this. Today I did my best lap time with the rear tyre that we will use tomorrow so I am very optimistic. I normally get a good start and I am confident that will be the case tomorrow." Circuit Length: 4555 Temp: 24 Weather: Sunny 2007 WSS Assen 28/04/2007 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Nat. QUAL I QUAL II 1 Kenan Sofuoglu TUR 1'42.482 1'41.144 2 Sebastien Charpentier FRA 1'42.174 1'41.192 3 Broc Parkes AUS 1'42.191 1'41.595 4 Fabien Foret FRA 1'42.755 1'41.618 5 Massimo Roccoli ITA 1'43.010 1'41.672 6 Steve Martin AUS 1'43.297 1'41.684 7 Andrew Pitt AUS 1'43.040 1'41.761 8 Katsuaki Fujiwara JPN 1'43.167 1'41.835 9 David Salom ESP 1'43.000 1'42.043 10 Vladimir Ivanov RUS 1'43.478 1'42.322 11 Vesa Kallio FIN 1'42.773 1'42.348 12 Pere Riba ESP 1'43.578 1'42.388 13 Barry Veneman NED 1'42.875 1'42.392 14 David Checa ESP 1'43.241 1'42.433 15 Davide Giugliano ITA 1'43.369 1'42.510 22 Sebastien Gimbert FRA 1'43.601 1'42.948 24 Gianluca Vizziello ITA 1'44.227 1'43.233 Click here to view the news

YZ450FM, 450F and YZ250F machinery were dominant forces in the first round of the 2008 Italian Motocross championship as Yamaha riders captured all the overall podium places in both MX1 and MX2 categories at a sunny Montevarchi circuit last weekend. It was another successful double-act for Yamaha Motocross Team’s Josh Coppins and David Philippaerts after their 1-2 results at the Mantova Starcross International last week. This time it was Coppins’ turn to take the top step of the rostrum after the New Zealander produced two strong performances to walk away with the chequered flag in both motos. Philippaerts was second on both occasions as is now the ‘provisional’ leader of the standings as his team-mate will not contest the full series. MX1 was largely a contest between the two factory riders. Coppins led the first race with Philippaerts doggedly hanging onto his tail. After 22 minutes Philippaerts took his chance and relegated the winner of five Grand Prix in 2007 to second spot. Coppins remained composed and watched the lines of the Tuscan before counter-attacking within the final two laps to seize the victory. “It was a good race and another step forward for me as I feel my riding is getting better,” said Coppins. “David was on the pace and we were both going fast this weekend. I still have some more meetings before the first GP and we will continue to work and build-up to the first Grand Prix.” The second moto was a straight-forward affair as Coppins set a brace of blistering laps early into the second half of the sprint to break away from the Italian. “I did not win but I am quite pleased with how the day went,” said Philippaerts. “Mainly because I know my current level is good; if I can push Josh hard and also beat Antonio then I am heading down the right path. I feel great on the bike and I know there is better to come.” MX2 World Champion Antonio Cairoli was third in both sprints with just his second appearance steering the Yamaha Red Bull De Carli YZ450F. The 2007 MX2 Italian number one made a steady and solid beginning to his 2008 calendar. “It was a positive meeting,” the Sicilian said. “I knew that David and Josh would have a slight advantage but I must remember that this is my first race and I haven’t done that much training with the 450. I believe we have made the right choice for this year and in the next few races I will be getting better and faster. We have started the season now and I am pleased with how it went. If we continue in this direction then I will be satisfied.” Cairoli’s crown in MX2 looks as though it will be closely fought over this season. In Montevarchi the class was decided between Yamaha Team Ricci’s Nicolas Aubin (the eventual winner with 2nd and 1st positions), Davide Guarneri (5th and 3rd places) and 3C Yamaha’s Manuel Monni (winner of the first moto and 5th in the second).Yamaha Red Bull De Carli’s Matteo Bonini is also likely to play a part – and will try to keep the number one plate within the realms of the Rome-based squad – as his fine second position in the last sprint (and fourth overall standing) reveals. The second round of the series follows quickly with the Yamaha Motocross Team and the three MX2 squads in action next weekend at Castiglione Del Lago. Coppins will head north-west to race the Valence International in southern France. Results Montevarchi Italian Championship Rnd 1 MX1 RACE 1: 1.Coppins (Yamaha); 2.Philippaerts (Yamaha); 3.Cairoli (Yamaha); 4.De Reuver (Honda); 5. Salvini (Suzuki). RACE 2: 1.Coppins (Yamaha); 2.Philippaerts (Yamaha); 3.Cairoli (Yamaha); 4.De Reuver (Honda); 5. Salvini (Suzuki). MX2 RACE 1: 1.Monni (Yamaha); 2.Aubin (Yamaha); 3.Tarroux (KTM); 4.Pellegrini (KTM); 5.Guarneri (Yamaha) RACE 2: 1.Aubin (Yamaha); 2.Bonini (Yamaha); 3.Guarneri (Yamaha); 4.Seistola (Honda); 5.Monni (Yamaha) Click here to view the news

Yamaha's win with Valentino Rossi in the 2007 Dutch TT at Assen is cause for a double celebration for the Factory, as it is also its 150th win in the premier-class of World Championship motorcycle racing. Yamaha Motor Company is only the second manufacturer in the history of the sport to pass the milestone of 150 wins, which it has achieved in 46 years since it began racing on the international stage in 1961. Yamaha's very first premier-class victory came with British rider Chas Mortimer, in Barcelona at the final race of the 1972 series aboard a 353cc twin-cylinder two-stroke Yamaha. Since then, Yamaha has won premier-class Grands Prix in every season bar two and has taken a total of eleven manufacturers' and twelve riders' titles during the process. Click here to view the news

Claudio de Carli is proud to announce that his MX2 World Championship team will from now on be called the ‘Yamaha Red Bull De Carli Team’, signifying the stronger collaboration between the team and the world leader in the energy drinks market. Since 2006 Red Bull has been a team partner and after two very successful seasons, in which Antonio Cairoli finished second in 2006 and celebrated his second MX2 World Championship title this year, both parties agreed to intensify their relationship. Partnering title holder Cairoli in the 2008 MX2 world championship will be the team’s current riders Matteo Bonini and Alessandro Lupino, all riding Yamaha YZ250F machines tuned by the team race department under direct supervision of Claudio De Carli. The agreement, sealed with a simple handshake between Red Bull Motorsport management and Claudio De Carli, offers the team many opportunities to further strengthen its structure and competitiveness. After the earlier announcement of Youthstream that Red Bull will be the official energy drink of the FIM Motocross World Championship for 2008, 2009 and 2010, as well as the title sponsor of the MX of Nations, Red Bull’s increased involvement in the Yamaha De Carli team is a yet another confirmation of their trust in the potential of the Motocross sport. The racing team of Claudio De Carli was created in 1994 at the time when Claudio’s active riding career had ended. In the eighties De Carli was one of the best private riders in the Motocross World Championship and the first Italian ever to win a race in the 500cc World Championship.Since the start in 1994 Team De Carli has been with Yamaha, winning their first 125 world title in 1997 with Alessio Chiodi on a Yamaha YZ125. In 1999 the team came close to another 125 world title when Claudio Federici finished second. Today’s dominant position of the team in MX2 started with the arrival of arguably the biggest star in Motocross today, Antonio Cairoli. In his first full season in 2004, riding the Yamaha YZ250F, Cairoli finished third. He won his first MX2 world title in 2005, finished second the year after, but won back his title by crushing the opposition this season. Other accomplishments of the team include many national Italian championships as well as contributing to Italian Motocross des Nations victories in 1999 with Claudio Federici and 2003 with Alessio Chiodi. Antonio Cairoli, born in Patti Italy on September 23 1985, also has other prizes added to his tally which include the 2006 European supercross title and two MX2 Italian titles won in 2006 and 2007, of course all won with the Yamaha Red Bull De Carli Team. “Tonio’ is only twenty-two years old, but with 21 GP (one in MX1) and 48 heat victories (one in MX1) he is already the most successful rider on the MX2 starting list. In Matteo Bonini, born in Castelnuovo Monti Italy on September 20 1985, the team has another rider with winning potential. This year Bonini finished third in the MX2 Italian Championship and frequently proved he could ride with the fastest riders in the World Championship. Sixteen year old Alessandro Lupino, born in Viterbo Italy on January 15 1991, is the future of the Italian motocross. Last year he won everything there was to win in the 85cc class; the Italian, European and World Championship. This year, for the first time on a YZ250F bike he finished second in the Junior World Championship, sixth in the Italian Championship, and he won the ‘Trofeo Italia’. Click here to view the news

Yamaha Motor Europe has agreed to release Anthony West, at his request, from riding the R6 in the remaining races of the 2007 Supersport World Championship. West has been offered a chance to ride in MotoGP for the rest of the season for a competitor brand and has accepted a financial compensation agreement with Yamaha to terminate his current contract. West was hired by Yamaha to replace Kevin Curtain, who is currently out injured following an accident at the Valencia round back in April. Swapping his GP250 two-stroke machine for a 600 stock based four-stroke West showed his capability very quickly, finishing third in his first race at Monza. West was initially contracted only to ride for the Yamaha World Supersport Team in the Monza event. But, after it was confirmed that Curtain's recovery period was going to be longer than originally anticipated, Yamaha and West extended the one-event agreement to the remainder of the season. He went on to win the Supersport race at Silverstone and also won at last weekend’s round in Misano, reconfirming the championship potential of the R6. Anthony West "It's such a strange feeling, making this decision. Yamaha gave me a fantastic chance to show my potential on the R6. It’s thanks to this ride that I feel I've got my career back on track. To leave Yamaha now is sad but it's such a great chance for me to follow my dream to go to MotoGP. Yamaha didn't want to block this chance for me; I’m grateful they believed in me and gave me the chance to prove myself. I want to add that I’m really sorry to the supersport team guys and I’d like to thank them for all their hard work and support. The crew have been great and the bike was fast from the first minute I sat on it. I’ve not been used to such a professional team and they really made me feel at home. The financial compensation I’ve got to pay is severe but I've got the chance to show what I can do on a MotoGP bike and I hope it's worth it. It was important for me to be released from the team by mutual agreement; I'm still young and Yamaha is a good company and, who knows, maybe at some point in my career we can work together again." Laurens Klein Koerkamp, Racing Manager, Yamaha Motor Europe “We are obviously disappointed by releasing a winning rider from his contract, which is not our normal conduct! But rather then going to court we have been able to find a financial settlement; a solution we can only accept because Anthony was a replacement rider drafted in during the season and only had a theoretical chance to win the championship. Nevertheless, we deeply regret his decision, which leaves the team disappointed. All the same, Anthony is a good rider and I wish him all the best in pursuing his dream. We are currently working to replace him and have plenty of time before the next race." The ninth round is at Brno in the Czech Republic on 22nd July, with two Yamaha World Supersport Team tests planned prior to that. Click here to view the news

DP19 David Philippaerts tied on points for 3rd position and had to accept 4th overall on the 2010 YZ450FM at the Grand Prix of Bulgaria at Sevlievo for the first round of fifteen in the FIM MX1-GP World Championship. The Yamaha Monster Energy MX Team rider was 2nd and 7th across a difficult circuit in two hot motos. Rain early on Saturday caused the soft track to become even rougher and the ruts to carve deeper. The terrain mixed slippery hard-pack sections with heavy bumps and was a real test of concentration and physical endurance. 2008 world champion Philippaerts made two impressive launches from the start gate on the new rear-slanting fuel-injected YZ450F and held second position from start-to-finish of the first moto. In the second race the Italian was again maintaining a consistent pace in 3rd place until he lost traction on a downhill section and briefly hit the floor. Remounting he had lost ground but embarked on a brave charge and was crawling over the rear wheel of Clement Desalle for 5th on the final lap. The Belgian held firm and Spaniard Jonathan Barragan caught Philippaerts unaware on the last charge down to the finish line, relegating the 25 year old to 7th mere metres from the flag. Despite the late surprise and misfortune of missing the podium, Philippaerts could gather 36 points and is just 11 behind winner and series leader Max Nagl. De Dycker Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci MX Team's Ken De Dycker made his world championship debut for the Italian team and although the Belgian made mistakes and could not find his desired rhythm across the course was able to take 6th overall, with his finish of 4th in Moto1 beating his run to 8th in Moto2. Round two will take place next weekend for the Grand Prix of Lombardia at Mantova, Italy. The event will be the home meeting for the team and the scene of victory for them in 2007. David Philippaerts, 4th Yamaha Monster Energy MX Team: "It was not a bad weekend and we have a lot of points but I am disappointed with how it finished. I just misjudged the last lap and did not know Barragan was so close. This is only the first race and we have fourteen more to go. It was a hard weekend; the track was fast with a lot of bumps but I liked it. In the first moto my riding was good but I made a stupid crash in the second. Without that mistake for sure I would have had the podium. The bike was great and the Ohlins suspension worked so well; I really like what they have given us. The difference in the points with the leaders is small so we will look ahead to the next GP and we only have a few days before Mantova." Ken De Dycker, 6th Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci MX Team: "It was a difficult day. The first moto was OK. I had a pretty decent start but was caught in the backmarkers and made mistakes. The track was very different to past years. It was good but demanding. I had a bad start in the second moto. I could not find good lines and was making a lot of mistakes. I don't have any excuses, I train really hard but I could not get going for the second moto." Circuit Length: 1530 Crowd: 20,000 Weather: Sunny Last Years Winner: Jonathan Barragan 2010 GP of Bulgaria 04/04/2010 Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 40'45.442 2 David Philippaerts Yamaha ITA 0'08.599 3 Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 0'14.666 4 Ken De Dycker Yamaha BEL 0'18.117 5 Antonio Cairoli KTM ITA 0'22.864 6 Jonathan Barragan Kawasaki ESP 0'38.625 7 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 0'45.541 8 Xavier Boog Kawasaki FRA 0'52.209 9 Joshua Coppins Aprilia NZL 0'58.900 10 Davide Guarneri Honda ITA 1'05.657 11 Gareth Swanepoel Honda RSA 1'09.725 12 Tanel Leok Honda EST 1'18.168 13 Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 1'27.741 14 Marc De Reuver Suzuki NED 1'39.375 15 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 1'42.729 18 Tom Soderstrom Yamaha SWE -1Laps Race 2 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Antonio Cairoli KTM ITA 41'06.743 2 Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 0'03.685 3 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 0'07.060 4 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'12.869 5 Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 0'15.479 6 Jonathan Barragan Kawasaki ESP 0'16.441 7 David Philippaerts Yamaha ITA 0'16.619 8 Ken De Dycker Yamaha BEL 0'48.535 9 Xavier Boog Kawasaki FRA 0'51.452 10 Joshua Coppins Aprilia NZL 0'58.843 11 Anthony Boissière TM FRA 1'09.907 12 Davide Guarneri Honda ITA 1'17.109 13 Gareth Swanepoel Honda RSA 1'22.731 14 Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 1'32.458 15 Evgeny Bobryshev Honda RUS 1'36.296 Rider Standings 04/04/2010 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 47 2. Antonio Cairoli KTM ITA 41 3. Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 36 4. David Philippaerts Yamaha ITA 36 5. Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 34 6. Ken De Dycker Yamaha BEL 31 7. Jonathan Barragan Kawasaki ESP 30 8. Xavier Boog Kawasaki FRA 25 9. Joshua Coppins Aprilia NZL 23 10. Davide Guarneri Honda ITA 20 11. Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 18 12. Gareth Swanepoel Honda RSA 18 13. Manuel Monni Yamaha ITA 15 14. Tanel Leok Honda EST 13 15. Anthony Boissière TM FRA 10 23. Tom Soderstrom Yamaha SWE 3 Manufacturer Standings 04/04/2010 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. KTM 50 2. Suzuki 40 3. Yamaha 36 4. Kawasaki 33 5. Aprilia 23 6. Honda 20 7. TM 10 8. CCM 4 RACE REPORT 04/04/2010 Osborne rides to 7th in Bulgarian sun Zach Osborne The wide, fast, rippled and bumpy circuit of Sevlievo was surrounded by 20,000 spectators for the Grand Prix of Bulgaria and the first round of fifteen in the FIM MX2-GP World Championship. Bike it Cosworth Yamaha's Zach Osborne gave the new YZ250F, with its agile new handling courtesy of the revised frame, a decent run to 7th position overall in some demanding weather and track conditions. The American, riding after recent recovery from bronchitis, was part of a four way fight for 7th in the first race and ended the 35 minute and 2 lap foray with 8th. The 20 year old found a more effective rhythm in the second outing across a testing terrain and under the warmest sunshine of the day to reach 7th. Osborne - already a Grand Prix winner after just one season with the British team - was Yamaha's best MX2-GP representative and the first of three in the top eleven. Chiara Fontanesi Yamaha Gariboldi Monster Energy's Harri Kullas was 10th on his Grand Prix debut with the squad. The Finnish teenager was 11th and 12th and pushed up to decent speed after sluggish starts. Team-mate Christophe Charlier finished 11th in the final classification. The 18 year old opened his maiden world championship campaign in fine fashion with a solid run to 7th position in the qualification heat on the 2010 YZ250F. The Frenchman then suffered a crash on the second lap of Moto1 which dropped him far down the field but he rode with aplomb to grab 14th. In the second race a more conventional opening phase delivered a 10th position result. Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci MX Team's Alessandro Lupino took his time to find his way around the layout and was hindered by a lowly gate position after a DNF in Saturday's qualification heat. The Italian rode to 16th and 15th for 14th at the end of the day. Gautier Paulin is undergoing daily treatment on his broken left leg in a race to be fit for round three at Valkenswaard for the Grand Prix of the Netherlands. Loic Larrieu was unable to compete due to a broken toe and fractured collarbone but the team are hopeful he will also be able to return in Holland. The first round of seven in the FIM Women's World Championship saw Yamaha 3C Racing's Chiara Fontanesi grabbed a pair of 2nd positions to be runner-up on her first Grand Prix flight with the YZ250F. The Italian teenager superbly followed her maiden podium secured on a YZ125 in the sand of Lierop for the final round of 2009. Round two of the MX2-GP calendar will take place next weekend at Mantova, Italy for the Grand Prix of Lombardia. The ladies competition is reactivated at the GP of Portugal on May 9th. Zach Osborne, Bike it Cosworth Yamaha, 7th: "The first race did not go so well. I did not get the best start and had a bad spell in the middle of the moto where I dropped back to 12th from 6th or 7th. I fought back to 8th and put what I had learned from the first race into the second. I got a decent start but it seemed like wherever I went someone was stopped on the track or had a problem. I was 15th but pushed on for a strong race. Overall this was a much better start than last year at Faenza. To take two solid finishes and improve through the weekend is a good way to start the season." Harri Kullas, Yamaha Gariboldi Monster Energy, 10th: "First Grand Prix of the year and I am pretty happy with the result. I started well in the first moto but I have this problem at the moment where I don't wake-up at the beginning! This was pretty bad in the second race as well. When I found my rhythm I could make some good speed. I tried to pass as many riders as possible. I am pretty satisfied with 11th and 12th and I'd like to thank the team." Chiara Fontanesi, Yamaha 3C Racing, 2nd: "I am very happy and very satisfied. I worked hard over the winter and it is great to see that the effort is all worth it. I hope the season can continue in this way. Some of the other girls are very fast but I am learning what I can to try and win a round soon. The YZ250F worked very well. It was better for me to start with the YZ125 to learn my way around but the YZ250F is what I needed to be competitive." Circuit Length: 1530 Crowd: 20,000 Weather: Sunny Last Years Winner: Steven Frossard 2010 GP of Bulgaria 04/04/2010 Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Marvin Musquin KTM FRA 40'41.977 2 Ken Roczen Suzuki GER 0'12.318 3 Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 0'51.161 4 Arnaud Tonus Suzuki CHE 0'57.920 5 Jeremy Van Horebeek Kawasaki BEL 1'07.267 6 Jeffrey Herlings KTM NED 1'35.476 7 Shaun Simpson KTM GBR 1'44.309 8 Zach Osborne Yamaha USA 1'45.037 9 Joel Roelants KTM BEL 1'49.656 10 Jake Nicholls KTM GBR 1'51.883 11 Harri Kullas Yamaha FIN 2'01.491 12 Dennis Verbruggen KTM BEL -1Laps 13 Nick Triest KTM BEL -1Laps 14 Christophe Charlier Yamaha FRA -1Laps 15 Mel Pocock Yamaha GBR -1Laps 16 Alessandro Lupino Yamaha ITA -1Laps 17 Ceriel Klein Kromhof Yamaha NED -1Laps 19 Glenn Coldenhoff Yamaha NED -1Laps Race 2 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Marvin Musquin KTM FRA 39'22.409 2 Ken Roczen Suzuki GER 0'07.389 3 Jeffrey Herlings KTM NED 0'19.178 4 Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 0'26.325 5 Arnaud Tonus Suzuki CHE 0'31.223 6 Jeremy Van Horebeek Kawasaki BEL 0'48.410 7 Zach Osborne Yamaha USA 1'05.621 8 Jake Nicholls KTM GBR 1'16.934 9 Shaun Simpson KTM GBR 1'32.164 10 Christophe Charlier Yamaha FRA 1'34.215 11 Nick Triest KTM BEL 1'38.380 12 Harri Kullas Yamaha FIN 1'43.373 13 Nicolas Aubin Kawasaki FRA 1'48.212 14 Nikolai Larsen Honda DNK 1'59.987 15 Alessandro Lupino Yamaha ITA -1Laps 16 Rudi Moroni Yamaha ITA -1Laps 18 Mel Pocock Yamaha GBR -1Laps Rider Standings 04/04/2010 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Marvin Musquin KTM FRA 50 2. Ken Roczen Suzuki GER 44 3. Steven Frossard Kawasaki FRA 38 4. Jeffrey Herlings KTM NED 35 5. Arnaud Tonus Suzuki CHE 34 6. Jeremy Van Horebeek Kawasaki BEL 31 7. Zach Osborne Yamaha USA 27 8. Shaun Simpson KTM GBR 26 9. Jake Nicholls KTM GBR 24 10. Harri Kullas Yamaha FIN 19 11. Nick Triest KTM BEL 18 12. Christophe Charlier Yamaha FRA 18 13. Joel Roelants KTM BEL 12 14. Alessandro Lupino Yamaha ITA 11 15. Dennis Verbruggen KTM BEL 11 17. Mel Pocock Yamaha GBR 9 19. Rudi Moroni Yamaha ITA 5 21. Ceriel Klein Kromhof Yamaha NED 4 23. Glenn Coldenhoff Yamaha NED 2 Manufacturer Standings 04/04/2010 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. KTM 50 2. Suzuki 44 3. Kawasaki 38 4. Yamaha 27 5. Honda 10 Click here to view the news

Gautier Paulin Yamaha Monster Energy MX Team’s Gautier Paulin will miss the opening rounds of the 2010 FIM MX2-GP World Championship after breaking his left fibula in a training accident today. The recently turned 20 year old, who finished 3rd in the ’09 series, was just days away from making his Grand Prix bow for the factory team on the 2010 YZ250FM when he twisted his ankle traversing a rut at La Fare-les-Oliviers circuit, near Aix-en-Provence in his native France. Paulin swiftly halted his training moto and an x-ray revealed a clean break that will require an estimated four weeks of convalescence, signifying his absence from at least the first two Grands Prix. It is a disappointing blow for the former European champion who had negotiated the off-season in fine form with two victories in the Italian MX2 Championship and round one of the Dutch national competition. The 2010 FIM MX-GP World Championship will kick off at the Sevlievo circuit for the Grand Prix of Bulgaria this coming weekend. “I feel pretty devastated by this but now that it has happened I am totally focussed on healing as quickly as I can and making my Grand Prix debut for Yamaha,” Paulin said. “I didn’t do anything wrong on the bike and didn’t even crash but when I caught my ankle I knew something was wrong. I was, and still am, completely dedicated to this MX2-GP championship for the Yamaha Monster Energy MX team and now I will set myself a new goal of getting back on the bike as soon as possible.” Click here to view the news