Alex Asigno

Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga is hopeful of repeating his last visit to Brands Hatch, where he won a race in the season's most exciting meeting, after claiming a front row start in superpole today. The Japanese star only narrowly missed out on his second successive pole position, losing time as he fought to control a massive slide on his grid-deciding lap. Haga lost a few tenths of a second in the incident but was able to compose himself and set his fastest lap of the weekend - an impressive 1:25.857. Only series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) was able to go quicker than the Yamaha man, setting a pole time four tenths of a second quicker than Haga. Despite the minor disappointment of missing out on the honour of pole position, Haga and his team were delighted to secure a front row start and are confident that their machine settings will allow them to fight at the front in tomorrow's races. Haga's team-mate Andrew Pitt will start tomorrow's races from the second row after setting the sixth fastest time in superpole. The Australian had experienced a few small problems in the morning's second qualifying session, including a trip through the gravel after an incident with another rider, but was back to his best in superpole - recording a 1:26.291 on his flying lap. Local rider Tommy Hill upheld British honour on board his Virgin Mobile Yamaha YZF-R1. The 21-year-old wild card ended regulation qualifying in seventh position and eventually ended up tenth in his first ever dry-weather superpole. Sebastien Gimbert was the fastest of the Yamaha Motor France trio in 15th. The Frenchman squeezed into superpole in 16th place, despite a high-speed accident in the morning's final qualifying session. His Japanese team-mates both missed the cut: Norick Abe failed to improve his Friday time in the morning qualifying session and will start 19th, although he was able to go quicker in the afternoon free practice, while team-mate Shinichi Nakatomi will start 26th on his first visit to the demanding British course. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "The front row was our target so I am very happy with second because I made a mistake on my superpole lap when I grabbed too much brake and came out of the saddle. We have a very good setting and have been able to do two long race settings yesterday and today, so we know what tyres to use and how they are likely to work late in the race. Troy (Bayliss) is very fast but I think that tomorrow we will have the opportunity to go for the win. I am second in the championship but have not won a race yet, so I hope to fix this at Brands Hatch." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "We made a few changes to the bike overnight and it didn't feel quite as good in the morning session. We changed some things around in he afternoon and I think we're in good shape for the race. I had a few slides on my superpole lap and that probably cost me some time but the second row's alright and I'm confident for the race." Tommy Hill (Virgin Mobile Yamaha) "It's great to be running up there with these top riders. I'm learning a lot. Following Corser I could see tyre smoke everywhere from him spinning it up, so I'm taking it in and trying to do the same. Superpole was also a good experience and I'm looking forward to the races. The support from the fans is great but I'm not feeling any pressure - I'll do my best and try to enjoy the racing." Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "My lap time is one-and-a-half seconds quicker than last year and I'm pleased to have made superpole and the progress we have made with the bike. There is still a little bit more work before we are ready for the race, but we are going in the right direction and I am confident of a good result tomorrow." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "We tried some changes this morning but it was not really an improvement from yesterday. We improved the set-up in the afternoon and still have some things to try in the warm-up. This is the most difficult track of the year in terms of suspension settings so I hope we can find a good solution tomorrow." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "I still have not found a good rhythm with this track. We still have some more things to try for tomorrow but mainly I need to improve my riding. I am quite far back on the grid but I am sure we can improve our performance in the races." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "So far things have gone well this weekend, with no real troubles to speak of. Both Andrew and Noriyuki have been able to do many laps in practice and we are ready to fight in what should be two very close races." Circuit Length: 4197 Temp: 22 Weather: Sunny 2006 WSB Brands Hatch 05/08/2006 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'25.449 2 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'25.857 3 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'25.901 4 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'25.933 5 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 1'26.000 6 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 1'26.291 7 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'26.323 8 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 1'26.542 9 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'26.560 10 Tommy Hill Yamaha GBR 1'26.580 11 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'26.794 12 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'26.814 13 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'26.850 14 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'27.047 15 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1'27.102 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'26.272 2 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'26.376 3 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'26.433 4 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 1'26.494 5 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'26.601 6 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'26.635 7 Tommy Hill Yamaha GBR 1'26.665 8 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 1'26.702 9 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'26.741 10 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 1'26.844 11 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'26.955 12 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'27.059 13 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'27.229 14 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'27.465 15 Pierfrancesco Chili Honda ITA 1'27.648 16 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1'27.690 19 Norick Abe Yamaha JPN 1'27.940 26 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 1'28.896 QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 05/08/2006 Parkes top of the pops in practice Broc Parkes Broc Parkes gave the Yamaha Motor Germany squad their third successive pole position after setting the fastest time in today's final qualifying at Brands Hatch. The Australian fired in a lap of 1:28.447 late in the session to grab his second pole position of the season. Parkes' team-mate, Kevin Curtain, had topped the timesheets for most of the session with a 1:28.574 lap time, only to be deposed in the closing minutes of the session. World champion Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) was another late improver, moving to second, with Curtain third on tomorrow's grid. Provisional pole sitter Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) will start fourth after failing to improve his time from Friday. Yamaha Team Italia riders Massimo Roccoli and Gianluca Vizziello will start from eighth and tenth places respectively after finding small improvements overnight. Yamaha GMT94's David Checa will start tomorrow's 23-lap Supersport World Championship round from 19th after missing most of yesterday's action due to a crash. Tomorrow's supersport race takes place between the two superbike contests, with Curtain and Parkes looking to close the gap on series leader Sebastien Charpentier. Going into the race Charpentier leads Curtain by just 10 points, with Parkes a further 17 behind in third. Circuit Length: 4197 2006 WSS Brands Hatch 05/08/2006 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 1'28.447 2 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 1'28.500 3 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 1'28.574 4 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'28.634 5 Stephane Chambon Kawasaki FRA 1'28.653 6 Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 1'28.792 7 Leon Camier Honda GBR 1'29.083 8 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1'29.170 9 Yoann Tibero Honda FRA 1'29.222 10 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1'29.323 11 Xavi Fores Yamaha ESP 1'29.334 12 Maxime Berger Kawasaki FRA 1'29.447 13 Johan Stigefelt Honda SWE 1'29.505 14 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 1'29.546 15 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 1'29.666 19 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'29.881

Yamaha Motor Italia riders Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt continued their splendid run of form today, blasting their Yamaha YZF-R1s to provisional front row starts at Brands Hatch today. Both riders featured at the top of the timesheets throughout the two one-hour practice sessions as they worked on finding the ideal settings for Sunday's two 25-lap races around the challenging British circuit. Haga's R1 was the fastest bike through the speed trap, recording almost 276kph up the Hawthorn Hill straight as the Japanese star powered to a 1:26.563 lap time - good enough to give him third place on the provisional grid. Team-mate Andrew Pitt also concentrated on his race settings but made a late charge to take fourth place at the chequered flag. The Australian ran strongly throughout the sessions and was able to make small refinements to allow his YZF-R1 to cope with the bumpy and demanding circuit. His best lap of 1:26.702 was good enough for fourth in the overnight standings. British wild-card Tommy Hill proved his pole position in Silverstone was no fluke. The 21-year-old, who won the British R6 Cup in 2003, featured in the top four for much of the session on the Virgin Mobile Yamaha YZF-R1 with which he usually contests the British superbike championship. Hill ended the day ahead of numerous of the championship stars in eighth. Sebastien Gimbert was the fastest of the Yamaha Motor France trio in 15th, just two places ahead of team-mate Norick Abe. Shinichi Nakatomi had a tough day on his first visit to the demanding British circuit. The Japanese rookie only completed a handful of laps after crashing 15 minutes into the afternoon qualifying session. The 27-year-old was uninjured in the crash and will compete in tomorrow's final qualifying session. Championship leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) topped the times with a 1:26.272 lap. World champion Troy Corser (Suzuki) was second. Second qualifying takes place tomorrow morning, with the final grid positions decided in the afternoon superpole session for the top 16 riders after the morning session. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "As always we are working for the race and today we were able to complete a lot of laps and understand how the bike works on worn tyres. The bike is working very well from the very first session and I was able to do two race simulations. There are a few small things for us to try out tomorrow and hopefully these will help us to make some slight improvements for the race." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "No real troubles today. The bike's working pretty good already but there are still some more things for us to try and improve tomorrow. I had a slight problem with the front end running wide on the entry to the corners today, but we were quickly able to solve that. We've now got to try and make the bike ride better over the bumps and I have to try and go quicker through the third sector, as I am losing some time there. Most of today was spent trying out tyres and we still have some work to do in deciding what to use in the race. Nothing is standing out as the obvious choice for the race, as all the options we have available seem to work well." Tommy Hill (Virgin Mobile Yamaha) "We came here with what we thought was a good package and I'm pleased with how things went today. We're maybe a little bit down on power (compared to the Yamaha Motor Italia machines) but we're able to make a bit up through the corners. We're also using development Pirelli tyres in the British championship, so we've got a few more adjustments to make to get the bike work better on these tyres. It's a great experience riding with these guys and I'm sure we can find that little bit extra tomorrow." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "I have raced here once before but I was so bad in the first session I think I forgot which way the track went! After the session my mechanic looked at the computer and we were able to find some big improvements. It felt much better in the afternoon and I think now we have a good starting point and I will be able to make a much better lap time tomorrow." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "This is a new track for me so I could have done without crashing. I am ok but the bike was very badly damaged in the crash. We will be ready for tomorrow and we should be able to find some improvements." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "Other than the gearbox settings, the bikes are virtually the same as at Brno and are working very well here as well. Both riders are happy and are only requesting a few small changes. That has allowed us to focus on the race and both Noriyuki and Andrew have been very impressive in the way they have worked to find that little bit extra that will hopefully help them late in the race on Sunday." Circuit Length: 4197 Temp: 22 Weather: Sunny 2006 WSB Brands Hatch 04/08/2006 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 1'26.272 2 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 1'26.494 3 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 1'26.563 4 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 1'26.702 5 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 1'26.741 6 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 1'26.844 7 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 1'26.955 8 Tommy Hill Yamaha GBR 1'26.987 9 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1'27.165 10 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 1'27.285 11 James Toseland Honda GBR 1'27.308 12 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1'27.372 13 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 1'27.468 14 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1'27.510 15 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1'27.690 17 Norick Abe Yamaha JPN 1'27.940 26 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 1'29.033 QUALIFYING 1 REPORT 04/08/2006 Curtain fast in first practice Kevin Curtain Kevin Curtain claimed a provisional front row start for Sunday's eighth round of the Supersport World Championship at Brands Hatch in England. The Yamaha Motor Germany rider's best lap of 1:28.674 was just four-hundreds of a second slower than provisional pole sitter Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda), with championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) and wild-card Cal Crutchlow (Honda) completing the provisional front row. Broc Parkes was the second YZF-R6 rider, ending the day in fifth position but just three tenths slower than Sofuoglu in a close session that was spiced up by the inclusion of some fast wild-card riders from the British championship. Italians Massimo Roccoli and Gianluca Vizziello ended the day seventh and 12th place respectively on their Yamaha Team Italia YZF-R6s, although there was disappointment for David Checa and the Yamaha GMT94 squad. The Spaniard crashed heavily in the opening stages of the qualifying session and was taken to the medical center but was passed fit to take part tomorrow. Circuit Length: 4197 Temp: 22 Weather: Sunny 2006 WSS Brands Hatch 04/08/2006 Qualifying 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1'28.634 2 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 1'28.674 3 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 1'28.739 4 Cal Crutchlow Honda GBR 1'28.792 5 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 1'28.948 6 Leon Camier Honda GBR 1'29.083 7 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1'29.183 8 Stephane Chambon Kawasaki FRA 1'29.302 9 Yoann Tibero Honda FRA 1'29.427 10 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 1'29.546 11 Gianluca Nannelli Ducati ITA 1'29.666 12 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1'29.732 13 Simone Sanna Honda ITA 1'29.778 14 Mauro Sanchini Yamaha ITA 1'29.863 15 Maxime Berger Kawasaki FRA 1'29.899 27 David Checa Yamaha ESP 1'31.509

This weekend sees the Superbike World Championship move to the famous Brands Hatch circuit in England for round eight of what is proving to be a pulsating series. Brands is traditionally the highlight of the season, with the year's biggest crowd flocking to see some of the best racing of the year. An old-fashioned race track, Brands Hatch provides a challenging mix of fast, blind corners and radical elevation changes to test the riders' skill, bravery and machine set-up skills. It is a circuit rated by many riders as their favourite. The Yamaha Motor Italia squad travels to the UK in good form, having seen Noriyuki Haga close in on series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati) last time out in Brno. Haga currently lies second in the series, 73 points behind Bayliss, and Brands Hatch is one of the Japanese rider's favourite venues, having taken his YZF-R1 to the win there last year. He explained: "I like Brands Hatch a lot and last year I had two great races with Troy Corser. I was disappointed after Brno because I thought that I could win. I was very fast in qualifying, although I had big grip problems in both the races. It is going to be two more hard races this weekend but I am confident that we can be back fighting at the front again." Haga has been a busy man since Brno, competing at last weekend's Suzuka 8-hour endurance event with Colin Edwards, although mechanical problems following a small crash during Edwards' first stint meant that he did not actually compete in the race. Yamaha Motor Italia team-mate Andrew Pitt goes to Brands Hatch out to avenge a Brno nightmare. Having won his first world superbike race at Misano, the Australian had high hopes for the Czech race - only to be denied two potential podium finishes due to technical problems. The Australian enjoys riding at the British circuit posted a sixth and seventh place finish there last year. In the 600cc world supersport class, Kevin Curtain closed the gap on Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) at the head of the championship with a win in Brno. The Yamaha Motor Germany rider now trails the Frenchman by just 10 points with five of the 12 races remaining. "Things are in our own hands now," said the 40-year-old Australian. "We're working with a new bike this year and maybe we've made taken a few wrong turns with the set-up in the first part of the year. But we showed at Brno that the package is very good and capable of winning races. I was so happy after Brno and I'm really buzzing about Brands." Broc Parkes made it a Yamaha Motor Germany one-two in Brno and currently lies third in the championship, just 18 points behind his team-mate and also right in contention for the title with five races remaining.

Yamaha Intur Sports rider Stefan Everts won his eleventh event in succession at a hot and humid Loket circuit to own the Grand Prix of Czech Republic today. The reigning MX1 World Champion now needs to score just one point more than his nearest rival at the Belgian round next weekend at Namur, his favourite circuit, to claim a record tenth title. Everts triumphed in both Czech motos in front of 23,000 spectators and has now reached a total of 19 consecutive heat victories with the YZ 450 FM as well as a career tally of 98 overall Grand Prix wins; a phenomenal amount. The hillside circuit located 110km west of Prague had been slightly altered over 2005 with a new pit-lane setting giving the riders more time to see their pit-boards and a tight set of corners behind the technical area. The terrain was loose and littered with small stones that made the mud slippery in places and the layout tended to favour sheer speed over technical ability. Everts' 98th win Everts was denied his fifth consecutive pole position by just two hundreds of a second by Kevin Strijbos but it mattered little as the Belgian made a decent jump out of the gained and was just pipped to the holeshot by Josh Coppins. By the end of the first lap Everts had placed his YZ 450FM ahead of the pack and proceeded to show the CAS Honda rider the fastest route around the steep course. For two thirds of the duration the pair were not separated by more than two seconds but approaching the final ten minutes Everts broke his opponent's resistance and claimed his eighteenth moto in succession. The second race was a more curious affair as a bump on the first turn meant the 33 year old had to chip away at a lead held first by Jonathan Barragan and then Kevin Strijbos. As in previous Grand Prix this year Everts soon hit the front and was able to remain aloof for further domination. Stefan Everts Cedric Melotte was struck by more bad luck with a stone. After partially swallowing a pebble in South Africa the Belgian this time had a rock enter his boot and press against his shin. He had to pit and unfasten the boot while holding sixth and dropped down to sixteenth. Melotte had made some changes to the YZ's engine to suit the swirling track and got into his stride late in the second moto after a bright start to capture eighth and take eleventh overall. Round twelve of fifteen will occur in just seven days time at the 'Enduro-esque' and special setting of Namur. With a 149 point lead and just 200 left to win Everts needs to leave his home race with just one point more than Kevin Strijbos to be Champion for the tenth time and the sixth successive occasion in a row with Yamaha since 2001 in 500cc, MXGP and MX1 categories. He will also remain the sole winner of the MX1 class since the series' inception in 2004. Stefan Everts, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "It has been a hard GP for me. The track was not that difficult in the layout and you could see that by how fast everyone was going. The next few tracks will be more technical and better for me. Josh was riding well in that first moto. There were a few places on the track where I did not have such good lines and he was closing the gap but it is hard to know the full situation when you are in front. In the end I figured out a few places where I could improve and I think he must have made a mistake but it was quite easy to win that moto finally. My start wasn't that good in the second race and for a few laps I was in third position with Jonathan and Kevin having a small lead. I had to try hard to pass them both and it was tough, but it was also nice not having to always be working from first position. The new section around the back of the pits was very difficult and it was a place where you could make or lose some ground. That is eleven races in a row now but I am not trying to focus on records and take each weekend as it comes. It is the chance of a lifetime to become Champion at the Citadelle; it is something that I never dared to dream of and now it might come true. I have been working hard throughout my career for a moment like that and I have many people to thank so that I am in a position like this." Cedric Melotte Cédric Melotte, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "The weekend was not so bad. I had a good qualification yesterday and we changed a few small things on the bike. I felt much better, and when my wrist is in good condition I can suggest more things to the team to improve the overall package for me. I was happy with the seventh best time. In the first moto I made a good start and kept the rhythm of the leaders for twenty minutes but then I had to let Ken and Strijbos go. I then could not believe it when a stone got in between my brace and my boot. It pushed hard against my shin. I gritted my teeth for ten minutes but I could not go on any longer and had to pull into the pits to get it sorted. In the second race I slid a bit wide on the first corner otherwise I would have had the holeshot but in the first few laps I struggled to find my pace and was hitting some bad lines. After 15 minutes things got better and easier but I felt tired towards the end. I am happy about this weekend. I have not had much luck this season but I am keeping motivated and that is encouraging." Carlo Rinaldi, Racing Manager, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "It was perfect this weekend even though the win was far from easy this time. In the first moto Stefan made a good start and took the lead but Coppins was right there and pushed so hard for the whole moto, so Stefan had to do his best to keep Josh behind him. In the second heat he had a collision in the first corner and had to come through; that time it was Strijbos who was the quickest. This was the 98th win and it is just amazing. We made some small tweaks to the engine so it would suit Cédric's riding style better. The track was tricky because it was slippery so he had a different characteristic on the power to help him with that." Circuit Length: 1630 Temp: 27 Crowd: 23000 Weather: Humid 2006 GP Loket, Czech Republic 30/07/2006 Race 1 - 21 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 40'8.345 2 Joshua Coppins Honda NZL 0'4.521 3 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 0'15.160 4 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 0'24.355 5 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 0'34.034 6 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'38.930 7 James Noble Honda GBR 0'46.271 8 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 1'5.258 9 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 1'11.872 10 Wyatt Avis KTM RSA 1'18.916 11 Manuel Priem Yamaha BEL 1'24.088 12 Clement Desalle Suzuki BEL 1'28.349 13 Alex Salvini Suzuki ITA 1'29.152 14 Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 1'30.160 15 Lauris Freibergs Suzuki LVA 1'33.605 16 Cedric Melotte Yamaha BEL 1'34.833 17 Marko Kovalainen Honda FIN 1'45.452 18 Bas Verhoeven Kawasaki NED 1'47.520 19 Aaron Bernandez Honda ESP -1 Laps 20 Gordon Crockard Honda GBR -1 Laps Race 2 - 21 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 40'35.004 2 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 0'5.770 3 Joshua Coppins Honda NZL 0'15.616 4 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 0'25.449 5 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 0'35.807 6 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 0'39.903 7 Gordon Crockard Honda GBR 0'45.960 8 Cedric Melotte Yamaha BEL 0'55.615 9 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 0'58.644 10 Manuel Priem Yamaha BEL 1'3.424 11 Wyatt Avis KTM RSA 1'9.872 12 James Noble Honda GBR 1'11.729 13 Kornel Nemeth Suzuki HUN 1'17.070 14 Alex Salvini Suzuki ITA 1'45.936 15 Marko Kovalainen Honda FIN 1'54.677 16 Aaron Bernandez Honda ESP -1 Laps 17 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA -1 Laps 18 Aigar Bobkovs Honda LVA -1 Laps 19 Cyril Coulon Suzuki FRA -1 Laps 20 Lauris Freibergs Suzuki LVA -1 Laps Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Joshua Coppins Honda NZL 1'51.735 Rider Standings 30/07/2006 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 542 2. Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 393 3. Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 368 4. Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 355 5. Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 353 6. Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 273 7. Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 202 8. Cedric Melotte Yamaha BEL 190 9. Manuel Priem Yamaha BEL 189 10. Javier Garcia Vico Honda ESP 172 11. Julien Bill Yamaha GBR 167 12. James Noble Honda GBR 161 13. Joshua Coppins Honda NZL 158 14. Brian Jorgensen Honda DNK 131 15. Antti Pyrhonen TM FIN 128 16. Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 127 17. Gordon Crockard Honda GBR 117 18. Sebastien Tortelli KTM FRA 99 19. Wyatt Avis KTM RSA 84 20. Danny Theybers Suzuki BEL 84 Manufacturer Standings 30/07/2006 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Yamaha 542 2. Suzuki 449 3. Honda 403 4. Kawasaki 359 5. KTM 329 6. TM 128 RACE REPORT 30/07/2006 Cairoli takes seventh moto but finishes off the podium Antonio Cairoli Antonio Cairoli's excellent showing and defeat of Christophe Pourcel in the second MX2 moto at Loket this afternoon gave the World Champion his seventh success of the season and makes him outright the most successful rider so far this term. The Italian missed out on the podium by one point however after a first race crash relegated him to eleventh. After rain during late afternoon and Saturday evening the track was at its dampest for the first MX2 moto. Gaining traction on the corners was a cause for concern for most of the riders and tyre choice became a little more complicated than usual. Passing places were not prevalent and the terrain became very rough. Antonio Cairoli Cairoli was luckless at the start of the first moto as he fell along with Championship leader Pourcel and Kenneth Gundersen. Billy Mackenzie was also held up. The Italian struggled to fight his way through the lower pack without a rear brake and eventually finished eleventh while a fully fit Gundersen had to retire on the first lap because of a damaged front wheel. In the second sprint Cairoli was ruthless in swerving his way up to leader Pourcel from seventh place on the first lap. The duo, who are also contesting the World Championship at the top of the standings, put on a good show for the hefty crowd for several laps but the Team Yamaha De Carli rider's speed eventually pulled him clear to win by eight seconds. Alessio Chiodi had his best race finish since notching third at the opening moto at Teutschenthal in May by taking a strong fourth place in race one but was a victim of a first corner tangle later in the afternoon and ploughed a path to thirteenth for a final slot of eighth. His team-mate Gundersen hit the ground on the opening lap of race two and could manage a highest position of sixteenth by the end of the 35 minutes and 2 laps. The third member of the Yamaha Team Ricci, Davide Guarneri woke on Saturday with a sore throat and a fever. The Italian was not fit enough to ride. Alessio Chiodi With Pourcel walking the podium as overall runner-up Cairoli lost just two points to the French teenager today. The Championship table now shows the gap at 34 points between the pair with David Philippaerts eleven behind in third. There are still 200 points remaining in the last four GPs. As with the MX1 class, the next MX2 meeting on the schedule will visit the unique setting of Namur in seven days time. Antonio Cairoli, Team Yamaha De Carli: "The first race was so unlucky for me again. After the crash the tube going into the rear brake came off and after five laps the brake faded and did not work. I was riding well but it was difficult going down the hills. I have not had much fortune this year; the guys in the Rinaldi team said for a technical problem to happen like that was incredible! I crashed with Sebastien Pourcel and lost a lot of time in that first moto. The second race was great. I know that when I start in the top six or seven I can win and have done that this year. I hope that Pourcel might have some bad luck otherwise it is going to be difficult to catch him in the Championship." Kenneth Gundersen Kenneth Gundersen, Yamaha Team Ricci: "In the first moto I crashed with Cairoli at the start and his footpeg went through my front wheel. A few spokes were broken; I could not ride like that and had to stop. In the second race I had a bad start and crashed on the first lap. I was maybe half a lap behind and rode to get some training! This was the first week in a long time that I felt OK with my physical condition and my hand. Things were finally supposed to go well but better luck next time." Alessio Chiodi, Yamaha Team Ricci: "My knee is good and my head is also getting better in terms of my confidence. I am a bit disappointed about the second moto because today I think it was possible to finish on the podium. I was fourth in the first race but also quite close to Philippaerts and Nunn but I crashed at the start of the second moto after hitting another rider. I re-started last by more than ten seconds and I just tried my best. I was thirteenth and I was sad for that but happy that things are getting better." Circuit Length: 1630 Temp: 27 Crowd: 23000 Weather: Humid 2006 GP Loket, Czech Republic 30/07/2006 Race 1 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 38'56.828 2 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 0'8.367 3 Carl Nunn KTM GBR 0'9.715 4 Alessio Chiodi Yamaha ITA 0'10.499 5 Tommy Searle Kawasaki GBR 0'11.374 6 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'11.982 7 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 0'18.908 8 Patrick Caps Honda BEL 0'22.267 9 Marc De Reuver KTM NED 0'37.341 10 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 0'38.527 11 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 0'39.616 12 Rui Goncalves KTM POR 0'43.508 13 Carlos Campano KTM ESP 0'45.858 14 Manuel Monni KTM ITA 0'48.154 15 Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 1'5.207 16 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 1'19.549 17 Jason Dougan Honda GBR 1'21.998 18 Billy MacKenzie Yamaha GBR 1'24.114 19 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 1'27.398 20 Jeremy Tarroux Kawasaki FRA 1'28.324 Race 2 - 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 40'30.754 2 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'8.146 3 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 0'25.722 4 Marc De Reuver KTM NED 0'35.106 5 Carl Nunn KTM GBR 0'39.534 6 Billy MacKenzie Yamaha GBR 0'43.070 7 Tommy Searle Kawasaki GBR 0'45.350 8 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 0'48.750 9 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 0'50.634 10 Manuel Monni KTM ITA 1'3.639 11 Carlos Campano KTM ESP 1'5.815 12 Patrick Caps Honda BEL 1'7.347 13 Alessio Chiodi Yamaha ITA 1'8.718 14 Rui Goncalves KTM POR 1'21.788 15 Maximilian Nagl KTM GER 1'35.066 16 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 1'38.263 17 Pierre-Alexandre Renet Honda FRA 1'38.924 18 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha SWE 1'40.952 19 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 1'54.933 20 Tom Church Kawasaki GBR 2'7.497 Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 1'52.177 Rider Standings 30/07/2006 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 416 2. Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 382 3. David Philippaerts KTM ITA 371 4. Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 330 5. Marc De Reuver KTM NED 314 6. Carl Nunn KTM GBR 277 7. Tommy Searle Kawasaki GBR 254 8. Billy MacKenzie Yamaha GBR 246 9. Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 236 10. Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 225 11. Alessio Chiodi Yamaha ITA 211 12. Rui Goncalves KTM POR 209 13. Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha SWE 197 14. Davide Guarneri Yamaha ITA 153 15. Manuel Monni KTM ITA 143 16. Luigi Seguy Yamaha FRA 94 17. Anthony Boissière Yamaha FRA 87 18. Matti Seistola Honda FIN 85 19. Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 77 20. Patrick Caps Honda BEL 68 Manufacturer Standings 30/07/2006 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. KTM 504 2. Yamaha 476 3. Kawasaki 441 4. Honda 173 5. Suzuki 22

Please note that due to technical difficulties the Saturday qualifying report has not been sent. The report can be read on http://www.yamaha-racing.com. We apologise for any inconveniences caused. What looked certain to be another stunning race recovery from Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi ended in disaster today as the reigning MotoGP World Champion retired from the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca with tyre and engine troubles. After starting from tenth on the grid Rossi slowly worked his way through the field and with just five laps remaining he was on course for a valuable fourth place finish. However, with blazing sunshine bringing track temperatures up to a soaring 56ºC, the punishing conditions inevitably took their toll and Rossi's rear tyre developed a problem, which forced the Italian to drop his pace. To add to Rossi's woes, his the water-cooling system then malfunctioned and within moments the engine of his YZR-M1 machine overheated, blowing clouds of smoke into the air and bringing his participation in the race to an end. Things started out brightly for Rossi's Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards before also ending in disappointment, the Texan getting a decent start from the front row of the grid and lapping with the lead group before identical tyre troubles began to kick in. With the searing heat also playing havoc on his physical condition, having suffered from flu symptoms and an upset stomach throughout the weekend, Edwards was unable to maintain his pace and he dropped back from fifth place to eventually cross the line in ninth. Nicky Hayden (Honda) took his second victory of the season to extend his advantage at the top of the championship to 51 points over Rossi, who has dropped to fourth overall with six rounds remaining. Colin Edwards (9th; +53.228) "My start wasn't great; I got off the line okay but then as I leaned over into turn one the power went a bit and I got slower and slower, so a few guys came past me. After that I just had to give it all I had to hold on and do 24.1s and 2s, which anyway is faster than we were doing on race tyres yesterday. I also had a bit of a problem stopping the bike, which was another thing to contend with. After ten laps I was completely wrecked, I think being ill on Friday took a lot out of me and suddenly I had no power left in my body. I was feeling so bad that I was seriously considering coming in, but then I saw Stoner crash and so I thought I had better hold on and try and get some points! On about lap 20 the tyre started spinning up and it just kept on getting worse and worse on each lap. I had a few big moments where I scared myself a bit, especially coming into turn one a few laps from the end. With about three or four laps to go I looked over at my rear tyre and saw just how bad the problem was, and it was all I could do to bring it safely home. Obviously I'm pretty gutted, the weekend hasn't worked out how we hoped, but that's racing!" Valentino Rossi (DNF)"We've been in a really difficult situation all weekend, with a lot of problems and unfortunately things got even worse today! We made a big improvement this morning in warm-up and I was much faster, so I thought that maybe we could do a good job in the race and to start with we made good progress from our grid position. But then we had a problem with the rear tyre and I lost all grip and was forced to slow right down in order not to crash. Then we had a problem with the water-cooling system for the engine, it overheated and when I saw the smoke, I knew it was over. Anyway, now we're 51 points down on Hayden with only six races left, so for the first time I will race for the rest of the season without thinking about the pressure of the championship. My plan is to have a lot of fun over the remaining races and try to win as many as possible, and then who knows what might happen?" Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director"It's been a very difficult day from every angle. We had two separate problems of a different nature which affected both riders. Colin could have done a really good race but he was hampered by his physical condition and then later by a problem with his rear tyre. Valentino had exactly the same problem with his tyre and then when he slowed down the cooling system on his engine failed and it overheated, so he had to retire. Now we're a lot of points behind in the championship and we have a mountain to climb, but we won't give up and we will fight to the end." Tech 3 Yamaha Team secures season best result at Laguna Seca On the eve of the summer break, the Tech 3 Yamaha Team has secured a season best result with Carlos Checa finishing in seventh position proving that the persistence and dedication the team has put in since the stat of the year is paying dividends. The race was run in the most severe conditions but Carlos showed his fitness and determination to also be the first Yamaha home after the demise of Valentino Rossi. James Ellison started on fire to make up plenty of ground from his grid position but he too was affected by tyre wear in the middle of the race before recovering to finish in the points in 13th position. Carlos Checa (7th; +44.825)"We are very satisfied with the result. We made a good position at the beginning of the race to be behind Valentino and Nakano and I was able to keep the gap to them. Then in the middle of the race the tyre dropped down a bit in performance because of the heat and so I struggled the last five or six laps. The final result in seventh is the best result so far so we must be very happy considering the conditions for the entire weekend it was not easy for us. We made the choice of a tyre for the race that we haven't tested before so overall we have to be satisfied as we struggled a little on this track. Finally, after the risk we take with the tyre choice to finish in this position the team is very happy. Yes we were the first Yamaha home but it has been a shame for Yamaha this year. I think Colin had some trouble with is tyre and for Valentino he is always putting in more than 100% and he doesn't have much luck this year. At the end of the day I am part of Yamaha and I am disappointed for that. Yes it is nice to be first Yamaha but I would like to do it in normal conditions - that is the right satisfaction that I want." James Ellison (13th; +1.19.283)"That was one hard race but at the start I was feeling very good. I got a great start to be away with Tamada and De Puniet and I thought I was in for a good battle. For quite a few laps I was with them but then the front tyre started to go away and I had some big moments. The front tyre was moving around quite a bit with the rise in temperature and with me trying to brake a little harder as I wanted to pass these guys the tyres was just a bit soft and I lost a lot of confidence in it so I just started dropping back. Then I thought to myself 'I'm not doing this again as it looks like I'm not trying hard enough so I thought I'm going for it. If I crash I crash but it was actually still turning even though it was squashing like mad. That gave me confidence as even though it was moving around heaps it was still gripping. I was getting quicker towards the end and the bikes in front were getting closer. Plus I could see all these flags around the track with people cheering me so I had a really good race towards the end of it. It's just a pity that I had those moments in the middle of the race. I should've just bitten the bullet and pushed through that. We all got some points so everyone can go away from here happy." Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director"This is for sure the best result we have had so far. It's also a great way to finish the first half of the season to go on holiday and enjoy them. We knew today was going to be a very tiring race as the temperature was so hot and from practice we saw a lot of guys struggling. We took a big gamble for the race as we started with something for Carlos that we have never tested before and it was quite hard to go into the race without knowing what was going to happen. To finish seventh which is our best race position so far this year to be first Yamaha is really showing that the technical project is really working well. We are happy because we are improving all the time and I think Carlos did a beautiful job the whole weekend long like he did in Germany James did a good job as he was very consistent the entire race and I think that with a bit more consistency he could have caught one or two rider in front of him because he was definitely faster than them towards the end of the race. But anyway let's be positive. Both our riders are in the points, no tyre problems and were really consistent from lap one to the end so we can be happy with that. Let's go on holiday and continue to work hard when we return in a few weeks time." Circuit Length: 3610Temp: 39Crowd: Weather: Dry 2006 MotoGP Laguna Seca 24/07/2006 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 45'4.867 2 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 0'3.186 3 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 0'10.929 4 Kenny Roberts Team Robert KR USA 0'11.941 5 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 0'27.439 6 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 0'38.820 7 Carlos Checa Yamaha ESP 0'44.825 8 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 0'48.526 9 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 0'53.228 10 Sete Gibernau Ducati ESP 1'6.279 11 Makato Tamada Honda JPN 1'11.941 12 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1'14.407 13 James Ellison Yamaha GBR 1'19.283 14 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 1'41.277 15 Toni Elias Honda ESP -1 Laps Best Lap Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'23.333 Rider Standings 23/07/2006 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Nicky Hayden Honda USA 194 2. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 160 3. Marco Melandri Honda ITA 150 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 143 5. Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 126 6. Casey Stoner Honda AUS 91 7. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 84 8. Kenny Roberts Team Robert KR USA 79 9. John Hopkins Suzuki USA 74 10. Shinya Nakano Kawasaki JPN 67 11. Makato Tamada Honda JPN 64 12. Toni Elias Honda ESP 59 13. Sete Gibernau Ducati ESP 58 14. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 57 15. Carlos Checa Yamaha ESP 53 18. James Ellison Yamaha GBR 20 Team Standings 23/07/2006 Pos. Team Points 1. Repsol Honda Team 354 2. Camel Yamaha Team 227 3. Fortuna Honda Team 209 4. Ducati Marlboro Team 191 5. Rizla Suzuki 131 6. Honda LCR 91 7. Kawasaki Racing Team 88 8. Team Roberts KR 79 9. Tech3 Yamaha 73 10. Konica Minolta Honda 64 11. Pramac D'Antin 22 Manufacturer Standings 23/07/2006 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Honda 246 2. Yamaha 181 3. Ducati 135 4. Suzuki 92 5. Team Robert KR 79 6. Kawasaki 75

The blazing Californian sunshine and a bumpy new track surface made life even more turbulent than usual at Laguna Seca today as preparations for the US Grand Prix got underway for the Camel Yamaha Team and their MotoGP World Championship rivals. Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards made a bright start to the day, lapping fifth and second fastest in the morning free practice, but both struggled in the afternoon session and were unable to improve their times as they focused on adapting the set-up of their YZR-M1 machines to the unique demands of the wild western circuit. Rossi himself indulged in a moment of rodeo riding as he ran across the gravel traps after misjudging a braking marker going into the Corkscrew corner. To make matters worse for Edwards he also began to struggle from the effects of flu symptoms and an upset stomach, which were not helped by afternoon temperatures exceeding of 30ºC. His morning benchmark was bettered by only five other riders, however, the fastest of those being American compatriot Kenny Roberts Jr. (Team KR) with a lap of 1'23.859 - just inside Edwards' own official lap record of 1'23.915 set during the race last year. Tomorrow the pair will have one more free session to adjust their machine set-up before tackling the all-important qualifying practice. Colin Edwards (5th; 1'24.310, 44 laps)"At the moment we're just working to get the bike better, trying to find the right setting for the track. The new surface is not great - I don't think they could have made it any bumpier if they tried. It's been hard to ride today because I've also been suffering with flu symptoms and an upset stomach. I'll go to the Clinica Mobile for some treatment tonight and hopefully get a good night's sleep because I really don't want to feel like this again tomorrow, it was really hard to ride this afternoon. The morning session was quite good and I was feeling pretty confident, but I started to feel worse throughout the day and things went downhill a bit this afternoon. We tried some new things in the second session and didn't find exactly the right setting, but we have some more ideas for tomorrow and I'm confident that if I'm feeling okay I can be back on the pace." Valentino Rossi (11th; 1'24.674, 47 laps)"I think that they've done a good job on the circuit and done nearly everything we've asked for. The track is quite dirty at the moment but the new asphalt has much better grip and by Sunday I think it will be okay. Turn one is especially much safer and much less dangerous. The problem that we have now is that it's still very bumpy in parts of the track, which is not good. In most places it's better but they've put the new asphalt down over the old bumps, so they're still there. This is unfortunate; the worst part is after the corkscrew, turns 9 and 10. I was happy with how we started today - I did some good laps towards the end this morning and was starting to feel good with the bike and the track - but this afternoon we had a lot more problems. I didn't have a good feeling in the corner and the bike was quite hard to ride. The bumps are causing us some difficulties and we need to understand how to make the M1 work at this track. It is only Friday but we have a lot of work to do. We need to make some tests with the qualifying tyre tomorrow morning and hopefully we will have a better situation than in Germany. It is going to be very important that we qualify well because it's hard to pass on this track." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director"We have some work to do, as always on a Friday! After the morning session we expected to be a lot closer to the front in the afternoon but the situation remained the same and we didn't make any major improvements. We have collected a lot of data that our engineers will check overnight and we will see how we can move forward in the morning. With the American riders all going fast here there is more competition at the top so Valentino knows he has work to do. Colin did a good job today considering his physical condition so we hope he will be feeling better tomorrow and will be able to make some more steps forward with the bike before qualifying." Testing for Tech 3 Yamaha Racing Team in Californian sunshine With a new track surface and extreme temperatures to contend with it was a testing time for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team to find a suitable setup in preparation for Sunday's US Grand Prix at the undulating Laguna Seca circuit in the hills of Monterey. Carlos Checa managed to slot himself into 12th position a shade behind Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha as the team had to contend with a layout that is much rougher than last year. In another encouraging sign for the Spaniard, Carlos was faster than the factory Ducati's and Kawasaki's and is confident that he can find even more speed to claim a top 10 qualifying position tomorrow James Ellison who sits in 18th position overnight, is also confident that he can move further up the grid although, he lost some time in the afternoon's free practice wresting with his bucking Yamaha over the now notorious bumps slamming his helmet through the screen in a successful effort to keep it under control. Carlos Checa (12th, 1'24.883, 61 laps)"It has been a pretty tough first day as we had to do a lot of work and we still haven't found a proper setup that we can work on. Obviously with the new track condition, we have been working with the setup of the bike but also with the tyres to find the best combination that is going to work for both so that we can be as fast as possible. We have made much progress in the last few races and it is important that we can continue that same rate here. Hopefully, the track will be in a bit better condition tomorrow now that there has been some rubber laid down and hopefully the weather conditions will stay the same as I think the Dunlop tyres should work pretty well around here if these conditions remain. If it does stay the same it will allow us to test some more tyres as we now know the durability of the Dunlops is there so we just have to find the one that suits this track as the quality of the asphalt and the finishing is not good. Grip is not the problem but it is all the bumps, especially on the exit of the Corkscrew where we are becoming airborne like a motocross bike that we have to find a good solution. The surface is like laying on a beach and feeling the unevenness of the sand underneath you; that is how uneven the track is now! They have made many improvements to the safety of the track but I wish they had taken a bit more time to get the surface correct." James Ellison (18th 1'25.768, 48 laps)"It has been a difficult day in some ways but we have made some good progress as well. The first hour was a matter of finding what the track was like as it is not as good a surface as last year. The good thing is that we left the bike the way it was in Germany and it has worked well from the start plus we know we can improve a lot of areas and being less than a second behind Rossi is a bit of a confidence boost as well. We are not having too many grip problems as we used one set of tyres for most of the second session doing 23 laps on them. Plus, we are not getting any chatter here it's just trying to get the drive in some areas as it is so bumpy. Coming onto t he straight on one lap it got so out of shape that I slammed my head through the screen and broke it so that tells you how uneven the surface is around here now. We're going to lower the bike a bit overnight to see if that helps in getting it to handle a bit better but overall I am happy that we are heading in the right direction and now we know what we are up against with this track I think we should be able to get some decent times tomorrow and hopefully be right up with Carlos by tomorrow afternoon Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director"The important thing for us to do after our best race of the season at Sachsenring last week is to continue on the same path that we have seen in recent races. I was a bit worried this morning as Dunlop has a lot of information about this track as they have raced here many times over the years in the American superbike class but unfortunately the new surface has changed that.. I don't know what the situation is with the other tyre manufacturers as they battle then new track surface but I have to say I am quite happy with how the Tech 3 Yamaha Team and the Dunlop tyres performed today. I hope that we will be able to improve in our qualifying performance as well but that may be difficult as if you don't get a clear lap it can be quite difficult to pass around here. With the weather forecast we feel that the track condition should stay the same as far as grip levels go so we should be able to test a few more tyres to find out which one will suit us on Sunday. The main problem is the bumps as we have to find a setup that is going to ride over them but it is the same for everybody. For the most part the surface does seem pretty good grip and from what we saw today with the Dunlops I don't think we should have a problem with the durability of the tyre. Let's hope our progress continues here in America and we can put on a good show like last week." Circuit Length: 3610Temp: 29Crowd: Weather: Dry 2006 MotoGP Laguna Seca 21/07/2006 Free Practice Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kenny Roberts Team Robert KR USA 1'23.859 2 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 1'24.125 3 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'24.194 4 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 1'24.223 5 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'24.253 6 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'24.320 7 Makato Tamada Honda JPN 1'24.339 8 Toni Elias Honda ESP 1'24.494 9 Casey Stoner Honda AUS 1'24.523 10 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 1'24.663 11 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'24.822 12 Carlos Checa Yamaha ESP 1'24.883 13 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 1'25.094 14 Sete Gibernau Ducati ESP 1'25.252 15 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 1'25.294 18 James Ellison Yamaha GBR 1'25.768

Brno lap record holder Noriyuki Haga once again showed his liking for the Czech circuit by obliterating the opposition to claim pole position for tomorrow's two Superbike World Championship races, the first time he has started at the front of the grid since 2002. The Japanese Yamaha Motor Italia ace gunned his YZF-R1 around the fast and flowing circuit in a time of 2:00.457, over half a second quicker than second placed James Toseland (Honda). Ducati riders Lorenzo Lanzi and Troy Bayliss complete the front row for tomorrow's race. It is the third time Haga has won pole position in a world superbike event and the first pole for his Yamaha Motor Italia team since they moved up to the class at the beginning of 2005. Yamaha Motor France's trio of riders narrowly missed out on superpole, with Frenchman Sebastien Gimbert less than two-hundreds of a second behind Alex Barros (Honda) in the 16th and final superpole position. Meanwhile the team's Japanese riders Shinichi Nakatomi and Norick Abe had difficulty with the surprisingly low grip levels on the circuit. Nakatomi made big progress in the afternoon session. He was the 12th fastest rider in the one-hour session, one place behind Haga and one ahead of Pitt, but will start in 19th based on his time from the morning qualifying session. Abe will start the two 20-lap races one place behind his team-mate after struggling to find rear grip with his YZF-R1 in practice. Andrew Pitt took over a second from his best lap of the weekend in superpole, recording a 2:01.482 to move from tenth in regular qualifying to seventh position and a slot on the second row on the final grid. Pitt was plagued with some minor electrical problems that forced him to switch to his spare machine for superpole but, despite running different gearing and suspension to his preferred machine, he was still able to post a 2:01.482 lap time. Times tumbled during today's qualifying sessions, with the surface providing considerably more traction than in Friday's sessions. With hot conditions set to make for a tough day's racing tomorrow, both riders worked hard to find a set-up that will work over 20 laps of the challenging circuit. Haga and Pitt were able to run fast and consistent times as they worked on finding an optimum race setting during the day's two one-hour practices, before showing the ultimate pace of their YZF-R1s in the grid deciding one-lap superpole. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "Yes, of course, I am very happy with pole position. The feeling with the bike is very good and even before superpole I knew the settings and tyres I will use for the race. I was able to ride a good lap and get the pole. Tomorrow will be very hard work and I hope that the temperature will be cooler for the races. The tyre wear is very high in this heat but that is the same for everyone and I am happy that we have such a good setting for the bike, as I expect some very hard races." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "In the end second row's not too bad. My bike stopped before superpole so I had to go on my second bike and it wasn't set up at all how I'd like it. It was a bit chaotic as we tried to change some things around but I'm quite happy. We were able to do some consistent lap times and as long as we don't have any more problems we should be ready for the races." Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "I am a little bit frustrated because my qualifying time is almost three seconds faster than last year, yet I am again starting on the fifth row - that shows how the level of competition has gone up this year. Overall though, I am happy with how practice has gone. We have made some steps forward with the bike and the times of all the riders are close. I'm only just behind guys like Barros, so I am quite positive for tomorrow's races." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "I'm not so happy with today. The temperatures are much higher than when we tested here and because of this the grip levels are much lower. I tried a new swingarm in the practices and I like this and will use it in the race. The afternoon was better, although I have not yet been able to decide on a tyre choice and therefore suspension settings for the race." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "Still we are struggling with rear grip on the exit of corners. As a result I tried entering the corners faster, but this has caused some chatter to occur. We will try some more settings in the warm-up to try and find a solution for the races." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "A great job from Noriyuki today. It was hard to know how superpole would go as each session had been quite different. He rode such a great lap and was very smooth - in fact when I watched the lap on TV I commented to the team that he didn't seem to be pushing so hard. It was very satisfying to win our first superpole, especially to do it with such a big gap to second. Andrew did an excellent job too. He had to go out on his second bike and that was set-up differently, so to get the second row was good." Circuit Length: 5403Temp: 33Crowd: Weather: Sunny 2006 WSB Brno 22/07/2006 Superpole Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 2'0.457 2 James Toseland Honda GBR 2'1.056 3 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 2'1.073 4 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 2'1.207 5 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 2'1.351 6 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 2'1.453 7 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 2'1.482 8 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 2'1.498 9 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 2'1.620 10 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 2'1.799 11 Fabien Foret Suzuki FRA 2'2.124 12 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 2'2.208 13 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 2'2.220 14 Steve Martin Petronas AUS 2'2.569 15 Alex Barros Honda BRA 2'2.757 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 2'1.779 2 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 2'1.783 3 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 2'2.206 4 James Toseland Honda GBR 2'2.213 5 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 2'2.298 6 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 2'2.447 7 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 2'2.449 8 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 2'2.534 9 Steve Martin Petronas AUS 2'2.539 10 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 2'2.566 11 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 2'2.620 12 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 2'2.657 13 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 2'2.700 14 Fabien Foret Suzuki FRA 2'2.777 15 Pierfrancesco Chili Honda ITA 2'2.810 17 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 2'2.892 19 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 2'3.111 20 Norick Abe Yamaha JPN 2'3.431 QUALIFYING 2 REPORT 22/07/2006 Curtain grabs first world championship pole in Brno Kevin Curtain secured the first pole position of his long world supersport career to give his Yamaha Motor Germany team their second successive pole position. In what will be his 58th race in the class, the veteran Australian confirmed the progress made by his squad to the new-for-2006 YZF-R6, posting a record-breaking 2:05.900 lap around the long and historic circuit. In a frantically close 45-minute session, the top three riders were covered by less than one tenth of a second. Completing an excellent day for Yamaha Motor Germany, team-mate Broc Parkes, pole sitter last time out in Misano, will also start from the front row. The 24-year-old Australian stopped the clock at 2:05.997 to end the day third, behind Curtain and Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda). Monza race winner Yoann Tibero completes the front row on his Honda. Misano winner Massimo Roccoli starts from eighth on his Yamaha Team Italia YZF-R6, with team-mate Gianluca Vizziello ending practice in 12th. David Checa of the Yamaha GMT94 squad will start tomorrow's 18-lap race from 11th. Circuit Length: 5403Temp: 31Crowd: Weather: Sunny 2006 WSS Brno 22/07/2006 Qualifying 2 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 2'5.900 2 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 2'5.952 3 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 2'5.997 4 Yoann Tibero Honda FRA 2'6.202 5 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 2'6.242 6 Simone Sanna Honda ITA 2'6.736 7 Johan Stigefelt Honda SWE 2'7.019 8 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 2'7.145 9 Christian Zaiser Ducati AUT 2'7.186 10 Barry Veneman Suzuki NED 2'7.201 11 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 2'7.359 12 David Checa Yamaha ESP 2'7.362 13 Mauro Sanchini Yamaha ITA 2'7.502 14 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 2'7.561 15 Kai Borre Andersen Suzuki NOR 2'7.598

Noriyuki Haga returned to the scene of one of his finest moments to end first qualifying in fourth position at Brno today. The Yamaha Motor Italia rider won at the classic Czech circuit last year, despite qualifying way back on the fifth row, and today confirmed his liking of the circuit by putting his YZF-R1 on the provisional front row for Sunday's race. A combination of high temperatures and residue left from car racing meant that the riders struggled for grip on the dirty surface and struggled to match their times from last month's three-day test at the same venue. Haga's best lap of the day was 2:02.904, over a second slower than his best time on race tyres at last month's test, but just half-a-second behind provisional pole man James Toseland (Honda). A heavy shower with just minutes of the session remaining meant that team-mate Andrew Pitt was unable to make what he expected to be his fastest lap of the day. The Australian, winner last time out in Misano, ended the day in 13th position. Despite his lower than expected position, the former supersport world champion was happy with his day's work, having made small but important improvements to his YZF-R1's settings and completing a race simulation. Yamaha Motor France's trio of riders spent most of the session having their own personal battle just outside the top 16. Norick Abe, Sebastien Gimbert and rookie Shinichi Nakatomi. Just three tenths of a second separated the riders as Frenchman Gimbert ended the day 19th, ahead of Japanese colleagues Abe and Nakatomi, who were 20th and 21st position respectively. Final qualifying for Sunday's two-race seventh round takes place tomorrow. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "Fourth is ok but really I am not so happy. The grip levels are much lower than when we tested here. I think that there have been cars racing on the circuit and they have left some rubber on the track. We only have three different tyres to choose from and I tried the soft and medium ones. The soft was sliding around like a qualifier after a few laps and the feeling was also not so good with the medium. I am surprised because I usually have a good feeling with the bike and the tyres. We can try some things for tomorrow but I think that the heavy rain will change the surface anyway. Maybe that will be better or maybe it will be worse. We have to wait and find out." Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "What can I say, I'd just gone out on a new tyre when it started to pour down! Up until that point it'd gone fine. There's not a lot of grip out there but I was quite happy with the bike and had been able to get in a race simulation. We improved things quite a bit between the morning and afternoon and we're definitely going in the right direction." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "Unfortunately I missed the team's test here through injury but it should not be a big problem as Brno is one of my favourite tracks. Today the problem for me is again rear traction. The surface is very slippery but the team will try a few thing for tomorrow to try and improve the bike and give me a chance to run at the front on Sunday." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "Brno is a long and challenging circuit but it is not a new track to me as we tested here recently. I was able to go quickly straight away but at the end it started to rain when I went out with a new tyre on and I couldn't go for a final fast lap. I am sure that we can make a big improvement tomorrow because the bike and the track will probably be in better condition." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "After good tests here and at Lausitz I think we expected a little bit more from today. We're having some problems with the grip levels but this seems to be as a result of the track surface. Looking at the lap times it seems that everyone is only able to do two or three fast laps before the performance level drops off. We'll work further on the settings for tomorrow but we'll have to see if the track surface improves overnight." Qualifying 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, James Toseland, Honda, GBR, 2'2.349 2, Fonsi Nieto, Kawasaki, ESP, 2'2.723 3, Lorenzo Lanzi, Ducati, ITA, 2'2.847 4, Noriyuki Haga, Yamaha, JPN, 2'2.904 5, Karl Muggeridge, Honda, AUS, 2'3.058 6, Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, JPN, 2'3.107 7, Michel Fabrizio, Honda, ITA, 2'3.112 8, Chris Walker, Kawasaki, GBR, 2'3.178 9, Regis Laconi, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'3.389 10, Steve Martin, Petronas, AUS, 2'3.408 11, Troy Bayliss, Ducati, AUS, 2'3.146 12, Troy Corser, Suzuki, AUS, 2'3.475 13, Andrew Pitt, Yamaha, AUS, 2'3.528 14, Alex Barros, Honda, BRA, 2'3.728 15, Ruben Xaus, Ducati, ESP, 2'3.901 16, Pierfrancesco Chili, Honda, ITA, 2'3.915 17, Roberto Rolfo, Ducati, ITA, 2'3.947 18, Fabien Foret, Suzuki, FRA, 2'4.136 19, Sebastien Gimbert, Yamaha, FRA, 2'4.245 20, Norick Abe, Yamaha, JPN, 2'4.373 21, Shinichi Nakatomi, Yamaha, JPN, 2'4.580 22, Craig Jones, Petronas, GBR, 2'5.152 23, Pawel Szkopek, Ducati, CZE, 2'5.165 24, Joshua Brookes, Kawasaki, AUS, 2'5.863 25, Ivan Clementi, Ducati, ITA, 2'6.299 26, Vittorio Iannuzzo, Suzuki, ITA, 2'7.241 27, Marco Borciani, Ducati, ITA, 2'7.895 28, Jiri Drazdak, Yamaha, CZE, 2'8.039 29, Berto Camlek, Yamaha, SVN, 2'8.237 30, Marek Svoboda, Yamaha, CZE, 2'8.372 31, Milos Cihak, Suzuki, CZE, 2'8.524 QUALIFYING 1 REPORT - 21/07/2006 Yamaha Motor Germany pair fastest in first Brno practice Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes topped the timesheets in this afternoon's first qualifying session at Brno. The Australian YZF-R6 riders were able to take advantage of three days testing at the Czech venue last month and, just as at the test, it was Curtain who ended the day as the fastest rider - one tenth of a second ahead of his team-mate. Both riders were fractionally slower than the times they achieved in testing, Curtain's best of 2:06.407 comparing to a 2:06.0 set last month, with the hot conditions responsible for a reduction in grip levels. Third fastest in today's first qualifying session was Italian Simone Sanna (Honda), with Turkish rider Kenan Sofuoglu (Honda) completing the provisional front row. Misano winner Massimo Roccoli ended the day eighth on his Yamaha Team Italia YZF-R6, with Yamaha GMT94's David Checa 11th and Gianluca Vizziello 12th on the second Yamaha Team Italia entry. Qualifying 1 Pos., Rider, Manu., Nat., Total Time 1, Kevin Curtain, Yamaha, AUS, 2'6.407 2, Broc Parkes, Yamaha, AUS, 2'6.556 3, Simone Sanna, Honda, ITA, 2'6.736 4, Kenan Sofuoglu, Honda, TUR, 2'6.863 5, Sebastien Charpentier, Honda, FRA, 2'6.906 6, Yoann Tibero, Honda, FRA, 2'6.979 7, Johan Stigefelt, Honda, SWE, 2'7.034 8, Massimo Roccoli, Yamaha, ITA, 2'7.176 9, Christian Zaiser, Ducati, AUT, 2'7.188 10, Barry Veneman, Suzuki, NED, 2'7.407 11, David Checa, Yamaha, ESP, 2'7.408 12, Gianluca Vizziello, Yamaha, ITA, 2'7.476 13, Gregory Leblanc, Honda, FRA, 2'7.682 14, Robbin Harms, Honda, DNK, 2'7.720 15, Mauro Sanchini, Yamaha, ITA, 2'7.733 16, William De Angelis, Honda, ITA, 2'8.073 17, Kai Borre Andersen, Suzuki, NOR, 2'8.084 18, Matthieu Lagrive, Honda, FRA, 2'8.269 19, Sebastien Le Grelle, Honda, BEL, 2'8.269 20, Maxime Berger, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'8.272 21, Stephane Chambon, Kawasaki, FRA, 2'8.336 22, Xavi Fores, Yamaha, ESP, 2'8.397 23, Vesa Kallio, Yamaha, FIN, 2'8.667 24, Miguel Praia, Honda, POR, 2'8.883 25, Tatu Lauslehto, Honda, FIN, 2'9.054 26, Julien Enjolras, Yamaha, FRA, 2'9.113 27, Luka Nedog, Ducati, SVN, 2'9.214 28, Stuart Easton, Ducati, GBR, 2'9.495 29, Alessio Corradi, Yamaha, ITA, 2'9.740 30, Sebastiano Zerbo, Yamaha, ITA, 2'9.884 31, Vactav Bittman, Honda, CZE, 2'10.274 32, Alessio Velini, Yamaha, ITA, 2'10.320 33, Bernat Martinez, Yamaha, ESP, 2'10.337 34, Tom Tunstall, Honda, GBR, 2'10.437 35, Vladimir Ivanov, Yamaha, RUS, 2'10.536 36, Javier Hidalgo, Honda, ESP, 2'11.257 37, Andrea Berta, Yamaha, ITA, 2'12.193 38, David Garcia, Yamaha, ITA, 2'12.632

Brno in the Czech Republic is the venue for this weekend's seventh round of the Superbike World Championship, with the Yamaha Motor Italia squad looking forward to the event for a variety of reasons. The historic circuit was the venue of the team's first world superbike race win last year, when Noriyuki Haga came through from 18th in qualifying to win the second race by over three seconds. And with team-mate Andrew Pitt going to Czech on the back of his first win in the class in the last race at Misano, the team is understandably relishing the second half of the 2006 championship. At 5.4km, Brno is the longest circuit on the superbike calendar. It is a wide and flowing circuit with grippy tarmac and many elevation changes. It's a circuit that has been proven to suit the characteristics of the YZF-R1 and with the Yamaha Motor Italia squad having tested there alongside the other Pirelli development teams last month, Haga and Pitt go to the venue with good base settings for their machines. For Haga, Brno comes in the middle of a hectic schedule and kicks off a grueling three weekend run of races. The Japanese star has spent most of the time since Misano back in his homeland, testing the machine he will ride in the Suzuka 8-hour endurance race with MotoGP rider Colin Edwards. He returned to Europe last weekend, where he was the fastest rider in the three-day official Pirelli tyre test at Eurospeedway Lausitz. Haga topped the timesheets on qualifying tyres, his best of 1:37.6 equalled only by world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki). However the Yamaha man demonstrated his superiority in race trim, with a 1:38.2 lap that saw him joint top with series leader Troy Bayliss (Ducati). The Japanese rider currently lies second in the championship and, although Australian rider Bayliss has carved out a 94 point advantage in the standings, Yamaha's Japanese star won't stop fighting for the title that has eluded him in his career so far. "Yes, I am very busy just now," said Haga. "The Suzuka bike has some big differences from the one I ride in world superbikes, especially the tyres, but it was no problem for me to switch back to my usual bike and the Pirelli tyres for the test in Germany. Brno is where we won the first race with the R1 last year and for sure the bike is much better now than it was then, so I hope we can have a good weekend. After Brno we go back to Suzuka for the race and then Brands Hatch is the week after. I am just taking each race as it comes but hope to always be up there and fighting for the win." Pitt ended the Lausitz test just one-tenth of a second behind his team-mate. The Australian currently lies sixth in the championship and just 32 points behind second-placed Haga. "Both riders had a good test in Lausitz and are ready for the race in Brno," commented Yamaha Motor Italia team coordinator Massimo Meregalli. "Pirelli brought along a lot of tyres for us to test and we were also able to try some small upgrades to the suspension set-up. Noriyuki managed a good race simulation at the end and both he and Andrew were happy at the end. I don't like making predictions for the races but we're all feeling positive for going to Brno. The riders want to win so I hope that we can have a good weekend." In the Supersport World Championship, Yamaha riders are showing strongly with three of the top five riders mounted on the latest generation YZF-R6: Yamaha Motor Germany's Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes in second and third, and Yamaha Team Italia's Massimo Roccoli moving into fifth following a win in Misano. The Yamaha Motor Germany duo will be looking for a good performance at one of their team's local circuits this weekend after both had disappointing time in Misano. Parkes finished third after making an incorrect tyre choice and Curtain a lowly sixth after failing to find a good machine set-up throughout the race weekend. Both are looking to pull back the advantage of championship leader Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) over the second half of the season. The Frenchman currently has a 30 point lead over second-placed Curtain, but with the latest YZF-R6 improving at every race the Australian knows that the destiny of the title is still very much in the hands of him and his team personnel. "We learned a lot when we tested at Brno," explained Curtain. "We tried a lot of stuff and by the end we maybe lost our way a bit, but we know what works around there and hopefully that means we can go there and be right on it from Friday morning. It's coming up to that important time in the season now. Nothing is ever decided in the first half of the season but now we are getting to that stage where we need to be taking points back from Sebastien if we are to win the title."

Just five days after their stunning showing at the Sachsenring circuit in Germany the Camel Yamaha Team will be back on track on the other side of the Atlantic as the MotoGP World Championship takes another whirlwind trip across the globe from the east of Europe to the west coast of the USA. Following an absence of almost a decade, the Laguna Seca circuit near Monterey in California plays host to the world's premier motorcycle race series for the second consecutive season and represents a crucial date with destiny for both Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards. Last season both riders finished on the podium, an ideal way to celebrate Yamaha's 50th Anniversary and a fitting reward for the factory's role in bringing the sport back to the continent. This time, however, nothing less than a victory will satisfy the Italian and the American, who both have their own agendas as they tackle one of the most important races of the season so far. For Rossi the eleventh round of seventeen represents another key opportunity to close the gap to series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) and provides a chance to strike a major psychological blow on the Kentucky rider, who used his explicit local knowledge of the circuit to take victory last season. However, crucial data gathered by Rossi and his team in that race, as well as track modifications that have taken place since then in the interest of safety, have levelled the playing field and the reigning World Champion is confident the advantage can swing in his favour. The goal for Edwards is to take his first ever victory in MotoGP racing after coming desperately close in the Dutch TT earlier this season. The American has shown flashes of winning potential this season and he would like nothing more than to finally savour the top step of the podium at his home Grand Prix before heading to Japan with an identical target at the prestigious Suzuka 8-hour race. Valentino Rossi: Strong from the start Following on from his remarkable victory in Germany, Valentino Rossi is looking forward to his second visit to California thanks to an enjoyable and promising Laguna Seca debut one year ago. The reigning MotoGP World Champion was the first non-American rider across the line as he took third place in his first ever USGP but this year he doesn't plan to have anybody in front of him at all as he looks to sign off for the summer with another maximum points haul. "Even though I didn't know the track last year I was able to follow Nicky for many laps and then Colin too, so I learnt a lot from both of them," explains Rossi. "By the end of the race I was getting stronger and I actually set my best time on the last lap so I hope that this year we can be strong from the start and this time beat the Americans! We had some difficulties with the bike in Germany and we don't have time to make many big changes before this weekend, but hopefully the good setting we found for the race on Sunday and the data we have from last year will be enough. "The latest modifications to the track will make a difference and we will see how they are when we get there. After last year we discussed everything with the Safety Commission and we made some more suggestions to improve the track, because really it was not at the level of the rest of the championship. It's okay for Superbikes but we are coming into the corners 40km faster, so it was necessary to make some more changes, especially at turn one. Now we have to wait to see if it is better and safer this year." Colin Edwards: Victory still the target Colin Edwards is approaching the second home Grand Prix of his career with his focus completely set on taking victory, despite his set-up troubles with the YZR-M1 in Germany. After finishing second to Nicky Hayden in Laguna last year and battling with the same rider for victory at Assen in Holland earlier this season - only to lose out in the final corner - conceding ground to his compatriot is a scenario the Texan does not plan on repeating as the pair tussle for home glory this time around. "Before Sachsenring I said that I am not hoping to win at Laguna Seca, I am expecting to win, and that remains the case," affirms Edwards, who will be in Los Angeles on Tuesday to take part in a MotoGP bike parade along Hollywood Boulevard before attending the screening of the new MotoGP movie 'The Doctor, The Tornado and The Kentucky Kid', in which he stars. "We had our problems in Germany but we also had problems at Catalunya earlier in the season and seven days later I was fighting to win at Assen. It seems the bike that we have works at some circuits and not so well at others so, like Assen, Laguna will be a bit of a shot in the dark. One thing for sure is that I'm going to fight and barge and do whatever it takes to win. If it comes down to a scrap between the Americans, Hayden and I, then I know I can come out on top this time. Hopefully the bike will work as well as it did at Assen and if it does than I definitely won't make the same mistakes." Davide Brivio: Double top the target Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio is confident that both riders can take the role of protagonists in what promises to be another groundbreaking step for the sport's popularity in America. Brivio watched Edwards and Rossi finish on the podium in last year's inaugural event and he is hopeful of a repeat performance on Sunday - this time with one of the pair on the top step. "Last year both our riders were on the podium and the target is the same this time, but in better positions," says Brivio. "The competition in MotoGP is getting tougher and tougher as the season goes on but we need to keep working as we are now because there is a long way to go. With six rounds left after the summer it would be nice to go on holiday with the psychological boost of victory at Laguna Seca. "We know that Nicky Hayden is fast at this circuit but this is the challenge. We are all in racing because we enjoy the battle and on the evidence of what we saw last year I think both our riders can be up there giving Nicky a hard time this Sunday. We're going there with great confidence after Valentino's win in Germany and I think Laguna comes at the perfect time for Colin, who needs to get back on the podium. It is only a few days but for him and for us the race can't come soon enough." Technically speaking: Laguna according to Daniele Romagnoli Famed, feared and revered for the world-famous 'Corkscrew' corner, the Laguna Seca circuit near Monterey in California lived up to its billing as one of the most exciting circuits on the calendar when MotoGP visited for the first time ever last season. With only a few short straights, a series of fast and sweeping corners and elevation changes that leave front wheels frequently spinning through thin air, the 3.602km circuit provides the ideal viewing spectacle for fans but is surprisingly straightforward when it comes to machine set-up. "Actually Laguna was not as technical as we thought it might be when we visited for the first time last year," explains Daniele Romagnoli, Chief Engineer for Colin Edwards. "It is a special circuit because there are almost no straights so there is no need to use the full gear range or the maximum power of the bike. Power delivery is much more important than top-end power and it must be smooth and easy for the rider to manage. At the same time the circuit is very 'up and down' so the chassis is important because the bike needs to keep turning in several different conditions. You need good traction when the bike is leaned over - especially at the end of the main straight when the bike is at an angle at high speed and in the Corkscrew. The Corkscrew also requires stable suspension and good performance under braking because, as we saw with Colin last year, it is a place he likes to overtake. "Honestly it was quite easy to find a good set-up for Colin last year. His experience at the circuit meant that we already had some good information for the gear and suspension settings before we arrived. This time things are a little different because, even though we can dial in the same settings on the bike, the tyres have changed a lot from last year so we will need to work on something new to adapt the chassis and the suspension. We had a difficult weekend finding the right setting in Germany but Colin will not let this affect him and we will come out fighting like we did at Assen." Valentino Rossi: information Age: 27 Lives: London, UK Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 GP victories: 83 (56 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc) First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc) GP starts: 166 (107 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 41 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: 58 x MotoGP World Championships - 2 World Superbike Laguna Seca Lap Record: Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2005, 1'23.915 Laguna Seca Best Lap: Nicky Hayden (Honda) 2005, 1'22.670 2005 United States Grand Prix Results: 1. Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda, 45'15.374 2. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha, +1.941 3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha, +2.312

With many riders commenting that the motocross and enduro special tests in Canada were similar to those found in Finland it was little surprise that Samuli Aro topped the Enduro 2 class on both days at the fifth round of the WEC. Having claimed the E2 class win on both days at the GP of Italy, Samuli continued his good form to claim two more day wins. On day one Yamaha riders Stefan Merriman and Johnny Aubert surrounded the Finn on the podium with the UFO Corse Yamaha team mates placing 30 seconds apart and in second and third places respectively. On day two Aro was again the rider to beat and was joined by countryman Mika Ahola and Johnny Aubert on the podium. For Merriman numerous crashes early in the day knocked the Australian's confidence in the challenging conditions and saw him place in an eventual fifth position. For Aubert day two was also a difficult one, but for a very different reason. Having broken a rib at the GP of Italy Aubert had been unable to train or ride a bike prior to the Canadian GP and as a result found the event extremely hard. In the '06 Enduro 2 world championship standings Stefan Merriman is currently second to Samuli Aro while Aubert lays fourth, just 10 points off third. Currant Enduro 3 world championship leader David Knight continued his domination of the E3 class in Canada topping the class on both days. Finishing three and a half minutes ahead of his team-mate Marko Tarkkala on day one the Manxman then placed close to five minutes ahead on day two and in doing so finished the weekend unbeaten in the E3 class. Claiming third on both days was French rider Seb Guillaume. Johnny Aubert (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1: Third, Day 2: Third "I feel extremely tired after the race because I wasn't able to train or ride since the last round of the world championship, because I broke some ribs. I have tried my hardest but I felt really tired at the end of each day. I made some small crashes on day one but apart from that everything went pretty well. I finished on the podium so I was happy with that. "I crashed once on each of the special tests on the first lap on day two and then twice on the extreme test on the final lap. Apart from being really tired during the race it has been a good event. It wasn't as difficult as the race in Italy, which was a good thing. The tests were difficult but the course was really enjoyable." Stefan Merriman (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 2 class - Day 1: Second, Day 2: Fifth "Day one went ok but my performances on the enduro test let me down. It was very similar to Finnish conditions, which obviously favoured Aro and Ahola. I pushed as hard as I could without wanting to ride over the limit but it was so difficult on the enduro test because there were tree roots, rocks and ruts everywhere. "Day two went badly right from the start because I crashed three times in the first enduro test. I just couldn't find any sort of a rhythm and every time I hit a tree root I seemed to crash before I knew what had happened. I lost a lot of time there. That knocked my confidence and it was hard to get it back. It was so easy to damage your bike in the enduro test so I just took it steadily. "The event was really good - the organisers have done a great job. I would have liked the ground conditions to have been a little harder but apart from that it has been great." Race classification Enduro 2 Round: 5 - Parry Sound, Canada Circuit: Parry Sound Race: day 1 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Aro KTM FIN 45' 16.980 2 S. Merriman Yamaha AUS +54.190 3 J. Aubert Yamaha FRA +1' 23.920 4 M. Ahola Honda FIN +2' 24.540 5 F. Planet KTM FRA +2' 25.110 6 N. Paganon Husqvarna FRA +3' 24.000 7 C. Guerrero GasGas ESP +3' 38.530 8 X. Galindo KTM ESP +3' 55.780 9 F. Dini Yamaha ITA +4' 22.090 10 V. Salonen HusaBerg FIN +4' 27.820 11 K. Caselli KTM USA +4' 35.630 12 N. Kanney Yamaha USA +4' 50.690 13 E. McConnell TM GBR +5' 28.700 14 G. Kearney Suzuki AUS +7' 44.720 15 G. Giroux Suzuki CAN +8' 16.740 16 K. Glasgow KTM CAN +9' 12.190 17 K. Graffunder KTM CAN +10' 51.960 18 R. Reed KTM CAN +12' 40.800 19 D. Watt HusaBerg CAN +12' 41.730 20 B. Rempel KTM CAN +12' 49.060 Race 2: day 2 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Aro KTM FIN 58' 27.680 2 M. Ahola Honda FIN +52.650 3 J. Aubert Yamaha FRA +1' 56.220 4 F. Planet KTM FRA +1' 59.320 5 S. Merriman Yamaha AUS +2' 37.710 6 N. Paganon Husqvarna FRA +3' 6.000 7 X. Galindo KTM ESP +3' 22.660 8 A. Botturi Aprilia ITA +3' 55.180 9 C. Guerrero GasGas ESP +3' 58.010 10 K. Caselli KTM USA +4' 25.450 11 N. Kanney Yamaha USA +4' 30.760 12 F. Dini Yamaha ITA +4' 53.670 13 V. Salonen HusaBerg FIN +6' 32.650 14 K. Glasgow KTM CAN +6' 51.570 15 E. McConnell TM GBR +7' 42.090 16 G. Giroux Suzuki CAN +10' 28.030 17 D. Watt HusaBerg CAN +13' 5.760 18 I. McKill KTM CAN +13' 19.200 19 T. Burman HusaBerg SWE +13' 50.690 20 K. Graffunder KTM CAN +14' 7.000 Championship standings Enduro 2 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Samuli Aro KTM FIN 228 2 Stefan Merriman Yamaha AUS 205 3 Mika Ahola Honda FIN 200 4 Johnny Aubert Yamaha FRA 190 5 Fabien Planet KTM FRA 142 6 Cristobal Guerrero GasGas ESP 135 7 Xavier Galindo KTM ESP 131 8 Valtteri Salonen HusaBerg FIN 92 9 Fabrizio Dini Yamaha ITA 91 10 Alessandro Botturi Aprilia ITA 85 11 Nicolas Paganon Husqvarna FRA 75 12 Paul Edmondson Honda GBR 74 13 Andrea Beconi Beta ITA 62 14 Andrea Belotti KTM ITA 61 15 Euan McConnell TM GBR 58 16 Kurt Caselli KTM USA 40 17 Emmanuel Albepart Honda FRA 39 18 Petteri Silvan KTM FIN 28 19 Thierry Klutz Sherco BEL 21 20 Christophe Nambotin Husqvarna FRA 20 Manufacturers standings Enduro 2 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 KTM 228 2 Yamaha 226 3 Honda 200 4 GasGas 139 5 HusaBerg 92 6 Aprilia 85 7 Husqvarna 83 8 Beta 67 9 TM 57 10 Suzuki 36 11 Sherco 31 12 Kawasaki 16 Enduro 1 : Fifth position on both days for Micheluz Round: 5 - Parry Sound, Canada Circuit: Parry Sound Date: 16 July 2006 Crowd: 4000 Temp: 26ºC Weather: Sunny Spaniard Ivan Cervantes and Italian Simone Albergoni shared a day win each in the Enduro 1 class at the GP of Canada, the fifth round of the '06 World Enduro Championship. It was Cervantes that topped the first day ahead of Albergoni after the two riders fought tooth and nail all day. With just 10 seconds separating the two, Pole Bartosz Oblucki claimed third, finishing close to one minute behind Albergoni. On day two positions were reversed at the top of the class with Albergoni getting the better of the current E1 championship leader. Winning four of the day's nine special tests Albergoni placed 40 seconds ahead of Cervantes with the Spaniard finishing almost the exact same distance ahead of third placed rider Bartosz Oblucki. Due to the logistical challenges and high costs of competing in Canada less than 10 E1 WEC regulars travelled to North America with just nine and eight riders respectively scoring points in the E1 class. With just one rider representing the UFO Corse Yamaha team in Canada Italian Maurizio Micheluz had a good weekend finishing in fifth position on both days. Finding the soft and in places rocky conditions difficult to master, Maurizio finished day one without problems but then crashed hard on day two. Despite being de-tuned by his crash Maurizio claimed valuable championship points and currently sits in fifth in the E1 world championship standings. Maurizio Micheluz (UFO Corse Yamaha) Enduro 1 class - Day 1: Fifth, Day 2: Fifth "I felt like I rode quite well on day one - not great but ok. I didn't make any mistakes and I finished fifth, which I was reasonable happy with. I think that if I had pushed any harder I would have crashed because I didn't feel so comfortable in the conditions. "On day two I crashed hard on the second enduro test and I didn't feel so good after that. I just wanted to finish the race as best as I could after that. It was a strange race because the ground in the special tests was very different to what I am used to. The organisation was very good though and the race was really interesting." Race classification Enduro 1 Round: 5 - Parry Sound, Canada Circuit: Parry Sound Race: day 1 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 I. Cervantes KTM ESP 46' 51.770 2 S. Albergoni Honda ITA +10.090 3 B. Oblucki Husqvarna POL +1' 7.480 4 A. Belometti KTM ITA +1' 21.980 5 M. Micheluz Yamaha ITA +2' 39.810 6 A. Roberts Yamaha AUS +3' 9.030 7 M. Hartmann KTM GER +3' 51.760 8 S. Cuthbertson KTM CAN +7' 48.260 9 J. Skinner KTM CAN +10' 58.180 Race 2: day 2 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Albergoni Honda ITA 59' 14.260 2 I. Cervantes KTM ESP +39.070 3 B. Oblucki Husqvarna POL +1' 18.960 4 A. Belometti KTM ITA +1' 22.820 5 M. Micheluz Yamaha ITA +4' 55.480 6 A. Roberts Yamaha AUS +6' 0.140 7 S. Cuthbertson KTM CAN +9' 40.140 8 J. Skinner KTM CAN +12' 5.560 Championship standings Enduro 1 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Ivan Cervantes KTM ESP 241 2 Simone Albergoni Honda ITA 212 3 Alessandro Belometti KTM ITA 174 4 Bartosz Oblucki Husqvarna POL 167 5 Mauricio Micheluz Yamaha ITA 161 6 Petri Pohjamo TM FIN 105 7 Helder Rodrigues Yamaha POR 97 8 Mike Hartmann KTM GER 84 9 Nicolas Deparrois Husqvarna FRA 75 10 Freddy Blanc KTM FRA 74 11 Peter Bergvall Suzuki SWE 52 12 Julien Gauthier Honda FRA 43 13 Frederik Georgsson KTM SWE 41 14 Roberto Bazzurri Husqvarna ITA 32 15 Anthony Roberts Yamaha AUS 30 16 Shane Cuthbertson KTM CAN 27 17 Joan Jou Yamaha ESP 27 18 Robert Carlsson Yamaha SWE 26 19 James Skinner KTM CAN 25 20 Manuel Pievani KTM ITA 24 29 Fernando Ferreira Yamaha POR 13 30 Alexandre Mendes Yamaha FRA 12 33 Arnau Vilanova Yamaha ESP 10 35 Andre Fernandez Yamaha POR 6 37 Santos Helio Yamaha ESP 4 Manufacturers standings Enduro 1 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 KTM 241 2 Honda 212 3 Husqvarna 177 4 Yamaha 166 5 TM 105 6 Suzuki 77 7 Kawasaki 24

Reigning World Champion Stefan Everts, of the Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross team, now has just three more victories to reach a magical and all-time record total of 100 career wins after taking his 97th success and tenth consecutive triumph at Sun City in South Africa today. The 33 year-old Belgian clinched both motos in dominant and now familiar fashion in front of 25,300 spectators to stretch his unbeaten run to ten rounds and nineteen races. A journey of almost 200km was necessary to reach the luxurious holiday 'oasis' of Sun City from the capital of Johannesburg. The complex boasts one of the best and most spectacular hotels in the world in the form of the 'Palace' and the motocross circuit is an entirely man-made creation sculpted from land next to the large car-park situated just beyond the entrance to the resort. The venue set standards once again for its organisation and the pleasant layout of the surroundings including two sides of the track flanked by grandstands and decent viewing possibilities. The terrain had been improved over the two previous years with softer dirt allowing for more ruts and racing lines although the hard pack was still slippy in places. Everts captured his fourth pole position in a row and sixth of the season yesterday with a late lap only eight hundredths of a second ahead of Steve Ramon. He started moto one in third place and needed a circulation to gently ease his way past his countryman and then holeshotter Josh Coppins. With a customary clear track stretching ahead, Everts began to work and pulled out a lead of five seconds over his Honda rival in a matter of minutes. His 18th consecutive moto victory was then a formality and he only had to worry about the backmarkers which was a tough task in itself. The second outing was almost a carbon-copy and Everts crossed the line almost five seconds ahead of the New Zealander with Ramon also in attendance. The eighth double of 2006 represented Everts' first triumph on African soil and the landmark means that his lead in the standings has pulled to 136 points. In theory his tenth World Championship could be won in the fairytale setting at Namur, Belgium during the first week of August. Cédric Melotte finished the opening race in sixth position and put up a stiff resistance to the speed and aggression of Ken de Dycker while holding fourth but eventually had to concede two places to his fellow Belgian and Tanel Leok. Later on in race two he was picking his way through the field after a bad start but got a stone in his throat and struggled to breathe. The luckless Belgian was again forced to stop and the DNF was his sixth of the campaign. He is 8th in the World Championship 14 points behind Pascal Leuret. The Grand Prix of the Czech Republic, home to two World Championship celebratory parties for Everts and Yamaha in the last five years, will take place once more at the Loket circuit in the far west of the country near the idyllic town of Karlovy Vary. Stefan Everts, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "I am a bit surprised myself at how I can win so many GPs, and maybe in a few years time I will look back at what I have done so far and realise the achievement. I have also never won ten in a row, nine was the most; so that is a personal record. I have never won in South Africa before so that also was special. I did not wave to the crowd on the last lap this time! I came here with a positive outlook after two years of bad luck and it really worked out today." Cédric Melotte, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "I am trying to ride and enjoy myself on the bike at the moment and that is what I did in the first race. My arms got a little bit tired in the last three or four laps. I had a really bad start in the second race but I was coming back slowly. I was gaining on De Dycker and Leuret and was enjoying myself. I was pushing hard for the top ten but then something entered my throat and I could not breathe and wanted to vomit. It is a real shame because I could not continue and should have had a good result." Carlo Rinaldi, Racing Manager, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "It was another perfect weekend. Stefan's starts were not as good as we have become accustomed to but he proved again who is the fastest. There is not much to say because we have seen this type of GP before this season; Stefan just wants to win at any cost. We made a few settings on the bike but we changed hardly anything. Cédric had a half decent race the first time and while he was coming back from a bad start he got a piece of dirt caught in his throat. He could not breathe and had to stop, losing a lot of points, so that was a pity." Race classification MX1 Round: 10 - 2006 GP of Sun City, South Africa Circuit: Sun City Race 1: 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Everts Yamaha BEL 39' 49.835 2 J. Coppins Honda NZL +5.555 3 S. Ramon Suzuki BEL +11.709 4 T. Leok Kawasaki EST +19.545 5 K. De Dycker Honda BEL +21.713 6 C. Melotte Yamaha BEL +53.306 7 P. Leuret Honda FRA +1' 2.336 8 M. Priem Yamaha BEL +1' 4.923 9 K. Strijbos Suzuki BEL +1' 11.786 10 J. Bill Yamaha GBR +1' 27.554 11 A. Pyrhonen TM FIN +1' 34.262 12 W. Avis KTM RSA +1' 49.209 13 J. Barragan KTM ESP +2' 43.560 14 J. Garcia Vico Honda ESP +1 lap(s) 15 G. Crockard Honda GBR +1 lap(s) 16 C. Dugmore Kawasaki RSA +1 lap(s) 17 K. Stegen Suzuki RSA +1 lap(s) 18 L. O'Farrel Yamaha RSA +1 lap(s) 19 D. Keramidis Honda GRC +3 lap(s) 20 C. van Niekerk TM RSA +4 lap(s) Race 2: 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Everts Yamaha BEL 40' 19.139 2 J. Coppins Honda NZL +4.591 3 S. Ramon Suzuki BEL +9.215 4 T. Leok Kawasaki EST +37.551 5 K. Strijbos Suzuki BEL +40.730 6 J. Barragan KTM ESP +1' 25.723 7 K. De Dycker Honda BEL +1' 32.927 8 P. Leuret Honda FRA +1' 37.300 9 A. Pyrhonen TM FIN +1' 39.573 10 J. Bill Yamaha GBR +1' 40.537 11 G. Crockard Honda GBR +1' 41.009 12 M. Priem Yamaha BEL +2' 4.872 13 W. Avis KTM RSA +1 lap(s) 14 C. Dugmore Kawasaki RSA +1 lap(s) 15 J. Noble Honda GBR +1 lap(s) 16 L. O'Farrel Yamaha RSA +1 lap(s) 17 R. van der Westhuizen Honda RSA +2 lap(s) 18 K. Stegen Suzuki RSA +2 lap(s) 19 K. Bowen KTM RSA +3 lap(s) 20 A. Nielsen Yamaha KEN +3 lap(s) Championship standings MX1 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 492 2 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 356 3 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 334 4 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 330 5 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 322 6 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 235 7 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 186 8 Cedric Melotte Yamaha BEL 172 9 Javier Garcia Vico Honda ESP 172 10 Manuel Priem Yamaha BEL 168 11 Julien Bill Yamaha GBR 167 12 James Noble Honda GBR 138 13 Brian Jorgensen Honda DNK 131 14 Antti Pyrhonen TM FIN 128 15 Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 127 16 Joshua Coppins Honda NZL 116 17 Gordon Crockard Honda GBR 102 18 Sebastien Tortelli KTM FRA 99 19 Danny Theybers Suzuki BEL 84 20 Wyatt Avis KTM RSA 63 Manufacturers standings MX1 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Yamaha 492 2 Suzuki 409 3 Honda 361 4 Kawasaki 334 5 KTM 291 6 TM 128 MX2 : Cairoli takes first victory of 2006 Round: 10 - 2006 GP of Sun City, South Africa Circuit: Sun City Date: 16 July 2006 Crowd: 25300 Temp: 31ºC Weather: Hot MX2 World Champion Antonio Cairoli climbed the top step of the podium for the first time this season at a hot Grand Prix of South Africa. The De Carli Yamaha rider completed an excellent tenth round of the FIM World Championship for the manufacturer and only the second time this term that Yamaha have owned both classes on the same day. The Sun City circuit was again a gleaming picture of good organisation and attention to detail. In its third and final year of hosting the South African round the venue even counted on an improved terrain, perhaps the biggest weak point of past editions. Softer dirt from the dark clay texture meant less dust and more grip. Cairoli was masterful in qualification and enacted a text-book performance by leading from gate to flag in the second heat, earned second pick of slot on the start line for the two 35 minute and 2 lap motos. The first race saw the World Champion circulating in a lonely third after a dodgy start meant that he lost the back of David Philippaerts and Tyla Rattray disputing the win. He pushed through to third despite having trouble with a bent plastic radiator guard catching the bars of the 250F because of an off-track excursion. The top three finish was a decent platform from which to try for the overall and he defeated local favourite Rattray by winning the second moto in style for his sixth race trophy from the twenty held so far. Kenneth Gundersen was visiting South Africa for the first time having missed the last two years due to injury. The first moto saw the Norwegian clatter a haybale that had been dragged into his path and he fell heavily onto his left hand. The Ricci Racing rider needed medical attention at the side of the track and will now head back to Italy tomorrow night for an examination on a possible broken bone in his wrist. Alessio Chiodi showed signs that he is coming back to the decent speed he showed before a fast practice crash in Japan left the former World Champion with an injured knee. The Italian is still missing race fitness however and ended the day twelfth overall after a set of average starts. Davide Guarneri slipped off his 250 in the first qualification heat race yesterday and injured his right knee. The Italian was a reduced force but scored ninth overall with moto finishes of ninth and 12th. Antonio Cairoli, Team Yamaha De Carli: "For sure I am very happy about this win because for many GPs I have been close to victory but one mistake has cost me dear. I managed to take one moto in the past but then finished too far back in the other. It is the first time I have won in South Africa. I had some trouble with the radiator guard in the first moto after I jumped off the track; it was difficult to balance and I lost a lot of time. It was a fast race so I thought about the points. I really liked the track because the mud was softer this year and there were many jumps." Alessio Chiodi, Yamaha Team Ricci: "The knee is a little bit better but my physical condition is not so good because I have not been able to train properly recently. I hope things will get better, it is coming back slowly." Race classification MX2 Round: 10 - 2006 GP of Sun City, South Africa Circuit: Sun City Race 1: 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 D. Philippaerts KTM ITA 39' 58.600 2 T. Rattray KTM RSA +1.252 3 A. Cairoli Yamaha ITA +27.332 4 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA +32.669 5 C. Nunn KTM GBR +34.481 6 T. Searle Kawasaki GBR +38.529 7 D. Guarneri Yamaha ITA +42.451 8 S. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +45.990 9 A. Chiodi Yamaha ITA +46.376 10 C. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +47.003 11 M. Monni KTM ITA +59.201 12 R. Goncalves KTM POR +1' 11.559 13 T. Church Kawasaki GBR +1' 39.682 14 J. Dougan Honda GBR +2' 1.111 15 M. Kok Suzuki RSA +2' 4.076 16 B. MacKenzie Yamaha GBR +1 lap(s) 17 K. Fitzgerald Yamaha RSA +1 lap(s) 18 N. Naude Yamaha RSA +1 lap(s) 19 F. Fourie KTM RSA +1 lap(s) 20 F. Ford Yamaha RSA +1 lap(s) Race 2: 20 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 A. Cairoli Yamaha ITA 40' 44.327 2 T. Rattray KTM RSA +4.810 3 C. Nunn KTM GBR +6.250 4 C. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +21.592 5 M. Monni KTM ITA +23.473 6 R. Goncalves KTM POR +26.331 7 S. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +29.590 8 T. Searle Kawasaki GBR +30.146 9 D. Guarneri Yamaha ITA +38.294 10 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA +52.685 11 B. MacKenzie Yamaha GBR +1' 2.303 12 A. Chiodi Yamaha ITA +1' 29.588 13 T. Church Kawasaki GBR +1' 47.242 14 J. Dougan Honda GBR +1 lap(s) 15 N. Naude Yamaha RSA +1 lap(s) 16 R. Branch Kawasaki RSA +1 lap(s) 17 J. Kruger KTM RSA +1 lap(s) 18 J. de Bruin Yamaha RSA +1 lap(s) 19 F. Fourie KTM RSA +1 lap(s) 20 K. Fitzgerald Yamaha RSA +2 lap(s) Championship standings MX2 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 379 2 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 347 3 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 329 4 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 305 5 Marc De Reuver KTM NED 284 6 Carl Nunn KTM GBR 241 7 Billy MacKenzie Yamaha GBR 228 8 Tommy Searle Kawasaki GBR 224 9 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 210 10 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 207 11 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 194 12 Rui Goncalves KTM POR 193 13 Alessio Chiodi Yamaha ITA 185 14 Davide Guarneri Yamaha ITA 153 15 Manuel Monni KTM ITA 125 16 Luigi Seguy Yamaha FRA 94 17 Anthony Boissière Yamaha FRA 87 18 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 73 19 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 69 20 Pierre-Alexandre Renet Honda FRA 56 Manufacturers standings MX2 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 KTM 459 2 Yamaha 433 3 Kawasaki 403 4 Honda 153 5 Suzuki 22

Just seven days after Italy won the football World Cup with a dramatic victory against France in Berlin, Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi produced an equally stunning performance to seal another success for his country on German soil thanks to a remarkable MotoGP win at the Sachsenring circuit near Dresden. Starting from tenth place on the grid after struggling to find the right set-up for his YZR-M1 machine in practice, the odds were stacked heavily against Rossi as he aimed to close the gap on series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) with another win. However, the reigning World Champion again confounded all the predictions with his superb skill and dogged determination. Already shifted up one place on the grid from his qualifying position of eleventh after Casey Stoner (Honda) was ruled out of the race through injury, Rossi continued to make his way forward as soon as the red lights were out, passing four riders by the end of the first lap to immediately get in contact with the lead group. After carefully picking off Kenny Roberts (Team KR) and Makoto Tamada (Honda), Rossi set about the lead group of Hayden, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and Marco Melandri (Honda) and by lap 13 of 30 he was in front. The Italian held on to a slim lead for all but one of the remaining laps, when Melandri made one of his many attacks stick, before holding off a barrage of attacks from all three rivals in a dramatic final corner to seal his fourth win of the season. Whilst Rossi was able to rescue a dismal situation in practice, unfortunately the same could not be said for his team-mate Colin Edwards, who was unable to make any further progress with his bike setting in the morning warm-up and struggled to eleventh place. Valentino Rossi (1st; 41'49.248) "That was an unbelievable race for me and my team. The first thing I have to say is 'sorry' to my M1 because last night was the first time in our relationship that I ever doubted her! But she was true to me once again and for this I owe a huge thank you to Jeremy and all my mechanics and engineers. Last night I didn't think I could win this race but we made a change in the morning warm-up and then again before the race in the afternoon and today my M1 flew. In some parts of the track it was very, very fast. We also did a great job together with Michelin and at the start I realised that my rhythm was good enough to battle for the win. Once I got to the front I knew I was probably two or three tenths faster than the other guys but it wasn't enough to escape and I had to battle with Dani, Nicky and Marco - each one was a great fight. Marco was so strong at the end of the race and I have to give my big congratulations to him, but thankfully I got the right line in the last corner and I was able to win. Italy became World Champions in the football last weekend and I won today; Germany is a good country for us!" Colin Edwards (11th; + 29.308) "What can I say? I guess I'm just slow around here. The guys worked their butts off all weekend trying to give me something but we simply couldn't get the bike working and I never had the pace. It looked like Valentino was in the same situation but today he pulled out something like his 700th miracle and you can only take your hat off to a great champion. We changed some things for the warm-up this morning but I wasn't comfortable so we went back to the setting from yesterday, which we knew wasn't ideal either. The first few laps were okay but I struggled to pass Toni Elias and by the time I got past him we were way back. From there on it was just a battle to keep the bike on the track and there wasn't much more I could do but bring it home." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Valentino was unbelievable today, fantastic. This was a very important victory for the championship because we've collected a lot of points but more than that it is a big psychological boost to win a fight in this way. This victory is a fruit of the hard work from the engineers, the team and Valentino - we have a great group of people here and they never give up. We always try to win races and today Valentino made it possible. Colin wasn't able to recover a difficult situation but now he has seven days before getting a big chance to turn things around in his home Grand Prix." Sachsenring provides huge step forward for Tech 3 Yamaha Racing Team With another top 10 finish and a result that saw Carlos Checa finish closer to the leaders that at any other race of the 2006 season, the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring circuit provided a huge step forward for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team and the performance of the team's Dunlop tyres. Checa was involved in a tense battle throughout the race to miss out on seventh place by just 0.389 of a second to eventually finish ninth in an enthralling race won by fellow Yamaha rider and defending world champion, Valentino Rossi. Carlos was only 17 seconds in arrears after the 30-lap battle. In another positive result, Checa's best lap of 1'23.097 was just 0.424 of a second off the fastest lap of the race. Englishman, James Ellison had to overcome handling problems in his quest to finish 13th, picking up some valuable points for himself and the team. Carlos Checa (9th, +17.097 secs Fastest lap 1'23.779) This has been a very good result for us and I am very happy. The gap to the winner was the closest we have ever been this year, so that is another positive step considering that we had some chatter and after 17 laps something went wrong with the engine. This is no excuse of course but, basically overall our consistency and speed is good. The first race of the year we were 59 seconds behind the winner, now we are 17 seconds and also we were with other riders fighting for positions so this has been a very big improvement. I'm quite satisfied. We started with the tyre we knew from practice and overall we are working quite well. Now I hope that Yamaha will help us with the chatter and maybe the engine a little bit. On the chassis side, the tyres are getting better and better but we need to work on the chassis as we can see the official team is struggling as well. I think it is a general problem with the Yamaha we must work together and even us with different tyres we are finding this problem but we will continue to work hard and hopefully we can continue to progress and improve the way we have done in the last four races. ". James Ellison (13th +1'02.029 Fastest lap 1'25.634) "I wish I could say I was happy but that would be far from the truth. I had very bad chattering for most of the race. The whole balance of the bike was really good but I couldn't run it into turns very fast because of the chatter so I had to pull back and I couldn't run the speed I wanted to. The tyres were working well but I couldn't get the times I wanted. At the start I could see Colin and the rest of the boys and I kept them close for 10 laps or so but then the chatter starting getting worse and worse and it started happening in more areas of the track. I just had to bring it home so I'm happy I did that and got some more points for myself and the team but that's about all I'm happy about as I'm pretty disappointed. I've had a chat to Carlos about the chatter as he has dealt with things like that for years. He told me that if you try to carry the speed going into the corner it just gets worse so you have to brake as hard as you can and then throw it in because he knows it's going to chatter. I've just got to change my riding to adapt to it because, it takes a while as if a bike is chattering the last thing your brain is telling you is to just throw it in because you think you will crash. I've just got to get on with it and see what I can do. I really hope the next race at Laguna Seca is different because this year has become extremely frustrating. I can't tell you how much I want to improve and get up to a pace I know I can run at." Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "Altogether, a very good weekend and the very best weekend for us so far this season. We were only 17 seconds behind the winner at the end so for sure this is by far the best result we have had. We were a bit worried about the second part of the race but the tyre was really stable and we have definitely gained on performance and durability of the Dunlop tyres. At the end of the race we were in front of Hopkins on the Suzuki and on Bridgestones. We were catching Vermeulen but just a bit too late to pass him - another lap and we would have! We could've been seventh, that's no big deal but clearly we are happy we improving. To be 12 seconds in front of Edwards was another positive sign for us. We are not talking about Valentino because he is on another planet after what he has done today. To be the second Yamaha in the race, second Yamaha on the grid and fastest Yamaha in morning warm-up was extremely satisfying for everyone so it confirms that the Yamaha/Dunlop combination worked very well here at Sachsenring and the improvements are getting bigger and improving all the time. We have another race before the summer break so we hope to continue at this same pace and to be able to fight again for a top 10 finish. James rode a steady race as he didn't finish that far from Colin which is ok. Both our riders were in the points. In the team's championship we move up, Carlos is gaining some more points so we are happy. Race classification MotoGP Round: 10 - 2006 MotoGP Sachsenring Circuit: Sachsenring Circuit Length: 3671 Lap Record: 1' 23.355 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 23.355 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Race: 30 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 41' 59.248 2 M. Melandri Honda ITA +0.145 3 N. Hayden Honda USA +0.266 4 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP +0.307 5 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA +8.764 6 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN +9.147 7 C. Vermeulen Suzuki AUS +16.608 8 S. Gibernau Ducati ESP +16.648 9 C. Checa Yamaha ESP +17.097 10 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA +17.786 11 T. Elias Honda ESP +27.425 12 C. Edwards Yamaha USA +29.308 13 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR +1' 2.029 14 J. Cardoso Ducati ESP +1' 19.997 Fastest Race Lap: Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 1' 23.355 Championship standings MotoGP Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 169 2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 143 3 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 140 4 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 134 5 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 118 6 Casey Stoner Honda AUS 91 7 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 77 8 Shinya Nakano Kawasaki JPN 67 9 Kenny Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 66 10 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 64 11 Makato Tamada Honda JPN 59 12 Toni Elias Honda ESP 58 13 Sete Gibernau Ducati ESP 52 14 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 46 15 Carlos Checa Yamaha ESP 44 17 James Ellison Yamaha GBR 17 Manufacturers standings MotoGP Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Honda 221 2 Yamaha 172 3 Ducati 127 4 Suzuki 81 5 Kawasaki 71 6 Team Roberts KR 66 Team standings MotoGP Pos. Team Points 1 Repsol Honda Team 309 2 Camel Yamaha Team 220 3 Fortuna Honda Team 192 4 Ducati Marlboro Team 177 5 Rizla Suzuki 110 6 Honda LCR 91 7 Kawasaki Racing Team 84 8 Team Roberts KR 66 9 Tech3 Yamaha 61 10 Konica Minolta Honda 59 11 Pramac D'Antin 20 Race classification GP250 Round: 10 - 2006 GP250 Sachsenring Circuit: Sachsenring Circuit Length: 3671 Lap Record: 1' 25.118 (Sebastian Porto, 2004) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 24.618 (Alex de Angelis, 2005) Race: 29 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 Y. Takahashi Honda JPN 41' 30.350 2 A. de Angelis Aprilia SMR +0.058 3 J. Lorenzo Aprilia ESP +1.013 4 A. Dovizioso Honda ITA +4.021 5 H. Barbera Aprilia ESP +9.384 6 R. Locatelli Aprilia ITA +19.242 7 A. West Aprilia AUS +26.457 8 H. Aoyama KTM JPN +26.607 9 S. Aoyama Honda JPN +26.741 10 S. Guintoli Aprilia FRA +30.621 11 A. Baldolini Aprilia ITA +44.754 12 F. Battiani Aprilia ITA +45.063 13 M. Poggiali KTM SMR +48.793 14 J. Smrz Aprilia CZE +52.317 15 A. Espargaro Honda ESP +52.369 Fastest Race Lap: Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 A. de Angelis Aprilia SMR 1' 25.284 Championship standings GP250 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Jorge Lorenzo Aprilia ESP 174 2 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 172 3 Yuki Takahashi Honda JPN 133 4 Alex de Angelis Aprilia SMR 131 5 Hiroshi Aoyama KTM JPN 116 6 Roberto Locatelli Aprilia ITA 114 7 Hector Barbera Aprilia ESP 100 8 Sylvain Guintoli Aprilia FRA 65 9 Anthony West Aprilia AUS 58 10 Marco Simoncelli Gilera ITA 55 11 Shuhei Aoyama Honda JPN 48 12 Alex Debon Aprilia ESP 35 13 Jakub Smrz Aprilia CZE 34 14 Manuel Poggiali KTM SMR 31 15 Martin Cardenas Honda COL 28 Manufacturers standings GP250 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Aprilia 221 2 Honda 189 3 KTM 120 4 Gilera 55

Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards both face an uphill battle in tomorrow's German Grand Prix after struggling to come to terms with the undulating demands of the Sachsenring circuit in the final free practice and qualifying session today. Neither rider was able to find an adequate setting for the YZR-M1 in yesterday's opening sessions and despite making progress today they did not take the necessary steps forward required to make a challenge for the front row of the grid, which is headed by Dani Pedrosa (Honda) for the second successive race. As the action got underway below clear blue skies and pleasant summer temperatures of 22ºC, Rossi's main difficulty was balancing the intense force exerted on the front end of the bike at this circuit, a problem exacerbated by the extra rear grip offered by the softer qualifying tyres. Whilst the Italian is hopeful of working on a solution with his team overnight, Edwards is less optimistic having been unable to exactly pinpoint the root of his problems and leaving only tomorrow's 20-minute warm-up to clarify an adequate set-up and tyre choice for the race. Rossi will aim to make as much progress as possible early in the race as he starts from the fourth row in eleventh spot whilst Edwards has an even bigger challenge ahead as he looks to remount from a row further back in fifteenth. Valentino Rossi (11th - 1'22.868; 32 laps) "The race setting is not so bad but things were very different on the qualifying tyre. We are getting too much weight onto the front end of the bike and when the rear qualifying tyre grips so much this pushes the front even harder and I almost crashed a couple of times. My hand is still a bit sore but to be honest when I am riding I don't even think about it and this is not what is troubling us today. It looks like tomorrow will be tough because Dani Pedrosa has a very fast pace but I am starting from a long way back. Unfortunately I can't say that we are down in eleventh because I was unlucky; today we deserve to be in eleventh and we have a lot of work to do. It's difficult to overtake at this track and you need a good setting to make up positions in the race. At the moment our bike is not quite ready and this situation is not limited to today - it seems we have struggled in practice all year. Once again I need another great job from my mechanics tonight so that I can try and chase the lead group tomorrow." Colin Edwards (15th - 1'23.087; 29 laps) "I'm feeling disappointed and frustrated tonight because we've tried everything - changed the steering head column, the rear links, the swingarm links - but not got anywhere. The bike is a little better than yesterday but it is still not fast enough and when I'm following other guys around it seems as though they are running at a different track. Honestly, I think the team has worked harder here than at any other circuit this year but it's just not happening for us and we need a miracle now. The bike is a bit of a handful at the moment and the worrying thing is that I don't know exactly where we can find the improvement in time for tomorrow's race. Anyway, we'll keep working and see if we can come up with something in the morning." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Again it will be a difficult start to the race for us, with Valentino and Colin on the fourth and fifth rows. We are struggling with the qualifying tyre, even though Valentino's race pace is not so bad - very similar to Pedrosa and Hayden. The problem for him now is his position on the grid because it is a big disadvantage at such a tight circuit like this. We will do our best to make the right changes for him in the morning and hopefully we can come up with something for Colin too. We need a big effort from the whole team over the next 24 hours and I'm sure our riders will do their bit to perform." Confidence inspiring qualifying session for Tech 3 Yamaha Team Under the blazing German sunshine the solitary qualifying session for the MotoGP class was a confidence inspiring occasion for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team as lead rider, Carlos Checa qualified in 12th fastest position, just 1.1 seconds off pole position taken by Dani Pedrosa (Honda). In the final moments of the session, Carlos was denied the rare experience of being the leading Yamaha rider as world champion, Valentino Rossi relegated the experienced Spaniard one place on the grid by just 0.096 second. Teammate, James Ellison improved his time to move up the grid slightly but is nonetheless, disappointed that he ran out of time to improve his 18th place on the grid. Carlos Checa (12th, 1'22.964, 33 laps) "Of course for us personally this is good as we are quite close to Valentino and at this moment he is the best rider even if here his position is not his usual. This weekend we have worked quite well heading in the right direction and making advances with the Dunlop race tyres but we still have some limitations especially with the qualifying tyres. We are ready for tomorrow with a pretty good setup and hopefully we can build on what we have been doing in the recent races. We cannot be perfectly satisfied with this situation because it is clear that all riders on Yamaha are struggling around here. "Anyway for the race I am more confident than I am with qualifying. We have a good tyre and I think the setting we have chosen for the race we will have a good pace but hopefully even though warmup is early tomorrow there will be enough heat in the track to do some more final testing to make sure we have made the right decisions. I must get a good start as if we are too far back in the first corner with how close the lap times are it will be very difficult to move up many positions as it is also very hard to overtake around here. James Ellison (18th 1'24.464, 28 laps) "I'm not happy as although I dropped my times, yesterday's sessions were a loss. With the setup we had on Friday you kind of lose your confidence because we had so many problems it takes time to build up confidence again. If you arrive at a circuit and the bike works it's awesome because you can build on it all weekend but when you start bad like it's very difficult to get your head up to speed again. We've been chipping away and slowly building to the times we wanted to get but we really wanted to get into the 23 second bracket. We made a couple of mistakes with the last qualifier so I'm very disappointed with that to be honest. We had another tyre lined up but we just ran out of time. We might've gone quicker, we might've gone slower - who knows - it would've just been nice to try it. I'm not happy at all as I have only qualified five-tenths faster than I did last year and I'm on a bike way more capable than what I had. That's the result, so I have to live with it and try and get a good start to get away with them and hopefully move up a few places." Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "It was another positive day for us as in the morning and afternoon Carlos was right up there with everybody else. For the majority of both sessions Carlos was the first Yamaha and it was only in the last seconds that Valentino got him but we are on the same row and in front of Colin Edwards. This makes us very happy - not to see Valentino and Colin so far back - but shows us the improvements that keep continuing with the Dunlop tyres. We are confident we can do a good first part of the race but because of the rain on Friday morning and all the setting changes we had to make, we didn't manage to do a full race distance in hot conditions as yesterday was a lot cooler on track. Tomorrow's forecast is a lot hotter than today, so we are a little bit concerned about the last 10 laps of the race because 30 laps around here on a high temperature track is very demanding on tyres - this is our main worry to see how those 10 laps unfold but I guess we have to wait and see. We have improved on our qualifying tyres but unfortunately the last run of Carlos for some reason we couldn't improve. If we had dropped another tenth of a second we could be a row closer because the lap times are so close but our main concern is durability and race distance more than grid position. It was also quite a good improvement from James. Yesterday he was nowhere and today he is running low to mid 1'24 second laps, which for MotoGP is a fairly decent lap time. Let's hope he can run at that pace for the entire race because there are guys in front of him that he can stay with and hopefully pass during the race."" Round: 10 - 2006 MotoGP Sachsenring Circuit: Sachsenring Circuit Length: 3671 Lap Record: 1' 23.705 (Sete Gibernau, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 21.815 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Date: 15 July 2006 Temp: 22ºC Session 1 : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying 1 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 1' 21.815 2 K. Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 1' 21.907 3 N. Hayden Honda USA 1' 22.083 4 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN 1' 22.273 5 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA 1' 22.329 6 M. Melandri Honda ITA 1' 22.420 7 S. Gibernau Ducati ESP 1' 22.469 8 C. Stoner Honda AUS 1' 22.577 9 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA 1' 22.701 10 M. Tamada Honda JPN 1' 22.866 11 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 1' 22.868 12 C. Checa Yamaha ESP 1' 22.964 13 R. De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1' 22.974 14 C. Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1' 23.050 15 C. Edwards Yamaha USA 1' 23.087 16 T. Elias Honda ESP 1' 23.660 18 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR 1' 24,464.000

The Camel Yamaha Team began their preparations for the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring today with riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards working hard to adjust their YZR-M1 machines to the tortuous demands of the MotoGP World Championship's shortest and slowest circuit. The first day of free practice was held in cloudy yet warm conditions of around 20ºC, with the threat of storms hanging ominously over the circuit throughout the day but thankfully not progressing beyond a couple of spells of light rainfall as the riders squeezed every available minute out of the two hour-long sessions. Both Rossi and Edwards admitted running into difficulties as they adjusted the base setting of the bike, which so far hasn't proven as well suited to this circuit as it has to faster tracks such as Donington, Assen, Mugello and Catalunya in recent weeks. The Italian ran sixth fastest in the morning session, with the American ninth, but they were both unable to match the progress made by their rivals in the afternoon and they slid marginally down the time sheets at the end of the day - Rossi ending up seventh with Edwards in eleventh. Both riders face a crucial day of set-up work tomorrow as they prepare for the tenth round of the season on Sunday. Valentino Rossi (7th - 1'23.871; 43 laps) "We knew before we came here that this was not one of my favourite circuits and that it was always going to be a big effort from the first day. Unfortunately that is proving to be the case and I have not got comfortable with the bike or the track today. We are trying a whole 'sack' of things to make the bike better but we keep running into problems and haven't found the best way to work yet. Luckily we still have two hours tomorrow to do this so we hope the weather stays dry because we need all that track time to work on the bike. Anyway I am still confident because Jerry and the engineers have shown in the past few races when I have been injured that they have a great ability to set the bike up using a minimal amount of data. Tomorrow we will have to stay concentrated and see what we can do. It already looks like it will be a tough battle on Sunday but the tough ones are always the most fun!" Colin Edwards (11th - 1'24.100; 33 laps) "We're struggling. The bike feels a bit rough in a few sections and we need to make some drastic changes tomorrow to get it working how we want. The bike and I are not getting along with the circuit at the moment and I'm losing around half a second in the second section alone, which is clearly not good enough. We have to work on that and generally improve the speed through the corner in all the other sections - it's not carrying enough pace and no matter what I tried it just wasn't happening today. We know we've still got a lot of work to do but that's what we're here for and I'm looking forward to tomorrow." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Clearly we still have plenty of work to do tomorrow because we are not where we want to be on the first day. We need to improve the pace of both riders, who are struggling with different kinds of problems. As always they are working together for the good of the team and the engineers will use their feedback to try and come up with some better settings tomorrow. This is a very particular track because it is so tight and twisty, unlike any other circuit in the world, so we have to look for something particular with the setting. That is not as easy as it sounds but we will keep going!" Checa within reach for Tech 3 Yamaha Racing Team in Germany Although at least half of the opening practice session for Sunday's German Grand Prix was lost due to the now familiar inclement conditions, Carlos Checa on the Tech 3 Yamaha was less than a second off pole position at the end of the day's proceedings to be well within striking distance to score his best grid position of the year. A further encouraging sign for Checa after the afternoon's second free practice session was the inspiration that he is less than two-hundredths of a second behind fellow Yamaha rider, Colin Edwards. This has set the scene for an interesting duel in the solitary qualifying shootout tomorrow. The same cannot be said for Carlos's team mate, James Ellison as he struggled with tyre selection problems to be in 19th position although he remains confident that the situation will improve after finding a suitable front tyre to hasten progress tomorrow. Carlos Checa (12th, 1'24.116, 47 laps) "The day started pretty well as we were very close to the front guys but lost a little in the afternoon. Truthfully though, the day was quite acceptable for our situation. We still need more grip on the side of the tyre, especially on the right side around here. In the slow area where we don't need so much throttle - we only open the throttle maybe 10-15% - this is no so bad but, the areas where you go harder on the gas at the back of the track I don't have enough support and grip in the rear. We have to find something in the settings and in the tyre which will improve this situation - especially the very fast downhill right hand turn. It is hard to put the bike on the side of the tyre and open the throttle hard to get drive. But saying that, lately in the last few races we are improving in all areas every time I ride the bike and to be closer to the other Yamaha's than we have been all year gives me a good feeling. This is what you need to keep trying after all the hard work the team and Dunlop have been doing so hopefully the progress will again continue tomorrow and I can move closer to the front." James Ellison (19th 1'25.833, 41 laps) "A steady start to the weekend really but from one round to the next the bike changes so much and you have to start from scratch all over again. The twists of the second split are the best bit for me at the moment but the fast bits where you dab the brake and let it run in, it just vibrates and there is no stability. I tried a wider rim today that seems to help but it makes it harsh although it improves the corner entry and that gives me more confidence. I think with the tyre construction we were using it's a lot stronger and doesn't seem to squash as much. What we need to do now is go back a bit to a little softer tyre as because the rim is wider the tyre is a lot stronger and there is no give in it. The harder tyre seems to be picking up all the bumps and ripples a lot more. At least we are finding a direction. I know we are a bit off Carlos at the moment but this afternoon we are near the time he was doing this morning so we are really a session behind. I think we will find a good direction now we have the new front tyre. We were so far off this morning and losing time with the wet track that this afternoon was really our first session. We made steps in this afternoon's session so I think tomorrow will be a lot better. Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "I seem to say this every week but this first session was very good. Carlos is again lapping closer to the leaders and this morning was just 0.6 second off the fastest time. We know the lap times here are pretty close because of the low lap times but he is very close to the other Yamaha's which makes us happy. It shows that we are getting the right pace and have improved quite a lot on the tyre department. We lost half a session this morning but it is the same for everybody. It may be a bigger deal for us in a way as we need more track time than everybody else but c'est la vie, there is nothing we can do with the weather. "Although we haven't done a race distance yet, so far the feeling is not too bad to get the firm indication for what we need. The weather should be warmer tomorrow, with the sun expected to come out and we plan to do a lot of laps because the race is long. So far we are happy. "But I am worried for James. To be last is not good and the tyres have improved so much. We have to find some speed because it is now over halfway through the season and it is very important and crucial for him to be quicker." Round: 10 - 2006 MotoGP Sachsenring Circuit: Sachsenring Circuit Length: 3671 Lap Record: 1' 23.705 (Sete Gibernau, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 22.756 (Max Biaggi, 2004) Date: 14 July 2006 Temp: 20ºC Free Practice : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Free Practice 1 M. Melandri Honda ITA 1' 23.145 2 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 1' 23.486 3 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA 1' 23.490 4 N. Hayden Honda USA 1' 23.525 5 K. Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 1' 23.676 6 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA 1' 23.693 7 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 1' 23.871 8 C. Stoner Honda AUS 1' 23.889 9 S. Gibernau Ducati ESP 1' 24.022 10 M. Tamada Honda JPN 1' 24.030 11 C. Edwards Yamaha USA 1' 24.100 12 C. Checa Yamaha ESP 1' 24.116 13 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN 1' 24.190 14 R. De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1' 24.582 15 T. Elias Honda ESP 1' 24.626 16 A. Hofmann Ducati GER 1' 25.092 19 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR 1' 25.833

Yamaha Team this weekend at the vertigo-inducing Sachsenring circuit in Germany, host to the tenth round of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship. One of the tightest and most undulating tracks in the world welcomes the most unpredictable season in recent history, with Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards both having played their part in a dramatic campaign that has seen five different race winners, nine different riders on the podium and thirteen different front row starters. A roller-coaster season continues for the Camel Rossi added to his season-tally of three victories with a stunning second place in the last round at Donington Park, where he rode through the pain of hand and ankle injuries to put his YZR-M1 machine back on the podium and cut the gap to series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) to 35 points. That memorable performance at his talisman track was the 121st time that Rossi had stood on a Grand Prix podium - the same number as Phil Read and a figure bettered only by the legendary Giacomo Agostini and Angel Nieto. Rossi has now also scored a total of 2977 points in all classes and victory in Germany would make him the first rider in history to pass the 3000 mark. Sixth place for Colin Edwards at Donington was the 30th successive race at which he has scored points, a record made all the more remarkable by the drama of the previous round at Assen, when he crashed out of the lead in the final corner only to remount and bravely struggle across the line in thirteenth place. The only rider with a longer sequence of successive point scoring finishes is Mick Doohan, who managed it for 37 races, but the more pressing issue for Edwards now is a return to the form that saw him fighting for victory in that breathtaking Dutch TT two weeks ago. Valentino Rossi: Back to fitness Valentino Rossi arrives in Germany with the benefit of an extra weekend to recover from the hand injuries he sustained in the middle of a Grand Prix triple-header at Assen. After struggling through the discomfort to score valuable points in Holland and Great Britain, he is now hoping to be fit enough to fight for his fourth win of the season and his fourth in all classes at the Sachsenring circuit. "I am very confident that by Sachsenring my hand will be back to 100%, or near enough," says Rossi, who won the German Grand Prix for Yamaha last year to add to previous MotoGP and 250cc successes in 2002 and 1999. "I have been working hard with my physiotherapist Marco Montanari and Dr Costa and hopefully it will continue to improve at this rate. It's really nice to have had time for a rest now after three very hard weeks, even if it's not so long. I spent some time in Italy and then a few days at home in London, relaxing and seeing friends. "The important thing for Sachsenring is that we come out of the box on Friday morning ready to make the most of every available minute of practice time. We can't afford to lose time in practice with set-up problems like we had in Donington, and I am sure that Yamaha has been working at the maximum over the break so we will be ready to be competitive from Friday morning. Sachsenring is quite a different track, very tight and twisty, but last year our bike worked very well there, we were able to win and hopefully that will be the case again this year." Colin Edwards: To Japan and back Whilst his team-mate and most of their rivals have had time to rest this week, the relentless pursuit of speed has continued unabated for Colin Edwards, who has been out in Japan completing testing work for Yamaha ahead of the Suzuka 8-Hour race. Edwards was at Suzuka for two days as he prepares to compete in the prestigious event on 30th July alongside Yamaha Superbike rider Noriyuki Haga, but he is already back in Europe and gathering his strength for another important weekend of MotoGP action. "It was hard to go straight out to Japan after such a long run of races but I'm quite excited about doing the 8-Hour again, especially as it's ten years since Nori and I won it together before," reflected Edwards, who will ride for the Yamaha Blue Racing Team aboard a specially prepared YZF-R1 SP. "Testing has gone quite well this week, just getting used to being back on a Superbike again and getting reacquainted with the track. We've got a competitive package so hopefully we're going to be in a position to really go for it when we go back for the race after Laguna. "Obviously there's a lot of work to do before then and the small matter of two GPs in two weekends, including my home race! Sachsenring will be really important because we had a lot of problems with the bike at Donington that we didn't solve and we can't afford to lose any more time. The track itself has two different parts - one where it's very difficult to overtake and another which requires a massive physical effort because it works the left-hand side of your body really hard The tyres are under a lot of strain and it's vital to make the right choice so they don't overheat on the left-side. Generally I get along pretty well with the layout and there are always a lot of fans so it should be a good weekend." Davide Brivio: Still enough time Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio is hopeful that a fully fit Valentino Rossi will appear at the Sachsenring on Thursday afternoon in readiness for a renewed assault on the championship standings when the action gets underway on Friday morning. Rossi's recent progress has been hampered by his injuries but with the benefit of a brief rest behind him Brivio remains confident that the World Champion has enough races to turn the situation around and successfully defend his title for the fifth time. "Now it's funny because we almost consider a weekend off as a break!" smiles Brivio. "Anyway we are hoping that this week gives Valentino a chance to recover and arrive at the Sachsenring with his injury troubles behind him. We are expecting him to be fit from Friday morning so we are hopeful of a 'normal' weekend for both him and Colin. The situation with Valentino has delayed our recovery in the championship over the past couple of rounds but there are eight races left and we still have enough time. "Our aim is to close the gap even further before the summer break so this race and the next one at Laguna Seca are very important. As far as the Sachsenring is concerned we had some problems with our bike there the first season with Valentino but we found a good setting last season and he was able to win the race. Sincerely I think the track suits the characteristics of the 2006 version M1 but we will have to wait and see on Friday morning. I hope so!" Technically speaking: Sachsenring according to Mike Norton Located in the heartland of the former East Germany's once glorious motorcycle racing industry, the Sachsenring is built right next to the old road course, a characteristic the track shares with Brno in the nearby Czech Republic. The current circuit could not be more different, its ultra-modern nature showing in its relatively slow lap times, with slow corners juxtaposed with some dazzlingly fast ones - including a super fast downhill right hander which was added in 2003. It is this that provides the circuit's biggest challenge, for riders and technicians alike. "The Sachsenring is a difficult track - it's quite short and it's not one of Valentino's favourites," explains Mike Norton, Öhlins Suspension Technician for Valentino Rossi. "It's one of my busiest weekends because the set-up of the bike is all about finding a compromise between braking for that monstrous downhill section and handling through the slow sections. It's a bit of a trade-off really between getting Valentino good through the slow part and good enough to stop the bike at the bottom of the hill. Valentino often wins races on the brakes so he's a little bit different to most riders and you always have to have some margin in the front fork. "You also spend a lot of time on the edge of the tyre at Sachsenring, right on the angle, and again that causes us an imbalance in the bike compared to normal. But Valentino's feedback is very good compared to other riders I've worked with. You can give him a change and be miles off centre but he'll ride around it and you'll either see a good lap time or a bad one, which then gives us an idea of where to go. From that point of view he's very good to work with and he always gives you 100%." Valentino Rossi: information Age: 27 Lives: London, UK Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 GP victories: 82 (56 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc) First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc) GP starts: 166 (106 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 41 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: 57 x MotoGP World Championships - 2 World Superbike Sachsenring Lap Record: Sete Gibernau (Honda) 2005, 1'23.705 Sachsenring Best Lap: Max Biaggi (Honda) 2004, 1'22.756 2005 German Grand Prix Results: 1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Yamaha, 35'04.434 2. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Honda, +0.685 3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda, +885 8. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Yamaha, +14.849

With the announced retirement of nine times motocross world champion Stefan Everts at the end of this season, Yamaha is very pleased to have signed both Joshua Coppins and Marc de Reuver for the 2007 MX1 world championship season. The new signings will have a tremendous challenge in trying to maintain the team's past and present winning success, but Yamaha believe that the 2005 MX1 vice world champion Joshua Coppins (29 yrs, New Zealand) and this year's MX2 world championship title challenger Marc de Reuver (23 yrs, The Netherlands) both have the speed and talent to become worthy successors in the Yamaha Motocross Team. At the start of the millennium Joshua Coppins has gradually delivered on the ever increasing expectations since he stepped onto the world stage of motocross in 1995. In 2000 Coppins proved he had the consistency and speed to one day challenge for the top prize when he finished fourth in the MX250 world championship. Two years later he came close to the title for the first time with a runner up position in the MX250 world championship. Being the current MX1 vice world champion Joshua Coppins was expected to become Everts' biggest rival this season, but bad luck struck in the form of a broken right shoulder sustained a few days before the opening round of the world championship in Zolder, Belgium. The injury kept him sidelined for the first half of the season and only recently, at round eight of the championship at the British GP in Matterley Basin, Coppins made his impressive return, finishing third overall. He repeated the result a week later at the Swedish GP, held on the 2nd July 2006 in Uddevalla. "Since I came to Europe 11 years ago I have always been very impressed with the Rinaldi-Yamaha team. They have been right up there for more than 15 years and since 2001 they have proven to be pretty much unbeatable. Especially this year their new bike is winning almost everything. So what more can I ask for? Being able to ride with them next year will give me the best opportunity ever to win the world title I've been chasing for so long," said Coppins. While Coppins is a seasoned MX1 challenger, Marc de Reuver will make his full campaign debut in the super competitive MX1 class. Currently he is still in the fight for the MX2 world championship title (placed fourth). At the young age of 18 De Reuver was already among the MX125 world titles candidates and in 2003 he won his first GP in Teutschenthal (Germany) finishing the year in seventh position. Further improvement was on the cards, but injuries halted his progress in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. Yet now in 2006 Marc is fully recovered and is looking to fulfill the high expectations. "I'm really happy to be back with the brand where it all started with. I won my first race aged six on a PW50 and I have competed on Yamahas for more than ten years, winning many races, so I know from my own experience they make great machines. Seeing the successes of the YZ450 it clearly is the bike to have in the MX1 class. The Rinaldi team is renowned for their professionalism and rider focus and I hope this support will make the difference for me to mount a successful challenge for the MX1 title," he explained. Yamaha are fully focused for 2007 in keeping the momentum going of Yamaha Motocross Team's incredible winning streak. Yamaha Motor Europe racing manager Laurens Klein Koerkamp is confident he has found the men that can carry the baton from Everts successfully. He explained: "MX1 is the most important and prestigious off-road world championship class, so it is Yamaha's main target to win this title and prove the technological leadership of our YZ model range. Since 2001 we have proven year after year that our four-stroke engine and chassis technology sets the standard on the highest competitive level. "Finding worthy successors for the greatest motocross racer of all times is not easy, or maybe I should say impossible. But we believe Josh and Marc both stand out as extremely talented riders who have an enormous motivation and 'never give up' attitude, this we believe will keep us on top in 2007". Profiles Name Joshua "Lizard" Coppins Marc "Calimero" de Reuver Date of birth 11th March 1977 21st February 1983 Place of birth Motueka, New Zealand Amstelveen, Netherlands Nationality New Zealand Dutch Residence Balen Hulsen, Belgium Amstelveen, Netherlands Height 176 cm 191 cm Weight 75 kg 75 kg Marital status Girlfriend, Lisa Single Hobbies Sailing, biking, jet skiing, Internet and fitness training trials riding, BMX. Career results Joshua Coppins Marc de Reuver 1995 MX250 World championship debut 1996 23rd MX250 World championship 1997 17th MX250 World championship 1998 13th MX250 World championship 1999 7th MX250 World championship MX125 World championship debut 2000 4th MX250 World championship 39th MX125 World championship MX125 Dutch champion 2001 6th MX250 World championship 8th 125 World championship MX125 Dutch champion 2002 2nd MX250 World championship 9th 125 World championship 2003 12th MXGP World championship (injured) 7th 125 World championship First MX125 win at European GP (Germany) 2004 3rd MX1 World championship British Champion MX1 First MX1 GP win at Isle of Wright (UK) 14th MX2 World championship (injured) 2005 2nd MX1 World championship British Champion MX1 20th MX2 World Championship (injured) 2006 MX1 World championship MX2 World championship World championship titles overview - Yamaha Motocross Team 1992 MX250 world championship Donnie Schmit 1994 MX125 world championship Bob Moore 1999 MX500 world championship Andrea Bartolini 2001 MX500 world championship Stefan Everts 2002 MX500 world championship Stefan Everts 2003 MXGP world championship Stefan Everts 2004 MX1 world championship Stefan Everts 2005 MX1 world championship Stefan Everts

The 'Stefan Everts and YZ450FM show' rolls on unabated within the 2006 MX1 World Championships as both the rider and motorcycle of the Yamaha Intur Sports team gained their ninth consecutive victory this weekend at Uddevalla for the Grand Prix of Sweden. The Scandinavian circuit had been reversed and some of the sections converted into more technical challenges but the hard and dusty terrain remained. 19,000 fans turned out in hot and sunny weather conditions. The 33 year old took his fifth pole position of the season (and third in a row) yesterday and did not hide his lack of fondness for the Uddevalla undulations, stating that the venue was one of his 'least favourites' of the calendar; hardly surprising as the Belgian has not won in Scandinavia since 2003. In the first moto Everts enacted a now familiar routine for his many fans by seizing the lead on the first lap and controlling the race from his pursuers. The Belgian notched his fourteenth moto win in a row despite the moto-long presence of Jonathan Barragan and a distance between the pair that fluctuated between one and three seconds for the total of a very hot 35 minute and 2 lap duration. On the last two laps it was the Intur Sports team rider who was more decisive through a pack of backmarkers and the first step in his 96th victory was complete. As in the British Grand Prix two weeks ago, Everts gave himself a harder job in the second sprint when he crashed on the first lap and had to work the entire race to catch his main rivals. Finally a fantastic performance was rounded off by overtaking leader Steve Ramon with one circulation remaining to notch his 15th moto win in succession. He now holds a career tally of 96 and is drawing ever closer to the big 'ton'. Cedric Melotte crashed in the morning warm-up period and jarred his hip. The Belgian needed painkillers to finish 11th in the first moto and pulled out of the second sprint unable to complete the distance. Everts' domination of the MX1 series can be seen in the World Championship standings. His points lead has stretched to 114, more than four motos, over Kevin Strijbos. Melotte is ninth. Livia Lancelot has taken third position in the Women's World Cup riding a YZ250F. The French youngster led the first moto until a heavy crash knocked her back to fourth. In some discomfort she made another mistake while out front in the second affair and claimed 10th. The teams can now enjoy another free weekend but machinery and spares will be packed and crated for the lengthy trip to the southern hemisphere and the Grand Prix of South Africa at the Sun City complex on July 16th. Stefan Everts, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "This is not my favourite track here in Sweden so I knew it would be tough because in the past two years I had been struggling. However I took a good pole when everybody was close together and the first race went OK. Barragan kept close and I had a three second lead but I made a mistake in the whoops and he caught up, then we were into the lappers. It was tight at the end and I felt a bit tired because of the heat. I rested in between the races and then the second one was better. After the mistake the first few laps were pretty hard because everyone was going fast and it was not easy to pass. I saw the Suzuki guys pull away and I thought second might be possible but first was a long shot. At one stage Steve stopped gaining seconds on me and then started to lose them; that gave me some wings! I pulled harder and it was close. It was exciting for the crowd." Cedric Melotte, Yamaha Intur Sports Motocross Team: "I had a stupid crash this morning and needed to take some painkillers to enter the first race. Every time I sat down on the bike I had a lot of pain in my back and around my spine. I found it difficult to use my feet and I was fighting too much with the bike today. I preferred to stop in the second race because the pain was too much." Michele Rinaldi, Team Manager: "It was not an easy weekend for Stefan on this track and he was not the clear fastest. The first heat was OK and he made a very exciting race in the second one. He looked to have reached a highest position of third but Ramon slowed down and he picked up his speed and took a fantastic result for him, us and for Yamaha." Race classification MX1 Round: 9 - 2006 GP of Uddevalla, Sweden Circuit: Uddevalla Circuit Length: 1750 Race 1: 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Everts Yamaha BEL 38' 45.263 2 J. Barragan KTM ESP +4.324 3 J. Coppins Honda NZL +14.111 4 S. Ramon Suzuki BEL +23.370 5 T. Leok Kawasaki EST +24.941 6 K. Strijbos Suzuki BEL +54.231 7 G. Crockard Honda GBR +59.603 8 K. De Dycker Honda BEL +1' 8.611 9 J. Garcia Vico Honda ESP +1' 13.560 10 J. Noble Honda GBR +1' 18.441 11 C. Melotte Yamaha BEL +1' 24.967 12 B. Jorgensen Honda DNK +1' 30.351 13 J. Bill Yamaha GBR +1' 34.027 14 M. Van Daele Honda BEL +1' 38.964 15 D. Theybers Suzuki BEL +1' 40.610 16 A. Pyrhonen TM FIN +1 lap(s) 17 K. Nemeth Suzuki HUN +1 lap(s) 18 J. Lindhe KTM SWE +1 lap(s) 19 C. Desalle Suzuki BEL +1 lap(s) 20 M. Kovalainen Honda FIN +1 lap(s) Race 2: 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 S. Everts Yamaha BEL 39' 54.109 2 S. Ramon Suzuki BEL +3.881 3 K. Strijbos Suzuki BEL +17.410 4 G. Crockard Honda GBR +22.967 5 J. Coppins Honda NZL +30.702 6 K. Nemeth Suzuki HUN +38.034 7 J. Garcia Vico Honda ESP +59.738 8 J. Noble Honda GBR +1' 7.798 9 K. De Dycker Honda BEL +1' 15.851 10 J. Bill Yamaha GBR +1' 18.647 11 M. Priem Yamaha BEL +1' 21.586 12 L. Freibergs Suzuki LVA +1' 27.213 13 M. Kovalainen Honda FIN +1' 30.737 14 A. Pyrhonen TM FIN +1' 36.841 15 N. Bradshaw Suzuki GBR +1' 37.859 16 A. Salvini Suzuki ITA +1' 44.060 17 T. Allier Kawasaki FRA +1' 55.534 18 C. Desalle Suzuki BEL +1 lap(s) 19 B. Jorgensen Honda DNK +1 lap(s) 20 A. Bobkovs Honda LVA +1 lap(s) Championship standings MX1 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Stefan Everts Yamaha BEL 442 2 Kevin Strijbos Suzuki BEL 328 3 Steve Ramon Suzuki BEL 294 4 Tanel Leok Kawasaki EST 294 5 Ken De Dycker Honda BEL 292 6 Jonathan Barragan KTM ESP 212 7 Javier Garcia Vico Honda ESP 165 8 Pascal Leuret Honda FRA 159 9 Cedric Melotte Yamaha BEL 157 10 Manuel Priem Yamaha BEL 146 11 Julien Bill Yamaha GBR 145 12 James Noble Honda GBR 132 13 Brian Jorgensen Honda DNK 131 14 Marvin Van Daele Honda BEL 127 15 Antti Pyrhonen TM FIN 106 16 Sebastien Tortelli KTM FRA 99 17 Gordon Crockard Honda GBR 86 18 Danny Theybers Suzuki BEL 84 19 Joshua Coppins Honda NZL 72 20 Alex Salvini Suzuki ITA 55 Manufacturers standings MX1 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Yamaha 442 2 Suzuki 369 3 Honda 317 4 Kawasaki 298 5 KTM 267 6 TM 106 MX2 : Cairoli not rewarded for challenging ride in Sweden Round: 9 - 2006 GP of Uddevalla, Sweden Circuit: Uddevalla Date: 2 July 2006 Crowd: 19000 Temp: 30ºC Weather: Sunny World Champion Antonio Cairoli played a fundamental part in a fantastic first MX2 moto at Uddevalla today for the Grand Prix of Sweden but his runner-up position was tempered by two crashes in the second outing of round nine that lowered him to sixth overall. The Uddevalla course was perhaps at its toughest for the MX2 events. Watered and very slick before the first race of the day and then worn and bumpy starting the second sprint after lunch, the terrain was far from easy and physically demanding for the riders. Cairoli wowed the 19,000 attendance, bathed in 30c plus temperatures, with a re-enactment of his electric battles from Italy and Great Britain with his countryman David Philippaerts. The De Carli Yamaha representative pulled through from a mediocre start to pass Philippaerts and Christophe Pourcel and lead but could not escape the attentions of Philippaerts. The entertaining dice - with the riders using different lines and aggressive styles - went down to the last lap and the final corner when Philippaerts charged around the outside of the banked right hander to snatch victory by a tenth of a second. Later in the day Cairoli went down on the first lap and had to dispel a lot of energy to move up to the tenth. The Italian was fatigued by the end of the twenty two laps and made another mistake less than two minutes from the finish for a final standing of twelfth. Kenneth Gundersen demonstrated he was on good form by winning the second qualification heat yesterday. However the Norweigan, cheered on by many fans, family and friends, was unable to find the same speed in both of the motos as his stamina mysteriously deserted him. The Ricci Racing rider was eighth overall with eighth and tenth positions despite some decent starts. Team-mate Alessio Chiodi was eighth and thirteenth for a final standing of ninth in one of the former triple World Champion's less effective weekends. 'Chicco' is still feeling the effects of his harsh Japanese crash and subsequent knee injury and adopted a cautious approach on a tricky Scandinavian surface. Bike-it Yamaha UK Dixon Racing's Billy Mackenzie was trawling through the lower half of the top ten in the opening throes of the first moto until a small slip halted his progress by three positions. Several laps later he had to retire with a technical problem. Mackenzie again went down in the second moto but grabbed ninth position for minor consolation. The World Championship picture shows Cairoli in third trailing Pourcel by 48 points. Mackenzie is sixth and some distance away from Tyla Rattray in fifth. The tenth round of the series will be enacted at the plush Sun City complex for the Grand Prix of South Africa in two weeks time. Antonio Cairoli, Team Yamaha De Carli: "The first moto was really good but I did not have the energy to make a gap over Philippaerts. I have been training in the sand this week and I felt some arm-pump at this track; it was hard going over the bumps. After fifteen minutes I felt better and set a good rhythm over the others. On the last corner he went very fast on the outside and won by less than a second. I thought I had the race because he went crazy and straight on into the green fence. I don't think it was correct but Philippaerts is a very strong and fast guy. It was OK for the Championship but the second moto was a disaster. I started badly and then crashed on the first lap. I recovered to tenth but then crashed again with two laps to go because I was so tired and could not see the line. Pourcel winning that second heat was not good for the Championship. I want this title and must train harder to make it happen." Kenneth Gundersen, Yamaha Team Ricci: "Everything felt so good yesterday and today I had no energy at all. I was completely empty and it is so frustrating because I had some good starts but I was finished. I don't know what it is but I am not feeling good. I think I have some allergy. I will go home now and see the doctor. I was also training pretty hard these last two weeks and it may have affected me today. I will get some rest before South Africa." Alessio Chiodi, Yamaha Team Ricci: "I didn't have a good feeling on the track mainly because of my knee. I was being too cautious and I felt like I didn't have complete control. The knee still hurts so I am afraid of catching it again. My start was good in the first moto but in the next race I crashed after ten minutes and my confidence slipped. It is not a good day but I feel like my condition is slowly getting better." Race classification MX2 Round: 9 - 2006 GP of Uddevalla, Sweden Circuit: Uddevalla Circuit Length: 1750 Race 1: 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 D. Philippaerts KTM ITA 39' 17.217 2 A. Cairoli Yamaha ITA +0.108 3 C. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +9.254 4 M. De Reuver KTM NED +18.357 5 T. Rattray KTM RSA +23.307 6 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA +39.353 7 T. Searle Kawasaki GBR +48.095 8 A. Chiodi Yamaha ITA +56.679 9 R. Goncalves KTM POR +1' 2.049 10 K. Gundersen Yamaha NOR +1' 3.657 11 C. Nunn KTM GBR +1' 14.223 12 A. Leok Yamaha EST +1' 21.815 13 N. Aubin Kawasaki FRA +1' 21.903 14 E. Remes Honda FIN +1' 37.414 15 J. Wing KTM SWE +1' 46.161 16 C. Campano KTM ESP +1' 51.872 17 J. Dougan Honda GBR +2' 0.809 18 A. Pellegrini Suzuki ITA +1 lap(s) 19 J. Tarroux Kawasaki FRA +1 lap(s) 20 P A. Renet Honda FRA +1 lap(s) Race 2: 22 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 C. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 40' 13.934 2 D. Philippaerts KTM ITA +11.074 3 T. Searle Kawasaki GBR +33.578 4 G. Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA +34.886 5 M. De Reuver KTM NED +40.170 6 D. Guarneri Yamaha ITA +43.236 7 C. Nunn KTM GBR +48.102 8 K. Gundersen Yamaha NOR +51.551 9 B. MacKenzie Yamaha GBR +52.057 10 S. Pourcel Kawasaki FRA +1' 6.734 11 M. Monni KTM ITA +1' 9.925 12 A. Cairoli Yamaha ITA +1' 13.686 13 A. Chiodi Yamaha ITA +1' 14.994 14 C. Campano KTM ESP +1' 35.092 15 N. Aubin Kawasaki FRA +1' 47.862 16 P A. Renet Honda FRA +1' 53.417 17 T. Church Kawasaki GBR +1 lap(s) 18 J. Wing KTM SWE +1 lap(s) 19 E. Remes Honda FIN +1 lap(s) 20 X. Boog Yamaha FRA +1 lap(s) Championship standings MX2 Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Christophe Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 350 2 David Philippaerts KTM ITA 304 3 Antonio Cairoli Yamaha ITA 302 4 Marc De Reuver KTM NED 284 5 Tyla Rattray KTM RSA 261 6 Billy MacKenzie Yamaha GBR 213 7 Carl Nunn KTM GBR 205 8 Tommy Searle Kawasaki GBR 196 9 Kenneth Gundersen Yamaha NOR 194 10 Gareth Swanepoel Kawasaki RSA 181 11 Sébastien Pourcel Kawasaki FRA 180 12 Rui Goncalves KTM POR 169 13 Alessio Chiodi Yamaha ITA 164 14 Davide Guarneri Yamaha ITA 127 15 Manuel Monni KTM ITA 99 16 Luigi Seguy Yamaha FRA 94 17 Anthony Boissière Yamaha FRA 87 18 Aigar Leok Yamaha EST 73 19 Matti Seistola Honda FIN 69 20 Pierre-Alexandre Renet Honda FRA 56 Manufacturers standings MX2 Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 KTM 412 2 Yamaha 388 3 Kawasaki 367 4 Honda 139 5 Suzuki 16

Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi produced one of the performances of his life today as he rode through the pain of hand and ankle injuries to take a simply sensational second place in the British Grand Prix. Roared on by a partisan local crowd, who have taken the Italian to their hearts after a string of victories at this circuit, Rossi started steadily from twelfth on the grid but soon got into his rhythm and began passing riders with the flamboyance and determination that has already taken him to five consecutive MotoGP World Championship titles. With the series leader before today's action, Nicky Hayden (Honda), struggling to seventh place today, Rossi's incredible charge comes into sharper focus with a glance at the championship standings. With eight rounds remaining the Yamaha man trails the American by just 35 points and the destiny of the title is now back in his hands. Rossi remains in third place overall, however, after a second victory of the season for Dani Pedrosa (Honda) saw the Spaniard consolidate second spot. Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards also produced a determined ride as he made up four places from his qualifying position to take sixth despite also struggling to find the correct set-up for his machine during practice. The American now heads to Japan to prepare for the Suzuka 8-Hour race he will contest on 30th July, before returning for the next round of the MotoGP season at Sachsenring, Germany, two weeks from now. Valentino Rossi (2nd; + 3.864) "That was an amazing race and a very important result for me. I am in a better position as far as the points are concerned and that is more important than winning the race. To be honest after Assen I wasn't sure if it would be possible to fight for a top result here but I wanted it so much because Donington is a very special place to me and the fans give me such incredible support every year. We were really surprised that the bike didn't work on Friday but the whole team worked really hard to find the right setting and the right tyre. After qualifying we decided we would try some new things this morning but the wet warm-up meant we had no chance to do that so we just took a gamble with the setting and it worked. It took me eight laps to understand just how good my pace could be and from that point I realised that my goal had to be the podium. I had some hard battles along the way but when I got up to Melandri it got even harder! We had real fun and neither of us wanted to back down. He was faster than me in some places and I was faster than him in others. In the end it came down to the last hairpin and we both braked around 20 or 30 metres deeper than normal. We both ran wide but luckily Marco went even wider than me and I was able to get in from of him. I finished second but today it felt like a win." Colin Edwards (6th; + 21.710) "It just hasn't clicked for us this weekend and I'm really disappointed, even though sixth place brings in a few decent points. Last year everything came easily here but from the first practice it was clear that it wasn't going to be the case this time around and we never really found our way, it was as simple as that. The bike wasn't too bad for the race and I could catch other riders easily but we didn't have the set-up to get past people on the brakes. That made life really difficult and the race was a struggle from start to finish. It's been a hard few weeks but now I have a bit of a change of scenery as I will head out to Japan to prepare for the 8 hour. I hope we'll be in better position to fight at Sachsenring in a couple of week's time." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "This was a very important race because despite Valentino's injury we have been able to close the gap to Nicky Hayden in the championship. Valentino said it was more like a victory and the feeling in the team is the same because of the physical condition he was in and the fact he started from so far back on the grid. There was never any doubt about Valentino's qualities but he has performed like a true World Champion over a difficult few weeks and he deserves a rest now. Our engineers also did a great job to put everything together in time, they have also been working hard and will enjoy a couple of days off before the next race. Now we have eight races left and 35 points to make up before Valencia." Under a blazing summer sun, the Tech 3 Yamaha Team continued the positive progress of the last three weeks to claim some more points with another impressive result to add to the encouraging race finishes of the previous three meetings. Carlos Checa fought hard throughout the race to claim 10th after 30 gruelling laps while team mate James Ellison, who was keen to impress his supporters, also picked up a few confidence-inspiring points as he finished 14th. With the inspiring results of the last few weeks, due in part to the improved consistency of the Dunlop tyres, the Tech 3 Yamaha Team has more than doubled its points haul from the first six races of the year. Carlos Checa (10th, Fastest lap 1'30.496) "It was a very hard race and I was pushing all the time. We changed some things from yesterday but in the warm up we couldn't test them because of the wet track. At the start of the race with the different settings it took a few laps before I could get the good feeling from the front and rear tyres but then I got the confidence to start pushing the pace. It was not easy to pass Tamada at first, but when I got the rhythm my pace was a bit faster than him and I was able to overtake him and get away. This was a good feeling for me to pass a factory Honda and then to be able to catch De Puniet and pass him as well. It was a question mark for me to know the endurance of the tyre because of the changed settings but basically we've been growing and learning more about the set-up with the tyres as the Dunlops improve. We must be satisfied with the result as the starting point here wasn't easy. We made good progress through the weekend and I'm happy with the job that the mechanics and the team did, as well as the performance of the Dunlop tyres. I wish, I hope and I want to keep going like this and improve overall to get even better results in the next races." James Ellison (14th Fastest lap 1'31.402) "I got a good start but after that it all went a bit downhill. We made a few changes after qualifying so we didn't get a chance to test them in the morning warm up because of the rain so as a result during the race we didn't have any grip in the rear. Once we got a bit of wear on the edge of the tyre we started dropping back which was disappointing as I was running wide everywhere. Early in the race I was in front of Carlos and I wanted to stay there to have a good fight with him but it didn't happen. On the positive side I think we have learnt a lot more about the setup that will help us in a couple of weeks with the nature of the Sachsenring track where we go to next. I was happy to have raced and finish in the points in front of the British crowd but I wish I could've done better Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "This was another good weekend after Catalunya and Assen and for sure these three races have been the best since we started the season. Carlos had a good pace in the race. He passed Tamada on a factory Honda with Michelins and De Puniet on a factory Kawasaki with Bridgestones, which is good for us. The last 10 laps he was lapping quicker than Hopkins and Capirossi in front of him so we are happy with the consistency and durability, but definitely we have to qualify better, because the gap we have after five laps - even though we are lapping the same as the guys in front - if we are seven or eight seconds behind them, we know there is no way we can catch them in a class like MotoGP. I'm very happy with Carlos as he was pushing 100% from the first lap to the end. It was really good for him to beat the Honda and come back on De Puniet, who was more than five seconds away at one stage, and put him behind us. It's another top 10 finish that was almost impossible to dream of at the start of the year. I'm also happy to see James in the points. For sure he is little disappointed about not doing better in his home grand prix but he also had quite a stable pace but it's altogether a good result and it's a good way to end these three races in a row that have been tough for everybody. We got some good points and now Carlos is equal with Vermeulen so the championship is now halfway through and I think if we can continue the way we have been in the last few races and reduce the gap to the leaders a bit more the second part of the championship will be quite exciting." Race classification MotoGP Round: 9 - British Grand Prix Circuit: Donington Circuit Length: 4023 Lap Record: 1' 28.714 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 27.676 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Race: 30 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 44' 54.878 2 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA +3.864 3 M. Melandri Honda ITA +4.016 4 C. Stoner Honda AUS +5.776 5 K. Roberts Team Roberts KR USA +9.596 6 C. Edwards Yamaha USA +21.710 7 N. Hayden Honda USA +25.764 8 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA +29.034 9 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA +35.606 10 C. Checa Yamaha ESP +40.442 11 M. Tamada Honda JPN +41.062 12 R. De Puniet Kawasaki FRA +42.197 13 A. Hofmann Ducati GER +51.454 14 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR +1' 17.804 15 J. Cardoso Ducati ESP +1 lap(s) 16 C. Vermeulen Suzuki AUS +1 lap(s) Fastest Race Lap: Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 1' 28.714 Championship standings MotoGP Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 153 2 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 127 3 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 118 4 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 114 5 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 107 6 Casey Stoner Honda AUS 91 7 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 73 8 Kenny Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 66 9 Makato Tamada Honda JPN 59 10 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 58 11 Shinya Nakano Kawasaki JPN 57 12 Toni Elias Honda ESP 53 13 Sete Gibernau Ducati ESP 44 14 Carlos Checa Yamaha ESP 37 15 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 37 18 James Ellison Yamaha GBR 14 Manufacturers standings MotoGP Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Honda 201 2 Yamaha 147 3 Ducati 116 4 Suzuki 72 5 Team Roberts KR 66 6 Kawasaki 61 Team standings MotoGP Pos. Team Points 1 Repsol Honda Team 280 2 Camel Yamaha Team 191 3 Fortuna Honda Team 167 4 Ducati Marlboro Team 158 5 Rizla Suzuki 95 6 Honda LCR 91 7 Kawasaki Racing Team 74 8 Team Roberts KR 66 9 Konica Minolta Honda 59 10 Tech3 Yamaha 51 11 Pramac D'Antin 18

Camel Yamaha team-mates Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards will both start from the fourth row of the grid in tomorrow's British Grand Prix, after running into set-up problems during the second day of practice at Donington Park. Whilst Rossi continued to ride through the pain from the ankle and wrist injuries he sustained at Assen nine days ago, he also struggled to adapt his machine to the demands of the British track, where he has taken victory for five of the last six seasons. Edwards was equally baffled by the lack of progress he made today after making positive initial steps yesterday. The base setting of the YZR-M1 machine has adapted swiftly to the fast and flowing nature of recent circuits such as Assen and Catalunya, but with only the morning warm-up remaining before tomorrow's 30-lap race the team still have plenty of room for improvement. A small consolation for Rossi was that Nicky Hayden (Honda), the current series leader, was also unable to challenge for a top grid position and will start in between the Yamaha pair on the fourth row in 11th spot. Colin Edwards (10th - 1'28.481; 30 laps) "The bike is really not working as well as we would like and to be perfectly honest we're not sure why. The things that worked so well last weekend don't seem to be having the same effect here and we're struggling to come up with an alternative at the moment. It's not for a lack of trying because my crew have worked really hard all day - we played about with the springs and the ride height but kept running down a blind alley. This is one of my favourite tracks and I'm used to turning up here and being in the top three from the first session - like I have for the past two years. In theory it should have been the same today but it's just not happening. Now we have to hope we can find something good in the morning, make a great start and just fight our way through!" Valentino Rossi (12th - 1'28.808; 28 laps) "We didn't expect to have so many problems here in Donington because last year our bike worked really well. It's a track where I've always been able to be really fast and go very well from the start, so it's quite disappointing. The situation with the wrist isn't so bad, but I've got some problems in the hard braking areas. For sure I can't ride how I would like to; we're not at the maximum. We've been quite confident because, since the new chassis in Le Mans, the bike has worked very well and been fast from the start, but here we can't find a good setting for some reason. Tomorrow we will try to find a way to make the situation a little better. Today with Dr Costa I decided to try with some painkillers, to understand better what we need to do for the race tomorrow. With these painkillers it seems I can ride more or less normally. Tomorrow me and my team will try to find the best possible setting to enable me to ride a good race and I will also do some more work with Dr Costa after warm-up in order to be in the best possible shape to ride." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "It is a strange grid because nobody expects to see Colin, Valentino and Nicky all together on the fourth row. For sure the starting position will be the first problem for our riders to overcome tomorrow. I think with Colin has shown that he has the possibility to run a good race pace if we can just refine the setting a little more, and for Valentino we need to analyse things tonight and see if we can make it a little more comfortable - especially for his wrist. Today he was feeling stronger but he is clearly not at 100% yet so we will have to wait and see how he is tomorrow. But his problem is not just the injury - the bike setting is not where it should be yet and we are still unclear about the tyre choice for the race." The primary aim of the Tech 3 Yamaha Team is to improve at every outing and the solitary MotoGP qualifying session provided another encouraging result as Carlos Checa and James Ellison lowered their respective lap times in the battle for tomorrow's Gas British Grand Prix at the picturesque Donington Park circuit. Carlos's qualifying performance mirrored yesterday's practice sessions to be in 13th position, right behind world champion Valentino Rossi, as he spent the majority of the one-hour opportunity to concentrate on a race setup. Meanwhile, James who is keen to impress his legion of fans at his home Grand Prix, lowered his lap time from yesterday by a further second to be 16th on the grid. Carlos Checa (13th, 1'29.294, 31 laps) "We expected to do a little bit better but we are struggling at the end of the lap. We are very fast in the flowing part of the track - as fast as the leaders - so we still have a little work to do on the setup to get the Yamaha around the slower section as it is a combination of trying to get the bike to grip and steer at the slow part of the track so we will try something different for tomorrow. On the race tyres we are a lot closer than what our qualifying position indicates and we know that Dunlop are working very hard to improve the qualifying tyres so that we can get better grid positions. I'm confident that the changes we make over night will help in the area of the track we need to improve and this will assist in hopefully giving us a good result at the end of the race. After the last few races we know we have the consistency in the Dunlop tyres to race the distance and I think that some other riders on another brand of tyre will struggling to do 30 laps at the same pace in the heat. James Ellison (16th 1'30.382, 28 laps) "It hasn't been the best day for me after what has happened in recent weeks but I've taken two seconds off since yesterday morning and we are finding a pretty good setup on race tyres. We haven't finalised our setup but it has been gradually been getting better and better as front end feel is so important around here... I'm going quicker all the time I have made a good leap considering we haven't quite found that window but we're working on it. I'm one second off Carlos on race and qualifiers so that's encouraging because I know when we get that setup sorted I'll be right on him. This is also my home grand prix and I'm overwhelmed by the support I'm seeing around the track. I've spent a lot of time with the crowd this weekend and I've had nothing but loads of great support. They know I'm riding hard and trying 100% and that really means a lot to me. It's like playing football in front of a home crowd; you really want to do well, so I'm aiming to pay them back with a decent result. Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "It was another quite good day today. The qualifying position is not as good as Assen but it is very close to the other Yamahas of Rossi and Edwards. We are not so bad on race tyres so it will be another interesting weekend. Of course, it is very important for James as it is his home Grand Prix and he wants to shine. It won't be easy but we know he will push hard all day and his lap times have improved considerably from when he took to the track yesterday morning. Our lap times to the fastest four or five are quite close on the Dunlop race tyres so if we can stay with some other factory bikes during the race we will learn even more in relation to them That is why we are here. Dunlop sent a lot of new stuff from Japan along with one of their senior engineers as this is an important race for them and an important time of the year. Everybody is already talking about next year and it is important for Dunlop to show what they can do, to show they are committed and to show where they want to go. But we will be aiming to improve our performances from today and continue to be more competitive in the race as we have proven in the last two races. We have shown that we are improving all the time in the performance of the entire package and we aim to keep that momentum going with a good result tomorrow. Round: 9 - British Grand Prix Circuit: Donington Circuit Length: 4023 Lap Record: 1' 29.973 (Colin Edwards, 2004) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 27.676 (Daniel Pedrosa, 2006) Date: 1 July 2006 Temp: 29ºC Session 1 : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying 1 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 1' 27.676 2 C. Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1' 28.158 3 M. Melandri Honda ITA 1' 28.205 4 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA 1' 28.252 5 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA 1' 28.394 6 R. De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1' 28.428 7 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN 1' 28.431 8 C. Stoner Honda AUS 1' 28.447 9 K. Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 1' 28.473 10 C. Edwards Yamaha USA 1' 28.481 11 N. Hayden Honda USA 1' 28.509 12 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 1' 28.808 13 C. Checa Yamaha ESP 1' 29.294 14 M. Tamada Honda JPN 1' 29.362 15 A. Hofmann Ducati GER 1' 29.479 16 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR 1' 30.382

After five days of intense physiotherapy on cracked bones in his right wrist and left foot, Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi returned to MotoGP action for the first true test of his fitness since the Dutch TT in today's free practice sessions for the British Grand Prix. Rossi took to the Donington Park circuit with heavy strapping on his wrist but was able to complete 43 laps over the two sessions, running consistently at the top end of the timing screens before settling for the seventh fastest lap overall. With Rossi focusing on adapting the bike both to the demands of the circuit and the diminishing limitations of his physical condition, his team-mate Colin Edwards worked diligently beside him on the set-up of his own YZR-M1 machine. With his last-corner battle for victory at Assen still fresh in the mind, today represented a perfect opportunity for the Texan to turn the page and focus on another podium assault in Sunday's ninth round of the season. Edwards lapped fourth fastest in the morning session and slipped to sixth in the afternoon, but after completing 53 laps he has plenty of crucial data to work from ahead of tomorrow's single qualifying session. COLIN EDWARDS (6th - 1'29.379; 53 laps) "To be honest my pace today wasn't quite as good as I had expected but we're still looking for a few things from the set-up that we'll work on tomorrow. We had a couple of problems today but by the end of the second session it was starting to come. Basically we need to get it turning into the corners a little better and there are some sections of the track where we're getting some vibrations, but it is nothing major. We played around with the tyres a little today but we've got plenty still to do and need to get our heads down in the morning before chasing a lap time in qualifying." VALENTINO ROSSI (7th - 1'29.416; 43 laps) "I'm happy to be riding again and enjoying myself on the bike. Assen was a very tough weekend for me but my physiotherapist has done a good job and I feel better, although still not at 100%. I still have some pain, especially under braking, but the mobility is much better and this is important. There are three hard braking areas at this track where I am struggling and to be honest I don't know how this will be in the race; I was losing strength towards the end of the afternoon session today and this could be a problem. As far as the lap time is concerned we need to make up a few tenths in certain areas but I think we can do this with a few changes to the bike. I will get some more treatment tonight and keep some ice on my wrist and we will see tomorrow." DAVIDE BRIVIO - CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR "We're still working with both riders on the setting of the bike and it has been good to have a 'normal' first day - gathering data without anything spectacular happening and no dramas to worry about either. The good news is that Valentino can ride without too much pain or discomfort and he is trying his best to manage his condition and set fast laps. We know we have to be faster but we are still fine-tuning the set-up and have plenty of room for improvement tomorrow. The only question mark is how Valentino can hold up over the course of a race but we can't know that until Sunday. We'll just set up the bike and let the Clinica Mobile set up the rider!" The British Grand Prix at the historic Donington Park circuit is the third race in successive weekends for the MotoGP competitors and while it may be tiring, it has resulted in a steady progress of improved performances for the French Tech 3 Yamaha Team. Carlos Checa's overall lap times continue to get closer to the leaders and he is 12th fastest after the opening two free practices and in front of factory riders Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki) and Alex Hoffman (Ducati). At present less than a second separates the top 13 riders. His team mate, James Ellison, is also continuing down his own development path with the Tech 3 Yamaha and a new generation of Dunlop tyres to be in 17th position at his home race. Carlos Checa (12th, 1'29.842, 48 laps) "This track is quite difficult as it is very different from the beginning to the end and we seem to be having our biggest problems at the end of the lap. We have been testing a few different rear tyres and by the end of the session I think we have found a pretty good pace to work on. On the bike we started the day using pretty standard base settings like we used in Assen but it is not working here so we will have to be making a few changes and try something a bit different. We have to get some more weight over the front. It is getting better but it is still not enough as it is difficult to get it to steer quick enough. We have some things to try tomorrow and I am quite confident that we can improve. It is also a little hard having different tyres to test as we have to keep the same bike settings so we can tell the difference in the tyres. James Ellison (17th 1'31.306, 49 laps) "We have made a few more changes to the frame as we continue to make the bike better to ride but today I spent all of my time on it to compare it to the bike that I have really settled into. It has given us a few things to work on and a new direction to go, to compare to what I found at Barcelona and Assen and the feeling I'm getting from my preferred bike. I'm feeling pretty good after the crash I had last week. I thought my ankle might play up a bit but while I'm on the bike I'm fine, it's only when I rest and start to think about it that I feel anything. We have certainly learnt a few things today. My aim was to get into the 1'30 second bracket. We didn't get quite there but we were working on other things so I can't be too disappointed. I improved my morning time by well over a second so no doubt we will be making a few changes overnight to get an even quicker time and move up the grid like we did last week. Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "This is a very special weekend for many reasons for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team. The first one is that it is the third race in just over two weeks so I think everyone is feeling a little tired. The second reason is that it is the home Grand Prix for James and also for Dunlop our tyre supplier and major partner this year. The entire team, including Carlos and James, went to visit the Dunlop facility in Birmingham on Tuesday and we were all quite impressed by what we saw with the factory and the speed at what they're putting into MotoGP tyre development. It was good for all of us to see how difficult their mission is and how much they are involved in the project. We have quite a few Japanese here from Dunlop this weekend to get a feel for the paddock and this will no doubt help things as well. This is good as we haven't seen this since the winter test and confirms to the team the efforts that Dunlop are endeavouring to accomplish with this MotoGP project. It's been a good day in practice as well as Carlos is within 0.8 sec of the fastest lap time and both riders took a second of their morning's time. We are losing most of our time in the fourth split at the end of the lap so we have to discover why this is happening because in the other three splits we are less than a third of a second off the leading riders. So far we are quite happy. We have been able to do quite a few laps and the weather looks very good for the weekend so -unlike other races - it will allow us to use all the time possible to work. James seems to be having a bit of difficulty understanding the bike during the sessions but I'm sure we have found the reasons now after speaking with him and he will have a much better time tomorrow. We really want him to do well in his home grand prix. Round: 9 - British Grand Prix Circuit: Donington Circuit Length: 4023 Lap Record: 1' 29.973 (Colin Edwards, 2004) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 27.897 (Valentino Rossi, 2005) Date: 30 June 2006 Free Practice : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Free Practice 1 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 1' 28.970 2 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA 1' 29.025 3 C. Stoner Honda AUS 1' 29.064 4 M. Melandri Honda ITA 1' 29.196 5 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN 1' 29.275 6 C. Edwards Yamaha USA 1' 29.379 7 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 1' 29.416 8 K. Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 1' 29.544 9 N. Hayden Honda USA 1' 29.557 10 M. Tamada Honda JPN 1' 29.806 11 C. Checa Yamaha ESP 1' 29.842 12 C. Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1' 29.941 13 R. De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1' 30.342 14 A. Hofmann Ducati GER 1' 30.387 15 M. Fabrizio Honda ITA 1' 30.762 16 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR 1' 31.306

The Camel Yamaha Team head for the third race in as many weekends looking to end a gruelling run of races on a high as the MotoGP World Championship arrives in Great Britain this weekend. Following on from the elation of victory at Catalunya and the double disappointment of an injury for Valentino Rossi and a final-bend crash for Colin Edwards at Assen, the Donington Park race represents an ideal opportunity for both riders to bounce back before a well earned two-week break. Rossi, in particular, is in desperate need of a boost after conceding further ground to Nicky Hayden (Honda) at the top of the World Championship standings. The Italian fought bravely to eighth place despite riding with cracked bones in his hand and foot at the Dutch TT, but crucially he now trails the American by 46 points in the championship. Rossi has won seven times in all classes at Donington Park, one of his favourite MotoGP circuits, but a return to the top step of the podium will be a huge challenge as he battles to recover his fitness and as many points as possible. Edwards is sure to be given a hero's welcome by his army of British fans, thousands of whom cheered him to the verge of his first MotoGP victory just across the North Sea at Assen last Saturday. The British Grand Prix ranks equally with the Dutch TT as Edwards' most successful event in the premier-class, having finished second there two years ago and narrowly missing the podium last year, so he has high hopes that he can bounce back from that disappointment with another top performance. There is a slight change to the order of the races this weekend, with the main event taking place after the 250cc race but before the 125cc race. The red lights will go out for the MotoGP riders at 1pm local time, although this will not affect the regular schedule for fans around the world since it still coincides with the standard starting time of 2pm CET. VALENTINO ROSSI: A RACE AGAINST TIME MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi returns to his country of residence this weekend keeping the fingers on his good hand crossed that he will be in sufficiently good shape to challenge at the front of the field once again. The Italian left Assen on Saturday evening with his physiotherapist Marco Montanari, who will remain by his side for the rest of the week as he tries to recover as much strength as possible before the crucial ninth round of an intriguing championship. "We have a lot of work to do to improve the situation with my wrist and try to reduce the swelling and heal the bone as much as possible," explains Rossi. "It would be better to have a month now to recover but we are racers and we have to go straight to the next race, which is a pity. Anyway I hope we can improve it as much as possible so that I can ride well at Donington. For sure I won't be at full fitness, but we have five days to improve. Colin showed that the bike is working really well so hopefully it will be like this at Donington also for both of us. "Donington is like a second home Grand Prix for me and I hope the fans give me all the usual support because I need all the help I can get right now. It has been one of my favourite tracks ever since I rode the 125 there for the first time in 1996 and I have a lot of good memories - especially my first win with the 500 in 2001 and victories with Yamaha for the last two years. It's going to be a big challenge for me to stand on the top of the podium on Sunday, but as long as my hand continues to improve throughout the week, then I think we can try!" COLIN EDWARDS: A CHANCE FOR REVENGE The British Grand Prix can't come soon enough for Colin Edwards, who heads to another of his favourite tracks looking to bury his Assen nightmare with that elusive first MotoGP win. The amiable American refuses to dwell on the final corner calamity that denied him a visit to the top step of the podium in Holland as he looks on the positive side of a weekend that should provide the platform to another bid for the winners' champagne in England. "I can't deny that I'm still disappointed after what happened at Assen, but now I have to put that behind me and focus on Donington, which is one of my best tracks and a place I have always gone well," says Edwards. "I have to forget about what happened at the end of the race in Assen and focus on the fact that my bike worked perfectly all weekend, I was consistently fast and I was able to do a really great race up to the last chicane. "Now we have to hope that the situation is the same at Donington because my aim is to go out there and get my revenge! I want to make up for the disappointment for the team and my fans, and give them something to cheer about again. I always have loads of fans in the UK, a lot of them were there for me at Assen so let's hope they're all back to cheer me on again this weekend." DAVIDE BRIVIO: A LONG BATTLE AHEAD Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio is also in good spirits despite a weekend of drama and ultimate disappointment in Holland. The Italian knows that he could not have asked for much more from his riders on Saturday and he is confident that a similar level of effort from the whole team this weekend will finally reap the rewards they deserve. "Hopefully this week before Donington will be enough time for Valentino to make a decent recovery and we all hope to see him in better shape when he comes into the garage for practice on Friday morning," says Brivio. "Assen was a big disappointment for us in lots of ways but with Valentino in better shape and Colin in good form we have a chance to put things right at a circuit both riders like and in a country where they are both very popular. "Whatever progress Valentino makes this week we know he will not be at 100% but we expect him to show the same fight and determination that took him into the points at Assen. It was important he did that but the gap to Nicky Hayden at the top of the championship is significant and we can't afford to let him get too far ahead. He is a strong rider and I think it will be a hard push now until the final race of the season at Valencia." TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: DONINGTON ACCORDING TO MATTEO FLAMIGNI A dramatic viewing experience, Donington Park sits inside an amphitheatre style setting, with the spectator bankings ringing around the outside. The prevalent off-camber nature of the track is one of the main factors at play during the British Grand Prix, with a large tendency for the front tyre to push, making the right, left, right flick down the Craner Curve section something of a high tension rollercoaster ride. This sequence of sweeping corners is one of the fastest in the world and, according to Valentino Rossi's Data Technician Matteo Flamigni, it is a place the top riders can really make the difference. "I don't know of any other circuit in the world with a series of corners as fast as Craner Curves," says Flamigni. "The rider is more important than the machine here because it takes a lot of courage and skill to make up time through the first section of the track. In any case the bike setting must be stable enough to give the rider confidence at speeds of around 200km/h and agile enough to cope with the quick changes of direction. "Donington is like two circuits in one. After the fast opening two sections the second half of the lap is much slower because of the last section, which has two hard braking zones. Turn nine in particular is crucial because the riders go from something like 280km/h to around 60km/h, so the bike has to be good under braking - especially because these are key points to overtake at the end of the race. Setting up a motorcycle is always a question of making the right compromises but at Donington Park this is particularly true. The best bike out there will have the most accurate balance between performance in these two contrasting halves of the track." VALENTINO ROSSI: INFORMATION Age: 27 Lives: London, UK Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1 GP victories: 82 (56 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc) First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc) GP starts: 165 (105 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 41 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: 56 x MotoGP World Championships - 2 World Superbike Donington Lap Record: Colin Edwards (Honda) 2004, 1'29.973 Donington Best Lap: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005, 1'27.897 2005 Results (Wet Race): 1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Yamaha, 52.58.675 2. Kenny Roberts (USA) Suzuki, +3.169 3. Alex Barros (BRA) Honda, +4.006 4. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Yamaha, +10.292

Yamaha has finalized its plans for round five of the 2006 Endurance World Championship, the Suzuka 8-hour race held at the Japanese circuit on 30 July. A three-team entry will be headed by the YAMAHA BLUE RACING team, which will feature riders Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga riding a specially prepared YZF-R1 SP. The event will mark a reunion of the rider pairing which won the event in 1996, when they rode a Yamaha YZF750SP. Edwards is currently riding a Yamaha YZR-M1 for the factory's MotoGP team and is seen as one of the most consistent riders in the class. The American has won the Suzuka 8-Hour three times and the Superbike World Championship in 2000 and 2002. Haga is currently second in the Superbike World Championship, where he competes on a Yamaha YZF-R1 for the Yamaha Motor Italia squad. It will be Haga's first entry in the 8-hour since 2001. The other two factory-supported entries are the YSP Racing Team sponsored by PRESTO Corporation and Team Cha-llenger. The YSP Racing Team sponsored by PRESTO Corporation will enter the pair of Katsuyuki Nakasuga, who is competing this season in the JSB1000 class of the All Japan Championships, and Shinichi Nakatomi, who rides for Yamaha Motor France in the Superbike World Championship. Team Cha-llenger will enter with riders Norihiko Fujiwara, who has ridden in the 8-hour almost every year since 1992, and Nobuyuki Osaki, a Japanese supersport championship competitor. Many of the Endurance World Championship regulars will also make the trip to Japan, including Yamaha Austria Racing Team and Yamaha Phase One Endurance, who are currently second and fifth in the championship.

Andrew Pitt took his first ever win in the Superbike World Championship at Misano today as team-mate Noriyuki Haga gave the Yamaha Motor Italia squad its first ever double podium finish in the class. After colliding with another rider and failing to score in the opening race, the Australian rode intelligently to win race two while many top riders crashed out behind him. Making his intentions clear from the start, Pitt set the fastest lap of race two as he pulled away from the pack with world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki). When Corser crashed out on lap eight, Pitt found himself out in front of former world champions James Toseland (Honda) and Troy Bayliss (Ducati). When both Toseland and Bayliss made mistakes the Yamaha Motor Italia rider was able defend a five second lead over the battle for second, contested by Haga, Alex Barros (Honda) and Chris Walker (Kawasaki). Pitt rode sensibly to finish over two-and-a-half seconds ahead of Barros to give his team their first win of the season. Barros eventually took second place in what was a ferocious race long battle, with Haga getting the final podium spot from Walker on the last lap. Earlier in the day Haga finished fifth, his 27 point haul moving him up to second place in the championship. There were more mixed fortunes in the Yamaha Motor France camp. Norick Abe turned around a horrific qualifying session to score tenth and 13th place finishes from 22nd on the grid. Team-mate Sebastien Gimbert was 12th in race one but retired in race two, while Shinichi Nakatomi was unable to capitalize on his 13th place qualifying. The Japanese rookie crashed out of the opener and finished outside the points in the second heat. With half of the season gone, Bayliss continues to lead the championship, 94 points ahead of Haga. Pitt's win sees him remain sixth in the championship but moves Yamaha into third place in the manufacturers standings. Round seven of the series takes place at Brno in the Czech Republic on July 23. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "It feels incredible to get that first win. I saw that Troy (Corser) was making some mistakes so I tried to keep the pressure on him. When he went down I saw that the lead was about 1.3 seconds over the next guy. For all I knew there was a big line of guys behind me so I tried to concentrate as there were a lot of laps to go. When I went past and saw 'six seconds' on my pit board I thought the mechanics had made a mistake and it was 0.6 seconds. Then, when we got down to the last five laps I knew that I could take it easier and enjoy things a bit more. It's a great feeling and I really have to thank my team. We did a lot of testing on used tyres because we knew that it was important to be consistent throughout the race. In the first race the bike was running wide on a full fuel load but for the second we completely changed the front end and run harder springs which made a big improvement." Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "Two very hard races. It was so hot and the tyre was gone after about five laps. I pushed very hard and spent the last 20 laps of each race fighting with the bike as well as with the other riders. I am very happy with the result though as it moves me to second in the championship. We had a good test at Brno recently so I am looking forward to riding there next month." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "To me this is the worst track! Until this morning I was so bad, always 20-something! We tried a few different settings for the race and they worked a bit better. In the first race a lot of riders fell and I gained some positions, but I think I passed about ten riders. I was losing the rear a lot in race one so we adapted the settings again for race two and in the beginning the lap times were better. In the hotter conditions in the afternoon, towards the end of the race, I was having lots of slides again and pushing the front. Compared to qualifying, it was much better." Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "A very hot race but in race one I made a mistake and fell. I had a better rear tyre choice of race two and felt better in this one but did not score any points. My injuries did not give me any real problems in the race." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "A great day for us as a team and individually for our riders. I am very happy to see Andrew take his first win in superbike and I am sure this will be so important for his confidence. Nori has moved into second place in the championship and this is the first time that our team has had two riders on the same podium in superbike. I'm very proud of the progress we have made, because at the start of the season I would have said that this would be one of the worst tracks for our bike. Now our target is to ensure we maintain these results at every track between now and the end of the season." Race classification WSB Round: 6 - Misano Circuit: Misano Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1' 34.913 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 33.525 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Race: 25 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 T. Bayliss Ducati AUS 40' 6.480 2 J. Toseland Honda GBR +6.493 3 Y. Kagayama Suzuki JPN +10.141 4 A. Barros Honda BRA +15.017 5 N. Haga Yamaha JPN +15.376 6 R. Laconi Kawasaki FRA +16.763 7 L. Lanzi Ducati ITA +23.857 8 F. Nieto Kawasaki ESP +34.167 9 R. Xaus Ducati ESP +35.254 10 N. Abe Yamaha JPN +35.335 11 K. Muggeridge Honda AUS +39.423 12 S. Gimbert Yamaha FRA +39.609 13 F. Foret Suzuki FRA +39.755 14 V. Iannuzzo Suzuki ITA +44.065 15 R. Rolfo Ducati ITA +48.495 16 A. Pitt Yamaha AUS +48.587 Race 2: 25 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 A. Pitt Yamaha AUS 40' 18.671 2 A. Barros Honda BRA +2.717 3 N. Haga Yamaha JPN +6.559 4 C. Walker Kawasaki GBR +7.100 5 Y. Kagayama Suzuki JPN +7.276 6 M. Fabrizio Honda ITA +13.916 7 L. Lanzi Ducati ITA +14.148 8 J. Toseland Honda GBR +15.065 9 R. Xaus Ducati ESP +15.434 10 F. Foret Suzuki FRA +20.579 11 F. Nieto Kawasaki ESP +21.440 12 T. Bayliss Ducati AUS +23.417 13 N. Abe Yamaha JPN +25.602 14 K. Muggeridge Honda AUS +26.088 15 R. Rolfo Ducati ITA +26.712 16 V. Iannuzzo Suzuki ITA +33.556 17 S. Martin Petronas AUS +34.766 18 S. Nakatomi Yamaha JPN +37.406 19 R. Laconi Kawasaki FRA +40.146 20 I. Clementi Ducati ITA +47.341 Fastest Race Lap: Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 A. Pitt Yamaha AUS 1' 35.123 Championship standings WSB Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Troy Bayliss Ducati AUS 254 2 Noriyuki Haga Yamaha JPN 160 3 James Toseland Honda GBR 157 4 Troy Corser Suzuki AUS 149 5 Alex Barros Honda BRA 146 6 Andrew Pitt Yamaha AUS 128 7 Lorenzo Lanzi Ducati ITA 80 8 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 70 9 Chris Walker Kawasaki GBR 64 10 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki ESP 61 11 Norick Abe Yamaha JPN 60 12 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki JPN 56 13 Karl Muggeridge Honda AUS 52 14 Regis Laconi Kawasaki FRA 52 15 Roberto Rolfo Ducati ITA 48 18 Shinichi Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 18 19 Sebastien Gimbert Yamaha FRA 11 Manufacturers standings WSB Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Ducati 260 2 Honda 196 3 Yamaha 189 4 Suzuki 188 5 Kawasaki 98 6 Petronas 4 WSS : Roccoli gives Yamaha breakthrough win at Misano Round: 6 - Misano Circuit: Misano Date: 25 June 2006 Crowd: 61000 Temp: 31ºC Weather: Sunny Yamaha Team Italia youngster Massimo Roccoli took his and the latest Yamaha YZF-R6's first world supersport win in a tough round six at Misano today. In blisteringly hot conditions, the boy from nearby Rimini held his nerve to fend off compatriot Simone Sanna (Honda) for an emotional win. The 21-year-old former Yamaha R6 cup champion led the race from lap three and showed maturity beyond his years to withstand intense pressure from the former 125cc Grand Prix winner who remained just centimetres from the Yamaha's rear wheel throughout the race. Polesitter Broc Parkes ended the race third on his Yamaha Motor Germany YZF-R6. The Australian run set a new lap record on lap two and ran with the leading duo for much of the race, only to slip back as he struggled for rear grip in the closing laps due to selecting a different rear tyre option to the majority of the grid. Yamaha GMT94's David Checa recovered from a poor start to gain his best result in the class. The Spaniard started from the front row but found himself swamped going into the first corner but fought through from tenth to take fourth at the chequered flag. Kevin Curtain had a tough weekend on the other Yamaha Motor Germany machine. Last year's runner-up was forced to start from the fourth row of the grid after being plagued by set-up problems during qualifying. The Australian was further hampered by a bout of sickness on race day but he was still able to ride a gritty and professional race to sixth place, keeping his hopes of lifting the championship well and truly alive. In a good day for the R6 riders, Yamaha Team Italia's Gianluca Vizziello ended the race seventh after being passed by Curtain on the final lap. Spanish privateer Xavi Fores made it six Yamahas in the top ten and continued his fantastic season with tenth position on his SLM Racing-entered machine. World champion Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) retains his place at the head of the leader board, despite missing the race at Misano through injury. He leads Curtain by the reduced gap of 30 points. Parkes is third, 12 points behind his team-mate, with Roccoli a further three points behind in fifth. Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia) "It's incredible. My bike was perfect today. I went fast from the first lap and pushed hard for the whole race. I had no problems with arm pump like in previous races and I knew from Friday that I could have a good race here. I hoped for a podium but I did not expect to win. I was not sure if Sanna could pass me on the last lap so I just pushed as hard as I could. I'm very happy for the team and my fans and want to thank them for their support." Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) "That was such hard work it feels like I've ridden about three races out there! I just struggled for rear grip today. I knew after about four or five laps that it was going to be tough and I had a lot of slides and big moments. I could see that Roccoli and Sanna had a lot more grip than me and I just had to settle for third. Maybe we could have chosen a different rear tyre and that would have improved things. Third is not a bad result, but I felt that we could have got more than that today." David Checa (Yamaha GMT94) "I am still too used to the bigger bikes I race in endurance. I was fifth into the first corner but then I got pushed wide by Harms, then I was pushed wide by Sofuoglu, so I decided that I should keep my tyres and get by those guys later. I had a soft front set-up to conserve the tyre in this heat. If there were more laps left I would have caught up with Broc in front, because he had killed his tyre at the end." Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) "We have had problems with the front this weekend, and we thought it was one thing, but it wasn't so we went the wrong way with set-up for two days. We had a bit of a change of set-up overnight and things seemed better, but by this time we had not had a chance to test which tyre was going to go the distance for the race. I ran out of rear grip and I think Broc was in the same boat. I woke up this morning and I wondered who was rocking the motorhome! I went to the Clinica Mobile and I was all right before the race - and when you get on the bike you forget everything anyway." Gianluca Vizziello (Yamaha Team Italia) "I did my best today. I had a good start but when I pushed hard the bike started sliding and I lost the riders in front of me. With seven laps to go tyre was really finished so I decided to stay in my position and score some good championship points." Race classification WSS Round: 6 - Misano Circuit: Misano Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1' 37.628 (Broc Parkes, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 36.846 (Simone Sanna, 2003) Race: 23 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 M. Roccoli Yamaha ITA 37' 55.059 2 S. Sanna Honda ITA +0.242 3 B. Parkes Yamaha AUS +4.936 4 D. Checa Yamaha ESP +6.492 5 R. Harms Honda DNK +9.805 6 K. Curtain Yamaha AUS +10.147 7 G. Vizziello Yamaha ITA +13.168 8 K. Sofuoglu Honda TUR +14.740 9 J. Stigefelt Honda SWE +16.107 10 X. Fores Yamaha ESP +19.665 11 M. Berger Kawasaki FRA +19.835 12 W. De Angelis Honda ITA +24.121 13 M. Lagrive Honda FRA +24.221 14 A. Vos Honda NED +25.557 15 M. Sanchini Yamaha ITA +26.474 Fastest Race Lap: Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 B. Parkes Yamaha AUS 1' 37.628 Championship standings WSS Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Sebastien Charpentier Honda FRA 116 2 Kevin Curtain Yamaha AUS 86 3 Broc Parkes Yamaha AUS 74 4 Robbin Harms Honda DNK 74 5 Massimo Roccoli Yamaha ITA 71 6 Yoann Tibero Honda FRA 50 7 Xavi Fores Yamaha ESP 45 8 Johan Stigefelt Honda SWE 42 9 Kenan Sofuoglu Honda TUR 35 10 Gianluca Vizziello Yamaha ITA 26 11 Katsuaki Fujiwara Honda JPN 22 12 David Checa Yamaha ESP 21 13 Joshua Brookes Ducati AUS 21 14 Simone Sanna Honda ITA 20 15 Christian Zaiser Ducati AUT 15 32 Didier Van Keymeulen Yamaha BEL 2 Manufacturers standings WSS Pos. Manufacturer Points 1 Honda 145 2 Yamaha 118 3 Ducati 34 4 Kawasaki 32 5 Suzuki 10 Superstock : More points for Corti in Misano Round: 4 - Misano Circuit: Misano Date: 25 June 2006 Crowd: 61000 Temp: 28ºC Weather: Sunny Yamaha Team Italia rider Claudio Corti brought his YZF-R1 SP home fifth in a dramatic fourth round of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup at Misano. Starting from the front row, the 18-year-old Italian led briefly in the opening stages before slipping back as he struggled with set-up problems. After crashing in the morning warm-up, the current European Superstock 600 Champion was forced to race with his spare bike and was unable to exactly replicate the settings of his preferred machine. Corti spent most of the race battling for third with Luca Scassa (MV Agusta), Brendan Roberts (Suzuki) and Riccardo Chiarello (Kawasaki) but looked set for sixth until picking up a position on the final lap, when Chiarello slid off. The Yamaha rider took to the grass but stayed upright to gain 11 championship points. Corti now lies fourth in the championship, on 50 points. The championship top three was reflected in today's race. Alessandro Polita (Suzuki) was the runaway winner and now leads the championship by 27 points from today's second placed rider, Ayrton Badovini (MV Agusta). Scassa eventually claimed the third spot on the Misano rostrum to move one point ahead of Corti in the championship standings, in third. Claudio Corti (Yamaha Team Italia) "I had a big crash in the morning practice and although I was ok the bike was very badly damaged. We didn't have enough time to repair the bike, so we had to use a spare. We didn't have enough time to set it up properly and I didn't have the same speed I had the rest of the weekend. Fifth is not so bad in the circumstances but I had wanted to do better at this circuit." Race classification FIM Superstock 1000 Cup Round: 4 - Misano Circuit: Misano Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1' 37.526 (Alessandro Polita, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 37.526 (Alessandro Polita, 2006) Race: 15 Laps Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 A. Polita Suzuki ITA 24' 48.301 2 A. Badovini MV Agusta ITA +6.602 3 L. Scassa MV Agusta ITA +9.519 4 R. Roberts Suzuki AUS +10.777 5 C. Corti Yamaha ITA +18.127 6 E. Rocamora Yamaha ESP +19.192 7 S. Saltarelli Kawasaki ITA +31.703 8 M. Smrz Honda CZE +31.965 9 R. Cooper Honda GBR +32.011 10 R. Chiarello Kawasaki ITA +33.028 11 A. Martinez Mas Kawasaki ESP +34.306 12 M. Baiocco Yamaha ITA +35.749 13 C. Tangre Suzuki FRA +36.451 14 M. Jerman Suzuki SVK +37.936 15 D. Dell'omo Suzuki ITA +43.021 Fastest Race Lap: Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Total Time 1 A. Polita Suzuki ITA 1' 37.526 Championship standings FIM Superstock 1000 Cup Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points 1 Alessandro Polita Suzuki ITA 95 2 Ayrton Badovini MV Agusta ITA 68 3 Luca Scassa MV Agusta ITA 51 4 Claudio Corti Yamaha ITA 50 5 Enrique Rocamora Yamaha ESP 39 6 Riccardo Chiarello Kawasaki ITA 33 7 Alex Martinez Mas Kawasaki ESP 29 8 Denis Sacchetti Kawasaki ITA 27 9 Matteo Baiocco Yamaha ITA 23 10 Ivan Silva Kawasaki ESP 20 11 Ilario Dionisi Yamaha ITA 19 12 Simone Saltarelli Kawasaki ITA 18 13 Sheridan Morais Suzuki RSA 18 14 Richard Cooper Honda GBR 14 15 Danilo Dell'omo Suzuki ITA 14

Andrew Pitt will start tomorrow's two-race sixth round of the Superbike World Championship from the front row of the grid after qualifying his Yamaha Motor Italia YZF-R1 third in today's superpole session at a hot Misano. The Australian set his best lap of the weekend in the one-lap qualifying run to the delight of his Yamaha Motor Italia squad. The former supersport world champion has run strongly throughout the practice sessions and was able to make minor improvements to give greater feedback from the front tyre. The Australian was able to do a race simulation in the afternoon session, running consistent times over 20 laps in preparation for tomorrow's two races. The superpole result sees Pitt equal his best qualifying position in the class. Having started third on the grid at this year's opening race in Qatar, where he went on to secure his first podium finish in the class. Pitt's team-mate Noriyuki Haga made big improvements with the set-up of his machine to go into the superpole session as the sixth fastest rider in regulation qualifying. After ending Friday practice in 12th, the Yamaha Motor Italia squad changed the geometry and gear ratios of Haga's YZF-R1 to improve the acceleration and steering of the machine. Although the Japanese star could not improve his grid position in the one-lap shootout, he is confident of challenging at the front in tomorrow's races - having completed a successful race simulation in the practice sessions. There were mixed fortunes for the Yamaha Motor France squad in Misano. Shinichi Nakatomi had his best qualifying of the season, ending regular qualifying in 16th place to make superpole for the first time. The Japanese rider put in his best lap of the afternoon on his flying lap - moving him up to 13th on tomorrow's grid. Team-mate Sebastien Gimbert will start one row behind his Japanese team-mate after ending qualifying 20th. Norick Abe again struggled at a circuit he openly dislikes. He ended the day a further row behind, in 22nd, although if there is any consolation for the former Grand Prix rider then it is that he starts three places higher than in last year's Misano races, where he managed to fight through to make the top 15. Pole position for tomorrow's two 25-lap races goes to James Toseland (Honda) who set a time of 1:33.833 on his qualifying run. World champion Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Steve Martin (Petronas) make up the front row alongside Pitt. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) "I was actually a little bit surprised at how good the lap time was in superpole because I made a small mistake and that must've cost me a little time. The bike has been working really well all weekend so to get a front row start really tops things off and puts us in good shape for the race tomorrow. We've made a few improvements to the bike today to improve the feeling and give better tyre life. Pirelli has brought along a wider rear tyre for this race and although it seems to work on our bike and gives more grip, it does work the front tyre more. We'll decide in the morning if this is our best tyre option." Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) "Second row is ok. The bike is working better today and is much easier for me to ride over the race distance. I was able to do a good race simulation and I'm confident that we're ready for the fight tomorrow!" Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha Motor France) "I am very happy to have made superpole and I think that it shows the progress we have made. I didn't really notice the pain in my arm today as I was so focused on my riding, although I think that it will be hard for me to be at 100 percent throughout both races tomorrow. It is important that I do not crash and make the injury worse but I will be trying hard in the races to get the best result possible." Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) "We had some front end grip problems which seems to be caused by the set-up of the front fork. We made some improvements in the afternoon and hopefully we can find more for the races. I had a crash in the afternoon session and have hurt my ankle, although nothing is broken." Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) "It's the same problem for me, I just can't seem to get any traction. I tried hard to make a better lap time but it just didn't happen. We will try a few things tonight and I hope that I can get some good starts in the races." Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "I'm quite satisfied with how things have gone so far. I'm pleased with Andrew's performance and not just with the fact that he has got on the front row. His time was very impressive and close to Toseland's pole time, which will give him a lot of confidence. He's in good shape for the race, as is Nori. He was able to do a good race simulation with 10 or 11 laps very similar to what Bayliss and Toseland were doing. Second row is ok for Nori as we know what he is capable of doing in the race." Round: 6 - Misano Circuit: Misano Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1' 34.913 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 33.525 (Troy Bayliss, 2002) Date: 24 June 2006 Temp: 30ºC Session 2 : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying 2nd Qualifying Superpole 1 J. Toseland Honda GBR 1' 35.553 1' 35.199 1' 33.833 2 T. Corser Suzuki AUS 1' 35.016 1' 34.572 1' 33.866 3 A. Pitt Yamaha AUS 1' 35.448 1' 35.013 1' 34.031 4 S. Martin Petronas AUS 1' 35.313 1' 34.900 1' 34.178 5 C. Walker Kawasaki GBR 1' 35.255 1' 35.299 1' 34.472 6 N. Haga Yamaha JPN 1' 35.816 1' 35.115 1' 34.487 7 T. Bayliss Ducati AUS 1' 34.903 1' 34.494 1' 34.523 8 L. Lanzi Ducati ITA 1' 35.851 1' 35.146 1' 34.556 9 R. Laconi Kawasaki FRA 1' 35.166 1' 34.843 1' 34.648 10 Y. Kagayama Suzuki JPN 1' 35.561 1' 35.304 1' 34.685 11 A. Barros Honda BRA 1' 35.858 1' 35.312 1' 34.707 12 M. Fabrizio Honda ITA 1' 35.466 1' 35.356 1' 34.814 13 S. Nakatomi Yamaha JPN 1' 36.111 1' 35.593 1' 35.003 14 F. Nieto Kawasaki ESP 1' 35.667 1' 35.245 1' 35.007 15 R. Rolfo Ducati ITA 1' 35.682 1' 35.590 1' 35.410 16 M. Neukirchner Ducati GER 1' 36.091 1' 35.222 19 S. Gimbert Yamaha FRA 1' 36.144 1' 35.781 22 N. Abe Yamaha JPN 1' 36.625 1' 36.061 WSS : Yamaha takes pole in Misano Round: 6 - Misano WSS Circuit: Misano Date: 24 June 2006 Temp: 35ºC Weather: Sunny Broc Parkes demonstrated why Misano is one of his favourite circuits by taking pole position for tomorrow's sixth round of the Supersport World Championship, held at the Italian seaside venue. With reduced grip levels, due to the warm temperatures, all of the supersport riders struggled to match their times from April's test at the same venue. Parkes had been the fastest rider on display in April, posting a 1:36.411 lap time, although he was unable to go faster today. The 24-year-old Yamaha Motor Germany rider was one of only two riders to break the 1:37 barrier, setting a best time of 1:36.876 to take the second pole position of his career. Simone Sanna (Honda) will start from second on the grid. Confirming the latest YZF-R6's performance at Misano, Yamaha riders filled the next three positions on the grid. Local rider Massimo Roccoli and Yamaha GMT94's David Checa both topped the timesheets during the afternoon session but ended the day third and fourth respectively. Roccoli's Yamaha Team Italia colleague Gianluca Vizziello will lead the second row, in fifth, with Spanish YZF-R6 privateer Xavi Fores making it five Yamahas on the first two rows. Kevin Curtain will start from an uncharacteristically low fourth row on the grid after ending the day down in 14th position. The experienced Australian, who currently lies second to the absent Sebastien Charpentier (Honda), in the championship crashed mid-session and was forced to use his spare machine, which had different suspension settings and did not allow him to push as hard as on his preferred machine. Round: 6 - Misano WSS Circuit: Misano Circuit Length: 4060 Lap Record: 1' 37.924 (Katsuaki Fujiwara, 2003) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 36.846 (Simone Sanna, 2003) Date: 24 June 2006 Temp: 35ºC Session 1 : Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying 2nd Qualifying 1 B. Parkes Yamaha AUS 1' 37.407 1' 36.876 2 S. Sanna Honda ITA 1' 38.626 1' 36.999 3 M. Roccoli Yamaha ITA 1' 37.601 1' 37.096 4 D. Checa Yamaha ESP 1' 38.578 1' 37.263 5 G. Vizziello Yamaha ITA 1' 37.515 1' 37.288 6 Y. Tibero Honda FRA 1' 37.555 1' 37.473 7 X. Fores Yamaha ESP 1' 38.663 1' 37.589 8 C. Zaiser Ducati AUT 1' 38.183 1' 37.769 9 K. Sofuoglu Honda TUR 1' 39.756 1' 37.824 10 M. Berger Kawasaki FRA 1' 38.947 1' 37.841 11 R. Harms Honda DNK 1' 38.450 1' 37.976 12 W. De Angelis Honda ITA 1' 39.284 1' 37.993 13 J. Stigefelt Honda SWE 1' 38.555 1' 37.998 14 K. Curtain Yamaha AUS 1' 38.157 1' 38.013 15 M. Sanchini Yamaha ITA 1' 39.440 1' 38.137 16 M. Lagrive Honda FRA 1' 39.399 1' 38.143 18 B. Martinez Yamaha ESP 1' 39.101 1' 38.260 21 V. Ivanov Yamaha RUS 1' 39.888 1' 38.650 22 A. Corradi Yamaha ITA 1' 39.795 1' 38.687 24 S. Zerbo Yamaha ITA 1' 38.875 N/A 27 A. Velini Yamaha ITA 1' 39.985 1' 39.524 28 A. Berta Yamaha ITA N/A 1' 39.621 31 J. Enjolras Yamaha FRA 1' 39.816 N/A