The Yamaha Owners Club

Valentino Rossi continued from where he left off at the last test in Malaysia today, setting the fastest time once again on the first day of the second pre-season outing at Sepang. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is not in action at this test as he is currently recovering at home in Spain from a hand injury.

It was a dry day in Sepang with temperatures reaching 37 degrees and 31-year-old Rossi made the most of it, completing 47 laps. He and his crew continued to work on the development of the 2010 YZR-M1 prototype, checking different settings and trying some new electronic maps. The Italian’s best time of the day was 2’01.068, just a fraction off his best time at the last test and 0.151 ahead of Casey Stoner in second place.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 1st Time: 2'01.068 Laps: 47
“We started well today and we’re already very fast, so we’re quite happy about this. We’ve confirmed that the work we did at the last test was good and it’s clear we’re in good shape at this track. We worked on two or three different settings and today we’ve more or less made a decision about the right way to go with balance, suspension etc so this is good progress. We also tried some new electronic maps, to try to improve acceleration, but we need to do more work on this again tomorrow. It’s good to be fast at this stage and now we’re really just waiting to go to another track, to see how this new M1 will perform there. Tomorrow we will do a long run, maybe not race distance but just quite a few laps together, which will be the final part of our work at this track.”


Spies and Edwards storm top six in Sepang

Ben Spies and Colin Edwards continued their 2010 MotoGP preparations in impressive fashion in Malaysia today, the American duo both occupying a place in the top six on the timesheets.

In typically hot and humid conditions at the 5.548km Sepang circuit, Spies was one of the fastest and most consistent performers on track, the Texan clocking a best time of 2.01.843 to finish fifth overall. The ideal track conditions presented Spies with the perfect opportunity to continue learning more about his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine. The 25-year-old spent time working on revised geometry settings to improve rear grip and he managed to shave close to 0.4s off his best time when he made an impressive debut at the technical Sepang circuit just three weeks ago.

Just one place and 0.054s further back was Edwards, who clocked a best time of 2.01.897 despite a minor technical issue this morning costing him precious track time.

Edwards still had a positive day, making big strides with a new YZR-M1 swingarm while also evaluating new electronics as Yamaha works tirelessly to ensure it remains the dominant brand in MotoGP this season.

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team has one more day of testing tomorrow in Sepang before the reduced pre-season schedule concludes in Qatar next month.

Ben Spies - Position: 5th Time: 2'01.843 Laps: 42
“It was hot out there today but I'm happy with how I performed and I feel I've accomplished a fair bit. I automatically picked up where I left off here because my fourth lap today was only three-tenths slower than my best time at the first test. I'm close to half-a-second faster than the last test and I'm more consistent. My fastest laps were all on tyres that had done race distance and that makes me happier than anything else. It's not so much that I got under the 2.02 barrier but I did it on worn tyres and I think that will be one of my big strong points this season. I feel like I'm getting closer to finding the limit of the Bridgestone tyres and I'm getting more comfortable on them, but we still need to do more work. Today we played around with the bike a bit more than previously just to understand a few things but it was nothing major. Some changes were good and some were bad and I feel we made some important progress and I definitely had more grip. Everyday I'm trying to learn something and go a little bit quicker and that's what I achieved.”

Last Sunday Yamaha Monster Energy Motocross Team’s David Philippaerts gained his second podium in a week and the second from three race appearance so far in 2010 on the new YZ450FM. The 25 year old rode to 4th, 4th and 3rd positions for the overall runner-up position at the Valence International in France.

On a cold weekend and across a track that was stony and damp but became drier throughout race day, Philippaerts faced a large number of Grand Prix competitors and produced three consistent and decent outings. The Italian is gaining speed and confidence with his 2010 race-bike and benefitted from more suspension tests last week after his victory in the first round of the Italian Championship at Montevarchi. ‘I am very happy as my riding was good today, better than last week in the Italian Championship,’ he said. ‘We made a test with the suspension in the middle of the week before coming to France and it was a step forwards. We made a change on the rear shock and also discovered a setting for the front fork. I felt comfortable on the bike at Valence and could run the pace I wanted.’

Philippaerts placed behind Antonio Cairoli and in front of Steve Ramon, Anthony Boissiere and Sebastien Pourcel.

Team-mate Gautier Paulin swung his leg over the works YZ250FM for just the second time in competition this year and claimed fourth place overall. The Frenchman was pleased with the progress he is making in preparation for his assault on the MX2-GP world championship. ‘Everything went OK,’ he said after taking two 4th places and then was the second best MX2 rider in the Superfinal with the 450s. ‘Frossard was perhaps the fastest MX2 rider on the day but I was not far away from him and I was pleased with the fact that my best moto was the last one; I only needed a little bit more time to overtake him to be the first MX2 bike against the MX1 guys. My fitness is good and we are going in the right direction.’

Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci Motocross Team’s Loic Larrieu enjoyed his first race on the 2010 YZ250F and his first outing since injuring both of his shoulders towards the end of 2009. The French teenager was 11th overall in the MX2 class. Team-mate Ken De Dycker was not able to score points across the Valence leaps after a small mechanical problem.

The second round of the Italian Championship takes place next weekend at Castiglione Del Lago with both Yamaha Monster Energy teams set to participate.

The seventh round of seventeen in the 2010 AMA Supercross/FIM SX World Championship took place at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in front of a bumper crowd of more than 60,000 and Yamaha Joe Gibbs Racing's Justin Brayton was the highest-placed YZ450F runner with a career-best 4th place. Yamaha LandM San Manuel's Josh Hill recorded his lowest result of the season so far with 9th.

The vast Lucas Oil Stadium entertained an AMA SX Main event for just the second time and the meeting marked the beginning of the East Coast Lites series. Josh Hill went into the weekend co-leading the SX championship and things looked promising after he won his heat race. Unfortunately several mistakes in the main event saw the 20 year old in the second half of the leader-board and he was able to improve his standing by one position on the last lap after passing friend and brand-mate Jason Lawrence. Ninth place meant the end of his streak of five consecutive podium appearances and also drops him to 3rd in the table, ten points from new leader and Indianapolis winner Ryan Villopoto.

Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike riders James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow have wrapped up the final day of the two day test in Phillip Island. Both British riders spent the two days working on the chassis set-up of the new 2010 Yamaha YZF-R1 in what was its first outing of the year. The riders now take a few days of rest before heading back out onto the Australian circuit for the first race of the 2010 season this weekend.

James Toseland, Yamaha Sterilgarda World superbike Team (11th, 1’32.7)
“It’s been a solid two days of testing working on the new bike. I still have some chatter problems as does Cal. The guys are going to go through the data and see what they can come up with for us over the next couple of days.”