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Monday, 31 March 2008 |
Yamaha's Chad Reed got back to winning ways with his seventh victory of the 2008 AMA Monster Energy Supercross championship in Toronto last weekend. The Australian reengaged his title quest to claim the twelfth round of the campaign and lead the series by 20 points with just five events remaining.
After missing the podium for the two last races Reed was faultless across an extremely difficult, muddy and rutted terrain that saw many of his peers taste Canadian mud at some stage. Yamaha's Josh Hill was running as high as second before a mistake caused him to lose positions and he eventually crossed the finish line in fifth. Reed though cautiously led from start-to-finish for his ninth set of silverware this year. After the 'Monsoon' conditions at Daytona this was the second time the riders had to traverse a tricky circuit after the frozen dirt that was imported into the stadium began to melt and fall apart.
"The dirt was horrible! It was survival out there," laughed the recently-turned 26 year old former champion. "It was important to get that holeshot and try to get out front, and I just tried to control the race. I watched the pitboard and attempted to keep [the gap] at 10 seconds, and when it go to anything under that, I tried to pick it up a little bit. I think the key tonight was that slow was fast."
"I'm happy. It's going great. I've had some ups and downs, but I've got seven wins now, and like I said, I want to get this thing over and done with," added Reed who used the first break in the Supercross calendar to fly home to Australia for a holiday last week. |
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Sunday, 30 March 2008 |
UFO Corse Yamaha team rider Simone Albergoni continued his impressive form in the 2008 World Enduro Championship claiming two podium finishes at the second round of the series, the Grand Prix of Portugal staged in Vale de Cambra. Earning a well-deserved victory on Day1 Simone battled hard on Day2 to place 2nd and finished less than six seconds behind winner Ivan Cervantes despite a costly mistake on the extreme test. Having recorded his best ever start to a world championship season at the recent GP of Sweden, Simone showed in Portugal that no matter how challenging the conditions he is certainly ready to take the E1 title fight to his class rivals.
Winning 6 of the opening day's 9 special tests, Simone took control of the Enduro 1 class early on with a winning performance on the opening enduro foray. With world champions Mika Ahola and Ivan Cervantes applying considerable pressure to the Italian throughout the opening day the Yamaha rider remained error- free and managed to maintain his lead. Knowing that just one mistake on the challenging Portuguese terrain would easily end his hopes of victory, Simone topped two of the third and final lap's three special tests to claim a well-deserved victory. Albergoni placed ahead of round one winner Mika Ahola with former E1 world champion Ivan Cervantes third.
Proceedings took a turn for the worse on Day2 as heavy rain ensured the three Portuguese special tests became heavily rutted and even harder to ride than on Day1. Despite the atrocious conditions Simone again performed extremely well aboard his WR250F. Winning the first special test as he had on day one, Simone wasn't quite able to match Cervantes for pace during the opening lap. On lap two a mistake in the extreme test saw him lose six seconds to the Spaniard and despite his best efforts he wasn't quite able to repeat his Day1 achievement. Finishing the second day less than six seconds away from the top step of the podium Simone importantly again placed ahead of round one winner Mika Ahola.
Albergoni is currently second in the standings, just three points behind Ahola.
For Albergoni's UFO Corse Yamaha team mates Maurizio Micheluz and Cristobal Guerrero the GP of Portugal was one of mixed fortunes. Not pleased with his performances at the opening round of the series in Sweden, Micheluz claimed a solid 5th place finish on Day1 but then disappointingly failed to finish Day2 with an ignition problem. For Guerrero, who following his early season shoulder injury is still not 100 per cent bike fit, the Portuguese event was extremely hard. The Spaniard was 7th on Day1 and managed to improve his result by one position on Day2 but was far from happy with his results. |
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Sunday, 30 March 2008 |
Valentino Rossi reached another milestone in his career today, joining an elite group of riders who have stood on the premier class podium 100 times today after riding his Fiat Yamaha M1 to second place in Jerez. The seven-time world champion formed part of a podium double for the Fiat Yamaha Team as his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo finished third, claiming his second consecutive podium in his rookie season.
Starting from fifth, Rossi did not get the best of starts and finished the first lap in sixth, but he soon settled into a good rhythm and was stalking Lorenzo, then in second, by lap three. On the next lap he passed his team-mate and set off after Dani Pedrosa, who had led from the start. The Spaniard was too quick today however and Rossi was unable to catch him, lapping comfortably in second until crossing the line at the end of the penultimate lap, when he mistakenly thought the race had finished and slowed down as he crossed the line. He quickly realised his error however and luckily had enough of a cushion from Lorenzo to hang on to second, eventually finishing 2.883 seconds behind Pedrosa. Rossi moves into third place in the championship, whilst Lorenzo holds onto second and the Fiat Yamaha Team leads the team's championship.
Valentino Rossi 2nd - Time: +2.883
"I'm really happy with this podium because, even though it hasn't been so many races since the last one, it's been quite a lot of months! I am also very happy to have reached 100 podiums in MotoGP; now I am wondering if I can get to 200! It's a pity we couldn't win today and maybe I was a little bit too cautious at the start because I wanted to take care of my tyres, but in the end they worked very well from start to finish and so this is great for the future. It's always better to win but after the poor result in Qatar this is a very important second place to us, also because it's my first podium with Bridgestone. Thanks to my team, to Yamaha and to Bridgestone because we've made a lot of progress this weekend, continuing right up to making some small but important adjustments after warm-up this morning. My bike and tyres are working very well, we're third in the championship with a very long way to go and I'm feeling quite confident."
Davide Brivio Team Manager
"We are very satisfied with today's result, especially because this second place arrives after Qatar, where we learnt a lot. The Team, all the engineers and the technicians made a great job and used the information we got in Qatar in the best way to make a big step forward. Now we want to look at this race in Jerez as the start of our championship. Of course we still have a lot to learn about the Bridgestone/Yamaha combination, but I think both parties did an excellent job here and Valentino rode a great race and kept a very consistent rhythm. Tomorrow we will have one day of testing and we will do our best in order to be in good shape for Estoril. This is Valentino's 100th podium and also the first one with Bridgestone, so it's a special day, but we hope that there will be many others! Today I would really like to say "Bravi a tutti!" |
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Sunday, 30 March 2008 |
Home hero Jorge Lorenzo continued his impressive rookie assault on the MotoGP class with an outstanding pole position in Jerez today, smashing the existing pole record by almost a second aboard his Fiat Yamaha M1 in front of thousands of Spanish fans. The youngest rider on the grid produced a masterful qualifying display to take his second consecutive pole position and his 3rd at this circuit.
After topping the time sheets yesterday, Lorenzo continued gradually refining his set-up throughout this morning's free practice and the early part of the afternoon session, before setting the fastest lap so far on the first of three Michelin qualifying tyres with 20 minutes remaining. He bettered himself once again soon after before an inch-perfect final lap on his third soft tyre saw him improve another half a second to consolidate pole position. Dani Pedrosa was over half a second slower in second place whilst third spot was filled by Yamaha Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards for the second race running. Lorenzo's team-mate Valentino Rossi had looked on course to join him on the front row before an electronic problem caused him to abandon his final hot lap, and he will start from fifth for tomorrow's 27-lap race.
Jorge Lorenzo 1st 1'38.189
"The pole position and the second place in Qatar were like a dream, so it's an amazing surprise for me to repeat that pole position here, and even better because it's in front of my home fans! I was really happy with the last qualifying lap, my earlier ones were already quite good but not perfect, so I was really excited to make such a great final lap. Our race pace is good as well and I am feeling very comfortable on the bike and with my Michelin tyres. My rivals are very strong and will be trying hard to beat me, but I will definitely be fighting for the podium! Thanks to my team for doing a great job; I am really excited about tomorrow and I hope we have more weather like this and a fantastic show."
Daniele Romagnoli - Team manager
"Today was a perfect day. We watched today's qualifying with great emotion as Jorge demonstrated an excellent race pace and then beat the pole record in fantastic style on his qualifying laps. We were amazed! Yamaha and Michelin were able to provide a perfect package for us today, enabling Jorge to do an excellent job and ride in an incredible way. After today's result it's clear that we have the possibility to be on the podium tomorrow, and we will try our best to be there." |
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