YZR500 OW20

Yamaha’s win with Valentino Rossi in the 2007 Dutch TT at Assen is cause for a double celebration for the Factory, as it is also its 150th win in the premier-class of World Championship motorcycle racing. Yamaha Motor Company is only the second manufacturer in the history of the sport to pass the milestone of 150 wins, which it has achieved in 46 years since it began racing on the international stage in 1961.

Yamaha’s very first premier-class victory came with British rider Chas Mortimer, in Barcelona at the final race of the 1972 series aboard a 353cc twin-cylinder two-stroke Yamaha. Since then, Yamaha has won premier-class Grands Prix in every season bar two and has taken a total of eleven manufacturers’ and twelve riders’ titles during the process.