Posted by Administrator on 09-30-2008 at 08:09 am
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“I think it’s difficult to say, but maybe this is even better than the first championship with Yamaha in 2004. In 2004 I arrived after three championships in a row; the change was very big and no one expected me to win then, not even us to be honest! But this year is great too because I didn’t start as the number one favourite after losing for two years. The taste of this is something special.
“In 2006 I lost because of bad luck; I still won the most races and was the fastest on track for most of the time, but in 2007 Stoner was a lot faster than us and so we got to the end with a big of disadvantage. Winning this championship was very difficult but also very, very important.
“The decision to change to Bridgestone tyres, which I took together with Jeremy, my team and all the Yamaha crew, was very important, as were the changes to the bike because the first 800cc M1 last year was not competitive enough. We spoke a lot during last season and I remember a strange meeting in Valencia last year, me with a broken hand, speaking with Furusawa about 2008. From then we started to work on the improvements for this season. It’s also been important to have the right people in the right place and this year everything has been correct. It’s been step-by-step.
“I think I have made a lot of good decisions this year and we have been competitive from the start. Qatar was the worst race of the season but I knew our potential was good so, although we were a bit worried at that point, we weren’t desperate because we knew if we fixed a few problems we could try to win.
“I grew up a lot in the last two years, because at the end of 2005 I had a great career and I had won all the important targets so far. 125, 250 and then five titles in a row in MotoGP with two different bikes – I felt unbeatable. But in 2006 and 2007 I learnt to lose and this has been very important. I came out much stronger and my level of concentration and effort to win this championship has been higher than ever before.
“This season has had some different periods. At the beginning of the year we had some important results when Bridgestone wasn’t the strongest: Jerez, Portugal and others, and in that period we took a big advantage from Stoner. After Barcelona Casey started to ride like a demon and dominated three races in a row, and then we went to Laguna which was the turning point of the season. Laguna was a real battle and from then on we have flown.
“The show after the race was one of my friends pretending to be a ‘notary’, signing and certificating the eighth championship ‘deed’. It was very exciting to be planning the championship t-shirt and celebration once again with my friends and fan club and the one we came up with is funny I think, it says ‘I’m sorry for the delay!’
“I am very content at Yamaha and this is why I signed for two more years. I had some good offers at other factories, but I already changed bike once and proved everything I wanted to and so there is no need to do that again. Also I am no longer 20 years old and I need a good atmosphere in my team in order to keep me focused and happy, and I have this at Yamaha. The atmosphere in our team, from the Japanese all the way down to the garage is fantastic and this is what makes me want to stay.
“I think 2009 will be even more difficult than this year. Now I am the world champion again and I have demonstrated that I am still very fast; I think I rode the best of my career this year apart from the mistake in Assen, but next year is another story, it depends on how the winter is and how Stoner, Pedrosa and also Lorenzo are next year, as well as the other riders because there are many fast people in this championship. I think it will be a great championship and I’m looking forward to it, but first I want to finish this year and try to win the final three races!
“As I said, there are many strong riders but of course I hope that in the future nobody will win like Valentino Rossi! Maybe my brother Luca will be as strong as me…I wanted to take him on my bike on the celebration lap, but they did not allow it. Maybe I will wait for him to be a MotoGP rider before quitting, then I will beat him in the first year, and then I will stop riding!
“When you are 20 or 22 yrs old, you live everything in a different way. It’s different… In 2000, maybe, I could have won on my debut, but I underestimated myself! In 2001 it was the last chance for me to win in 500, so I gave it my best and did that. In 2001 it was the year of the battle with Biaggi, in 2002 it was the year when everybody said that I won because of my bike, then 2003 was the year of Gibernau, it was hard until the end. They were fantastic years but with Yamaha it is different. I enjoy it more.
“During 2003 I started thinking about Yamaha. Of course I was scared about the new challenge, it was a big question mark. This year, when I tested the new bike and the new tyres, I understood that I could win. In 2004, however, when I tested the new bike I understood we had to work a lot. Sincerely, the feeling of winning in Welkom in 2004 was the strongest emotion of my career; more so than in Laguna Seca this year. The 2005 the M1 was very fast and that one and the 2008 one are the best Yamaha bikes ever.
“I think Stoner next year will be back stronger again, so maybe he is the hardest rival I have ever had, more than Gibernau and all the others I fought against in the past. Last year I was sorry that after so many successful years, some people thought Valentino was finished and Casey was the new Valentino. As I said, until I stop riding a bike, my objective will always be to win. I like this life and I always try to do my best in it.” |
Statistiscs on Valentino Rossi’s career
In becoming only the second rider ever to win the MotoGP World Championship following a two-year gap, Valentino Rossi has cemented his place amongst the legends of motorcycle racing. A return to the form that won him five consecutive premier-class titles between 2001 and 2005 has seen the Italian reinstated at the very pinnacle of the sport, with a host of career milestones reached along the way.
Here is a full list of Rossi’s historic MotoGP achievements in 2008:
Rossi has joined Giacomo Agostini as one of only two riders to have taken six or more premier-class World Championships.
Rossi is only the second rider to regain the premier-class title after a two year gap – the other rider to do this was also Agostini.
This is Rossi’s eighth world title across all classes. Only Agostini with 15, Angel Nieto, with 13, Mike Hailwood and Carlos Ubbiali, with nine each, have won more.
Rossi is the first rider to win the premier-class title on four different types of motorcycle: 500cc 4-cylinder two-stroke, 990cc 5-cylinder four-stroke, Yamaha 990cc 4-cylinder four-stroke and a Yamaha 800cc 4-cylinder four-stroke.
It is eleven years since Rossi’s first World Championship success in the 125cc class in 1997. The only rider with a longer period between his first and last titles is Angel Nieto, who won the 50cc crown in 1969 and the 125cc equivalent in 1984.
With his 69th career MotoGP win at Indianapolis, Rossi broke Giacomo Agostini’s record for the most premier-class victories; a record that has stood since the legendary Italian’s final victory at the West German Grand Prix in 1976.
With 37 wins, Rossi has had more success with Yamaha than any other factory in his career
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Rossi is also Yamaha’s most successful rider, having scored 13 more premier-class wins for the factory than Kenny Roberts.
With three races to go he is the only rider to have scored points in every round of the 2008 season.
Rossi’s sequence of five straight race wins since Laguna Seca is his longest run of wins since 2005, when he also scored five successive victories.
Other facts about Rossi’s career.
In 1997 Rossi became the second youngest ever 125cc World Champion after scoring 321 points and eleven wins.
Two years later, he became the youngest ever 250cc World Champion with nine wins.
In 2001 Rossi joined Phil Read as one of only two riders ever to win the 125cc, 250cc and 500cc titles.
Rossi’s debut victory for Yamaha at the opening race of 2004 in South Africa made him the first rider in history to take back-to-back wins for different manufacturers.
After winning the MotoGP World Championship three times with Honda, Rossi took his fourth premier-class title with Yamaha in 2004 and became the only rider other than Eddie Lawson to win consecutive premier-class titles for different manufacturers.
Valentino Rossi - Career
Nationality: Italian
Born: 16th February 1979 in Urbino, Italy
World Championships: 8 (6 x MotoGP/500cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 125cc)
GP victories: 96 (70 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc)
GP podiums: 148 (112 x MotoGP/500cc, 21 x 250cc, 15 x 125cc)
GP Pole Positions: 51 (41 x MotoGP/500cc, 5 x 250cc, 5 x 125cc)
First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc)
First GP win: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc)
GP starts: 207 (146 x MotoGP/50cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc)
Posted by Administrator on 09-28-2008 at 02:09 am
Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi won a sixth World Championship crown in the Japanese MotoGP at Motegi after winning from fourth on the grid.
His rivals Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa finished second and third respectively. A podium would have been sufficient for the Italian to take his first title for three years, but he opted to claim it in style.
It did not start so well. Ducati Marlboro man Stoner came through to snatch first position from pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo, Rossi’s team-mate, as he was slow off the line.
Repsol Honda pair Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden were second and third and Sheffield rider James Toseland eighth after making up two early places.
Lorenzo remained ahead of Rossi, who seemed tentative; however by the second lap he was up into third and bearing down on the leading pair.
Pedrosa, who started in fifth, had taken top spot on lap two but Stoner sneaked up the inside to claim it back on lap four.
There was little action throughout the field - Marco Melandri’s trip to the gravel and drop down the order one of the few moments of drama - but at the front the action was intriguing.
Rossi reeled in Pedrosa by the 10th tour of the track and the Spaniard dropped off to fight off countryman Lorenzo as ‘The Doctor’ went after reigning champion Stoner.
Rossi took the lead halfway through the race, with 12 laps still to run; Stoner could not keep up with the Yamaha rider as he eased home for an eighth world title in all and sixth in the premier class.
Toseland evenutally finished 11th on the Tech 3 Yamaha as Shinya Nakano, fellow rookie Andrea Dovizioso and John Hopkins passed him, the latter in the final laps.
Stoner’s second place gives him an 11-point advantage over Pedrosa in the fight for second in the championship.
Valentino Rossi Factbox
Born: February 16 1979 in Urbino, Italy
His first passion was go-karts but follows his father Graziano by taking up motocycling and races in his first grand prix with Aprilia in 1996 in the 125cc category.
* Wins the 125cc world championship in 1997
* Moves up to the 250cc category and seals World Championship in 1999 with Aprilia.
* Takes the 500cc world title with Honda in 2001 before winning the 2002 and 2003 championships as the event becomes MotoGP.
* Switches to Yamaha and secures the 2004 and 2005 world titles to become one of the sport’s all time greats.
* Suffers disappointing 2006 and 2007 seasons but pledges to stick with Yamaha and his decision is justified when he surges to the 2008 championship.
* Nicknamed ‘The Doctor’ in Italy, he has become one of the country’s most loved sportsmen despite a tax evasion probe in 2007 which resulted him in paying a 35 million-euro bill.
* Known for his colourful helmets, Rossi has also shown an interest in Formula One and rally cars, media often speculating that one day he will swap two wheels for four.
Eurosport
Posted by Administrator on 09-27-2008 at 03:09 pm
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Jorge Lorenzo was on superb form at Motegi today, taking an impressive pole position on his first visit to Japan as a Yamaha rider. The 21-year-old will head the field for his Factory’s home race tomorrow whilst his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi, who will be bidding to seal his eighth World Championship crown, will start from fourth.
Lorenzo struggled in the dry yesterday afternoon but some overnight set-up changes to his M1 reaped rich rewards today and the Spaniard was in very different shape from this morning, finishing the early session in second. This afternoon saw him sustain an even higher level of performance, improving with three out of four of his Michelin qualifying tyres and holding off Casey Stoner, Nicky Hayden and Rossi to hang on to pole position. With his challengers already back in the pits he had pole in the bag for his final run but was nonetheless able to improve once again, setting a best lap of 1’45.543 and bettering the previous pole record by 0.181 seconds.
Lorenzo began his MotoGP career this season with three straight poles, culminating in a win from the third one in Portugal. He has started from third at the last two races and finished in the same position for both, meaning he has been on the podium each time he has started on the front row this season. He will be looking to keep this record intact when the lights go out at 1400 local time tomorrow.
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 1st Time: 1′54.543 Laps: 27
“I’m so happy for this pole position because this is how I started my season and it shows that we are returning to how we were. It’s the first pole since Portugal, when I won, and we have had a hard time since then until the last two podiums so this is a great satisfaction for me. I was able to ride so fast all day today, a big improvement from yesterday, and my Michelin tyres worked so well all day so thank you to them. My team have done a great job to set the bike up and this is a fantastic qualifying for us. It’s not the race so now we have to wait for tomorrow, but we’re starting in the best place so I am looking forward to having a great race.”
Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager
“This morning’s session gave us a lot of confidence for this afternoon’s qualifying. Today, with more temperature in the ground and an improved set-up, we were able to be very fast and consistent. Many thanks to Michelin for very good qualifying tyres; they worked incredibly well today and gave Jorge the chance to fly. It was very exciting for the team to watch him riding like this. We are confident that tomorrow we will have the chance to fight for podium.”
Rossi to launch title assault from second row at Motegi
Valentino Rossi will contest his first ‘match point’ of the 2008 championship from the head of the second row tomorrow, having qualified fourth at Motegi today.
After the changeable weather of yesterday, today was bright and sunny and Rossi was in good shape this morning and finished the session third. This afternoon he signalled his intentions with twenty minutes to go by going to the top of the time sheets with his first Bridgestone qualifying tyre, although he was displaced soon after by Stoner, who was then knocked off by Lorenzo in turn. Despite improving with his next two tyres Rossi was unable to make a dent in his team-mate’s time and he than ran into traffic on his last run, meaning he was unable to improve a final time and was edged off the front row by Nicky Hayden at the end.
Finishing on the podium will be enough for the Italian to secure his eighth world championship tomorrow, although he can also take the title from further down the order depending on where Casey Stoner finishes. Tomorrow’s 24-lap race gets underway at 1400 local time.
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Valentino Rossi - Position: 4th Time: 1′46.060 Laps: 26
“Honestly I’m a bit disappointed because the front row was our target today, but anyway fourth isn’t too bad! Unfortunately we spent a bit too much time with the race tyres and started our qualifying sequence a few minutes late, this meant that I was maybe one or two minutes late going out with my last tyre and I got a bit caught up with traffic when de Angelis fell. Anyway, our race pace is quite good so I am confident that we can be in the fight, although we will have to get a good start. We have one or two small problems that we need to work on so we will use the warm-up to check a few things and I think we can improve a little bit more. I am not thinking about the championship right now, I will just aim for the podium and see what happens.”
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
“I think our starting position could have been a little bit better, as there was some traffic on the last lap which didn’t allow Valentino to improve on his final run. For tomorrow the race pace is good and we’re definitely in the mix but there are three or four riders with a good pace so it will definitely be a hard fight tomorrow. Our target will be to stay in the fight and finish on the podium. Congratulations to Jorge and his team for making a return to pole.”
Edwards and Toseland ready for Japanese battle
Tech 3 Yamaha duo Colin Edwards and James Toseland claimed top ten grid positions for tomorrow’s 24-lap Japanese MotoGP race at the Twin Ring Motegi.
Edwards claimed his best qualifying position since his home race in Laguna Seca as he finished an exciting session with the seventh quickest time. Having spent most of the day trying to improve rear traction on race tyres, Edwards was immediately in the groove on his first Michelin qualifying tyre.
He jumped to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1.47.082 with 23 minutes remaining and showed impressive progress throughout. By the end he was only 0.046s off claiming a superb second row start with a best time of 1.46.496.
Toseland will start from 10th position as the British rider worked tirelessly on fine-tuning his race set-up to suit harder compound tyres, with conditions much hotter than yesterday’s mixed weather. Toseland steadily improved his pace and he’s confident he can fight his way into contention for a top six finish in Yamaha’s home race.
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Colin Edwards 7th 1.46.496 – 24 laps
“I felt like I threw everything at it today but I couldn’t get close to Jorge’s time. That was pretty impressive and he did an awesome job. The weird thing is that our qualifier doesn’t usually spin at all but for some reason today that’s all mine did. Michelin have had a great qualifier all year but today it felt more like a soft race tyre, which is very strange and I don’t know if it is down to the tyre or the set-up. Looking at Jorge and how he seemed to make it work, I guess it was our set-up. On race tyres it is the same. Everything I have got it is spinning but there is no variation. I’ve got three tyres I could race and they all feel the same. Normally that would tell you there is a set-up issue. We had spinning problems yesterday and we played around with rear springs and some other suggestions we thought might work, but none of it really seemed to make any difference. We just haven’t found anything yet. Looking at my race pace, I don’t really have a low 47 in my package at the moment and it looks like that’s what we are going to need. It would have been good to be on the second row because history has shown that the first corner here can be pretty tough. It is also not the easiest place to overtake on. There are a lot of hard braking zones but you’ve got lots of momentum going into the corner, so you’ve got to be really confident to dive underneath somebody. This is a big race for Yamaha tomorrow and hopefully I can play a big part in it.”
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James Toseland 10th 1.46.863 - 23 laps
“I paid for my lack of time and experience on this track really. To be in the top ten is not too bad but when you believe you can do a lot better it is frustrating. With four qualifiers you need half the session to use them and that just leaves you ten to fifteen laps on race tyres to find a good set-up. We got the bike a bit better and got into the 48s but we really need to be doing high 47s to be challenging for the top six. I’m pretty happy with my progress but with that rain session yesterday it has held me back a little bit. We made a step forward with the set-up yesterday but there is more we need to do. The temperature was a lot hotter today and the softer tyre that was looking good,we can’t use. Now it is warmer we need to run the harder tyre and we need a lot more weight on the rear to make it work. The setting that we had was fine for the softer tyre but with the harder one it wasn’t putting enough load on the rear tyre. On the qualifiers I got into the 46s and I’m only three-tenths off Colin and he has been here many times on the same bike. I could have done with being on that third row so it will be a bit difficult but we’ll try and keep out of trouble early on. You need a good start because there is not much distance between the start and the first corner. There is a top six finish out there if we can improve the setting and I’ll be giving it my all as usual with this being such an important race for everybody at Yamaha.”
Posted by Administrator on 09-22-2008 at 07:09 am
Valentino Rossi gets his first opportunity to wrap up the 2008 MotoGP World Championship this weekend in Yamaha’s home race at Motegi. The record-breaking 29-year-old arrives at the Grand Prix of Japan with an 87-point lead over Casey Stoner at the top of the standings with only four races left, meaning third place on Sunday will be enough to seal the title even if Stoner takes victory.
It is the first of four possible ‘match-points’ for Rossi, who is aiming for his sixth premier-class title and his first since 2005. Should he clinch it he would become only the second rider to regain the crown following a two-year gap – the other being Giacomo Agostini, whose all-time premier-class win record of 68 was broken by Rossi at Indianapolis last weekend. Agostini, with eight titles, is the only rider to have won the MotoGP World Championship on more occasions than Rossi.
Motegi has not traditionally been a happy hunting ground for Rossi or his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in the past. Despite scoring six podiums here Rossi has taken victory only once, which was back in 2001 before the advent of four-stroke MotoGP machinery. Lorenzo, meanwhile, scored just one podium at this circuit during his illustrious 250cc career, taking third in 2006. However, both riders head to Japan in great form, with the experienced Italian having racked up four straight wins and the rookie Spaniard aiming for a third consecutive podium.
For the second time in as many races MotoGP heads to a home of IndyCar racing, although unlike Indianapolis the ‘Twin Ring’ Motegi was initially designed to host both oval and traditional circuit road races. Designed in 1997 as a test venue, Motegi has modern facilities and features a somewhat geometric track layout. The surface traditionally offers good levels of grip without being overly abrasive but the proliferation of second gear turns, linked for the most part by mini-drag strips, means braking and acceleration are the main prerequisite to a fast lap time. Rossi set the current circuit record in 2006 with a lap of 1’47.228 on the 990cc Yamaha YZR-M1.
Valentino Rossi - “No pressure”
“So, we have had a fantastic run of race and now here we are finally, with a ‘match point’ for the championship, and in Motegi once again! In 2005 I was in the same situation but I crashed and had to wait for Malaysia to win the title, and then last year we lost the championship in Japan. I really would like to win in Motegi, especially as it’s such an important race for Yamaha and it would be a great reward for them for all of the work they have done. However, we cannot put too much pressure on ourselves and I will try to treat it like another normal race. We have a good margin of points, but there are still four more races so it is still not over! Everyone is very relaxed and focused, my Bridgestone tyres and my M1 are working very well and hopefully we can have another great weekend in Motegi.”
Jorge Lorenzo - “High hopes for success in Japan”
“Japan is an incredible country, with very different customs to those that we’re used to in Europe; I always look forward to going back there. Yamaha have planned a series of activities for me before the race, including a visit to the factory at Iwata, which I am really looking forward to. It’s been a year since I signed my contract with Yamaha, but I still haven’t visited their factory. I am sure it will amaze me! Regarding the race, Motegi is the first circuit on our Pacific tour and I have high hopes for new success there. After the two podiums of Misano and Indianapolis, the team and I want to give Yamaha another similar performance because this race is very important for the brand. I trust in the work Michelin are doing with the tyres, although Motegi is one of the few circuits at which I have never won. I did get the first-ever fastest lap of my career there however, in 2003. I am looking forward to the race!”
Davide Brivio - “Try to win and then see what happens”
“Of course we go to Japan on the back of a very positive trend – four wins in a row means we will have the support of some very excited colleagues at Motegi! When you are on a run like this it tends to get more difficult to keep winning because you know you can’t continue forever but we have to go to Motegi in the same spirit as we have approached every race this year – let’s just go to the track and see if it’s possible to win. Of course, we know it is important because it is the first ‘match point’ and we could secure the championship. Personally, though, I would rather think that could happen as a consequence of a good job on our part rather than somebody else’s misfortune. So that’s our first target: prepare properly for the race, try to win it and then see what happens after that.”
Daniele Romagnoli - “The whole team is on a high!”
“Yamaha have struggled in the past at Motegi but I think this year will be different because this year’s bike is so much better than what we’ve had in the past and we’re confident it can work well. The whole team is on a high after Sunday’s race, we had a great team dinner with both riders on Sunday night in Indianapolis and not only are we all backing Valentino to win the riders’ championship but we’re working hard together to win the constructors’ and teams’ title too. We hope Jorge can make a big contribution to that, as he has done all season, and we go to Japan in a very positive frame of mind. From our side of the garage we can’t help but look at the possibility of finishing third in the championship but our real target is to have more good races, some more podiums and maybe even celebrate one more victory before the end of the season.”
Valentino Rossi : Information
Age: 29
Lives: Tavullia, Italy
Bike: Yamaha
GP victories: 95 (69 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc)
First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc)
GP starts: 206 (145 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 51 (41 x MotoGP/500cc, 5 x 250cc, 5 x 125cc)
World Championships: 7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4 x MotoGP)
Jorge Lorenzo: Information
Age: 21
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Yamaha
GP victories: 22 (1 x MotoGP, 17 x 250cc, 4 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Brazil, 2003 (125cc)
First GP: Jerez, Spain, 2002 (125cc)
GP starts: 107 (13 x MotoGP, 48 x 250cc, 46 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 29 (3 x MotoGP, 23 x 250cc, 3 x 125cc)
World Championships: 2 x 250cc
Motegi: Record Lap
V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2006, 1′47.288
Motegi: Best Lap
L. Capirossi (Ducati) 2006, 1′45.724
Grand Prix Results: Motegi 2007
1. L. Capirossi (Ducati) 47′5.484
2. R. de Puniet (Kawasaki) +10.853
3. T. Elias (Honda)5+11.526
13. V. Rossi (ITA) Yamaha +1′09.699
Jorge Lorenzo Result: Motegi 2007
11. J. Lorenzo (SPA) Aprilia +1′13.035 (250cc)
