Yamaha Racing set for 2011 MX-GP World Championship
Friday 08 April: At 17.00 CET today the 2011 Monster Energy Yamaha team will unveil their GP machinery in a live webcast that will appear on www.yamaha-racing.com.
The
presentation to the media and fans around the globe will be the first
scene of the Grand Prix of Bulgaria; the opening act of fifteen in
eagerly-awaited 2011 FIM MX-GP World Championship.
This weekend will be the second year in succession
that Sevlievo – with its fast, jumpy and hilly race-track housed in one
of the finest set of facilities in Europe – hosts the season-opener and
the venue two hours east of Sofia has been a decent reaping ground for
Yamaha in the past. Since appearing on the MX1-GP calendar in 2006,
David Philippaerts claimed his first victory for Yamaha there in 2008
while Josh Coppins earned the top step on the YZ450FM in ‘07 and ‘09.
Monster Energy Yamaha has grown to encompass six
riders in the MX1-GP and MX2-GP categories for 2011. Alongside
Philippaerts (starting his fourth year as a works rider) on the fuel
injected YZ450FM (second year of development) is Steven Frossard
(pictured) while
Anthony Boissiere will be steering the third ‘black and green’ machine
in the premier class. Philippaerts has not dropped out of the top four
in his three previous championships with Yamaha and famously became
Italy’s first MX1-GP champion in ‘08.
"Sevlievo is a great track and one of the best for
me. It is there with St Jean D’Angely [France],” the 25 year old said.
"The first race of the season can be difficult because we all want to
win and start in the right way. If you get a good result then you want
to make some momentum and get your year going. At the same time you have
to keep telling yourself that it is the first one and there is so much
more racing to do.”
"I think the bike is better and I feel more
comfortable on it,” added the 2011 Italian championship runner-up
concerning the work done by YRRD on the ‘19’ race-machine. "For that I
have to give a big thanks to the team who have worked so hard. We have
modified the engine and we are also using a different suspension system.
I’ve had the chance to get the YZ450F exactly how I want it. Physically
I feel very good and this gives me confidence going into the start of
the season. I had a virus about two weeks ago but I’m over that now. I
have been riding well in the Italian races and all the signs are good
for Bulgaria.”
While Boissiere will enter his second MX1-GP
campaign in Bulgaria and has experience of moto victories and podium
results in MX2-GP, it is fellow Frenchman Frossard who will
remember the race as a landmark thanks to this being his first grand
prix outing with Yamaha and his debut meeting in MX1-GP. The quiet but
intense former MX2-GP winner has had an excellent winter of adaptation
to the bigger machine and enjoyed success in France and recently
captured the Italian MX1 championship for an emphatic demonstration of
his potential on the YZ450FM.
"Winning the Italian championship was a good start
for me and I have to say that I’ve felt very comfortable and fast on the
Yamaha 450,” said Frossard. "I know this is my first season in MX1 but I
have felt for a few years that I could do very well on the bigger bike
and now I am excited to show what I am capable of.”
After missing out this time last year due to
misfortune with a leg break while training two weeks before the
season-launch, Gautier Paulin is itching to get to Sevlievo to begin his
second title tilt with the factory YZ250FM. Like his countryman
Frossard, Paulin also comes to Bulgaria with an Italian title on his CV;
the MX2 crown and having won a round of the French Championship.
"We’ve done a lot of work in the off-season but I
couldn’t be happier with the way things have gone and how the YZ250FM is
developing,” commented Paulin. "We had some decent races in the last
few months but now the real thing is so close. I’m probably one of the
riders more desperate to get to Bulgaria because this time last year I
was looking at a broken leg after so much work during the winter. Now I
have a good feeling about 2011 and the Grands Prix cannot start soon
enough.”
Runner-up to Paulin in the Italian series was former
European Champion Christophe Charlier who begins his second world
championship on the YZ250FM. The 19 year old Corsican, one of the most
naturally talented riders on the MX2-GP stage, will again be partnered
by Finland’s Harri Kullas; one of the stand-out rookies from 2010 who
scored points in 29 motos from 30 and stood-out with victory in the
Dutch Championship last month.
Yamaha will also be represented by the Bike it
Cosworth Wild Wolf Yamaha team in the UK who will field the potent
talents of Zach Osborne (fourth in the world in 2010 and British MX2
Champion) and Arnaud Tonus (seventh in the world and winner of several
races in the UK and France during pre-season, also about to commence
just his third GP year). While 2010 MX3-GP World Champion, Carlos
Campano, will return to the blue-ribbon class on his YZ450F. 3C Yamaha
Racing will place two riders in the MX2-GP category (Steven Lenior and
Klemen Gercar while former factory rider and MX1 and MX2-GP winner Marc
De Reuver will campaign a YZ450F for Team Yamaha Van Beers Racing.
Bulgaria is the first country that the FIM series
will visit over the course of the next six months and until the
curtain-closing Motocross of Nations on September 18th in France. Trips
to Holland, USA, Brazil, France, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Germany,
Latvia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Great Britain and Italy lay ahead.
A special video and photo gallery will be posted on www.yamaha-racing.com directly after the live online launch of the 2011 Monster Energy Yamaha line-up this Friday.
Copy and photo courtesy of Yamaha Motor Europe N.V.