WSB : Haga top Yamaha in Valencia
Round: 3 - Spain
Circuit: Valencia
Date: 24 April 2005
Crowd: 35,000
Temp: 35ºC
Weather: Sunny

Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga battled changeable track conditions at a warm and sunny Valencia to secure a fifth and fourth place finishes in the 23-lap races, making himself the highest placed Yamaha rider on the day. With track temperatures increasing from 22°C in race one to 40°C in race two, grip altered considerably from race to race, complicating matters for all four of Yamaha's supported riders.

Both races saw Troy Corser (Suzuki) take the win, followed by Chris Vermeulen (Honda). A seemingly sure third place, and a possible second, for Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France IPONE) in the opener ended in the gravel as the Japanese rider slid off his machine into the first right hand corner on the 19th lap. He would end race two in fifth place, despite losing adhesion on the hotter track, to move up one championship place: fifth overall and the leading R1 rider.

Haga's team-mate Andrew Pitt also fell in race one, while holding fourth position on lap six. The Australian held a podium position for much of race two, but slipped back due to a misfire. Starting from row five of the grid each time, Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France IPONE) had an excellent ride through the field in race one, securing sixth. In the second outing an overheating engine stopped him from progressing beyond 11th.

Corser's double win extended his lead at the head of the championship. Abe moved to fifth position in the championship, with 44 points, while Haga's good points scores push him to seventh, on 40. Pitt lies eighth with 39, Gimbert 12th with 26.

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia) - "OK, we got fifth in race one and fourth in race two but it's not good enough for me, because as a racer you always want to win. I have to remember that the bike is still developing. We have only finished three meetings so we need to improve more, step-by-step. I think it will be better though. We are improving and compared to Friday we have made big progress. Now we have a test at Monza this week and this should give us a good chance to prepare for the team's home race."

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia) - "I tried to stay with them in race two but I just lost one tenth each lap. The more laps I had, the more I had to be careful. After a few laps the rear tyre started to lose performance but the electrical problem at the end probably cost me three places."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "Before we arrived here I said that we would be happy with podiums and we nearly got them. On Friday we were looking almost looking at a disaster, but immediately on Saturday we improved a lot. But both riders finished race two. Andrew's machine had a small problem in that race. In the last two laps he slowed up, with a misfire. But considering our position on Friday, we cannot be too disappointed."

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) - "It was unlucky to crash in race one as I had a good feeling on the bike. I knew 100 percent that I could get third but there was a rider immediately in front of me so I wanted second; it's better than third. Maybe I pushed the front too hard, so I crashed. Race two was held in very different conditions, a warmer track for example, and the rear grip was less from the beginning. That was more of a disappointment than race one."

Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France) - "In the last couple of laps of race two the engine overheated and I lost a lot of power. That made it incredibly difficult for me. There was also a big change in the track conditions between race one and race two, and that made the bike slide a lot more in the second one. Race one was OK, a good finish in sixth."

Martial Garcia (Team Manager - Yamaha Motor France) - "Not so bad. Of course in the second race less people crashed so the places were worse but we are happy because we have made the chassis better, gained some confidence, even if we have lost a possible podium. Now we have to work on the engine some more. Sebastien's engine overheated, so we need to inspect the radiator. Because it lost power as it heated up, he dropped down positions. But we have shown again we are at a high level and we are fifth in the world championship with Abe. This is not so bad for the start of the season."

Kevin Curtain grabbed his second successive podium finish in the 2005 Supersport World Championship to maintain his third place in the championship after a tough race in Valencia today.

Starting from the front row, the Australian fought with Honda quartet Sebastien Charpentier, Katsuaki Fujiwara, Michel Fabrizio and Fabien Foret in the opening laps, until team-mates Charpentier and Fujiwara broke away from the group.

Curtain was able to consolidate third place, despite suffering grip problems, and could possibly have climbed the top of the podium after Charpentier and Fujiwara clashed on the penultimate lap, although both riders were able to stay onboard and retain their positions. Curtain's third place gives his Yamaha Motor Germany squad a full set of trophies to take back to their Neuss base following Kenan Sofuoglu and Didier van Keymeulen's first and second in the earlier superstock race.

Team-mate Broc Parkes also had a tough afternoon after being hit from behind by a falling rider at the first corner. The incident cost the Australian several places but he fought back to finish sixth on a track notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities after ending the first lap down in 11th place.

With a quarter of the season gone, Charpentier leads the championship on 70 points with Fujiwara a further 12 behind in second. Curtain maintains third, on 49 points, with Parkes tying with Fabrizio for fifth place.

Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) - "That was a really tough race. As always around here, tyre choice was something of a gamble, simply because the temperature and grip levels are always changing. I was happy to bring it home and finish on the podium because my back tyre was totally gone at the end, although I think it was the same for all the guys. But we're leaving here third in the championship, hopefully we can now find that little bit extra to close the gap on Charpentier and Fujiwara."

Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) - "I got hit real hard on the first corner and there was such a big bang that was sure the back tyre was flat. I took it easy for a few laps until I was sure everything was ok but once I got going the bike was actually really good and I was able to work my way up. By the end I caught Foret but this is a tough place to overtake and I just didn't have enough time to make a pass."

Yamaha R1 riders dominated the opening round of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup at Valencia today, with Yamaha Motor Germany riders Kenan Sofuoglu and Didier van Keymeulen taking the top two places ahead of the R1s of Massimo Roccoli and William de Angelis.

Starting from second on the grid, Sofuoglu grabbed the holeshot to lead his Van Keymeulen into the first corner and avoid a turn two pile-up that took out several riders. Van Keymeulen was able to stick with his Turkish team-mate for the opening few laps before Sofuoglu pulled away to build up a lead of over four seconds by the flag.

The 21-year-old Sofuoglu, the 2002 German Yamaha R6 Cup champion, celebrated his first win in the class with a spectacular stand-up wheelie down the entire length of the Valencia straight, much to the appreciation of the crowd.

Massimo Roccoli, winner of the 2003 Italian Yamaha R6 Cup, rode spectacularly to make it an all Yamaha podium. The 20-year-old from Rimini was involved in a pulsating three-way battle with former 125 GP rider William de Angelis (Yamaha) and Craig Coxhell (Suzuki), a former Australian superbike champion no less. Roccoli broke the class lap record, previously held by his team-mate Gianluca Vizziello, by over half a second on the penultimate lap to make the podium on only his second outing in the class. De Angelis finished fourth to complete a great day for the Yamaha riders.

Kenan Sofuoglu (Yamaha Motor Germany) - "It feels very good to get that first win. It was always my plan to push hard in the early laps to try and build a good lead. I got a great start and I was able to stick to my plan. I felt very strong here today - now we must continue this for the rest of the year."

Didier van Keymeulen (Yamaha Motor Germany) - "I tried to stay with Kenan but after about five laps I had a problem that we didn't have in practice and that meant I couldn't push as hard as I wanted to. I found that the rear was pushing the front going into the corners and therefore I had to let the bike settle down before going into the corners. But second is a good start to the championship. Kenan rode very well and although I could possibly have pushed a bit harder we still have a full season ahead of us."

Massimo Roccoli (Lorenzini by Leoni) - "I got caught in the crash on the first lap and that cost me a lot of time. I absolutely wanted the podium and I pushed really hard even though we did not have a perfect set-up. In the test we had had the same problem and we did not manage to fix it. Perhaps I am too light and the Yamaha R1 has too many horses! But it is been a good beginning and I want to experience the win at Monza in two weeks' time."