BAD LUCK STRIKES AGAIN FOR CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM AT LE MANS
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi’s unfortunate
start to his MotoGP World Championship defence continued today
as the Italian rider was hit by another bout of bad luck at
Le Mans, where he was forced to retire from the lead with
an engine problem. This time his team-mate Colin Edwards was
also hit by the jinx, the American being pushed wide in the
second corner of the race and running into the gravel traps.
The silver lining to the day for the team on a cloudy day
in France was that Edwards did manage to get back on track
and charge through from last place to finish in sixth –
arguably the individual rider performance of the race.
Rossi started the fifth round of the season in confident
mood after finding a good set-up for his YZR-M1 machine during
the dry practice sessions and he quickly translated that pace
to the race, moving from seventh on the grid up to second
place by lap three. After two laps behind early leader John
Hopkins (Suzuki) the World Champion took control and opened
out a comfortable advantage over Dani Pedrosa (Honda), who
also got past Hopkins. With eight laps remaining Rossi looked
on course to become the first rider this season to win two
races but to his despair disaster struck, leaving Pedrosa
to fight it out with Marco Melandri (Honda) for the win. Melandri
made the decisive move for victory with five laps remaining
before Pedrosa was also passed for second place by Loris Capirossi
(Ducati).
COLIN EDWARDS (6th; + 11.519 seconds)
“To be honest I don’t quite know what happened
at the start. I had my plan which was to run it around the
outside like I did last year but things just went haywire
from the start and riders were coming at me from everywhere.
I got baulked by somebody – it might have been Dani
Pedrosa but I’m not sure – and I couldn’t
get to the outside so I had to move where the space was and
go tight. Everybody was wide through the right and came across
me as we went left into the chicane so I had nowhere to go
but the gravel. Last year it would have probably been okay
but the changes they made to the track played against me.
I lost four or five seconds there and probably lost another
four or five trying to get past people during the first six
laps. I wanted to overtake on the exits but they all had so
much grip at that stage of the race that it was impossible
and I just had to wait for opportunities on the brakes. The
setting of the bike was good – the only thing I was
missing was a bit of rear grip at the end but with the pace
I had we should have been on the podium today.”
VALENTINO ROSSI (DNF)
“The team did a great job with the new chassis this
weekend and I really enjoyed being able to ride so fast during
the race, so it is a real shame that it ended like that and
of course I am very disappointed. Everything was working really
well, the bike and tyres felt perfect but then the engine
went. A bike stopping on me like this has only ever happened
to me a couple of times in my career, so for it to happen
today is typical of our luck at the moment. Something seems
to have gone wrong for us at each of the first few races of
the season, apart from Qatar, and it has put us in a difficult
situation with regards to the championship. We know that championship
is a big challenge now but the last word has not been spoken
yet. Now we need to look at it race by race, maybe not think
about the championship for a while and concentrate on trying
to win as many races as possible from the remaining 12.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“We are trying to smile but obviously we are all very
disappointed – especially Valentino. Our engineers did
a great job to get the bikes prepared for this race and both
Valentino and Colin were ready to fight for a top result.
It was great watching Valentino in harmony with the bike and
it looked as though it was going to be a classic Valentino
Rossi race, making his way to the front and then controlling
his advantage over second place. Unfortunately the engine
broke and we are analysing it now to find out why. I have
to say Colin rode a great race after being forced wide in
the first corner and in general we will take a lot of positives
from this weekend, even if we don’t feel too great right
now.”
Results
1.Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 44.57.369 2.Loris
Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, +1.929 3.Dani Pedrosa
(SPA) Repsol Honda Team, +2.269 4.Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda
LCR, +5.494 5.Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, +5.709
6.COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, +11.519 7.Makoto
Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, +16.692 8.Sete Gibernau
(SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, +18.142 9.Toni Elias (ITA) Fortuna
Honda, +23.645 10.Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP,
+39.362
DNF: VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, Lap 21
Championship Standings 1.Nicky Hayden (USA)
83 2.Marco Melandri (ITA) 79 3.Loris Capirossi (ITA) 79 4.Dani
Pedrosa (SPA) 73 5.Casey Stoner (AUS) 65 6.COLIN EDWARDS (USA)
45 7.Toni Elias (SPA) 44 8.VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) 40 9.Sete
Gibernau (SPA) 33 10.Makoto Tamada (JPN) 33
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