FORTUNE STRIKES ITS FINAL BLOW AT VALENCIA
 Camel
Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi slid out of the Grand Prix
of Valencia today and lost his grip on the MotoGP World Championship
for the first time in six years on the final day of an implausibly
dramatic season. Nicky Hayden (Honda) lifted the title after
claiming third place behind surprise winner Troy Bayliss and
Loris Capirossi (both Ducati), with Rossi recovering to cross
the line in 13th place but missing out on the title by just
five points. The fifth lap mishap came after a bad start from
Rossi, who looked to be in perfect shape to defend his eight-point
advantage going into the race after qualifying on pole position.
However, the bad luck that followed the Italian throughout
the first half of the season returned to strike its final,
decisive blow when the front end of Rossi’s YZR-M1 tucked
under braking and sent him spinning into the gravel. Another
heroic charge from the defending champion saw him recover
seven places and brought him back into the points but it wasn’t
enough to hold off Hayden.
The last ever MotoGP race of the 990cc era, before maximum
engine capacity is reduced to 800cc in 2007, also proved to
be a let-down for Rossi’s Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin
Edwards. The Texan had shown good pace throughout the weekend
but higher track temperatures reaching 43ºC this afternoon
did not suit the set-up of his machine and he was unable to
reproduce that practice form. After starting tenth on the
grid he made up one place to finish ninth, a result that lifted
him to seventh in the final championship standings.
VALENTINO ROSSI (13th; +38.546)
“Of course this is a big disappointment for me because
to arrive at the final race with an eight-point advantage
and then not win the title is a disaster. Basically I made
two mistakes today – one was at the start and then the
second one was the crash. It has been a very emotional season,
with some great moments, some bad luck and now some mistakes.
But this is racing. All I can say now is a big ‘congratulations’
to Nicky because he is a great guy, a great rider and he is
the World Champion because he has been the best this year.
I have known him a long time, I know his family well and even
though I am disappointed I am also very happy for them. It
has been a great fight with him this year – not like
in the past with other riders when there have always been
some polemics – and we have great respect for each other.
I want to say a huge thank you to Yamaha, to all my team and
engineers and to everyone else involved, they’ve done
an amazing job this year and now I am looking forward to working
towards next season with the 800; I am sure it will be another
exciting season and another big battle!”
COLIN EDWARDS (9th; +26.072)
“Well, obviously that was a disaster from all angles!
After two or three laps I lost the front a couple of times
but I’m not really sure why. We chose a soft front here
but it was the same one as in Motegi and Estoril and it had
worked great all weekend here. Today it was quite a lot hotter
so maybe that’s what did for us. Basically from then
on I couldn’t turn it properly, I had to put it all
on the knee and slow right down to turn, otherwise I was going
straight on. I was really feeling that I might crash any minute
and I had to follow Hopkins for the whole race; without any
corner speed I just couldn’t get the jump to pass him.
It’s a disappointing end to a difficult season for me.
I want to say a huge thank you to my team and everyone at
Yamaha for all their work throughout the year; they’ve
never given up and I’m sorry that we couldn’t
finish on a better note. Bad luck to Valentino, he’s
shown once again how good he is this season and I’m
sorry for him and for the whole team. It’s all over
for another year but we’ll both be back in March with
the new bike, ready to get some serious revenge!”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“It is normal that the feeling now within the team is
one of disappointment but we are also proud that we brought
this fight to the final round after all the bad luck we had
in the first half of the season. Valentino has worked incredibly
hard and shown on several occasions why he has been such a
great World Champion – even today he kept on fighting
to the very end. It is a sad day for us but we are already
looking to the future with great excitement about the new
800cc era and the chance to win the title back in 2007. I
want to thank all our riders, team staff, sponsors and technical
partners for their excellent work this season and, from our
behalf, congratulations to Nicky Hayden.”
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