YAMAHA CONCLUDES 50TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR WITH VALENCIA PODIUM
Yamaha Factory Racing rider Valentino Rossi scored his sixteenth
podium from seventeen races in the final round of the 2005
MotoGP World Championship to put the shine on Yamaha’s
50th Anniversary celebrations at Valencia. The Italian started
from his lowest grid position of the season but produced a
dramatic ride to end the race in third place, lapping quicker
than eventual winner Marco Melandri (Honda). A crowd of 124,520
watched Rossi make up seven positions with an incredible surge
on the first lap, although the early pace of Melandri and
Nicky Hayden (Honda) provided them with an advantage that
proved impossible to breach in the second half of the race.
Rossi’s Yamaha Factory team-mate Colin Edwards suffered
a disappointing end to his first season with the team, losing
three positions on the first lap after starting from sixth
and only managing to recover one place by the end of the race.
Nevertheless, the American has made significant progress with
a new riding style over the course of the weekend and he is
now looking forward to winter testing as he prepares for his
second season as a Yamaha rider. In the meantime, Yamaha is
left to reflect on a stunning Anniversary season, in which
it has swept the board, taking the riders’, teams’
and constructors’ World Championship titles.
VALENTINO ROSSI (3rd - +2.959)
“The second part of the race was very positive because
my pace was fast and I rode well but if you want to win a
race then you can’t start from fifteenth on the grid.
I made a mistake yesterday with the crash but the truth is
that we were struggling all weekend with the setting and we
didn’t understand until this morning what the problem
was. We worked it out and in the race I was able to ride how
I wanted to, but it was too late. It was good fun, I pushed
hard but it wasn’t enough. In the future we have to
make sure we work better in practice. It’s been a fantastic
season and everyone has worked hard to achieve all our targets.
Now we look forward to some holidays and some hard work during
winter testing!”
COLIN EDWARDS (8th - +25.678)
“I didn’t rider great today. In the middle of
the race I started to push hard and caught up again with the
middle of the pack, but by that time I had abused my tyres
a lot, they were moving around and so I decided to hold station.
I have never been at the last race of a season counting down
the days for winter testing to start. We have a lot of work
to do and I want to get going as soon as possible. It’s
been an average season but we’ve learnt a lot for next
year and the whole team has worked very hard for me. I want
to thank them and thank Michelin and I’m looking forward
to working with everyone over the winter and coming out strong
next year.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – YAMAHA FACTORY RACING TEAM
DIRECTOR
“Basically we lost the race in practice, both with
the setting difficulties we had and Valentino’s starting
position for the race. It is always going to be difficult
from the fifth row, but he was 4.9 seconds down on the leader
after four laps and by the end it was 2.9 so his pace was
even better than the race winner. It’s been a long season
from January, when testing started, to November. We have won
everything available, scored eleven race victories and right
now I would accept the same statistics next season –
only with Colin higher in the championship. That is our aim
for next year but for now I just want to say thank you to
all our staff, engineers, crew and both of our riders. It
has been a fantastic season.”
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