The Yamaha Owners Club

Fiat Yamaha Riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo yesterday rounded off a successful three-day visit to Indonesia, one of the most important markets for Yamaha. Rossi came straight from testing in Malaysia last week, whilst Lorenzo flew out from Spain, where he has been recuperating at home from an injured hand.

Both riders will return home now for two weeks before the final pre-season test in Qatar, when Lorenzo hopes to be fully recovered from his injury and Rossi will look to continue his dominant start to the pre-season.

The second round of the 2010 Italian championship at Castiglione Del Lago has fallen to the works YZ450FM and YZ250FMs of David Philippaerts and Gautier Paulin as the Yamaha Monster Energy MX Team dominated both MX1 and MX2 classes at the former GP venue last Sunday.

Across grippy and reasonably soft track conditions, Philippaerts was particularly impressive as he twice defeated MX1-GP world champion and fellow countryman Antonio Cairoli; the first time the Sicilian has been beaten in three race appearance so far in 2010. 25 year old Philippaerts – fresh from the official team photoshoot and further tests at the Mantova circuit during the week – further refined his 2010 race-bike with now just four weeks until the first Grand Prix of fifteen in Bulgaria.

‘I am happy with this win,’ he said. ‘It proves that we are continuing to work well and that I feel better and faster all the time. It was good to race and beat Antonio and we have collected some more information before moving to Belgium.’ The 2008 MX1-GP World Champion now has a perfect set of results in the four motos run so far and a healthy lead of 23 points over Davide Guarneri although he won’t be contesting the full series.

Mirroring his new team-mate’s classification on the day and in the campaign so far was Gautier Paulin. The Frenchman rode practically unchallenged for his third and fourth victories on Italian soil and beat European Champion and Yamaha Monster Energy Gariboldi racing’s Christophe Charlier into second place on both occasions. ‘Again this was a good result for us,’ he said. ‘My starts were pretty good and Charlier came with me for pace at some stages. We have done some good work in Italy in the last couple of weeks and now we will go to Belgium and see what we can get done on the sand.’

Other results of note included Ken De Dycker’s first podium for his Italian Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci MX Team in the national championship with 3rd overall behind Philippaerts and Cairoli. The Belgian went 3-5 for his result. Team-mate, but in the MX2 category, Alessandro Lupino, was a decent 4th after having recovered from a sore wrist.

In the UK the first round of eight in the British Championship took place at Little Silver in southwest England. Bike It Cosworth Yamaha UK’s Zach Osborne – winner of the 2009 MX2-GP Turkish Grand Prix – took his new YZ250F to the top of the podium in his first competitive showing of the season. The American was 4th, 1st and 1st in the three motos. ‘This weekend was really good for me,’ he reflected. ‘I still have a lot of work to do before the first Grand Prix but this win is definitely something to build on. I’m happy with the team and the way things are going. I am really enjoying myself right now and I think it shows. I want to say a big thanks to the team and all the people who are supporting me behind the scenes.’

Philippaerts and Paulin will now head to northern Europe this week to begin a period of training and riding in the Belgian sand. The team will test in the terrain the following week before again switching their attentions to Italy and some hard-pack tracks similar to the surface that will be found at Sevlievo in Bulgaria on Easter weekend.

Yamaha LandM San Manuel's Josh Hill finished 6th at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for round eight of seventeen in the AMA Supercross/FIM World SX Championship and keeps within 20 points of the 2010 title chase. The 20 year old was one of three YZ450F riders in the top six of the 32nd Main Event to be run in the Georgian capital. The highest finisher Saturday night in front of more than 69,000 spectators was Valli Motorsports Ivan Tedesco; the veteran taking his second best result of the year with 4th spot.

The day started in a tough way for Hill who suffered a crash in which he bent his handlebars with his chest in the final timed period and negotiated the 20 lap Main Event in some discomfort. 'That was the hardest race I've ever had,' he said. 'I wasn't even going to race until about 6:30, and I started feeling a little better. But 20 laps out there in my condition, that was so hard. At least I'm still there in the points, but I'm just going to go home and try to heal-up for next week in Daytona."

It wasn't an easy start for Cal Crutchlow and James Toseland today at the season opening race in Phillip Island Australia. Race one saw both riders crash out, Crutchlow losing the front having run wide on onto a dirty section of track on lap two and Toseland highsiding on the fifth lap.

Race two saw a fiercely contested battle for points with both riders fighting off riders including Biaggi, Corser and others to stay within the top ten. Combined with a less than perfect set up on both bikes and struggling for grip the riders put in an incredible ride to bring their bikes home in the points, Crutchlow in ninth and Toseland tenth.

Crutchlow moves on to round two in Portimao in 12th position in the championship on seven points, team-mate Toseland sits just behind in 13th with six points.