The Yamaha Owners Club

Jorge Lorenzo gave the Fiat Yamaha Team a reason to smile in Mugello this afternoon as he brought his M1 home in second position, extending his Championship lead after two wins and two seconds so far this season. Lorenzo took to the podium wearing a yellow number 46 shirt as a nod to his team-mate Valentino Rossi, who watched the race from his hospital bed after breaking his leg in practice yesterday.

Lorenzo got a good start behind Dani Pedrosa but soon realised he was not able to keep yesterday's blistering pace, quickly losing ground to his fellow Spaniard as he became embroiled in a fight with Andrea Dovizioso. The Italian passed Lorenzo on lap three but the Mallorcan got his nose back in front three laps later, the pair then remaining locked closely together until three-quarter race distance, when Lorenzo managed to stretch his lead to over half a second. By then Pedrosa was several seconds clear and the 23-year-old had no choice but to settle for a safe runner-up spot, meaning he has taken an impressive 90 points from a possible 100 so far this season. His lead is now 25 points over Pedrosa in the championship, with the injured Rossi in third.

This was the first time Rossi has not started a race since he began his illustrious career over fourteen years ago in Malaysia at the age of 16, and the Italian holds the record of 230 consecutive starts. He is currently recuperating at the Centro Traumatologico Ortopedico in Florence following surgery yesterday to repair his broken right leg.

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 2ndTime: +4.014
"Unfortunately my pace today wasn't as good as yesterday and I could only finish second; something happened and I couldn't ride in the same way but in the circumstances I am happy with my result. Anyway Dani had a perfect race today; he had an amazing pace and I don't know if I could have beaten him even if I had been as fast as yesterday! To take 90 points from 100 is great and I am leading the championship, so I cannot ask for more. I need to make some improvements to my riding style and Yamaha needs to try to improve the power of the bike a bit so we have some things to work on, but I am confident about the next weeks. It was very strange today without Valentino, I am so glad the fans honoured him so well. I wanted to win to dedicate the victory to him but that wasn't possible so all I can do is say 'get well soon!'"

Wilco Zeelenberg - Team Manager
"After the weekend our team has had with what happened to Valentino this was a good result for us, we have 90 points, two wins and two seconds and we are happy with our season so far. Jorge had some issues today and we need to analyse why it happened and why he couldn't keep the same pace, but we are not too worried and he rode a good race today. We are 25 points clear in the championship which is great but we all know why, because Valentino isn't here, and it's a sad situation. We all wish him the best."


Ben Spies battles hard for seventh at majestic Mugello
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider Ben Spies got his 2010 world championship campaign firmly back on track with a battling seventh place finish in today's Italian MotoGP race at Mugello. Spies showed his failure to finish the previous two races had done little to dent his confidence as he made a stunning start from the third row of the grid. The 25-year-old slotted into a brilliant fourth place before he slipped back to seventh in a hectic opening few laps. He briefly moved back into the top six with an overtake on Randy de Puniet on lap six but spent the remainder of the 23-lap encounter giving his maximum effort to try and clos e in on captivating battle for fourth position.

Spies brilliantly hunted down Casey Stoner, de Puniet and Marco Melandri but despite launching a persistent challenge he was never able to get sufficiently close to mount an attack. The Texan's morale-boosting result though moved him back into the top ten in the world championship standings on 20-points with four of the 18 rounds completed.

American team-mate Colin Edwards finished in a brave 13th place despite having to race in extremely difficult circumstances. Edwards suffered a mystery fatigue issue in this morning's warm-up session and it was obvious from the start of the race that his physical condition would prevent him from showing his true potential as he dropped from fifth to 11th. Despite feeling well below his best, Edwards bravely rode to 13th to collect three valuable po ints and preserve his 100 per cent points-scoring record this season.

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team now embarks on a new adventure when MotoGP visits the Silverstone circuit in England for the first time since 1986.

Colin Edwards - Position: 13thTime: +1'14.393
"I'm really disappointed and a bit mystified because I've felt good all weekend and we got the bike working really well again after we switched back to the setting we had at Mugello last year. But it was a struggle from the off and I didn't feel great at all. The bike was working well. It goes round the corner good, it brakes good and has good traction but I can't ride in that condition. I felt fatigued really early in the race and was really struggling to change direction with the bike. And at this track you have got a l ot of fast changes of direction that are crucial to help you flow and set good times. I've had a bit of an arm pump issue all weekend for the first time in my career and needed quite a few injections to ease that. But I was way below my best physical condition and not just because of that. All I can do is apologise to Monster Yamaha Tech 3 and I wish I knew what was going on. I'll try and figure it out and be ready to come out fighting strong in Silverstone."

Herve Poncharal - Team Manager
"It was a mixed day for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 because we had high hopes after qualifying. Ben did a great job and it was a shame that he could not really force his way into that exciting fight for fourth place. He did everything he could and he never gave up to show how determined he is to achieve a better result. But I think it was obvious that he had a speed issue on the straight a nd that didn't help him. But it was a race that will be good for his confidence though and he showed that he is capable of easily challenging for the top places. It was a big shame for Colin because it is clear he was not able to ride at his usual level. Colin showed his potential in qualifying with fifth but in the race his physical condition never allowed him to fight at his maximum potential and I feel for him because he too never stop trying to improve his situation. We now look forward to the new challenge of Silverstone hopeful of a positive result."

The 2010 AMA SX series/FIM World Championship came to an end with the seventeenth and final round of the year taking place at the Sam Boyd stadium in Las Vegas last weekend. Kyle Cunningham was the surprise top runner on the Valli Motorsports YZ450F with 4th position but Muscle Milk Joe Gibbs Racing's Justin Brayton finished 8th and was able to rise into the top five of the season standings.

Texan Cunningham had a career-best race in just his third event in the premier class since taking the vacated seat of the injured Ivan Tedesco. The 21 year old, who had secured 8th place in the East Coast Lites series, had scored 13th and 11th in his two previous outings before coming to Nevada.

"I knew I could ride the 450, I just hadn't put a whole race together," he said. "Something just kept happening. Plus, the other two races [Seattle and Salt Lake City] were just crazy conditions. But here, with normal conditions, I felt great. I caught a flow about halfway through and I just rode it on in to the finish. I'm pumped."

Kyle Chisholm was 7th ahead of Brayton and Michael Byrne managed 11th. Josh Hill was able to score two points more than his two previous outings with 17th place and end a nightmare-ish second half of the campaign in which a rib injury has affected his race stamina.

Four Yamaha's finished in the final top ten of the standings with Brayton 5th, Hill 6th, Tedesco in 9th and Kyle Chisholm claiming 10th. 2009 champion James Stewart etched the sole victory for Yamaha at Anaheim 1 but has been out with a broken scaphoid since round four.

The AMA Motocross Nationals will now begin in two weeks with the first event taking place at Hangtown in Sacramento, California.

The Grand Prix of Portugal took place at a challenging Agueda circuit in front of 14,000 spectators as rain on Saturday turned into sunshine on Sunday and Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci MX Team's Ken De Dycker grabbed his first top three finish of the season on the new YZ450F with 3rd place in the second moto. Yamaha Monster Energy David Philippaerts was the highest-placed Yamaha runner with 5th overall and aced a rostrum slot in the first race.

On Saturday, after refining his set-up with the help of the Ohlins technicians, Philippaerts was able to make a great start in the Qualification Heat and lead world champion Tony Cairoli to the finish line for his second pole position of the season. Showers that lasted most of the day on Saturday caused the track to soften and become rutty and bumpy. As the terrain dried and offered more grip on Sunday more racing lines appeared in the second moto.

David Philippaerts, Yamaha Monster Energy MX Team, 5th:

"In the first moto I was following Desalle and my speed was good but on the third lap I had a big crash. I don't know the reason for it, similar to what happened in Mantova, and it was just one second in which my race was decided. I hurt my hand and that affected my feeling on the bike in the second moto. I did not have quite as much control or strength as before and it was not good for my corner speed because the bike was moving around a lot because of the bumps and I needed to hold on. Yesterday was very good but our races are being hit by some surprises. My lap-times are good and I am keeping consistent and now we must all work on getting our set-up right and the results we deserve."

Ken De Dycker, Yamaha Monster Energy Ricci MX Team, 10th:

"I had some bad luck in the first race. I came into the rut and jumped it a little bit but the bike went sideways in the second part and I could not keep it up. The radiator was bent and the front brake was poking into the front wheel so it was not possible to go on. The second moto was better but hard work, and I lost the rhythm in some places. I am quite happy with how it went."