Post by SHE-REX on Jul 11, 2006 17:10:41 GMT
More Twists Expected at Roller-Coaster Sachsenring
11 July 2006 - Camel Yamaha
A roller-coaster season continues for the Camel Yamaha Team this weekend at the vertigo-inducing Sachsenring circuit in Germany, host to the tenth round of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship. One of the tightest and most undulating tracks in the world welcomes the most unpredictable season in recent history, with Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards both having played their part in a dramatic campaign that has seen five different race winners, nine different riders on the podium and thirteen different front row starters.
Rossi added to his season-tally of three victories with a stunning second place in the last round at Donington Park, where he rode through the pain of hand and ankle injuries to put his YZR-M1 machine back on the podium and cut the gap to series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) to 35 points. That memorable performance at his talisman track was the 121st time that Rossi had stood on a Grand Prix podium - the same number as Phil Read and a figure bettered only by the legendary Giacomo Agostini and Angel Nieto. Rossi has now also scored a total of 2977 points in all classes and victory in Germany would make him the first rider in history to pass the 3000 mark.
Sixth place for Colin Edwards at Donington was the 30th successive race at which he has scored points, a record made all the more remarkable by the drama of the previous round at Assen, when he crashed out of the lead in the final corner only to remount and bravely struggle across the line in thirteenth place. The only rider with a longer sequence of successive point scoring finishes is Mick Doohan, who managed it for 37 races, but the more pressing issue for Edwards now is a return to the form that saw him fighting for victory in that breathtaking Dutch TT two weeks ago.
VALENTINO ROSSI: BACK TO FITNESS
Valentino Rossi arrives in Germany with the benefit of an extra weekend to recover from the hand injuries he sustained in the middle of a Grand Prix triple-header at Assen. After struggling through the discomfort to score valuable points in Holland and Great Britain, he is now hoping to be fit enough to fight for his fourth win of the season and his fourth in all classes at the Sachsenring circuit.
“I am very confident that by Sachsenring my hand will be back to 100%, or near enough,” says Rossi, who won the German Grand Prix for Yamaha last year to add to previous MotoGP and 250cc successes in 2002 and 1999. “I have been working hard with my physiotherapist Marco Montanari and Dr Costa and hopefully it will continue to improve at this rate. It’s really nice to have had time for a rest now after three very hard weeks, even if it’s not so long. I spent some time in Italy and then a few days at home in London, relaxing and seeing friends.
“The important thing for Sachsenring is that we come out of the box on Friday morning ready to make the most of every available minute of practice time. We can’t afford to lose time in practice with set-up problems like we had in Donington, and I am sure that Yamaha has been working at the maximum over the break so we will be ready to be competitive from Friday morning. Sachsenring is quite a different track, very tight and twisty, but last year our bike worked very well there, we were able to win and hopefully that will be the case again this year.”
GO ROSSI GO
11 July 2006 - Camel Yamaha
A roller-coaster season continues for the Camel Yamaha Team this weekend at the vertigo-inducing Sachsenring circuit in Germany, host to the tenth round of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship. One of the tightest and most undulating tracks in the world welcomes the most unpredictable season in recent history, with Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards both having played their part in a dramatic campaign that has seen five different race winners, nine different riders on the podium and thirteen different front row starters.
Rossi added to his season-tally of three victories with a stunning second place in the last round at Donington Park, where he rode through the pain of hand and ankle injuries to put his YZR-M1 machine back on the podium and cut the gap to series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) to 35 points. That memorable performance at his talisman track was the 121st time that Rossi had stood on a Grand Prix podium - the same number as Phil Read and a figure bettered only by the legendary Giacomo Agostini and Angel Nieto. Rossi has now also scored a total of 2977 points in all classes and victory in Germany would make him the first rider in history to pass the 3000 mark.
Sixth place for Colin Edwards at Donington was the 30th successive race at which he has scored points, a record made all the more remarkable by the drama of the previous round at Assen, when he crashed out of the lead in the final corner only to remount and bravely struggle across the line in thirteenth place. The only rider with a longer sequence of successive point scoring finishes is Mick Doohan, who managed it for 37 races, but the more pressing issue for Edwards now is a return to the form that saw him fighting for victory in that breathtaking Dutch TT two weeks ago.
VALENTINO ROSSI: BACK TO FITNESS
Valentino Rossi arrives in Germany with the benefit of an extra weekend to recover from the hand injuries he sustained in the middle of a Grand Prix triple-header at Assen. After struggling through the discomfort to score valuable points in Holland and Great Britain, he is now hoping to be fit enough to fight for his fourth win of the season and his fourth in all classes at the Sachsenring circuit.
“I am very confident that by Sachsenring my hand will be back to 100%, or near enough,” says Rossi, who won the German Grand Prix for Yamaha last year to add to previous MotoGP and 250cc successes in 2002 and 1999. “I have been working hard with my physiotherapist Marco Montanari and Dr Costa and hopefully it will continue to improve at this rate. It’s really nice to have had time for a rest now after three very hard weeks, even if it’s not so long. I spent some time in Italy and then a few days at home in London, relaxing and seeing friends.
“The important thing for Sachsenring is that we come out of the box on Friday morning ready to make the most of every available minute of practice time. We can’t afford to lose time in practice with set-up problems like we had in Donington, and I am sure that Yamaha has been working at the maximum over the break so we will be ready to be competitive from Friday morning. Sachsenring is quite a different track, very tight and twisty, but last year our bike worked very well there, we were able to win and hopefully that will be the case again this year.”
GO ROSSI GO