FIAT YAMAHA TEAM AIM FOR HOME-RACE HEROICS AT MISANO Just one week after their last outing at Indianapolis in the USA, the Fiat Yamaha Team will arrive on home shores this week for the second Italian round of the season, at Misano on the east coast of Italy. They touch down in fine style with riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo first and second in the championship and having won eight out of the twelve races between them so far this season. Misano is just 300km from the team’s base just outside Milan and with many Italian team members it is an important weekend for all. Rossi’s crash last Sunday saw his championship lead slashed to 25 points but the Italian favourite has quickly put that behind him and is thinking of nothing but a good result in front of his passionate home fans this week. Misano is just 15kms from his home town of Tavullia and he took an emphatic win there last year to the delight of his hordes of Tifosi. Having lost for the first time in eight years at Mugello this year he is doubly determined to make his second visit to home soil this season a fruitful one. Spanish showman Lorenzo arrives his team-mate’s home race full of confidence after a return to the top step of the podium last time out. He has lost both Spanish races this season to Rossi and is therefore hoping for payback in Italy. He rode one of the best races of his rookie season there last year and will be aiming for more of the same this time as he seeks to stay in touch with Rossi at the top of the championship at a track he loves, having won there in the 250cc class two years ago. Grand Prix racing returned to Misano in 2007 after a 16-year gap, with the circuit altered to run in the opposite direction from previous years. Just a kilometre from the sea and Italy’s famous ‘east coast Riviera,’ the track sits nestled between a string of small towns and villages, which turn into one huge party zone for the thousands of fans that pack into them during the race weekend. Like Indianapolis last weekend, Misano is completely flat but the similarities end there as the Italian track is tight and twisty, with no long straights and a fairly equal balance of right and left corners, meaning an agile bike is a must. Valentino Rossi “KEEP WORKING AT THE MAXIMUM” “I’m glad we don’t have long until the next race because I quickly want to forget the mistake of Indianapolis! Last year at Misano was incredible, to win in front of all my fans and so close to home was a great emotion and after missing out in Mugello this year we are really focused on trying to get the best result there. As usual my Fan Club will make a big party there so I hope that we can give them a good show, it’s always great to ride at home. As we saw last weekend, anything can happen and the championship isn’t over, we have to keep working at the maximum and just try to take as many points as we can each time.” Jorge Lorenzo “HOPING FOR A GOOD BATTLE” “Misano is one of the tracks where I was very fast in the past, so I’m really looking forward to going there in such good shape. I won in 2007, the first year we went there, on my 250cc bike and last year I was not far behind Valentino in second. I am very happy that I have cut the championship lead by 25 points in just one race, but I know that the title is still very difficult. My first aim is to keep enjoying riding my bike and try to do the best I can. I hope we can be as good as last year or even better, even though I know how hard it will be the best at Valentino’s ‘house’! I hope everyone there gets to see a big battle!” Davide Brivio “HIT-BACK WITH A GOOD RESULT” “Of course we’re disappointed about last weekend but we know we’re still in a strong position in the championship and this is what we’re focusing on. 25 points isn’t much when our rivals are this strong though so we need to hit back at our home race this weekend with a good result. Last year we did a great race there and it was wonderful to watch Valentino in front of all the fans, so we hope we can do the same again this weekend. We will keep pushing, try to find a good set-up early and hopefully we can come back to our best.” Daniele Romagnoli “THE EXCITEMENT IS BUILDING” “After the great result in Indy the team and Jorge have a great motivation to keep focused and to try to make the podium every time. Last year we had a great race in Misano and Jorge likes the circuit layout a lot. It’s also the second home Grand Prix for the team, which makes it a special weekend. The championship is still very difficult but we will try, if possible, to keep recovering points and to stay in a position to challenge. Now the excitement is starting to build build towards the season finale and I think everyone will enjoy the fight to the end!” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: The thirteenth round of the 2009 FIM MotoGP World Championship takes place this weekend as the riders and their teams visit Misano for the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. Although World Champion Valentino Rossi has a special relationship with Mugello this is his true home event with the Misano circuit lying just 14km from his beloved hometown of Tavullia. The Italian maestro will again enjoy massive support from the home crowd as he attempts to repeat his 2008 victory at this event and get his title defence immediately back on course after his Indianapolis disappointment. Rossi’s Indy DNF was the first time he has failed to finish a MotoGP race since Valencia at the end of the 2007 season, but he is unlikely to dwell on his Sunday crash for too long as he focuses on increasing the 25 point advantage he holds over his talented young Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo with five rounds to go. For Lorenzo his championship dream has been revived by the results at Indianapolis, with the Spaniard bouncing back spectacularly from two consecutive DNFs at the previous two rounds to take a superb victory and halve the deficit at the top of the standings. The man from Majorca won the 250cc race at Misano two years ago from pole position and last year he was second in the MotoGP race. In the continued absence of Ducati’s Casey Stoner, who is due to return at the round after Misano in Estoril, the Fiat Yamaha team will again expect the principal threat to come from Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa who sits fourth in the standings, 71 points behind Rossi and 46 behind Lorenzo. Pedrosa was in great form over the Indianapolis weekend, until a crash when leading the race hindered his progress and he ended up tenth, but he does not have a brilliant record at Misano. There is an intriguing battle for fifth place in the standings between Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards and Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso, with the American currently edging it by just three points. Misano is not Edwards’ favourite track and he knows Dovizioso will be desperate for a good result on Italian soil, so he will be determined to spoil the party. One rider going into this round on a massive high is San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis, who proudly rides at his home event on the back of a well-deserved first MotoGP podium at Indianapolis. That result could not have come at a better time for the San Marino rider who is still looking for a team for 2010. The home fans will also be getting behind the likes of Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi and Hayate Racing’s Marco Melandri, who sit eighth and tenth in the standings at present, whilst ninth placed LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet will battle through the pain of his ankle injury in order to try and get a decent points haul at what is a home event for his team boss Lucio Cecchinello. The Ducati riders will also be keen to keep the Ducatisti fans happy on ‘home turf’ with Nicky Hayden looking in better shape after his first podium result for the Italian factory arrived at his home GP at Indianapolis. With Mika Kallio continuing to temporarily ride as a substitute for Stoner alongside Hayden in the works team, the impressive Aleix Espargaró gets another substitute ride on the satellite Ducati with Pramac Racing. 250cc The 250cc battle this weekend will be another crucial episode in the title race, with current standings leader Hiroshi Aoyama and second placed Álvaro Bautista coming under increasing pressure from World Champion Marco Simoncelli. The ultra-consistent Aoyama has a 16 point advantage over Bautista in the general classification with five rounds remaining, having scored good points at every GP this season missing the top five on just two occasions. The Japanese rider got his sixth podium of 2009 on Sunday at Indianapolis, in second place, and has also featured on the rostrum at Misano previously, when he was the runner-up in the 2007 250cc race. Had Bautista not crashed out in Assen earlier this year he would be in charge of the championship fight at present, but he conceded further ground at Indianapolis in third place. The Spaniard has now gone five races without a victory and he would love to halt that trend this weekend by repeating his 2008 Misano win, which he achieved from 11th place on the grid. The man of the moment following his Brno and Indy triumphs, 250cc title holder Simoncelli will be the man to beat on the Rimini coast. The long-haired Italian now trails Aoyama by 27 points and will be extremely keen to improve his record at Misano – which is less than 5km from his home town of Cattolica having never been on the podium there. In fourth place in the standings, Héctor Barberá’s two consecutive third places at the San Marino event in ’07 & ’08 mean he will be confident of improving his current form this weekend, having been outside of the top five at the last three rounds. In addition to Simoncelli, there are three additional Italian riders in the current top eight, fifth placed Mattia Pasini (the 2007 125cc Misano race winner), sixth placed Raffaele de Rosa and eighth placed Roberto Locatelli, which should make this Sunday’s 250cc race an extra spicy affair. 125cc None of the riders currently competing in the 125cc class have previously won a Grand Prix at the Misano circuit, but on the basis of their 2009 form so far Julián Simón, Nico Terol and Bradley Smith are likely to have a say in proceedings. A dramatic last lap at Indianapolis saw five riders competing for glory, with a maiden Grand Prix victory ultimately seized by Spanish youngster Pol Espargaró and with Simón ending up at the back of that quintet. The result will not overly trouble Simón, however, as he still enjoys a 52.5 point advantage at the head of the standings. Simón has of course been racing in the 250cc class for the past two years, and his Misano results were tenth in 2007 for Honda and fifth last year on a KTM. Like Simón, Terol also lost out in the final stages at The Brickyard, crossing the line fourth after leading for much of the race. That result kept him second in the classification, with a one point lead over Englishman Smith. Bancaja Aspar rider Smith finished second last year at Misano which equaled his best result of 2008 and was also the position in which he finished the race at Indianapolis on Sunday, a tenth of a second behind the victorious Espargaró. In fourth place overall is Simón and Smith’s team-mate Sergio Gadea, who was a disappointing 15th at Indy, whilst in fifth place in the points table sits the frustratingly inconsistent Andrea Iannone who crashed out in the States having been on the podium two weeks earlier at Brno. The Italian will hope to be on his best form as he visits Rimini from his native Abruzzo. Indianapolis victor Espargaró now occupies sixth place in the championship and is set to make his 50th Grand Prix start on Sunday. Free practice at the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini commences at 12.40pm local time for the 125cc class, with the MotoGP riders starting at 1.55pm and the 250cc field getting underway at 3.10pm on Friday 4th September.