Yamaha Returns to Spain for the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon
Gerno di Lesmo (Italy), 24th September 2014
After celebrating a momentous weekend in Misano two weeks ago, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo return to Spain for round 14 of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship this Sunday, the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón.
The race holds special significance this year not just as a home race for Lorenzo but also for the team’s title sponsor, Movistar, who take title sponsorship of the Aragon round.
Still on a high from his amazing victory at his home Grand Prix, Rossi aims to keep the momentum going at Aragon, where he landed on the podium for the first time last year. The nine-time world champion’s spectacular win at the San Marino GP helped him reduce the championship points gap to his closest rival, Dani Pedrosa, to one single point. This weekend Rossi looks forward to another exciting battle with the frontrunners, hoping to secure second place in the championship by the end of the weekend.
Teammate Lorenzo also arrives in Aragon with great confidence and ready to put on a show for his penultimate home race. Over the last three years the Spaniard has had numerous successes at the MotorLand Aragón circuit, scoring two second places and a third place podium finish. His podium finish at the last round in Misano puts Lorenzo in fourth place in the championship with 177 championship points, 35 points clear of his closest rival.
The MotorLand Aragón circuit is situated near the town of Alcaniz in Northern Spain, a few hours drive from Barcelona. The fast and challenging 5.078 km long track was added to the MotoGP calendar in 2010 and has one of the most spectacular elevation changes and multiple flowing corners.
Valentino Rossi
“Heading to Aragon after winning my home Grand Prix is really nice. We had a good race, we worked well all weekend and the result was spectacular. Now we must try to repeat what we did in Misano. The main objective is to continue like this, fighting for important positions every weekend. I am just a point behind Dani in the championship and I want to fight for this position. I also especially want to be strong everywhere. I arrived to victory at Misano step by step and we have to continue like this until the end. We are on the right way!”
Jorge Lorenzo
“Motorland is a great track but it’s one of the few circuits on the calendar where I was never able to win. Over the last few years the layout seemed to be more suitable for our rivals, but I guess this season we can be closer especially because we tested there a couple of days after Montmeló so we already have some references. I’m still pursuing my first victory of this season and Misano again wasn’t the place, but I’m not worried about it. Hopefully we can complete a good weekend at Aragon and let’s see what happens! You never know. Last year I won in Motegi, a Honda track, and it was a massive surprise. I don’t see why we can’t do the same thing this year at Aragon!”
Massimo Meregalli
“We arrive in Aragon in confident mood but we are not resting on our laurels. Misano was a great weekend for the team where everything fell into place thanks to the hard work of the riders and the team. This weekend we start again from Friday morning with the same hard work ethic and looking to achieve the same results. We have some good data from our test here earlier in the year so we hope that will give us some small advantage over our rivals to begin with.”