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The Fiat Yamaha Team make the short trip
from their Milan base to the Adriatic coast this coming
weekend for their second ‘home' race of the season as the
MotoGP World Championship returns to Misano following a
fourteen-year hiatus. The late summer trip to the lively
party resort will be anything but a holiday for Valentino
Rossi and Colin Edwards, however, as they look to overhaul a
disappointing run of results and put up a competitive
resistance over the final stage of the season.
For Rossi, in particular, this is a
crucial opportunity to close the gap on series leader Casey
Stoner after conceding 39 points to the Australian over the
past three races. The Italian has not appeared on the podium
during that time but he has yet to go four races without a
top three finish since his rookie season in 2000 and he
certainly will not be short of support in his quest to
maintain that record. Thousands of fans are planning to make
the 15km pilgrimage from his hometown of Tavullia to the
Misano circuit on foot on Saturday morning and fill the
stadium-style banking that surrounds the circuit with his
famous yellow colours.
Whilst this will be Rossi's first
competitive race at the renowned Italian circuit, his
team-mate Colin Edwards has plenty of experience there
thanks to his days in the World Superbike Championship, when
he finished on the podium on four occasions. However, the
track knowledge he gained during that time will be of little
use this weekend, with the circuit now running in the
opposite direction. In order for the riders to get used to
the new layout, they will be given an extra hour of free
practice on Friday afternoon and each rider's tyre allowance
has been increased by one front and two rears - taking the
total allocation to 15 and 19 respectively.
Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi's unusual podium dry spell since his victory
at Assen two months ago has left him 60 points adrift of
Stoner at the top of the championship, with just six rounds
remaining to haul himself back into contention. The
multi-World Champion has made a habit of defying the odds
throughout his glittering career but is well aware of the
challenge ahead and is simply looking forward to performing
for his home fans this weekend.
"It's
always very special for me to race in front of my home fans
and Misano is so close to my home that it should be
something amazing!" says Rossi.
"Anyway, we arrive here not
in such great shape, following some disappointing races. We
had two days of testing in Brno and, although we weren't
able to find the ‘miracle' tyres that we were hoping for, we
did give a lot of information to Michelin and hopefully they
will have been able to use this to do some good work during
this week. We will see where we are on Friday morning. About
the track, now they've turned it around it's like a new
track for everyone. Even Colin, who knows it well from
Superbikes, is expecting that his previous knowledge won't
help, so I think it's fair to say that we're all in the same
boat. As always we will do our best and I sincerely hope
that we can give the Italian fans something to cheer about!"
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Colin Edwards (above during the Czech Grand Prix)
returned home to Texas for a short break after the
Brno tests, which saw him complete extensive tyre
work alongside Michelin's engineers. |
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The Fiat Yamaha Team make the short trip from their
Milan base to the Adriatic coast this weekend for
their second ‘home' race of the season as the MotoGP
World Championship returns to Misano following a
fourteen-year hiatus. Photo: Valentino Rossi during
the last MotoGP race at Brno. |
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Colin Edwards Colin Edwards returned
home to Texas for a short break after the Brno tests, which
saw him complete extensive tyre work alongside Michelin's
engineers. The American also tried some new starting maps
but despite his knowledge of the circuit he admits it will
be an entirely different kind of map that he will need on
Friday morning!
"I
remember the old layout well so I think my mechanics are
going to have to remind me which way to go round the track!"
jokes Edwards. "Of course I
knew the old track well from my Superbike days and I've had
some great races there, I liked it a lot. However all that
knowledge is pretty much out of the window now we're going
the other way around so I'm pretty much just viewing it as a
new track. Of course I know my way around the town well and
where to get the best ice cream, but I think I just need to
forget everything else I remember about it! The test at Brno
was important to try and get some more data for the tyres
because the new tyre rules don't you give much opportunity
to try new things during a Grand Prix. We found a front that
I'm pretty happy with and made some improvements with the
rear so hopefully that will help. We're not expecting
miracles but we've just got to go step-by-step and keep the
faith. I've been home for a few days so I'm well rested and
looking forward to reacquainting myself with Misano!"
Davide
Brivio - Team Director
Fiat Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio
is also excited about the prospect of racing in Italy for a
second time this season and looking forward to the extra
support and motivation that will bring. However, he says the
new engine that Rossi and Edwards tested at Brno will not be
available to his riders this weekend and is looking further
ahead for updates to the YZR-M1 machines.
"Mugello
is always an important race for us but Misano is something
new and it's a special place because of the history attached
to the circuit," says Brivio.
"It is a second home for
Valentino and I'm sure there will be an incredible crowd
there for him because it's so close to Tavullia. It is an
area where the passion for motorcycles is very strong and
hopefully a lot of fans will come. For us it is a difficult
moment to be going there but you can never be sure what will
happen in racing. We're working hard on our package to try
and improve the situation for both our riders and racing at
Misano is just an extra motivation for all of us to do well.
The new engine we tested at Brno will now go back to Japan
for further development and we hope to have it available as
soon as possible after this weekend."
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