Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo finished
second and third in the season-ending Grand Prix
of Valencia on Sunday afternoon, the ninth time
the pair have shared the podium this season. It
ensured that Yamaha won the Triple Crown for the
second year running after Rossi took the Riders'
title, Fiat Yamaha the Teams' and Yamaha the
Constructors'. Sunday's result also sealed
Lorenzo the runner-up spot in the Championship
in just his second year in MotoGP. Between them
the Italian and the Spaniard have taken ten wins
and a further seventeen podiums, Yamaha's most
successful year ever in MotoGP.
With pole-man Casey Stoner crashing on the
warm-up lap the first corner shuffle saw Dani
Pedrosa take the lead followed by Toni Elias,
Rossi and Lorenzo, who quickly passed Rossi to
re-take third. The first few laps were a mini
battle between the Yamaha team-mates as Lorenzo
fought to hold off Rossi and look for a way past
Elias at the same time. He passed his fellow
Spaniard in the last sector of lap three and
Rossi followed quickly in his footsteps,
overtaking Elias on the brakes into turn one on
the fourth lap. A huge slide by Lorenzo soon
after however left the 22-year-old unbalanced
and shaken up and Rossi went through, leaving
Lorenzo to take a bit of time to find his rhythm
again. The World Champion set off after Pedrosa
and for a little while looked like he was
gaining but Valencia is a notoriously tricky
track to make up ground on and in the end he was
content to chase home the Spaniard for second
place, his best result at Valencia since 2004.
Lorenzo finished just three tenths off Rossi but
was delighted to seal second in the championship
in front of his home fans.
Quote from Lin Jarvis, Managing Director,
Yamaha Motor Racing
"It gives me a great personal satisfaction for
Yamaha and the Fiat Yamaha Team to have achieved
"back to back" titles for 2008 and 2009. Our
strong performances throughout this year's
MotoGP championship are the result of a good
cocktail of essential ingredients all being
blended together in the right way. The
performances of our riders have been incredible.
Vale has won his 9th World Championship, making
it 4 titles with Yamaha in his 6 seasons with
us. Jorge has again surprised and thrilled us
all year and made fantastic progress to claim
the runner's-up position in only his second
MotoGP season. Our engineers have used every
single input from our riders' feedback over the
past years and throughout this season to develop
the YZR-M1 bike into the "bike of reference" in
the MotoGP paddock. Our Team staff have worked
tirelessly at every test and every Grand Prix to
provide the optimum circumstances for our riders
to be ready to win. Our corporate staff in Japan
and Italy have also provided the essential "base
camp" support to provide the back-up for all of
the "troops" in the front line. Last but not
least, Fiat Auto and our official sponsors and
suppliers have also provided the essential
support to enable us to go racing in the best
possible way. I would like to personally thank
everybody for the great team work that has
allowed us to achieve all our targets."
Valentino Rossi - Position: 2nd Time: +2.630
"I'm really happy about this result because it
was fantastic to be able to ride well at
Valencia and it's my best finish here since
2004. Of course it would have been better to win
but I lost some time at the start battling with
Elias and Lorenzo and by that time Pedrosa had
gone and at this track it's almost impossible to
make up a two second gap. It's not one of our
best tracks but after the problems we had all
weekend we can be very pleased, we made a great
modification in warm-up so thanks to all my guys
for this. We've ended the championship on the
podium and it's been a great season, another
world title and the triple crown for Yamaha, I
am very proud. Thank you to Yamaha, all my team,
Bridgestone and everyone else, now we will have
a little party before we start work on the 2010
bike tomorrow!"
Jorge Lorenzo
- Position: 3rd Time: +2.913
"I had some good fights at the start and I was feeling quite
strong but then I made a big mistake in the slow corner and
I was lucky not to crash, so Valentino got by. I was in a
bit of pain and I took some time to recover,\ and by then
the gap was a bit too big to catch him. Anyway I'm happy to
get another podium in Spain and I am so proud to have
finished second in the championship; I want to thank
everyone, Yamaha, Bridgestone and all my team, because we
have worked so hard and this is a great achievement in just
our second season. Now I can't wait to start testing the new
bike and I look forward to being even stronger next year."
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
"After two days of struggling with the setting this was a
very good race for us. I think the team and the engineers
did a very good job to change the bike completely and find a
way that worked for Valentino and we're happy to finish
second here in Valencia, which has never been one of our
best results. Now if we arrive here next year needing a good
result, we'll be a bit more confident! It's been a great
season, a historic one for Yamaha because we won everything
we could and our riders won the most races and the triple
crown, it's a season to remember. Now we're looking forward
to the next one, which starts tomorrow for us, and we will
try to repeat the result!"
Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager
"This was a good end to the championship for us and a good
way to celebrate a wonderful season with Jorge and the
fantastic job the whole Yamaha team have done this year to
win the triple crown. We've shown all season how strong
Yamaha is and the job everyone has done has been fantastic.
This is my last race with Yamaha so I want to take the
chance to thank everyone here, it's been a great eight years
and I wish Jorge and all the team all the best for the
future."
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