HAGA AND PITT HAPPY IN VALENCIA
13 March 2005 - Yamaha Racing

This weekend''s official Superbike World Championship tests in Valencia ended today with Yamaha Motor Italia riders Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt both posting times in the top eight.

Having debuted their R1s at the opening round of the championship in Qatar just two weeks ago, the Yamaha Motor Europe supported squad concentrated refining the overall package and working mainly on the front end geometry of their machines.

Despite warm and dry weather, the track surface proved slippery and caused both riders to complain of a lack of traction. In spite of the inconsistent track conditions both riders felt they made considerable progress at the Catalan circuit, not only in terms of ultimate lap times but more significantly with the consistency of the machine over a race distance. Haga ended the test sixth fastest overall. The Japanese rider completed a total of 115 laps over the two days, finding an improvement of almost a second in the final session to set a best of 1:36.347 with Pitt eighth after clocking a fastest lap of 1:36.766 in his 127 laps.

Yamaha Motor France''s Sébastien Gimbert was 15th fastest with a best of 1:37.305 from 125 laps while team-mate Norick Abe put in more kilometres than any other rider present in Valencia. The former MotoGP star completed a total of 157 laps between the four 140 minute sessions as he continues to familiarise himself with the R1. He ended the session in 18th place with a best lap of 1:37.347. Local privateer Jose Luis Cardoso was another Yamaha rider in the top ten, placing his R1 seventh in a time of 1:36.443.

Troy Corser (Suzuki) was the quickest rider over the two days, his lap time of 1:35.566 just pipping his team-mate Yukio Kagayama to the top slot. The next outing for the Yamaha riders will be for round two of the series at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia, on the weekend of 1-3 April.

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia)
''I am happier today than I was at Qatar, so this is good. We tried some changes to the front of the bike and that is giving me a better feeling. We made a big step in the final session and I was able to push harder and go faster. At the end I put on a qualifying tyre and the feeling was very good, but the track has been very slippery this weekend and we did not find a tyre option that will work well for the race here.''

Andrew Pitt (Yamaha Motor Italia)
''We''ve certainly made some improvements to the bike since Qatar but you only have to look at the timesheets to see that we still have some work to do if we are to catch the Suzukis. The front end was better this weekend but now we''re struggling for traction. This morning it wasn''t so bad but then when I went out in the afternoon it felt like I was riding a different bike. It''s a problem at Valencia, the grip levels change so much here and for that reason it''s not always the best track to test at.''

Sébastien Gimbert (Yamaha Motor France IPONE)
''Making a quick lap is not the most important thing at these tests so we took our time and were able to try some things out on the bike during the weekend. I''m feeling comfortable on the bike and feel that I am able to push harder if I need too. Just at the end we found a solution to a small problem we had with the front suspension. Had we been able to make this change earlier then I would surely have been able to set a much faster lap time.''

Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France IPONE)
''Ok, our lap time this weekend - 18th place - was not good but we are here to test for the race and not just get one fast lap time. So it''s ok. On the first morning we ran with the Qatar settings. They worked well and I was sixth fastest, but in the other sessions we had a proper test and changed many of the parts and settings on the bike. Some of the changes worked, some did not, but I have learned a lot about the bike and the parts we tested so this is fine.''

Massimo Meregalli (Team Co-ordinator, Yamaha Motor Italia)
''I think that we have made some big steps this weekend. We came here with some new parts to test and almost all of them gave us the improvements we expected. Also, today is the first time I have heard Nori say we have made ''big improvements'' so this is positive for us going to Phillip Island.''

Superbike World Championship Valencia test - leading times
1. Troy Corser (Suzuki) 1:35.566
2. Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) 1:35.698
3. Chris Vermeulen (Honda) 1:35.724
4. Regis Laconi (Ducati) 1:35.881
5. Karl Muggeridge (Honda) 1:36.084
6. Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha) 1:36.347
7. Jose Luis Cardoso (Yamaha) 1:36.443
8. Andrew Pitt (Yamaha) 1:36.766
9. Chris Walker (Kawasaki) 1:36.793
10. Pierfrancesco Chili (Honda) 1:36.813
15. Sébastien Gimbert (Yamaha) 1:37.305
18. Norick Abe (Yamaha) 1:37.347

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