Yamaha chiefs comment on 2008 Rossi success story

Valentino Rossi´s remarkable achievement of securing his eighth World title – his sixth in the premier class – meant Sunday at Motegi was a momentous occasion for Yamaha Factory Racing.

Rossi´s return to the pinnacle of elite motorcycle racing has been achieved with style and typical panache, though of course the Italian was the first to acknowledge the support he had been given by his Davide Brivio-Jeremy Burgess-led team, by tyre suppliers Bridgestone and by the Japanese manufacturing giant Yamaha themselves.

For his part Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director Lin Jarvis was over the moon with Rossi´s 2008 triumph and told motogp.com, `It´s fantastic. It´s great to see Valentino back at the top. He has won the last five races in a row and has eight victories to his name this year. It is amazing to see him totally focused, totally in control and back on top of things again.´

`We have had a great year and it is not over yet, as we have three races to go,´ Jarvis continued. `Today we have won not only the riders´ World title, but also the teams´ championship with the Fiat Yamaha team with Jorge (Lorenzo) and Vale and also the constructors´championship. So it is pretty amazing and it is all down to a huge effort on behalf of everyone involved with Yamaha and MotoGP.´

Masao Furusawa, Executive Officer, Engineering Operations of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, added his plaudits for his own staff and Rossi himself, saying, `This year has almost been like 2004 in terms of the winning package we prepared with the bike. Also Valentino was really motivated to come back to winning, so they were the reasons.´

Explaining the way that the Yamaha M1 800cc race prototype had been improved this season, Furusawa stated, `We have continued with the same configuration (since 2004) but have upgraded. Especially this year we have been very much focused on fuel consumption. Last year we struggled with engine performance. The twenty-one litre capacity for fuel was very severe for our engine, so this year our engine upgrade gave us more horsepower and saved fuel simultaneously.´

Meanwhile, in a statement released on Sunday evening, Takashi Kajikawa, President and CEO Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, declared, `We owe this great achievement to Valentino Rossi, who won the championship today, as well as to Jorge Lorenzo, who won his first victory earlier this year in his first season in the MotoGP, and to Colin Edwards and James Toseland, who also rode hard throughout the season and won points on the Yamaha YZR-M1.´

`I want to take this occasion to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of the people who have made this achievement possible, including not only the team members who have worked so hard to realize it but also the Yamaha fans around the world who have cheered them on consistently through the season and the sponsors who have supported them so generously.´