Jarvis on Yamaha’s ‘fantastic season’

Fiat Yamaha enjoyed a clean sweep in the MotoGP World Championship for the second year running in 2009, with Jorge Lorenzo even making it a one-two in the riders’ Championship by finishing second to Valentino Rossi, and Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director Lin Jarvis has reviewed what he describes as a ‘great year’.

“We’ve had a fantastic season,” said a delighted Jarvis. “To finish with the triple crown of three victories for the second year running is fantastic, and so is Jorge taking second in the Championship. It’s been a great year.”

Lorenzo’s constant pressure on Rossi throughout the season made it an enthralling battle between the team mates, and Jarvis expects more of the same next year.

“One rider didn’t totally dominate the Championship, it was very close and very tense, but Valentino made fewer mistakes and had many victories, so he did a great job,” said Jarvis. “Jorge made good progress as well, but let’s see what next year will bring because Casey Stoner has also shown how fast he is and Dani Pedrosa again showed today what he’s capable of. So the top four are a cut above the rest, I would say, and next year will be hard.”

Asked whether a repeat of Yamaha’s triple success could be achieved for a third successive year, Jarvis acknowledged the quality of the competition as well as his own team’s.

“Everything is possible! I think we have super riders, a great team and good engineers, so we have all the tools,” he said. “But of course our competitors are attacking from every side and when you are the leader you can only be attacked. So it’s not easy to do it again, but we’ll certainly give our maximum effort and I think we have all the ingredients.”