A weekend Yamaha France want to forget.
It was a weekend to forget for the Yamaha Motor France team at the Monza races for the fourth round of the Corona Extra World Superbike championship with a catalogue of incidents.
Team rider Norick Abe earned a top ten finish in his inaugural Monza meeting, following up with 12th, after set-up changes between races did not work out as planned.
It was a weekend to forget for the Yamaha Motor France team at the Monza races for the fourth round of the Corona Extra World Superbike championship with a catalogue of incidents.
Team rider Norick Abe earned a top ten finish in his inaugural Monza meeting, following up with 12th, after set-up changes between races did not work out as planned.
"It was the first time for me at Monza but every day I improved," commented Abe. "In the first race things were not so bad but I did not have a good feeling from the front end. If this was fixed I think I could have gone five tenths faster each lap. So we modified the settings for race two - but it was even worse than race one!"
His team-mate Sebastien Gimbert had a tough Superbike baptism at Monza, 17th in race one, while a damaged radiator in race two put him out of the follow-up.
"A grim weekend for me I'm afraid, and the stone holing the radiator summed it up!" said a disgruntled Gimbert. "In race one I cut the Ascari chicane with Bussei and that made it a problem for me. I'm disappointed with the weekend."
Team manager Martial Garcia admitted he was happy until the races, where he expected more from his riders.
"For the first time we were happy about qualifying at the right time because at the end the riders both made Superpole," he said. "But for the race we expected more. It was a real shame for Sebastien because a stone went through his radiator and all the water leaked out. After the first lap the temperature went almost to maximum. We have to forget about this one and move on to Silverstone."
