MotoGP Qatar: Rossi’s tenth victory secures team title for Gauloises Yamaha

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MotoGP Qatar: Rossi’s tenth victory secures team title for Gauloises Yamaha

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October 2, 2005 Just six days after lifting the MotoGP title with Valentino Rossi in Malaysia, the Gauloises Yamaha Team were celebrating again today as Valentino Rossi’s record-breaking tenth victory of the season secured the Teams’ World Championship at the Qatar Grand Prix. Yamaha is likely to secure the trifecta by winning the constructor’s title at the Australian GP in a fortnight’s time. Once again, Spaniard Sete Gibernau was the front-runner for most of the race, relenting once more when the chequered flag grew near to finally finish fifth. Gibernau has led 111 (32%) of the 347 laps in this year’s 14 races compared to Rossi’s 87 laps (25%) yet Rossi has won ten Gps and a championship compared to Gibernau’s zip and eighth place in the standings. The Spaniard remains the most obviously capable rider other than Rossi and is reportedly negotiating a move from Honda to Ducati for next year.

While the continued appearance of the Honda RC211V on the podium suggests the Honda is not at fault, some people believe the Honda’s front end problems have been masked by a bevvy of good riders, and a Ducati team of Gibernau and Capirossi riding on much improved Bridgestone tyres might well be a championship contender. Remember that Tory Bayliss was competitive on the Ducati but has not been on the Honda.

Other key silly-season rumours suggest that despite sitting second in the title, Max Biaggi has not yet signed and isn’t even close to securing a premium ride, with several other veterans perhaps being seen for the last time in the next few races – Carlos Checa and Alex barros are also reportedly not being highly sought in the paddock, with many team managers believing its time to look to a fresh sets of faces. Suzuki and Kawasaki have spare seats for next year up for grabs too, with Roberts Junior out of favour and Olivier Jacques out injured.

One of the keys to the signing of contracts next year will be the performance of Chris Vermeulen on the Honda RC211V at the Australian Grand Prix. Rarely in recent times has there been such expectations on a rider entering his first MotoGP race – though he has won less than 10 superbikes races, he is being expected by many to immediately become competitive at the highest level, though prodigious talents such as Melandri, Gibernau, Edwards, Nakano and Hayden all took time to come to grips with the world’s premier motorcycle roadracing event.

With a seeming dearth of talent in MotoGP capable of taking it to Rossi, our advice for team managers looking for a hot rider would be to look to the superbike championships – specifically, the AMA Championships where Matt Mladin has been racking up wins, fastest laps and titles for the best part of a decade, not to mention being the world’s second highest paid motorcycle road racer. Mladin tried MotoGP many years ago but chose the wrong team at the wrong time – Mladin is race hardened and consistently the fastest man in a cut-throat series. He would make a great acquisition and someone’s gotta start giving Rossi a run for his money.

The dominance of Rossi is great to see, but it’s time that he was seriously challenged otherwise despite his entertaining personality and antics, MotoGP may well take on the processional nature of Formula 1 when Schumacher was at his most potent.

The last rider to win the World Championship for Yamaha before Rossi took the title last season was Wayne Rainey. The Californian clinched his third consecutive title on the YZR500 machine in 1992 and has kept a close eye on Rossi’s dominant form this season, which has seen the 26 year old take the title with nine wins from thirteen races. “Valentino has done a fabulous job and it is wonderful to see Yamaha winning races consistently again - basically for the first time since I raced,” says Rainey, who played a major part in taking MotoGP back to the United States at Laguna Seca earlier this year. After dominating the 500cc series with 24 victories between 1988 and 1993, Rainey knows only too well about the psychological strength it takes to be a World Champion and says that this, as well as an abundance of talent, is Rossi’s main weapon. “To tell you the truth I think he’s just been playing with the other guys, he’s got them beaten even before they go out on the track,” he explains. “I think there are other riders out there with the ability to compete with him but every time they come out of their shells he just beats them back in again. That is probably his strongest asset and if the riders out there now want to beat him they will have to start rethinking their approach a little.” Rainey had followed the path to Grand Prix stardom marked out by his fellow American Eddie Lawson, who won the first of his three 500cc titles with Yamaha in 1985. Lawson’s total of 26 victories over six seasons remains a premier-class record for the factory, but that could be beaten by Rossi next season. It won’t be the first time the Italian has emulated one of Lawson’s records, having become the only rider other than the American to win consecutive titles for different manufacturers in the history of the championship last season. “From what I have seen this year Valentino is simply in another league to the other riders, he is very impressive,” says Lawson, who attended his first Grand Prix in several years at Laguna Seca in July. “Above all I am pleased to see Yamaha winning races and titles again. I’ve still got a lot of friends there and I’m delighted to see them enjoying the success they definitely deserve. “Records are there to be broken and to be honest I was sure mine would fall much quicker than they are doing. I suppose if there is anybody out there who had to do it, it would be Valentino!” The man that opened the way for Rainey and Lawson’s World Championship achievements was their mentor Kenny Roberts. The former dirt-track champion revolutionised the way Grand Prix motorcycles were ridden when he began road racing in 1978 and allowed his compatriots to come through and dominate the sport for almost two decades. Still heavily involved in MotoGP, Roberts has kept a close eye on Rossi’s achievements, not only this season but throughout his career. “This year Valentino has had everything covered, he hardly ever makes a mistake,” says Roberts. “In fact, throughout his career I’ve barely seen him make a mistake, certainly not off the track, and that helps him to stay focused on it. He hasn’t had terrible motorcycles to ride but everything he rides he wins on… everything. His PR, promotion and merchandising is head and shoulders above anything I would ever dreamt of having, plus he’s Italian! He’s got the whole package and it’s great to watch him winning races for Yamaha. To see him racing in the yellow and black colours of Yamaha USA at Laguna Seca earlier this season was a very proud moment for me.” However, Yamaha’s first premier-class world champion and one of the men most comparable to Rossi in terms of talent, charm and racing achievement was Giacomo Agostini, the first true megastar of MotoGP. The Italian won his last 500cc title for Yamaha in 1975 and has taken extra pleasure from watching the rise of his country’s new hero, the first Italian to truly dominate the sport since Agostini’s last victory at Brno in 1977. “Valentino is the kind of talent that comes along to any sport only once in a generation - there isn’t a Bobby Charlton born every year!” says Agostini. “The Italian people waited 20 years for the next Agostini and Valentino has given them great happiness. I think we should thank him and thank Yamaha for a wonderful season.” With Rossi taking the title for the fifth straight season and having already signed up with Yamaha to defend it at least once more, Agostini is well aware of the extra difficulties faced when trying to stay at the top of such a demanding sport. According to the former eight-time 500cc World Champion it is this continued desire to win that has been Rossi’s most impressive asset this season. “I think the motivation Valentino has shown this year is a demonstration of his love for the sport,” he says. “The quality of the opposition is strong but Valentino has something extra. Every race is a new adventure to him and he is excited to meet each challenge. It is a fantastic achievement. By moving from Honda to Yamaha he made a similar switch to me, when I went from MV Augusta to Yamaha, and he has kept his motivation high. He has shown his riding talents on different machinery over the past few seasons in MotoGP and everybody around the world seems to like him. I am very happy because I am still very close to the people at Yamaha. I very much enjoyed riding for the factory and they are still like a family to me. “This season I think Yamaha deserve just as much credit as Valentino does. The factory has done a good job, given him a good bike and he has been able to win virtually everything. For both of them, this year has been the best ever.” The Race

Rossi’s 79th victory of his career came after 22 dramatic laps of the Losail International Circuit, with Loris Capirossi (Ducati) taking an early lead from pole position before Sete Gibernau (Honda) took over. The Spaniard had built up a solid advantage by the halfway stage but he was eventually reeled in by the chasing pack and made a critical error with five laps remaining, running into the gravel when trying to repel an attack from Melandri.

With Nicky Hayden (Honda) in close attendance, Rossi closed in on Melandri and the two Italians went head to head in a gripping finale, Rossi taking the lead with three laps remaining and holding off one last attempt from Melandri just two corners from the end to secure victory. With the riders’ and teams’ titles now in the bag, Yamaha needs to be just 50 points clear after Phillip Island to clinch the Manufacturers’ Championship.

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