PaRTnEr rOssI

Jorge Lorenzo

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 8th Time: +35.661
“I feel a bit disappointed with this result today because I really wanted to finish the season with a podium, but in the end we couldn’t manage it here. We had some problems though so I have to be happy that I was able to finish the race strongly, passing people and doing my best lap of the race on the last lap, especially when you consider that yesterday in qualifying I was the slowest on race tyres! The best thing about today is that I am the leading rookie, so I get a trophy all the same and this makes me very proud of my first season in MotoGP with Yamaha. I want to thank all of my team, engineers and everyone who has helped us. I also have to say a special thank you to Michelin for their work this season because this is our last race with them. I am very proud that I was able to win my first MotoGP race with them. Tomorrow we begin straight away to work on the 2009 bike and I am very excited to try it.”

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager
“We expected to finish in a better position for this last race, but unfortunately the problem we had in qualifying persisted, although we were able to improve it somewhat from yesterday. Jorge was able to keep a good pace during the second half of the race and he was able to finish strongly and make his best lap on the very last lap. This has been a fantastic year for us because we were able to make four pole positions, win a race and take five more podiums, helping Yamaha to win the triple crown, and Jorge is the year’s leading rookie. I want to thank Yamaha very much for the huge effort they made in order to give us such a competitive machine, and I also want to thank Michelin for their support – we wish them all the best for the future. Finally thanks to everyone in our team for doing a fantastic job all year and we look forward to coming back even stronger next year.”

Fantastic finale for Tech 3 Yamaha in Valencia

claimed a superb fourth place in the Team World Championship standings in today’s Valencia MotoGP race. The 15-point haul collected by Edwards and Toseland in today’s 30-lap battle saw the Tech 3 squad seize fourth position by a single point from Suzuki’s official factory team, ending the 18-round campaign as the highest placed independent team.

American Edwards played a starring role in the success, his superb start from the second row of the grid giving him the perfect platform to mount a bid for his first top six finish since he took third in Assen back in June. Edwards quickly claimed third from Nicky Hayden on the first lap to settle in behind Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa. But with minimal dry set-up time after another weather-hit weekend, Edwards quickly encountered some rear grip issues to find himself back in sixth on lap six. He quickly adapted to the decreasing grip and crucially began to pull away from Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi, maintaining a constant pace to the end.

Toseland also played a critical role in today’s fantastic finale as he closed his rookie campaign with a hard fought 11th position. The British rider shadowed fellow Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo for the opening fifteen laps in a close dice for 11th place, twice passing the Spaniard momentarily. Toseland also ran into grip issues in the closing stages, but he rode a brilliant final three laps to fend off Sylvain Guintoli, John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen.