Valentino Rossi and Lewis Hamilton completed the long-awaited MotoGP and F1 swap at the Valencia Circuit in Spain.
Rossi, who is the 9-time world champion on two wheels, swapped his Yamaha YZR-M1 for the PETRONAS Mercedes F1 car. On the other hand, Hamilton is the 6-time world champion on four wheels; swapped over to Rossi’s bike.
“Honestly this has been the best year and this has just topped off,” said Hamilton who captured his sixth F1 drivers’ championship this year.
The question on everyone’s mind was how he felt on the bike. “The bike is so hard to ride. I had one little spin with it but otherwise brought it back in one piece. It was just step by step learning but it’s a very steep learning curve,” explained Hamilton.
Hamilton had tested the PATA Yamaha YZF-R1 WorldSBK superbike previously.
It wasn’t the first time Rossi drove an F1 car, as he did so in a Ferrari in 2006. He so impressed Michael Schumacher that he was offered to be a driver.
As such, he seemed to have an easier time in the car, although he also spun the car.
In the end, Rossi was only 1.5 seconds off Hamilton’s record at the track, while the latter was 4 seconds off Rossi’s lap.
Source and photos: SkySports.com
Both Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli of PETRONAS Yamaha Sepang Racing Team (PETRONAS Yamaha SRT) will receive A-Spec Yamaha YZR-M1 bikes for the 2020 season.
The team is currently running factory bikes. However, one is A-Spec and the other B-Spec machine. The arrangement is without doubt due to the stellar performances shown by both riders this season.
Although the spotlight had mostly been on Quartararo, Morbidelli has also performed well to score front row starts as well as important points for the team. He was only unlucky to have been taken out a number of times by other riders.
As such, PETRONAS Yamaha SRT is currently lying fourth in the Teams Championship. They are also leading the Independent Teams scoreboard with 58 points clear over the next team.
Running an extra pair of A-Spec bikes is also a positive move for the factory team, consisting of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinalez. Yamaha will have extra data to speed up development of the factory team, which will also benefit the satellite team.
It’s a homecoming race for the PETRONAS teams (including the PETRONAS Sprinta Racing Teams in Moto2 and Moto3) and the partisan Malaysian fans will definitely support them over the weekend.
They weren’t disappointed. Both riders recorded the fastest times in both FP1 and FP2.
Quartararo was the fastest of the pair. First, he set a blistering time of 1m 59.027s in FP1, which was just 0m 00.004s off Dani Pedrosa’s outright lap record of 1m 59.023 set in 2015. Proceeding to FP2, he destroyed the record with a time of 1m 58.576s. The Frenchman could’ve gone faster but appeared to have been held up by Hafizh Syahrin on the next lap.
Quartararo’s feat was even more impressive considering that he’s still recovering from the ankle injury he sustained at Philip Island, Australia last week.
The factory Yamaha MotoGP squad unveiled their new Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP livery and the 2019 Yamaha YZR-M1.
Monster Energy has taken over from Spanish telecommunications company Movistar as the main sponsor of the team. Hence the new livery consists of more black paint matched to the traditional Yamaha racing blue. The energy drink brand was already sponsoring both Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinalez prior to this.
2019 here we come!@ValeYellow46 and @mvkoficial12 got their #BeastModeOn.#MonsterYamaha | #MotoGP pic.twitter.com/RPzwK3mKO8
— Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP (@YamahaMotoGP) February 4, 2019
Whatever it is, the factory Yamaha team is looking forward to leaping back into contention after a dismal 2018 season. The longest losing streak in the brand’s history was thankfully broken when Vinalez won at Phillip Island.
The dearth of meaningful results even prompted Yamaha’s Project Leader Koiji Tsuya to issue a public apology to the riders, team and fans. He then stepped down last month and replaced by former head of chassis division Takahiro Sumi.
Riders Rossi and Vinalez will finally get to test the new bike during the first Pre-Season Test at the Sepang International Circuit from 6thto 8thFebruary.
“I like it very much – Yamaha is always blue, and the blue of the Yamaha is beautiful, but I like the black of Monster because the colour of my soccer team, Inter, so I feel comfortable.”
“I can’t wait to start, the holidays were already too long,” Vinales said. “I would like to be on the bike. I’m really curious to see the steps forward we did and see if we can push the bike at the maximum already in the first test.”
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