Yamaha dominating Teams’ and Constructors’ championships
Looking back over the ten rounds of the 2009 World Championship to date, as MotoGP begins its short summer break, Yamaha’s dominance has been an evident trend thus far.
With MotoGP’s two main protagonists thus far in 2009 on their books it is no surprise to see the Fiat Yamaha team sitting 140 points clear at the head of the Teams’ World Championship standings.
Indeed, last weekend’s final visit to Donington Park for the British Grand Prix was the first time that neither Valentino Rossi or the young pretender to his premier class crown Jorge Lorenzo have finished on the podium this year, whilst the talented pair have stepped onto the rostrum together on seven occasions already in 2009.
Yamaha have an strong chance of repeating 2008’s triple crown of Rider, Team and Constructors’ World titles and with Rossi pulling 25 points clear of team-mate Lorenzo at Donington the Italian has the edge over his Spanish colleague. Whether or not the deadly duo will still be team-mates in 2010 remains to be seen, but for now the picture is rosy for Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director Lin Jarvis and the Fiat Yamaha squad.
The current Yamaha M1 has been the strongest bike on the MotoGP grid this year in terms of all-round competitiveness and the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team have put it to good use as the highest performing satellite team in the championship in fourth place overall. Colin Edwards got the first ’09 podium in England on Sunday for Herve Poncharal’s team, as the American rider once again outperformed his British team-mate James Toseland.
Second in the Teams’ World Championship standings are Repsol Honda who have had a rollercoaster season so far with both their riders, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, who have each achieved one ‘09 victory. Pedrosa started the season injured, fought back steadily to eventually end the team’s long win drought by round eight at Laguna Seca on the constantly evolving RC212V, but could only manage ninth place at Donington.
The man making the headlines in the UK was Dovizioso, meanwhile, who bounced back from three consecutive DNFs to claim a superb first premier class win. Honda will hope for more consistency from their two riders as the season concludes and they attempt to close the gap on Yamaha.
For Ducati the challenge is to get Casey Stoner 100% fit and encourage continued improvement from the Australian’s fellow former World Champion and new team-mate this year Nicky Hayden. Stoner’s two wins and five podiums have helped the Ducati Marlboro team to third in the standings and the Italian factory sit third in the Constructors’ classification.
Rizla Suzuki’s attempts to push forward in 2009 with Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen have hitherto failed to materialise, despite the introduction of a new, re-designed GSV-R prototype at the beginning of year. They sit fifth in the Teams’ standings and fourth in the Constructors’ championship, having seen Capirossi suffer a pair of costly DNFs and Vermeulen thus far fail to repeat either of his ’08 podium visits.
Behind San Carlo Honda Gresini in the Teams’ table, as the highest performing single-rider outfit in seventh place, a special mention must go to the Kawasaki-equipped Hayate Racing team who have done an excellent job in assisting Marco Melandri to regular top ten finishes and a surprise rostrum result at Le Mans.