Galbusera named as Rossi crew chief

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Silvano Galbusera has been named as Valentino Rossi's new crew chief, following the Italian's decision to part ways with Jeremy Burgess after a 14-year partnership.

Galbusera began his career with Gilera back in 1979, spending 14 seasons working on a series of road and off-road projects. He moved to Cagiva in 1994, taking on the challenge of the 500cc championship, before landing a technical role at Yamaha.

During his time with the Japanese manufacturer, he has worked as a Crew Chief and Technical Director in the World Superbike and World Supersport categories, guiding Ben Spies to the Superbike title in 2009. And after a two-year spell at BMW, working for Italy's Marco Melandri, he has been given the chance to work in the top echelon.

"I'd like to thank Yamaha and Valentino for this great opportunity to work close to such a multi titled, high level champion," said Galbusera. "I'm happy to be back in the family and to have an opportunity in such a successful team that is always at the top."

Original Post found on: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/motogp-news/303083/galbusera-named-as-rossi-crew-chief/

Valentino Rossi Rides The Yamaha

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Valentino Rossi had his first laps on the factory Yamaha today at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain, with the first official test of the year for the MotoGP men hampered by wet conditions. And Yamaha has just announced they are packing up and heading to Motorland Circuit in Aragon, Spain, in search of better weather. They will test there tomorrow.

With lap times mostly meaningless, Rossi's best thus far is a 1:43.736, which puts him fifth. The fastest time of the day has been set by Alvaro Bautista, but the Spaniard did his 1:35.936 early when conditions were dry.

Nicky Hayden is seventh with his best lap, like Rossi's, also coming in the wet conditions.

Not everyone has taken to the track with Moto2 World Champion Marc Marquez opting to wait for drier weather before making his debut on the ex-Casey Stoner Honda RC213V. The Honda team has a private test scheduled for later in the month at Sepang in Malaysia. Bradley Smith, the other MotoGP rookie, has also stayed in the garage thus far. Smith will ride the Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha vacated by Andrea Dovizisio, the Italian making his factory Ducati debut today.

MotoGP Star of the Year vote - 6th: Valentino Rossi

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6th – Valentino Rossi 

Average score out of ten: 6.91 

Team: Yamaha Factory Racing 

Bike: YZR-M1 (Factory) 

Wins: 1 

Podiums: 6 

Poles: 0 

Fastest Laps: 1 

Championship points: 237 (13.2 points per start average) 

Championship position: 4th out of 27 

Valentino Rossi's return to Yamaha netted his first MotoGP race victory since 2010 and his highest Crash.net Star of the Year ranking since that same season - but the Italian legend was still voted two places below his championship position.

The only double winner of the Crash.net vote, in 2008 and 2009, Rossi didn't even make the top ten last year, with viewers awarding an average ranking of just 5.11 out of 10 for his final season at Ducati. That improved to 6.91 and sixth place in this year's poll, after a season of highs and lows for the seven time MotoGP champion.

A feisty ride to the podium during the Qatar season opener proved Rossi had lost none of his fighting spirit, but thereafter he often struggled to get on terms with the 'top three'. Indeed, the number four summed up Rossi's season - The Doctor finished in fourth place on no less than eight occasions, on his way to fourth in the world championship.

An emotional victory at Assen - a race you voted as the most entertaining of the season - proved the high point of Rossi's year, while six podiums doubled his total rostrum score at Ducati and the #46 showed he had lost none of his racecraft by regularly thwarting his nearest opponents in final lap battles.

But more ultimate pace was needed and the lowest point arguably came at the Valencia finale, when - even with his race leading team-mate Jorge Lorenzo attempting to slow down the field - Rossi was unable to join the victory fight.

By then, news had already broken that Rossi had decided to split from crew chief Jerry Burgess as the 34-year-old seeks to get on terms with Marc Marquez, Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo in 2014.

Never previously beaten by a MotoGP team-mate in the world championship standings, barring his 2010 leg breaking injury, Rossi finished this season 93 points shy of title runner-up Lorenzo.

About the vote:
Over 30,000 votes were cast for the 2013 Crash.net MotoGP Star of the Year poll, where viewers were asked to award each of this year's full-time participants - only Ben Spies and Karel Abraham, injured for large parts of the season, were not included - with a mark out of ten.

The average score for each rider was then used to determine the final ranking, which will be revealed in full once the winner is announced.

Orignal post: http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/199155/1/motogp-star-of-the-year-vote-6th.html

Lorenzo and Rossi poised for Sepang challenge

Jorge Lorenzo heads to Sepang with the knowledge that he collected his first premier class world title at the Malaysian circuit in 2010. On this occasion, the task is to out-score championship leader Marc Marquez by as many points as possible.

With four Grands Prix remaining and a maximum of 100 points left on offer, newcomer Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) heads reigning World Champion Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) by 39 points. With a difference of five between first and second positions (25 and 20 points, respectively), Lorenzo is aware that he must aim for victories while hoping that his chief rival runs into trouble.

"Now we start the big trip, with three races in a row, and face the last part of the championship - the crucial part," Lorenzo acknowledges ahead of back-to-back races in Malaysia, Australia and Japan.

"After Aragón, where we fought so hard, we now visit a special circuit. Sepang is a track everybody knows really well. I guess all the riders will be strong there because we did a couple of pre-season tests. Sepang is a long and technical circuit with two great straights but also some nice corners. The worst thing is it’s always stormy and you never know when it is going to rain.

"I have some good memories there but we need to keep focus now on the race and try to recover a little bit to Marquez. The championship is difficult, but we want to fight until the end. Let’s see what happens!"

Lorenzo could be assisted by former arch rival and Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, who has won at Sepang on no less than six occasions since 2001.

"The Sepang circuit is a track that I like a lot - I have had many great victories there," begins the Italian, who last time out at MotorLand Aragón picked up his fifth rostrum finish of the 2013 campaign.

"I think it suits the Yamaha quite well. It's very demanding physically, because it’s very hot, but it's also a great track and challenge because of that. I want to try to have a good weekend and work hard on the setup in order to be competitive in the race."

For Constructors’ honours ahead of the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, Yamaha trails Honda by 26 points, whereas Yamaha Factory Racing is second in the Teams’ standings and 73 points in arrears of Repsol Honda Team.

The memory of Valentino Rossi for Marco Simoncelli - 6 Hours ago in Sepang.

Sepang: Red, 4th arrival at the finish line reminds Simoncelli 

On the track in October of 2011 saw the death of Sic, Smith recalls the pilot friend doing a lap of honor after the race with the flag with the number 58. 

Sepang: Red, 4th arrival at the finish line reminds Simoncelli.

It was certainly a good day for Valentino Rossi, 4th arrival, which in the Grand Prix at Sepang was always watching from the first to the twentieth lap his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and the two Honda riders compete for the podium. And to say that in practice, and especially in qualifying, the Doctor had done well for a few minutes savoring even the pole position, then faded due dell'indiavolato Marquez. Then, in the race, the almost absolute anonymity for a distant fourth place in the first three, the son of a difficult morning began with a fall during the warm-up to a few hours from the start.

The tribute to Sic - Yet, as often happens to the sample of Tavullia, anonymous one day turns into a moment at a time, however, to remember. Why the finish line, while Pedrosa celebrated an encore in Malaysia after last year's win, Marquez put his head in front of Lorenzo, stretching a little 'over defending champion Yamaha's Valentino cut out their own space on the circuit by waving the Malaysian flag he remembered his friend Simoncelli, who died October 23, 2011 on this track. On 18 October last year, during the race weekend of the Malaysian Grand Prix, riders and the MotoGP paddock had affixed a commemorative plaque at Turn 11 of the Sepang circuit where Simoncelli lost his life.This year we thought Rossi, the usual great champion off the track.

‘Half and half’ race for Rossi in Malaysia

Rossi referred to the positives and negatives, meaning that he was pleased to have close the gap somewhat on his teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who he trailed across the line by 3.7s, but disappointed to see the advantage his Repsol Honda rivals had over him.

Valentino Rossi dropped initially to fourth off the line from his second place grid position, tucked in behind Marc Marquez on the first lap.

The nine-time World Champion made a move on Marquez at turn 10 but was unable to pass and settled back into fourth. Rossi spent several laps holding off the advances of Alvaro Bautista, narrowly escaping an incident when the Spanish rider overshot turn one, just missing Rossi as he ran wide.

The rest of the race proved to be a lonely one as he held his position in fourth, crossing the line just over ten seconds behind winner Pedrosa. It is his seventh fourth place finish of 2013 and he has now finished in the top four at the last ten races.

"Today was half and half for me," Rossi explained. "For sure we improved and made another step, improving the setting of the bike and I was able to be very close to Jorge. It looks like today our competitors had an advantage here; they were able to keep a better rhythm than us."

"Starting from second I hoped to arrive on the podium but I knew the top three guys were very strong. At the beginning of the race I lost some time as I had a problem with the front brakes. We continue to work and push and fight to be in with the top three."

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Factory Team Director added, "The weekend didn't go as we expected. We suffered a drop off in tyre life and the riders couldn't ride as they needed to. We tried hard to make the best setting to be fast and consistent but unfortunately we still needed something more. We won’t give up until the end and fortunately there is one race in a week’s time. We would like to have our revenge so we are really looking forward to Phillip Island."