Abe lands M1 for Phillip Island, Valencia

It has been confirmed by the factory that Norick Abe will get a four-stroke M1 MotoGP machine from Yamaha to contest the final two rounds of the season.

Abe, the leading Yamaha two-stroke rider in the series had complained publicly that his Antena 3 team wasn’t given an M1, while the less-successful Gauloises Tech 3 Yamaha pairing of Shinya Nakano and Olivier Jacques had landed the new machines ahead of him.

Nakano and Jacques will make their four-stroke debuts this weekend at Sepang in the Malaysian Grand Prix, but Abe will have to wait until the penultimate round at Phillip Island in Australia for his chance.