MotoGP: Yamaha bosses issue unprecedented apology to riders

Yamaha’s MotoGP bosses have made an unprecedented apology to riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales after today’s qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, with the pair suffering a terrible day at the Spielberg circuit to line up for tomorrow’s race in 14^th and 11^th respectively.

Addressing the media after the session, project leader Kouji Tsuya says that the continued poor performance of the bike is down in part to Yamaha – something that Rossi in particular will be pleased to hear after months spent begging Japan for help in fixing the slow-accelerating M1.

Speaking afterwards, a Yamaha media representative told journalist: “We apologise on behalf of Yamaha for the poor performances of our M1 with both Maverick and Valentino This is definitely one of the worst qualifying in some time, and we hope that it is the very bottom of our crisis and that now we can get out of this crisis soon.”

Speaking afterwards, team manager Maio Meregalli admitted that the weekend had been a tough one for the team – but that their full focus is on trying to find some sort of a setup to allow them to be competitive in tomorrow’s race.

“Today was a very complicated day to get it right, due to the big contrast between the morning and the afternoon sessions. FP3 was wet, so it became clear early on that Vale would have to join Q1, while Maverick would promote to Q2. The change in conditions in the afternoon meant we had to try all our dry-setting options in FP4.

“The dry qualifying didn’t go as we expected. The riders couldn’t push the way they wanted to, so the team will work hard to find a solution to the problems. The start of the race will be crucial, both riders will need a good launch from the fourth and fifth row to hit the front of the field early on. We will use the warm-up session to fine-tune the bikes for the race, regardless of the weather conditions, though we hope for either a fully dry or fully wet day.

“It’s been a very dark weekend for us so far and we acknowledge our responsibility for not being able to provide the riders with a package that enables them to fight at the top, where they both deserve to be, but we will continue to fight as a team, so together we can overcome the struggles and the technical issues that have held us back so far.”