Even if the Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans is considered a stop-and-go track, Yamaha usually performs well and the team is hoping to capitalize on the historically friendly circuit, after what turned out to be a suprisingly demanding Jerez GP for the two factory riders.
Yamaha has won four of out of five last French GPs, and both Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi have each recorded three MotoGP wins at Le Mans.
The team will be displaying special logo on Lorenzo’s and Rossi’s Yamahas’ during the weekend in tribute to Yamaha legend Jean Claude Olivier who passed away tragically earlier this year in a road traffic accident.
Known to all as ‘JCO’, Olivier was a Yamaha icon and loyal employee for 45 years until his retirement in 2010.
JCO competed in the Dakar Rally for Yamaha from 1979 to 1989, finishing second in 1985.
There will also be a display of images inside Yamaha’s Hospitality depicting highlights of Yamaha Motor France’s story in road racing.
Lorenzo who had a rough Jerez GP after bashing fairings with Marc Marquez.
The Spaniard has made peace with the Honda rider – shaking his hand during the flight home – but has vowed to improve even more and warned that if it’s necessary he’ll revert back to being as aggressive as he was in the 250cc class.
“Now we travel to France, to Le Mans, a special circuit which is a very different track to Jerez.
I am looking forward to racing there.
I arrive with a lot of motivation after the Jerez results.
Perhaps we expected better there but we struggled much more than we expected because of the extreme heat on the track.
Fortunately we worked a lot on the test day afterwards to solve little problems.
That session helped us to understand what the main problems had been on the Sunday.
I’ve always had very good results at Le Mans and it brings me good memories.
Last year in fact, I got a victory in the wet by a great distance over the rest.
I rode a perfect race, without making a single mistake and in terrible track conditions.
I have won many times in France and think it’s a good track for both me and the Yamaha M1.
” Rossi will try to score his second podium of the season after struggling at Austin and Jerez.
Le Mans is also the venue where he was obtained two of the three podiums in his two ill-fated years with Ducati.
“Le Mans is a good track for me, also because in the last two years I was able to arrive on the podium in the dry and also in wet conditions.
We hope to do the same and also better with Yamaha because this is a good track for the M1.
In Le Mans the weather will be very important, because usually the weather is quite bad.
It can be cold and wet so we will see.
We will have to work well like always and try to understand the weather and the conditions of the track.
We will try to do the maximum as always.
”
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