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2009 Yamaha WR125X & R Details Released
New Enduro and Supermoto join Yamaha’s 125 line up For the 2009 model year Yamaha introduce two exciting and stylish new motorcycles which underline the strength of the company’s 125 model line up. The new WR125X Supermoto and the WR125R Enduro have been developed using some of the same advanced technology that is already featured on the popular WR250X and WR250R models which were launched for the 2008 season.
This is the second consecutive world title for Rossi and the 12th time that Yamaha has won the riders' championship in the premier class of Grand Prix motorcycle road racing.The race ran over 21 laps with Rossi starting from the 3rd row of the grid, setting the seventh fastest time in yesterday's qualifying with a lap of 2'02.412. By mid-race Rossi had fought his way up to take the lead for a while but eventually finished the race in 2nd place.
"I am very happy to win this even though we couldn't win the race," said Rossi. "To come second was a great achievement because it was a difficult weekend. It was a great race and a great battle. This has been a very special championship because everyone was ready to fight us this year and all our rivals were very strong throughout. This championship is not just down to me, it is a team effort from the whole of Yamaha; my mechanics, engineers and veryone from Yamaha's management. I have an extra motivation to win with Yamaha and a great taste from every victory."
But Ford's potentially perfect weekend went sour in the final moments of the rally
as Hirvonen's team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala incredibly crashed out of
second place on the short superspecial that ended the event. (below)
Latvala's retirement and some canny tactics from Citroen allowed Sebastien Loeb to salvage seventh place, not quite enough to stay ahead in the championship standings.
Poland looked like it would see a repeat of Loeb
and Hirvonen's famous duel from Finland last year when they were
separated by just tenths of a second through Friday's opening stages.
But Loeb's weekend
fell apart on only the fourth stage, as he smashed his suspension on a
tree stump concealed in the sand and had to retire from the day.
That left Hirvonen and Latvala at the head of the field, where they
would remain until the amazing events of the final superspecial, which
left Hirvonen speechless despite taking a crucial victory.
"It's unbelievable, I can't believe what I'm seeing," said Hirvonen as he watched Latvala try in vain to extricate his from the barriers. "It's fantastic for us. But that's amazing."
The accident handed second to who had managed to get within 20s of the Fords on Saturday before falling away again. An overshoot finally convinced him to abort the chase and settle for third - which then became second at the eleventh hour.
"It has been tough this weekend," said Sordo when he still expected to be third. "At the moment I am sad, but I know the performance yesterday was very good."
For most of the weekend it looked unlikely that Loeb would manage to score at all, but several final leg retirements helped his cause even before Latvala crashed.
Sadly one of them was Citroen
Sebastien Ogier, who had driven an excellent rally to all but secure
fourth place after a long battle with the Solberg brothers. But the
Frenchman stopped with engine problems on the antepenultimate stage.
With Petter Solberg delayed by oil spraying onto his Citroen Xsara's windscreen, his elder brother Henning was able to take third for Stobart Ford, having charged back into contention after an off the pace start to the rally.
The younger Solberg had hoped for better than fourth but said he always
knew his outdated car would struggle on the fast Polish stages.
"Being realistic, this is the best result I could get," said Solberg.
"Ogier and Henning should have been beating me, as they did. This rally
is so fast, and to keep up with this old car is not bad. So in general I'm very pleased."
All three Stobart crews took points, with fending off local hero Krzysztof Holowczyc - who was making a one-off guest appearance for the team - to take fifth.
Having rejoined 32nd under superally rules on Saturday, Loeb was up to 12th by this morning,
and then entered the top ten when both Ogier and Mads Ostberg dropped
out, the latter damaging his Adapta Subaru at the end of a depressing weekend.
Citroen then employed team orders to ensure Loeb
took at least one point home, requesting that Junior team drivers
Conrad Rautenbach and Evgeny Novikov stop on the stages for enough
minutes to let the world champion move up to eighth, which became
seventh after Latvala's disaster.
"It's better than nothing," said Loeb
prior to Latvala's crash. "One point can be very important at the end
of the season, so I'm happen to take it. But it was again a rally to
forget for me. I hope it will be much better next time."
For Loeb to lose the points lead seemed inconceivable a month ago, when the question was not whether the Citroen star would win the title, but whether he would win every rally in 2009, having gone unbeaten through the first five rounds.
