Yamaha Scores Double Victory In Spain Again
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Apr 16, 2007
The Grand Prix of Spain at a sunny Bellpuig circuit in Catalunya for the second round of the FIM Motocross World Championship has been a memorable day for Yamaha with Josh Coppins winning both motos in the MX1 class, for his second consecutive success with the YZ450FM. Antonio Cairoli won a thrilling duel with World Champ Christophe Pourcel on the last lap of the second MX2 moto to seal his second GP victory in a row, watched by an appreciative 22,300 crowd.
The 2007 campaign is only two events old but already Yamaha remain unbeaten thanks to the talents of the New Zealander and Sicilian respectively. The weather could not have been more varied in the north-east of the country. The huge swing from dark clouds and never-ending rain on Saturday to the sunny skies and high temperatures on Sunday afternoon caused the track to change from a swamp to a rutted and very bumpy prospect that made overtaking tricky because of the emphasis on a single line. For the first time this millennium the Saturday programme was cancelled due to heavy rain fall. The riders were forced to use what is normally the warm-up period before the Grand Prix motos Sunday morning as a make-shift qualification period.
Coppins started reasonably well in both motos. The 30 year old, who had been working on his set-up and speed for hard-pack tracks in Italy over the Easter holiday, steered past Mike Brown in the formative stages and began to pull away. He won by almost twenty seconds and repeated the authoritative performance in the second race, taking his third chequered flag from four motos, by more than twelve seconds over runner up Max Nagl.
His team-mate Marc de Reuver did not enjoy similar fortune. The Dutchman was hindered around the first corner in both heats so that he was unable to penetrate the leading elite. The 24 year old s speed varied on the demanding terrain as he also had to battle hard to gain ground; finishing with fourteenth and tenth for tenth overall
Josh Coppins, Yamaha Motocross Team: “We were here in 2004 and I remember the first race was really bad but by the second the track was pretty good, so I knew that if the sun came out it would turn around. I have proved before that I am quite good in all kinds of conditions. I was already feeling comfortable on the Yamaha on hard-pack compared to the sand prior to this race. I knew that we had a good set-up on the bike so I was looking forward to coming here and believed that we had a chance to make a good race. My starts haven t been that great so far but I am lucky that the bike is so strong. I wheelied on the first and let the clutch go too soon with the second; as soon as I hit third gear though the bike just pulled me to the front. “
