News 23 Jul 2010

MotoGP: Yamaha team unveils special Laguna Seca livery

The Fiat Yamaha Team unveiled their one-off Laguna Seca livery this morning in the United States, set to be joined by the Tech 3 Yamaha sattelite team with revised paint jobs this weekend.

Fiat Yamaha has a special livery for Laguna Seca this weekend.

Fiat Yamaha has a special livery for Laguna Seca this weekend.

The Fiat Yamaha Team unveiled their one-off Laguna Seca livery this morning in the United States, with both Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo present.

The livery celebrates the impending release of the Fiat 500 car in the United States and features the faces of 500 fans on the fairing of both bikes.

“Global fans of Fiat and Yamaha were given the chance to submit their photos to be pictured on the fairings of the M1s of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo for this race, with 500 spots available on each bike,” a statement from the team said.

“It took less than 30 minutes to fill the fairings when the special website was opened for the submission of photos.”

Lorenzo's bike features faces of Fiat Yamaha fans from around the globe.

Lorenzo's bike features faces of Fiat Yamaha fans from around the globe.

Yamaha’s special one-off livery for the weekend isn’t limited to the factory effort however, with the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha sattelite team set to feature a Texan theme due to both Ben Spies and Colin Edwards coming from the Lone Star State.

“Both of our riders are really excited about being together on home soil,” said team manager Herve Poncharal. “And we hope the U.S. fans will join us in supporting Team Texas.”

The Tech 3 team will receive long awaited upgrades for Laguna Seca this weekend, the team struggling in recent races to battle for top positions on bikes that have more closely resembled the 2009 YZR-M1 factory bikes, rather than the current models that Lorenzo and Rossi have been utilising in 2010.

Yet to be unveiled, Spies said in the pre-race press conference that the livery looks good, however admitted that revisions were limited due to sponsorship commitments.

“It’s good to have two Texans in the team, so we can do something special with the livery this weekend,” Spies explained. “We have commitments to our sponsors, which means we haven’t gone all the way with the livery, but it looks pretty good.”

This weekend will mark Spies’ first home grand prix as a regular in the premier class, previously finishing eighth on a Suzuki at Laguna as a wildcard in 2008.

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