Yamaha pair aim for title lead

From Yamaha Racing

For the past two years Yamaha World Supersport riders have proved unbeatable at the Misano circuit, and that fills Broc Parkes and Fabien Foret, from the Yamaha World Supersport Racing Team, with confidence as they attempt to go from championship contenders to championship leaders again.

After a somewhat disjoined first half of the season, despite both riders having already tasted victory on the all-new Yamaha YZF-R6, the championship lead is within touching distance for both Parkes and Foret.

The current championship standings show how close the 2008 WSS contest is shaping up to be, with Andrew Pitt on 88 points, Foret second on 84, Josh Brookes on 83 and Joan Lascorz and Parkes locked together on 81 points.

Three no scores have kept Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Team Italia Lorenzini by Leoni) in the lower reaches of the top 10 so far, but as the race winner at Misano on 2006, Roccoli is fully motivated to return to the top step at one of three Italian-based races on the 2008 calendar.

Foret had to settle for an off-podium finish in the Nürburgring race in mid-June, but the 2002 champion sees Misano as the perfect place to get back into the lead.

"I hope for better things at Misano than I had at the Nürburgring and it is one of the better tracks for me anyway," he said. "Most of the time I have had a good result there and even with the new track and riding a different bike things were not so bad last year. I feel confident and I am going to try and win the race."

Parkes, now recovered fully from some painful early season injuries, said, "It would have been fantastic to have won at Nürburgring, and I felt we had done enough to get the victory there. We lost a bit of drive in the last few laps, and I had to take third. The main thing to remember is that we ran at a really high pace in that race and we will be out to make sure we can do it again at Misano, only finish on top this time."

David De Gea (Yamaha Spain World Supersport Team) is still looking for points as he recovers from injury but David Salom (Yamaha Spain World Supersport Team) is still looking to come back to the fray after missing Germany.