The First Training Session of the Team “Yakhnich Motorsport”
The YMS racers Nadya Yakhnich, Natasha Lubimova, Vladimir Leonov, Sergey Vlasov and Maxim Kyselev have come back to Moscow after their training session in Spain and Portugal. The team had practice on the tracks of Almeria, Jerez, Cartagena and Portimao working in full Russian-Italian strength supervised by the head coach Claudio Corsetti. The next training session starts on 7 February.
Claudio Corsetti highly valued the team’s work at the last training sessions: “I’ve been working with YMS for three years already and I remember my promise given to Nadya and Natasha at the beginning of our joint work that they would begin to demonstrate their best results right after 3 years of trainings under my guidance. I think you realize how they are surprised and I am happy that my forecast is coming true. The girls rode fast in spite of the fact that at first they hadn’t felt the bikes perfectly. I attribute this to the new tyres and besides that the girls hadn’t practiced since September 2010. Nevertheless from the first laps in Almeria Nadya managed to take 5 seconds from her last year results. The same I can say about Natasha. The atmosphere in Portimao was similar: the girls immediately recorded time which was on average 5-6 seconds faster than in the season 2010. In Jerez Nadya just amazed me: from the first day, in spite of her problems with the neck because of which she wasn’t allowed to have more than 3 laps, she started as soon as never before and clocked just fantastic time – 1’56’’4. It may seem strange but it is exactly what I expected as a result of our three-year work!”
Nadya Yakhnich: “The training session was quite difficult as we practiced in a new composition and worked both with Italian and Russian members of the team. It wasn’t easy to arrange joint work: the racing schools are absolutely different and besides there was such a problem as language barrier. But on the whole I am satisfied with the session and my performance: I managed to improve my results on all the tracks in comparison with the last year”.
“I wasn’t able to improve at once my results in comparison with the last season. I attribute this to the long break and my injury. But I managed to perform well in the short race in Portimao though the track surface had got worse. So, I feel warmed up and expect much from the February session in Italy. Besides that it was interesting for me (as a manager of the team) to enter into cooperation with the new members of the team”.
Vladimir Leonov has become a very pleasant surprise for me! I saw him racing last year and I was sure that he is a very talented racer but I couldn’t imagine to what extent! He had a difficult season and now he is restoring his health to normal after the injury but nevertheless he did well in Almeria and in Portimao he clocked 1’48’’2 – this time is better than the result recorded at the first lap by the winner of the World STK last March! I don’t try to compare results recorded in different situations but I can’t help mentioning that it is very cool! Besides that it is important that Leonov gives a lot of technical information to the team so we will be able to prepare thoroughly the bike for him. I am quite sure that we can expect excellent results from this racer at the Italian Championship this year.
Sergey Vlasov: “The training session is always the most difficult period in a sportsman’s life as he has to compete not with his rivals but with himself. But I am sure I‘ll be able to overcome all the difficulties. I am looking forward to the next training session”.
Maxim Kyselev: “The main aim of this session for me was to run in my new BMW and adjust its suspension. I cannot say that this work has been successfully completed. We will continue working in the frames of the February trainings”.