Monster Energy Yamaha MX2 crew readying for pre-season

The factory MX2 collective of the new Monster Energy Yamaha team are
preparing to flex their racing muscles for the first time in 2011 with
the Starcross International event at Mantova in Italy this weekend.
Gautier Paulin, Harri Kullas and Christophe Charlier will place their
YZ250FMs in the gate at the renowned sandy circuit for what will be the
opening meeting in a busy pre-season period.

Paulin, entered by the Rinaldi faction
of the crew and beginning his second year with Yamaha, has been
counting the practice laps in southern France and completed a
successful suspension text two weeks ago. The 20 year old has been
running further tests on a new motor in Italy for the 2011 Grand Prix
campaign that gets underway at the fast and hilly Sevlievo layout in
Bulgaria on April 10th.

Like Kullas and Charlier, Paulin will
contest the initial rounds of the Italian Championship at Ponte e Egola
and Faenza to dial-in his machine ahead of the first round of fifteen
in the FIM MX-GP World Championship.

Charlier is the defending Italian number
one and the talented French teenager has been busy over the winter
period in his native Corsica. The 2009 European champion will enter all
four of the Italian national dates. “I have been working hard and been
riding in the sand twice a week,” the nineteen year old said. “I have
tested the bike once and I already find it improved to 2010 but we will
work more in March, before, during and after the Italian Championship
events, so that we are ready to go in Bulgaria. I don’t have a specific
aim for 2011 other than to go as fast as I can, but to get inside the
top five of the championship with some podium results would be good.”

Like Charlier – and in fact the
Gariboldi technical squad that will field the two youngsters – Kullas
begins just his second term at the highest level. The Finn has been
active in Spain, Belgium and on home turf during the off-season.
“Training has gone well,” said the eighteen year old. “I have changed
my trainer this year but not really any of the methods. We had five
weeks in Spain with good weather and decent tracks and then I headed
back to Finland before moving to Belgium where I am based for the
season. Getting good riding time is now my priority. We go to Italy
next week and we will work more with the race bikes; I have been using
the stock version until now and it has been absolutely fine.”