Following on from a superb performance in the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship in Qatar earlier this month, the Penrith-based PBM MotoGP team of Yonny Hernandez and Michael Laverty were equally impressive in round two which took place at the brand-new Circuit of the Americas at Austin in Texas this weekend.

24-year-old Colombian Hernandez, from Medelln, followed up his 14th place finish in Doha with another important points scoring finish with 15th place at the American track with 31-year-old Laverty, from Toome in Northern Ireland storming his way through the field to clinch 16th place at the flag just missing out on a point.

With the circuit providing a level playing field for all of the Claiming Rules Teams (CRT) class, straight away, Hernandez, in only his second season in MotoGP, stated his intentions when he was fastest aboard the Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored Aprilia ART in the opening Free Practice session after posting 11th time overall.

Laverty was once again aboard the revolutionary brand new PBM-chassised Rapid Solicitors and Minxflix.com-sponsored Aprilia and just as he did in the opening round, gradually upped his pace throughout the weekend to qualify in a brilliant 17th place out of the 21 riders who qualified as Hernandez started one place in front of him in 16th.

Into the 21-lap race and Hernandez slotted into 13th place in the opening laps whilst Laverty made a mistake and ran off the track on lap one meaning he had to battle his way through from dead last. As Hernandez scrapped it out with the prototype bikes of Ben Spies (Ducati) and Bradley Smith (Yamaha) for 12th place, Laverty was charging through the field and by lap nine was up to 17th position with Hernandez now having a lonely ride in 14th.

Hernandez consolidated his position as second of the CRT bikes as Laverty, now up to 16th, set about closing the gap to fellow CRT rider Randy de Puniet who in turn, was starting to slowly close down Hernandez. Laverty saw off the challenges of Hector Barbera and Hiroshi Aoyama to secure his fourth place in the CRT class but in front of him, Hernandez was slowing and with two laps to go, surrendered 14th place to de Puniet.

For the final couple of laps, the two PBM riders held station and crossed the line in 15th and 16th place respectively and in doing so, took third and fourth place in the highly-competitive CRT class to ensure a 100% finish rate for Paul Bird's team after the opening two rounds.

Michael Laverty:

"I've got to be happy with this weekend but I'm left wanting more as a mistake on the opening lap when I selected a false neutral put me off track and dead last. I fought back through to 16th and fourth CRT so it's a big improvement on Qatar. My goal for this weekend was to hassle the FTR Kawasakis and in the race I caught, passed and pulled a gap on them all so I would say we exceeded our target for round two. We have taken a big step forward with the PBM bike, time was always against us coming into the season but now we are making inroads with our base settings for the chassis and electronics, and I believe we can take another step forward in Jerez as we now have a clear direction on where we need to improve."


Yonny Hernandez:

"I had a much better start in this race and made up three places in the first lap. I was able to battle with two prototype riders, Spies and Smith, for almost half the race, but then my rear tyre performance dropped and I could not maintain the lap times. I am happy with the first half of the race but disappointed that I could not defend the second CRT position that I was in for most of the race. It was good to score another point and I want to thank the team for all their hard work."


Phil Borley, Technical Director:

"It's been another good weekend for Paul Bird Motorsport. Yonny has been fast all weekend and it was great to see him challenging some prototype riders for almost half the race on his ART bike. Possibly, the harder rear tyre may have been a better option for his final position, but we will use the knowledge gathered from this race for future improvement. Michael has also had a good weekend with a strong race, after a missed gear on the first lap negated his qualifying and race start advantage. We are pleased with the performance of our PBM bike and after this race have a better understanding of where future development should be focussed."


Paul Bird, Team Owner:

"That was a fantastic weekend for us and all credit to the riders and team. We have had four races, scored World Championship points in half of them and had a worst finish of 17th on a brand new bike which we've built ourselves so all things considered, it's been phenomenal really. We are climbing unchartered mountains with this project and I couldn't be happier with the results and especially the attitude and performance of the riders."

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