Melandri & Laverty to Yamaha WSB

Yamaha has announced the signing of Eugene Laverty for its Yamaha Sterilgarda World Superbike team. The current World Supersport competitor will team with MotoGP competitor Marco Melandri for the 2011 World Superbike campaign.

Laverty currently sits second in the World Supersport championship, where the Northern Irishman campaigns the Parkalgar Honda and is embroiled in a title fight with Keenan Sofuoglu. Laverty was in the same sort of Supersport points battle in 2009 when he lost the championship to Cal Crutchlow, who would himself graduate from the 600s to the factory Yamaha WSB team. The British rider then went to Yamaha’s WSB team for 2010 and is now MotoGP bound with the Tech 3 Yamaha squad.

Teaming with Laverty will be Marco Melandri, who leaves the Gresini Honda GP squad. Rumors placed the Italian as a potential BMW rider in WSB, but instead Supermarco fills one half of the factory Yamaha equation. Now that Laverty is set with the Sterilgarda team for 2011, it leaves two-time WSB champ James Toseland looking for work next season.

In a press release announcing his signing, Laverty said: “It’s great to have a contract signed at this stage while still fighting for the title in the Supersport class. I desperately want to win this year before moving on. When I rode the Yamaha YZF-R6 in World Supersport in 2008 I was having a tough time in 250s, it’s nice that Yamaha brought me to the fore and are now giving me the opportunity within Superbike. Ben Spies winning the championship in 2009 and Cal Crutchlow now stepping up and winning races shows the bike and team are more than capable so the rest is up to me. I think with the team support and a good testing schedule we can start the 2011 championship ready to be competitive from the first race and be on the podium as early as possible. Having a teammate like Marco Melandri is great, he has a wealth of experience to learn from so I’m going to enjoy riding with him.”