PBM MotoGP riders Michael Laverty and Yonny Hernandez head to the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship in Qatar this weekend in confident mood following an impressive showing in the pre-season tests for the Penrith-based team.

31-year-old Laverty, from Toome in Northern Ireland and 24-year-old Colombian team-mate Hernandez, from Medelln, were inside the top 20 at the February test in Sepang but the weather thwarted their intended progress in Jerez recently meaning very little track time.

Both riders are contesting the Claiming Rules Teams (CRT) series where Hernandez, in only his second season in MotoGP will compete on the team's updated-specification Minxflix.com Aprilia ART and Laverty will be aboard the revolutionary brand new PBM-chassised Minxflix.com Aprilia for his debut season.

The base colour for the bikes is British Racing Green to signify the latest British involvement in World Championship motorsport. It is part of a long term plan by team owner Paul Bird in MotoGP to develop an all British bike.

Michael Laverty:

"I have mixed emotions coming into the season opener, I feel more relaxed than normal which seems strange given the prospect ahead but when I stop to think about it a certain level of trepidation creeps in. It is still very early days for us with the PBM bike but I feel confident we can be strong right from the first green light of the season. I get to achieve a boyhood dream this weekend when I line up on the grid, so please pardon my silly grin, I can't wait to get out there under the lights."


Yonny Hernandez:

"I am really happy to be racing with the PBM team this year and we are all looking forward to the first round. The injury I suffered last year is now healed and I am ready to give 100% for myself and the team. We have only had limited testing time but what we did was all positive so I am confident of some good results this season and hope to be challenging the leading CRT bikes."


Phil Borley, Technical Director:

"We are looking forward to another challenging year where our target is to be more competitive with the leading CRT entries and reduce the gap to the prototypes. Our two riders have both had some positive results during testing, so our job now is to achieve good results in the races. We are also beginning a new era for PBM, with the race debut of our own MotoGP bike, which we are working hard on to make successful."

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