Yamaha has today announced it will pull out of the World Superbike championship at the end of this season, leaving Eugene Laverty and Marco Melandri looking for jobs as of right now.

The pair are sitting third and fourth in the series after four podiums yesterday at Silverstone but the manufacturer has decided to quit to concentrate more on customer activities. It's an expensive game if you have no title sponsor in either WSB or MotoGP, so something had to give and staff were only told a couple of hours ago what was happening.

"This announcement follows a full strategic review of the Marketing Operations within Europe including all Motorsport activities and takes into account the continuing severe and rapidly changing Powered Two Wheeler market conditions throughout the region," said a spokesman

"Due to this decision more resource and focus will now be used for direct 'Customer activities to ultimately add more value to Yamaha ownership and increased Customer Satisfaction."