Yamaha is gearing up to go racing in the FIM World Supersport Championship, finally bringing back once again a factory team to the 600cc class, and it plans to do so with the 2017 Yamaha YZF-R6.

At EIMCA today, Team Blue gave us our first glimpse of the bike that factory riders Lucas Mahias and Federico Caricasulo, and factory-supported riders Niki Tuuli and Sheridan Morais, will compete with next season in World Supersport.

World Supersport rules don’t allow much in the way of modification to the Yamaha YZF-R6, so while the bike you see here is still just a gussied-up production bike, the actually race bike that the teams will use will differ in only minute ways.

Changes made to the R6 shown here include a set of race fairings, an Akrapovi? Evo full titanium exhaust, 320mm Brembo T-drive front brake discs, 43mm forks with Öhlins cartridges, and Pirelli Diablo DOT race tires.