ROSSI TAKES BRILLIANT FIRST IN PORTUGAL
Valentino
Rossi made a triumphant return to the top step of the podium in Estoril
today, sealing his fourth victory of the season with a masterful ride
to victory in front of Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner. Rossi's eighth
consecutive podium finish at this circuit was his first in six races,
since his last victory at Assen back in June. Colin Edwards was unable
to match his team-mate's pace today and slipped back through the field,
eventually finishing in tenth.
With
41,566 spectators looking on, Rossi made a poor start from the outside
of the front row and slipped to fifth around the first corner, before
making up one place and crossing the line first time around behind
Nicky Hayden in fourth. He quickly began to put the pressure on Hayden
and passed him on lap three, whilst Pedrosa in the meantime picked off
Stoner to take the lead. Lap-by-lap Rossi closed the gap and he showed
the improved level of his new Yamaha engine when he passed his
championship rival on the straight going into lap nine. From then on
the race turned into a nail-biting head to head between Rossi and
Pedrosa, the pair evenly matched on pace but faster in different areas
of the track. With four laps to go Pedrosa ran wide and Rossi came
through, only to make a similar mistake moments later, letting the
Spaniard back past him. With Pedrosa beginning to slide and Stoner
looking menacing in third, Rossi made his move with an inch-perfect
pass on the penultimate lap but was forced to keep pushing at the limit
to hold on until the end, crossing the line just 0.175 seconds ahead of
Pedrosa.
Edwards
meanwhile suffered with grip issues throughout, finding himself as far
down as 17th at one point. The Texan did not give up however and
battled back past several riders to finish tenth, taking six points and
holding onto seventh in the championship. Rossi's maximum-points haul
today means he closes the gap to Stoner to 76 points with five races
remaining, the next of which comes at Motegi in Japan in one week's
time.
VALENTINO ROSSI
"First
of all I want to dedicate this victory to Colin McRae, who sadly died
yesterday. Colin is one of my idols from when I was very young and it's
because of him that I have my passion for rally. It's a very sad day
for motorsport and I am glad that I could win for him today. This is a
very important victory for us in every way, it's the fourth one of the
year so the numbers are starting to look a little bit better, and it's
a great, great emotion to win again after so long without even a
podium. Today my Yamaha and my tyres worked very well. Our new engine
is better and today I was able to keep in the slipstream of the Honda
and the Ducati on the straight, and even to go alongside them at some
points, so this is very important. Michelin have done some good work on
the tyres and today we were maybe stronger than our rivals. Once again
we've shown that when the tyres are working well we can fight at the
top. I had a great battle with Casey but most of all with Dani and it
was fantastic fun to ride like this again, at the maximum and with a
lot of good passes. When I passed Dani for the first time I tried to go
but he was too good so I knew it was going to come down to the last few
laps. At the end Dani started to slide a little and I knew I was
stronger on the brakes than him in some places, so I was able to make a
good pass. When I came out of the last corner on the second to last lap
I could only think about how I lost the championship there last year so
I knew I had to be far enough ahead next time around! I want to thank
Yamaha, Michelin, my team and everyone around me, this is a great day
and it's given us a lot of confidence to keep fighting to the end of
the season."
COLIN EDWARDS
"Three
of my tyre choices for this weekend were our new compound and
unfortunately two of them didn't work too well at this track so we only
really had one choice for the race. It worked okay on the right but on
the left I had no grip at all and that was a real problem. Every lap I
was losing half a second through the two left-handers - I was getting
slow on the first one and then everyone was passing me through the
second one and there was nothing I could do. It's really disappointing
because I've always gone good here, but today I never had the grip I
needed. We turned the bike upside-down and everyone did their best, but
it wasn't to be today."
DAVIDE BRIVIO
"Today
it felt like the old days! Of course this is a very important victory
for us because it comes after some difficult races where we couldn't
fight until the end like today, and this just shows that when we can,
we see a fantastic show. Our wish is to see this type of race every
time now for the rest of the season. This result comes after a lot of
hard work from Yamaha to develop the new engine and a great job from
Michelin. We knew we had to improve the package together with Yamaha
and Michelin and today we've made a big step. We know that every
circuit might be different but we have to continue in this way.
Valentino's level is always the same so we just have to give him the
right package to do his job. Colin was slower than we had hoped today
and he had some problems to contend with. It's a pity for him because
last year he did a great race here and he deserved to do better today.
We will have a good look at the data and hopefully we can find a better
package for him next week."
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