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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
clo ses 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 - Position: 1stTime:
45'49.911
"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."
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