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Rossi takes outstanding victory after stunning ride in Portugal |
Rossi
takes outstanding victory after stunning ride in Portugal
Valentino Rossi
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."
Colin Edwards
Colin Edwards - Position: 10thTime: +44.674
"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 - Team Director
"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."
Year's best qualifying result for Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team
The Grand Prix of Portugal held over the weekend in blazing sunshine at
the
Estoril circuit provided the Dunlop Yamaha Team with its best qualifying
result of
the 2007 season. Makoto Tamada scored Dunlop's best qualifying result
since Garry
MCCoy in 2002 when he placed his Yamaha M1 in fourth place while
teammate Sylvain
Guintoli scored his best qualifying result of his rookie MotoGP season
to claim
eighth spot on the grid.
Tamada was in a strong position holding down eighth place for 24 laps of
the race
but unfortunately with less than four laps remaining, crashed out.
Guintoli was not feeling 100% over the entire weekend and wasn't able to
replicate
his strong qualifying efforts into a top ten finish but managed to score
more
valuable championship points to finish in 14th position.
Sylvain Guintoli
Sylvain Guintoli - Position: 14thTime: 1 lap
I'm pretty disappointed with my race but the best part of the weekend was
the
excellent qualifying session we had but the race was completely
different. We have
proved that we do have something but we have to improve the package so
we can
battle for the race on Sunday and not just Saturday.
I had bad chatter from the start and it just got worse to the point I
had to come
in. I nearly crashed but I carried on for a lap or two but when I saw
that there
were about eight laps left I knew I wouldn't finish the race so I
decided to come in
to change tyres before I crashed. Let's hope we can get something
together in Japan
next weekend.
Gary Reynders - Sylvain Guintoli Crew Chief
The weekend was not so bad but qualifying was the highlight as Sylvain
made a good
lap but sadly he was feeling off-colour all weekend. During the race he
struggled
with chatter and rear grip. Considering his condition I am happy with
his race.
Makoto Tamada
Makoto Tamada - DNF
That was a very tough race but I am extremely unhappy not to finish as I
was
expecting so much after qualifying on the second row of the grid. The
race was
going very well and I was looking forward to a top ten finish and with
just four
laps to go I thought we were going to do it. I didn't do anything
different to the
previous lap but when I went into the corner I crashed. I can't explain
it.
Guy Coulon - Makoto Tamada Crew Chief
During qualifying we had the perfect rear tyre which allowed Makoto to
claim
fourth on the grid. During the race the temperature was higher than in
practice so
it was not easy for the rear tyre. He looked very good in eighth place
and also
had the eighth fastest lap of the race. With just four laps to go the
performance
of the rear tyre dropped off. This caught Makoto by surprise and
unfortunately he
crashed. A disappointing result as we thought we were in for a good
result.
Herve Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Manager
After a great qualifying we knew it would be hard to maintain our grid
position
but we were still hoping to get a good result as Portugal was our best
performance
last year. Makoto rode a superb race until the last four laps. He was
pushing as
hard as he could with the package that he had. He was looking very good
for eighth
position and he had a 10 second lead over the next place. He looked very
comfortable. Unfortunately just when we thought it was going to happen
he crashed.
Sylvain didn't have a good feeling with his bike from the first lap. He
tried to
push on but had to pit and rejoined the race to finish in 14th place and
get two
points.
I hope we can get a similar grid positions in Japan but have better
results in the
race.
Circuit Length: 4182
Weather: Sunny
2007 MotoGP Portugal - Estoril 16/09/2007
Race 1
Pos.
Rider
Manu.
Nat.
Total Time
1
Valentino Rossi
Yamaha
ITA
45'49.911
2
Daniel Pedrosa
Honda
ESP
0'0.175
3
Casey Stoner
Ducati
AUS
0'1.477
4
Nicky Hayden
Honda
USA
0'12.951
5
Marco Melandri
Honda
ITA
0'17.343
6
John Hopkins
Suzuki
USA
0'18.857
7
Carlos Checa
Honda
ESP
0'31.524
8
Toni Elias
Honda
ESP
0'40.535
9
Loris Capirossi
Ducati
ITA
0'43.107
10
Colin Edwards
Yamaha
USA
0'44.674
11
Shinya Nakano
Honda
JPN
0'45.403
12
Anthony West
Kawasaki
AUS
0'54.562
13
Chris Vermeulen
Suzuki
AUS
1'0.002
14
Sylvain Guintoli
Yamaha
FRA
-1 Laps
Rider Standings
16/09/2007
Pos.
Rider
Manu.
Nat.
Points
1.Casey StonerDucatiAUS2872.Valentino RossiYamahaITA2113.Daniel
PedrosaHondaESP1884.John HopkinsSuzukiUSA1505.Chris
VermeulenSuzukiAUS1476.Marco MelandriHondaITA1377.Colin
EdwardsYamahaUSA1068.Loris CapirossiDucatiITA1059.Nicky
HaydenHondaUSA10510.Alex BarrosDucatiBRA8311.Toni
EliasHondaESP7112.Alex HofmannDucatiGER6513.Randy De
PunietKawasakiFRA5814.Carlos ChecaHondaESP5415.Anthony
WestKawasakiAUS4517.Makoto TamadaYamahaJPN3318.Sylvain
GuintoliYamahaFRA30
Team Standings
16/09/2007
Pos.
Team
Points
1.Ducati Marlboro Team3922.FIAT Yamaha Team3173.Rizla
Suzuki2974.Repsol Honda Team2935.Honda
Gresini2146.Pramac D'Antin1487.Kawasaki Racing
Team1128.Tech3 Yamaha639.Honda LCR5410.Konica Minolta
Honda4211.Team Roberts1412.none6
Manufacturer Standings
16/09/2007
Pos.
Manufacturer
Points
1.Ducati2992.Honda2393.Yamaha2384.Suzuki2015.Kawasaki946.KR212V14
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