ROSSI TAKES CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD IN DRAMATIC FASHION AT ESTORIL
A fantastic team effort from Yamaha today saw Valentino Rossi
take the lead in the MotoGP World Championship by eight points
ahead of the final round of the season at Valencia, after
taking second place in a race that saw Nicky Hayden (Honda)
dramatically crash out at Estoril. Rossi missed out on victory
by just 0.002 seconds after a photo finish with Toni Elias
(Honda), the Spanish youngster slipstreaming the Italian to
the line to take his maiden success in the class. Nevertheless
the 20-point haul means that second place for Rossi at the
final race in two weeks’ time will be enough for the
title, regardless of who wins.
Colin Edwards also played a crucial role for the team today,
turning in one of his best performances this season to battle
with the lead group throughout the race before being forced
to settle for fourth in that breathtaking finale. The Texan
got a great start from the front row of the grid and fulfilled
his promise to help out Rossi for the opening laps, protecting
his team-mate from the attentions of Dani Pedrosa (Honda)
and Hayden. Whilst Rossi tried to escape at the front, a pass
by Edwards on Pedrosa for second place on lap three proved
critical, as the Spaniard then became involved in a tussle
with his own team-mate Hayden before sensationally colliding
into the American to send them both tumbling into the gravel.
Rossi and Edwards looked set for a one-two finish, mirroring
their qualifying result, but a late charge from Elias, who
was followed by Kenny Roberts JR (Team KR) put paid to those
hopes as the top four crossed the line separated by just 0.864
seconds.
VALENTINO ROSSI (2nd ; +0.002) “I’m
really happy to be finally leading the championship; this
is the most important thing for today, even if I am disappointed
not to have won! I made a good start and was in front after
turn one, but I knew that my pace wasn’t as fast as
yesterday, because it was about ten degrees colder and this
gave us some problems. When I saw that Colin was behind me
this made me quite relaxed because I knew he would help me
as much as he could. He rode a great race and I have to say
a big thank you to him, I am so sad that he’s not on
the podium with me today. It was a very hard race for me and
I had to push all the way because Kenny, Toni and Colin were
very fast too. Going into the last chicane I knew I had to
come out in front, but then Toni was just a little bit faster
than me to the line. Well done to him for his first win, he
really rode a hard race today! Now we have two weeks until
the final showdown, so we need to relax and stay focused and
try to do another weekend like this in Valencia! Once again
of course I need to thank my team and everyone involved, I
think we’ve really shown today that we have real ‘team
spirit’ at Yamaha and Colin and I are really lucky to
be able to race in a team like this.”
COLIN EDWARDS (3rd; + 0.864) “I got
a decent start and just tried to help Valentino out, holding
the other guys up where I could because in practice our pace
was around the 1’37.9 mark so I thought if I could hold
it at 1’38.5 he might be able get away. My plan was
to put the hammer down once he’d gone and hopefully
shake off the rest of the guys to seal up second place but
Valentino couldn’t quite match his practice pace and
we were just hanging behind him. It was a real scrap out there
at the end and to be honest I’m a little disappointed
that I couldn’t make it onto the podium because we had
the pace all weekend, the guys have done a brilliant job with
the bike and I wanted to give them something to celebrate.
Anyway, as a team things couldn’t have worked out much
better so it’s been a very satisfactory weekend for
us and now we’ll aim to go out on an even bigger high
in Valencia.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“Our main target throughout the second half of the season
was to arrive in Valencia with the championship still possible
and we have done that so we are very pleased. We are delighted
that Colin was able to get back to the kind of pace he is
capable of this weekend and it couldn’t have come at
a better time because he played a brilliant role and showed
what a great team player he is. The two riders have a great
relationship with each other and that team ethic runs throughout
the staff. Today was a perfect example of why that is so important.
Now we have to keep doing what we have done since Brno for
one more race. Personally I wish it was tomorrow but we’ve
got two weeks to wait so we will have to just use this time
as best we can and make sure we are ready to try and win the
title at Valencia.”
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