ROSSI INCREASES CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD AFTER TRICKY RACE IN ESTORIL
Valentino Rossi finished second in the Portuguese Grand Prix
today after a difficult race with changing weather conditions
in Estoril. His Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards showed
a marked improvement in his performance but made a small mistake
on the slippery track and slipped off from fourth position
four laps from the end. He remounted and finished sixth, taking
ten points in the process and helping the Yamaha Factory Team
to move to the top of the Team Championship standings. Starting
from fourth, Rossi kept his grid position until he passed
Max Biaggi (Honda) on lap four and moved into third place.
He had to work hard to keep in front of his fellow Italian
and was unable to keep pace with eventual winner Alex Barros
(Honda) and Sete Gibernau (Honda) as they opened up a gap
over the rest of the field. Meanwhile Edwards was engaged
in a close struggle with Marco Melandri, the pair changing
position several times with neither able to make the pass
stick. With 20 laps to go and the rainfall heavier, white
flags were displayed due to a new MotoGP rule whereby Race
Direction can grant the riders permission to make a pit stop
and change bikes if they choose to. Since the rain never became
much more than a gentle drizzle, all riders chose to continue
to race on slick tyres. The difficult track conditions took
their toll however when race leader Gibernau crashed out on
lap 17, elevating Rossi and Edwards to second and fifth respectively.
On lap 20 Edwards passed Melandri and was finally starting
to open up a gap on the Honda rider, when he was caught off-guard
by the slippery track at turn one and slid off. Luckily he
was unhurt and remounted immediately, while Rossi stuck behind
Barros and eventually finished 2.771 seconds behind the Brazilian,
with Biaggi in third.
VALENTINO ROSSI, 2nd (Race time - 47’16.824;
Fastest lap – 1’39.142)
“That was a really difficult race for me. The conditions
were so strange, with patches of rain here and there. In the
beginning it was light rain, then it got worse and worse so
that the first part of the track was very wet. It was a horrible
feeling to ride with slicks in the wet. Anyway, I’m
very happy to have finished in second place because we’re
now 20 points ahead, and this was a very important race for
us in terms of the championship. The bike still has a few
problems and we have a lot of work to do. Today was a bit
of miracle really, there was quite a lot of luck involved!
“I gradually got used to the conditions during the
race but it’s not ideal to ride like that. The new wet
race rules are better for TV but it’s not entirely safe,
although it’s clearer now for all the riders when the
race has been declared as wet. I think it’s impossible
in our sport though to find a perfect rule for that.”
COLIN EDWARDS, 6th (Race time – 47’58.269;
Fastest lap – 1’39.584)
“That was a good race although of course I am disappointed
about falling. The bike felt completely different from the
Jerez race and I felt like I could have kept pace with Rossi
and Barros quite easily. Unfortunately I was fighting with
Melandri and for the first half of the race I just couldn’t
make the pass stick on him; gradually the leaders just edged
away. Finally I got away from him and I was pushing in order
to keep a space between us, but I hit that slippery patch
at turn one and went down, it just caught me off guard! Everywhere
else on the track was okay and you could get the bike fully
leaned over, but turn one was just like ice. It was my mistake
and I’m annoyed but the rest of the race was really
encouraging and a big improvement.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – TEAM DIRECTOR
“That was a race in very difficult conditions with
the change from the dry to the wet. Congratulations to all
the riders who finished the race. It was a good race for Yamaha,
with Valentino we’ve scored 20 important points. It
would have been easy to make a mistake so he did very well
to keep pushing and finish in second without any problems.
For Colin this was a big improvement from the last race, we
fixed some problems after the last test in Jerez and he quickly
found a good base here. He made a small mistake but he was
able to recover and finish still in a good position. It was
an encouraging race for him and I hope this is the start of
a good season.”
|
