ROSSI SPLASHES TO SEVENTH WIN FROM NINE AT DONINGTON
Gauloises Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi extended his advantage
at the top of the MotoGP World Championship to 104 points,
with his seventh victory from nine races this season in the
British Grand Prix today. The Italian splashed his way through
several centimetres of standing water and lashings of torrential
rain to clinch his fourth MotoGP win at Donington Park after
a treacherous race that saw no fewer than eleven riders crash.
Rossi didn’t get the best of starts as he dropped from
pole position to seventh but fought his way back to the front
by the fourth lap. A slight mistake at the midway point saw
him lose ground on the lead group but two fast laps brought
him back into contention. Another burst from the Italian seven
laps from the end shaved over 2 seconds from the fastest lap
of the race up to that point and left Kenny Roberts (Suzuki)
and Alex Barros (Honda) trailing in his wake. Rossi’s
Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards joined in the battle
for a top three finish but settled with fourth place at the
end of the intense race, another solid points haul moving
him up to third in the championship, just one point behind
Marco Melandri (Honda), who crashed out of the race.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st; 1’45.377)
“That was one of the most difficult races of my career
– the conditions were incredible. It was very, very
cold and the track was very slippery. At the beginning I was
lucky because I made a mistake on the start and spun the tyre
but after that I came back fast to the front. Biaggi crashed
in front of me, then Gibernau… there were a lot of people
making mistakes, also me, so I preferred to wait. Alex had
a good rhythm so I stayed behind him but I made a mistake
at the chicane when I was fighting with Kenny and locked the
brakes. Today was not like riding a bike, it was like riding
a boat because there was a lot of water between the wheels
and the track – always spinning the rear and locking
the front. I tried to understand the points where I could
push more and said to myself: ‘Now I try and we see
what happens!’ I was able to go a lot faster and keep
the advantage. It was a great job by the team because the
bike worked well even though we only had 20 minutes this morning
to find the wet-weather set-up. Yesterday when I looked at
my best lap time I thought it was like a symphony of violins
– perfect, so I decided that if I won I would do this
celebration across the finish line!”
COLIN EDWARDS (4th; + 10.292)
“After the warm-up I was a bit down because it wasn’t
great. We made some changes to the spring settings but we
weren’t really sure whether it was the right option.
Anyway, I got out on the warm-up lap and the balance of the
bike was awesome. The race was basically a case of survival.
My start wasn’t as good as it might have looked and
the pace felt really slow to start with, but then it picked
up and it was a pretty eventful first few laps. Then the front
locked when I was braking in a straight line and I almost
ended up in the dirt! I caught up very quickly but about 12
laps from the end I had another scary moment and the bike
spat me up out of my seat, so I thought about the situation
and decided to wait and see what happened in front of me.
Towards the end I was keeping an eye on Checa behind me because
he was quite close. The points are really important; it’s
great to have moved into third place and to be so close to
Melandri. It wasn’t the result we wanted, but I’m
really pleased with what we’ve achieved this weekend.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“Another special win! Every time Valentino races there
is something special about it – today it was those two
incredibly fast laps when he needed them at the end. All the
way through he rode unbelievably well and it was amazing to
watch. Colin also rode really well today and both riders scored
important points for the championship. Now Colin is very close
to second place so we hope to continue with the trend of having
both riders at the front. A big thank you to the whole team,
they are working really well together and it shows in our
results.”
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