ROSSI SIGNS OFF FOR SUMMER WITH HIS EIGHTH WIN OF THE SEASON
Just one week after his stunning wet weather win at Donington
Park in England, reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino
Rossi was back on top of the podium at the Sachsenring circuit
as he snatched victory from Sete Gibernau (Honda) on the final
lap of the German Grand Prix today. The tenth round of the
2005 campaign and Rossi’s 150th Grand Prix appearance
in all was stopped after five laps when John Hopkins (Suzuki)
crashed out and left his machine strewn in the middle of the
circuit. By that time Rossi had made his way up to second
place and when the race restarted he quickly began to pile
the pressure on early race leader Nicky Hayden, taking the
lead on the second lap. One lap later Gibernau passed both
Hayden and Rossi, who was then relegated back to third place
by the American on lap 13. The Italian mounted a typical late
charge, passing Hayden and closing in on Gibernau during the
closing stages of the race as he prepared an attack on the
final lap. It proved unnecessary however, as a mistake from
Gibernau in turn one handed the Italian his 76th Grand Prix
victory, moving him third in the all-time Grand Prix winners
list, level with Mike Hailwood. Whilst Rossi now leads the
championship standings by 120 points over Marco Melandri (Honda),
his Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards finished a difficult
weekend with eighth position in the race today, and drops
to fourth overall behind Gibernau. The Texan nonetheless remains
in close contention at the top end of the championship table,
where four riders are separated by just four points.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st – 35’04.434)
“It’s been a difficult weekend for sure. On Friday
we arrived with a bad setting for this track and had some
big problems. The team and Yamaha have done a fantastic job
to recover from a bad situation and have worked step-by-step
to resolve the issues. It was a hard race throughout, in some
places we were fast and some slower, but the bike was working
well after all the work we put in yesterday. At one point
I lost second place to Nicky, but luckily I was able to take
it back and then I prepared for a last lap battle with Sete.
Then Sete made a small mistake at the first braking marker,
which is an easy thing to do when you are racing at this speed,
and I was able to take the lead. I don’t know if I would
have won if he hadn’t made the mistake, but for sure
I would have tried! I made a special flag to apologise to
Mike Hailwood for matching his 76 wins in Grand Prix, because
when another rider arrives at your level, it’s always
disappointing! Mike is one of the greatest riders ever, and
now I am beside him on the all-time winners podium in Grand
Prix, which is a fantastic achievement!”
COLIN EDWARDS (8th – +14.849)
“We worked as hard as we could this weekend, but looking
back over some of the decisions we’ve made, it seems
like we should have tried something different. We just never
made that big jump in performance that Valentino made, after
we both had problems on Friday. For once my start –
in fact both starts – were okay, but unfortunately the
first one was the better of the two, which was the wrong way
round! I really struggled in the race and I just couldn’t
hold on to the leading group. Sections one, two and four were
okay but I was losing three tenths of a second in section
three, it’s only about 19 seconds through there but
I really couldn’t afford to be losing that much time
on nearly every lap. The good thing going away from here is
that Sete, Max, Marco and I are still all within four points
in the championship standings. I’ll come back after
the break and do better in Brno.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“We won a race at the end of what has been a difficult
weekend, so this is another great achievement. Now we go on
holiday with an even stronger lead – after ten races
we are leading all the categories: the rider, team and manufacturers’
championships. Also Colin remains close to the top of the
championship. He is in good shape at the top of the table
with all the best riders, despite not having such a good race
today. Now everyone will take a well-deserved rest after the
first half of the season, and let’s hope we can return
in Brno and continue in the same way for the second half of
the year.”
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