GAULOISES YAMAHA TAKE PODIUM DOUBLE AS ROSSI WINS AT LE
MANS
 Gauloises
Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi extended his lead at the
top of the MotoGP World Championship with a victory from pole
position at the French Grand Prix this afternoon. The Italian
World Champion recorded the fastest ever motorcycle lap of
Le Mans in qualifying yesterday and followed it up with a
new lap record on the very last lap of the today's 28-lap
race. He was joined on the podium by team-mate Colin Edwards
who took an excellent third place from the second spot on
the grid. With Rossi making a poor start, Edwards charged
to the front and led the way for the first 20 laps. Meanwhile,
Rossi made his way through the pack from sixth place and joined
the American ahead of the field, making his first attempt
to pass on lap 18 as Sete Gibernau (Honda) closed in from
third place. The Italian’s attempted manoeuvre failed
as he ran wide on the exit of the corner, allowing Edwards
to recover the lead and Gibernau to steal through for second.
However, three laps later the World Champion was back on the
charge, passing Gibernau and then Edwards on consecutive laps
and this time hanging on to the lead. With Gibernau passing
Edwards in the same corner as Rossi, the pair went head-to-head
for the final eight laps and set a scorching pace. The breathtaking
battle went all the way to the final lap, when Rossi set a
sensational new circuit record to secure victory by 0.382
seconds from the Spaniard. His championship tally now stands
at 95 points from a possible 100 giving him a 37 point advantage
over Marco Melandri (Honda) whilst Edwards now moves up to
sixth overall. The result also extended Yamaha's lead in the
constructors' and teams' World Championships. The next round
of the season takes place at Mugello in Italy in three weeks’
time.
VALENTINO ROSSI – (1st – 44’12.223)
New lap record 1’33.678 (lap 28)
“At the start of the race we were lucky that it didn’t
rain and we were able to put on a fantastic show. It was a
difficult and long but great race, although I made my life
more complicated by messing up the start. But I made positions
up lap by lap with some good overtaking moves and eventually
caught Colin. I stayed behind him for a while because his
rhythm was good and nobody was catching up, but then Gibernau
arrived very fast from behind so I decided to try and overtake
and push to the maximum. Every lap I was better and better
and I set the fastest time of the race on the final lap, so
that shows the excellent progress we have made with the setting
of the bike. I took pole position, the fastest lap of the
race and the victory and Colin was also on the podium, so
it has been a perfect weekend for us. The bike was very precise
and I was able to get the power down well so this looks good
for the coming races. We continue our work here tomorrow.
I’m not sure what I have to test but I’m very
happy to stay if we can make even more progress. I’m
looking forward to Mugello and hope to see lots of Italian
fans there.”
COLIN EDWARDS (3rd 44’17.934 +5.711)
"I desperately wanted to win that race but the other
guys were just too fast today! Basically we took a gamble
on the race tyre because with the limited dry track time in
practice we only had five laps on it and didn’t know
if it would work towards the end of the race. I got a good
start, got into my rhythm of mid-34s and knew that should
be enough to keep me at the front. If you’d have said
to me you have to get into the 33s I’d have told you
there was no way I could do those times! But then Valentino
and Sete came through and their pace was incredible. The tyre
got really hot and I had of couple of moments, so I just decided
to make sure of third place. It’s an overdue reward
for the phenomenal job the team have been doing and now we
have a firm base to go from for the rest of the season.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – TEAM DIRECTOR
“It was a fantastic day for us – almost perfect!
Valentino took the victory and extended his lead in the championship,
which is good to be able to take to Mugello in the next round.
It was a very important podium for Colin – I have always
believed that he was capable of this kind of performance.
Today was a result of the hard work put in by the team over
the winter and the first three rounds of the season. Now we
want to see both riders on the podium as much as possible!”
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