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MotoGP update from Estoril |
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Posted by Staff
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Sunday, 16 September 2007 |
Valentino Rossi bounced back from his Misano heartbreak to
take a gripping victory in the bwin.com Grande Premio de
Portugal. The Italian was at his exciting best onboard the factory Yamaha M1 at
Estoril, winning at the track for the fifth time in the premier class after
out-manoeuvring Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. The duo were virtually inseparable from
the beginning of the race, battling amongst themselves after MotoGP World
Championship leader Casey Stoner was effectively removed from the equation in
the early stages.
Rossi had teased a move on his Spanish rival on several
occasions, feinting and stalling with some textbook attacks before pulling out
from Pedrosa for the final time. The ultimate challenge went unanswered, and
Rossi could make the decisive gap and cross the chequered flag nearly two tenths
of a second ahead. He dedicated the victory to former World Rally Champion Colin
McRae, one of his heroes who died tragically yesterday.
Unable to catch
the Michelin-shod pairing, Casey Stoner could still be happy with a third place
which edges him ever closer to a maiden MotoGP World Championship. The
Australian now holds a 76 point lead over Rossi in the classification, with 25
points less on the table for his rivals to catch up with him. A clutch problem
hindered Stoner’s push somewhat, but he maintains his superb run of podium
finishes despite the conclusion of his consecutive winning
streak.
Poleman Nicky Hayden had a nervous moment when fighting for the
holeshot, with Pedrosa darting in front of him and forcing him off his line.
Having lost the top spot, the reigning MotoGP World Champion dropped back
slightly when overtaken by the eventual podium finishers, concluding the race in
fourth despite a valiant effort to rejoin the pack.
Marco Melandri had
another fine performance to finish fifth, as did John Hopkins who stormed
through the field after a disappointing qualifying session yesterday. The tyre
bragging rights were evenly distributed in Estoril, with both Michelin and
Bridgestone placing three riders each in the first six past the
line.
Carlos Checa, last year’s race winner Toni Elias, Loris Capirossi
and Colin Edwards completed the top ten.
The five riders who failed to
finish the bwin.com Grande Premo de Portugal were Makoto Tamada, Randy de
Puniet, Kurtis Roberts and the Pramac d’Antin Ducati pairing of Alex Barros and
Alex Hofmann.
From InfoMotoGP
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