Rossi increases championship lead after tricky Estoril race - 17th April 2005

MotoGP :

1. Round: 2 - Estoril MotoGP
2. Circuit: Estoril
3. Date: 17 April 2005
4. Crowd: 80,000
5. Temp: 17ºC
6. Weather: Changeable
7. Circuit Length: 4182
8. Lap Record: 1' 39.189 (Valentino Rossi, 2003)
9. Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 38.412 (Loris Capirossi, 2003)

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 slid out 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 battle with Marco Melandri (Honda), the pair changing positions 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.

For the Fortuna Yamaha Team, like everyone else in the MotoGP field, the new flag to flag format made for a challenging race. But both Ruben Xaus and Toni Elias approached the race with the same frame of mind - to learn and survive. They managed to do just that with Xaus finishing a respectable 10th while Elias struggled with the extra burden of a knee injury - the result of yesterday's crash.

Alex Barros - Camel Honda - 1st place

"I made a strike today, I'm unbelievably happy, this has been a perfect weekend. I have to thank both the team and Michelin, they have given me great things to work with. We've taken every session here, pole position and victory too. I also want to thank my sponsor Camel, who have filled me with confidence. This morning the conditions were difficult, and in the warm-up we went out on wet tyres but the track wasn't that damp. The race was even more complicated. The track was virtually dry at the beginning but then there were a few drops. There was a moment when Sete took a bit of an advantage, then he slowed and I caught him up. I began to push and push, trying to put pressure on him, even though I could feel the raindrops on my helmet and on the bike. Then he lost the front end and crashed out, he was at the limit. They put out the white flag, but I didn't think about coming in for one moment, it wasn't raining enough for that, and it wasn't even worth putting on intermediate tyres. It was a tough race, the track was in difficult conditions, but the satisfaction is enormous. Valentino pushed me hard at the end, and though I tried to respond, I lost a few seconds on the last laps, but only because I was preparing my celebrations!"

Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Yamaha Team) 2nd

"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 (Gauloises Yamaha Team) 6th

"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, Gauloises Yamaha Team

"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."

Ruben Xaus (Fortuna Yamaha Team) 10th

"Throughout the weekend we improved our pace and because of this I was looking forward to a dry race. I had to start from the fourth row, which wasn't easy, and I couldn't find a really good rhythm until the latter stages of the race. Of course by then it was too late to do anything. It was a very difficult race and to be honest I was just happy to survive. I spent most of the race running around on my own and that made it very lonely and the race seemed to drag on forever. I hope Shanghai is dry!"

Toni Elias (Fortuna Yamaha Team) 14th

"It was a really difficult weekend for me. It started good but ended with me struggling, physically, due to the injury to my knee. The rain kept changing the track conditions for us, which made it very difficult. Even so I think it was a very good experience and I have to keep thinking in this way - to learn."

Race: 28 Laps

10. 1, A. Barros, Honda (BRA) - 47' 14.053
11. 2, V. Rossi, Yamaha (ITA) - +2.771
12. 3, M. Biaggi, Honda (ITA) - +6.071
13. 4, M. Melandri, Honda (ITA) - +29.546
14. 5, C. Checa, Ducati (ESP) - +29.774
15. 6, C. Edwards, Yamaha (USA) - +44.216
16. 7, N. Hayden, Honda (USA) - +57.121
17. 8, S. Nakano, Kawasaki (JPN) - +59.847
18. 9, L. Capirossi, Ducati (ITA) - +1' 7.718
19. 10, R. Xaus, Yamaha (ESP) - +1' 22.431
20. 11, T. Bayliss, Honda (AUS) - +1' 33.529
21. 12, K. Roberts, Suzuki (USA) - +1' 34.051
22. 13, R. Rolfo, Ducati (ITA) - +1' 35.956
23. 14, T. Elias, Yamaha (ESP) - +1' 36.492
24. 15 J. Ellison, Blata WCM (GBR) - +2 lap(s)

Fastest Race Lap:

25. 1, A. Barros, Honda (BRA) - 1' 38.480

Championship standings MotoGP

26. 1, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha (ITA) - 45
27. 2, Alex Barros, Honda (BRA) - 38
28. 3, Marco Melandri, Honda (ITA) - 29
29. 4, Max Biaggi, Honda (ITA) - 25
30. 5, Sete Gibernau, Honda (ESP) - 20
31. 6, Shinya Nakano, Kawasaki (JPN) - 19
32. 7, Colin Edwards, Yamaha (USA) - 17
33. 8, Carlos Checa, Ducati (ESP) - 17
34. 9, Troy Bayliss, Honda (AUS) - 15
35. 10, Loris Capirossi, Ducati (ITA) - 10
36. 11, Nicky Hayden, Honda (USA) - 9
37. 12, Makato Tamada, Honda (JPN) - 8
38. 13, Ruben Xaus, Yamaha (ESP) - 6
39. 14, Toni Elias, Yamaha (ESP) - 6
40. 15, Alex Hofman, Kawasaki (GER) - 5

Manufacturers standings MotoGP

41. 1, Yamaha - 45
42. 1, Honda - 45
43. 2, Kawasaki - 19
44. 3, Ducati - 17
45. 4, Suzuki - 6
46. 5, Blata WCM - 1