MotoGP Round 10

Starting from tenth place on the grid after struggling to find the right setup for his YZR-M1 machine in practice, the odds were stacked heavily against Rossi as he aimed to close the gap on series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) with another win. However, the reigning World Champion again confounded all the predictions with his superb skill and dogged determination.

Already shifted up one place on the grid from his qualifying position of eleventh after Casey Stoner (Honda) was ruled out of the race through injury, Rossi continued to make his way forward as soon as the red lights were out, passing four riders by the end of the first lap to immediately get in contact with the lead group. After carefully picking off Kenny Roberts (Team KR) and Makoto Tamada (Honda), Rossi set about the lead group of Hayden, Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and Marco Melandri (Honda) and by lap 13 of 30 he was in front. The Italian held on to a slim lead for all but one of the remaining laps, when Melandri made one of his many attacks stick, before holding off a barrage of attacks from all three rivals in a dramatic final corner to seal his fourth win of the season.

Rossi, who wore an Italian team football shirt during his victory lap in celebration of his country's World Cup success, was delighted with his win from 11th on the grid; "We struggled with the bike in practice but today my M1 was flying, we did a great job".

Results MotoGP: Rossi, Melandri, Hayden, Pedrosa, Capirossi, Nakano, Vermeulen, Gibernau, Checa, Hopkins, Elias, Edwards, Ellison, Cardoso.

Championship Standings: Hayden 169, Rossi 143, Pedrosa 140, Melandri 134, Capirossi 118, Stoner 91, Edwards 77, Nakano 67, Roberts 66, Hopkins 64, Tamada 59, Elias 58, Gibernau 52,