July 16 : Italy Celebrate in Germany again as Rossi Takes Sensational Win

Just seven days after Italy won the football World Cup with a dramatic
victory against France in Berlin, Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino
Rossi produced an equally stunning performance to seal another success
for his country on German soil thanks to a remarkable MotoGP win at the
Sachsenring circuit near Dresden. Starting from tenth place on the grid
after struggling to find the right set-up 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.

Whilst Rossi was able to rescue a dismal situation in practice,
unfortunately the same could not be said for his team-mate Colin
Edwards, who was unable to make any further progress with his bike
setting in the morning warm-up and struggled to eleventh place.

VALENTINO ROSSI (1st; 41'49.248)

"That was an unbelievable race for me and my team. The first thing I
have to say is 'sorry' to my M1 because last night was the first time in
our relationship that I ever doubted her! But she was true to me once
again and for this I owe a huge thank you to Jeremy and all my mechanics
and engineers. Last night I didn't think I could win this race but we
made a change in the morning warm-up and then again before the race in
the afternoon and today my M1 flew. In some parts of the track it was
very, very fast. We also did a great job together with Michelin and at
the start I realised that my rhythm was good enough to battle for the
win. Once I got to the front I knew I was probably two or three tenths
faster than the other guys but it wasn't enough to escape and I had to
battle with Dani, Nicky and Marco - each one was a great fight. Marco
was so strong at the end of the race and I have to give my big
congratulations to him, but thankfully I got the right line in the last
corner and I was able to win. Italy became World Champions in the
football last weekend and I won today; Germany is a good country for
us!"

COLIN EDWARDS (11th; + 29.308)

"What can I say? I guess I'm just slow around here. The guys worked
their butts off all weekend trying to give me something but we simply
couldn't get the bike working and I never had the pace. It looked like
Valentino was in the same situation but today he pulled out something
like his 700th miracle and you can only take your hat off to a great
champion. We changed some things for the warm-up this morning but I
wasn't comfortable so we went back to the setting from yesterday, which
we knew wasn't ideal either. The first few laps were okay but I
struggled to pass Toni Elias and by the time I got past him we were way
back. From there on it was just a battle to keep the bike on the track
and there wasn't much more I could do but bring it home."

DAVIDE BRIVIO - CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR

"Valentino was unbelievable today, fantastic. This was a very important
victory for the championship because we've collected a lot of points but
more than that it is a big psychological boost to win a fight in this
way. This victory is a fruit of the hard work from the engineers, the
team and Valentino - we have a great group of people here and they never
give up. We always try to win races and today Valentino made it
possible. Colin wasn't able to recover a difficult situation but now he
has seven days before getting a big chance to turn things around in his
home Grand Prix."

Results

1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 41'59.248
2. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, +0.145
3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, +0.266
4. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, +0.307
5. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, +8.764
6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, +9.147
7. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, +16.608
8. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, +16.648
9. Carlos Checa (SPA) Tech 3 Yamaha, +17.097
10. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, +17.786
11. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda. +27.425
12. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, +29.308


Championship Standings

1. Nicky Hayden (USA) 169
2. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) 143
3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) 140
4. Marco Melandri (ITA) 134
5. Loris Capirossi (ITA) 118
6. Casey Stoner (AUS) 91
7. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) 77
8. Shinya Nakano (JPN) 67
9. Kenny Roberts JR (USA) 66