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Valentino Rossi put in one of the
outstanding performances of his career aboard his one-off
liveried ‘Cinquecento' Fiat Yamaha at the Dutch TT today,
taking a superb victory from 11th on the grid. His third win
of the season is also Yamaha's 150th in total in the premier
class of Grand Prix racing. Colin Edwards' was unable to
match the outstanding performance of his team-mate today but
nonetheless rode a solid race to finish in his grid position
of sixth.
After difficulties in yesterday's wet
qualifying Rossi was left with a mountain to climb today
and, with championship rival Casey Stoner starting from the
front row, there was no room for error from the Italian.
Rossi made up little ground at the start but after the first
couple of laps he found his rhythm and began a spectacular
charge to the front, passing rider after rider with a series
of bold moves and eventually making his way up to second
behind Stoner by lap 12 of 26, setting a string of fastest
laps on the way. The seven-time world champion was then
faced with the task of closing a gap of almost two seconds
to the championship leader but within just a few laps he had
done just that and moved to within striking distance of the
lead. It was no easy job to pass the Australian however and
he made several unsuccessful attempts before finally making
a pass stick through the chicane with three laps remaining,
eventually crossing the line 1.909 seconds clear.
Edwards meanwhile was unable to
capitalise on his fast race pace and, although he was
lapping at a similar pace to the front runners throughout,
he was unable to close the gap after being caught in traffic
at the start. Rossi's maximum-points haul today closes the
gap to Stoner at the top of the standings to 21 points,
whilst Edwards' ten points see him hold onto seventh at the
half-way point of the season.
Valentino Rossi
(Position: 1st Time:
42'37.149)
"This was an incredible race.
I think maybe one of the top five of my career! Clearly
starting from 11th is quite lucky for us because I've won a
few times from that position, including last year at
Sachsenring. Last night I didn't sleep so well and I
couldn't have imagined that the race could turn out like
this, in fact I was really a little bit worried after the
qualifying and didn't know what to expect today! Once I got
going though I saw that I had a great pace and so I just
rode as hard as I could to get past everyone because I knew
then that I could come back to Casey. When I finally got
there I was quite tired, as were my tyres, plus he was
riding very well.
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Rossi's maximum-points haul today closes the gap to
Stoner at the top of the standings to 21 points,
whilst Edwards' ten points see him hold onto seventh
at the half-way point of the season. |
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Valentino Rossi put in one of the outstanding
performances of his career aboard his one-off
liveried ‘Cinquecento' Fiat Yamaha at the Dutch TT
today, taking a superb victory from 11th on the
grid. |
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"It was hard to overtake him, but my M1 worked brilliantly
today and in the last few laps I was able to go past and
win. I have to say a big thank you to Michelin and to my
team, because today our package was brilliant and I was able
to ride at the maximum. I'm so happy to win here in Assen,
it's a special place for me and this is a great emotion! It
was nice to have a special livery here as well, in the past
I haven't been so lucky with new liveries but hopefully
today has turned that around! Congratulations to Yamaha for
150 wins, I am glad that we could celebrate like this!"
Colin Edwards
(Position: 6th;
Time: +15.139)
"My start wasn't too bad but
I got tangled up in a bit of a jumble through the first
couple of laps and Pedrosa passed me. Once I got myself
sorted I set off with Melandri and Vermeulen in my sights
and I thought I'd be able to get past them relatively easily
because my pace was pretty good, but I couldn't quite get
close enough for a few laps. Eventually I got through them
both and really got my head down; I was lapping faster than
I have been all weekend and actually at one stage I thought
the podium was a possibility. I was pushing pretty hard to
be honest and I had a couple of close moments but I didn't
want to settle for sixth. Things were going okay until there
was a stage of the race when things started to feel not
quite 100% and I had to slack off a little. Towards the end
I started to catch Hopkins again and started to get back to
a good pace but unfortunately by then he'd pulled a couple
of seconds from me and I just ran out of time.
Congratulations to Valentino, he rode an incredible race
today."
Davide Brivio, Team Director
"This was a fantastic race
with which to celebrate Yamaha's 150th win and we couldn't
have dreamed of a better race than this after yesterday's
qualifying. Valentino was incredible once again and he rode
a truly amazing race. The package we had today, with the
bike and the tyres working so well, gave Valentino the
chance to ride at the maximum so we have to say a big thank
you to Michelin, Yamaha and the whole team. It was a great
emotion for everyone to watch Valentino ride like this
today. Colin also did a good race and he had a fast pace
throughout, although unfortunately he wasn't able to close
the gap to the front. He was doing similar times to the
leaders though so this is encouraging for the next races.
It's going to be a hard fight for the rest of year but we
have a lot of motivation. It's been a fun story with Fiat
this weekend as well with our special livery and it's
definitely a great start to the story of the new Fiat 500."
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