Rossi back in form in Portugal

Australian Casey Stoner saw his points lead in the MotoGP world champs whittled back a little in Portugal on the weekend, but is unlikely to be losing much sleep over it. He still has 76 points up on a resurgent Yamaha-mounted Valentino Rossi, who spent much of the race wrestling Honda rider Dani Pedrosa for top honours.

Both Honda and Yamaha, plus of course tyre-maker Michelin, have seen a dramatic return to form. But it is too late in the season unless Stoner suffers a catastrophic race as the championship moves to Japan.

Stoner looked troubled in the early to mid part of the race and it turned out to be a faulty clutch that robbed him of engine braking - enough to just take the edge off his form. Nevertheless he held off a feisty Nicky Hayden to hold on to the last podium place

Honda reports: Nicky Hayden was the pole man but it was rapid line-launcher Stoner who took the lead into turn one on lap one with Pedrosa and Hayden hot on his heels. On-form Marco Melandri lay fourth with Rossi fifth.

Stoner was quickly into the groove turning in an early fastest lap of the race on 1m 37.779s on the second lap. Rossi edged past Hayden on lap three while the gutsy Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V), working as hard as ever to get the Honda-powered KR machine on the pace, retired to the pits on lap three with clutch difficulties.

Melandri was now getting some speed on and took Hayden for fourth place on lap four, but the battling reigning World Champion was in no mood to relinquish any places easily and he retook fourth from the Italian on the next lap.

Pedrosa meanwhile was getting fully to grips with a track that he has not so far enjoyed much success at. He out-braked Stoner into turn one on lap six for the lead and set about giving himself some breathing space with a clear track ahead of him.

But Rossi was on the go and now held second place. He then moved on Dani at turn one on lap nine and Pedrosa was not going to let the pass stick. It took the 21-year-old Spanish man a number of laps to set up the pass, but by lap 18 of this 28-lap dice he led again.

Hayden was now chasing Stoner for third but the American dropped off, clawed his way back, and then had little grip left to sustain the pressure in the closing stages. The fight for the win was clearly between Rossi and Pedrosa.

Rossi stalked Dani, sizing him up along the start/finish straight but never going for the pass until lap 23 when he took his chance to slip by as Dani ran wide on the exit of turn one. Dani was having none of it and as Rossi made almost the same error later in the lap, Dani seized his chance.

In the final laps it was nip and tuck between these two consummate riders. On the penultimate lap Rossi tried a pass at turn one but thought better of it before the manoeuvre was completed. He then made his move on the entry to the turn after the back straight. It was a brave move - and it worked.

Stoner finished 0.8 seconds adrift of Pedrosa, but the points gained with just four rounds to go mean the Aussie is well-placed to take the title in Motegi next weekend - barring any unforeseen events.

Valentino Rossi - first:
"First of all I want to dedicate this victory to Colin McRae, who sadly died yesterday. Colin is one of my idols from when I was very young and it's because of him that I have my passion for rally. It's a very sad day for motorsport and I am glad that I could win for him today.

"This is a very important victory for us in every way, it's the fourth one of the year so the numbers are starting to look a little bit better, and it's a great, great emotion to win again after so long without even a podium.

"Today my Yamaha and my tyres worked very well. Our new engine is better and today I was able to keep in the slipstream of the Honda and the Ducati on the straight, and even to go alongside them at some points, so this is very important.

"Michelin have done some good work on the tyres and today we were maybe stronger than our rivals. Once again we've shown that when the tyres are working well we can fight at the top. I had a great battle with Casey but most of all with Dani and it was fantastic fun to ride like this again, at the maximum and with a lot of good passes.

"When I passed Dani for the first time I tried to go but he was too good so I knew it was going to come down to the last few laps. At the end Dani started to slide a little and I knew I was stronger on the brakes than him in some places, so I was able to make a good pass.

"When I came out of the last corner on the second to last lap I could only think about how I lost the championship there last year so I knew I had to be far enough ahead next time around! I want to thank Yamaha, Michelin, my team and everyone around me, this is a great day and it's given us a lot of confidence to keep fighting to the end of the season."

Dani Pedrosa - second:
"I'm happy to be fighting for win and the pace we could run today was very quick. We were lapping very fast right until the end and this is good progress for us because there have been races where this was not possible.

"I made a good start and pushed very hard at the beginning, got into a strong rhythm and the pace was very high. I was able to pass Stoner but when Rossi came past me and was in front I knew that he was not pushing at 100%.

"With Stoner and Hayden catching this was risky so I went for the overtake to try to up the pace because I didn't want them to catch up. This allowed Rossi to watch me for a while which I think was useful for him in the closing laps.

"I knew my pace was very similar to Rossi's because we had both been in the front of the race. When he came past at the end I tried my maximum but did not have the speed to take the lead on the last lap.

Still, this was a good race for us and I'd like to thank my team and everyone at Honda because they've been working really hard. Now we're going to Motegi, which is a track I like and I hope we can put on another good performance there."

Casey Stoner - third:
"I'm happy with the result, but we did have higher expectations going into this race, at least to be there on the last lap, battling for the win.

"We thought we had a pretty good set-up, but unfortunately I started having a problem with the clutch about five laps into the race. There was no engine braking so I couldn't try and brake as late as the other guys without running wide into the turns. It was very difficult to manage the situation and it took me quite a few laps to learn to ride around the problem.

"Towards the end I started to have quite a good rhythm again, I was getting faster and started to close them down. I felt like I had enough stamina to chase them but I just didn't have the feeling with the bike and I didn't have enough laps. I needed a few more tenths to get on to the back of them but I wasn't to be, we lost too much time at the beginning.

"Anyway, I gave my all and the team has done another fantastic job all weekend. We've been fast, we had a little problem today, but I think we can come back again next weekend."

Results:

Sources: world.honda.com, yamaha-racing.com, ducati.com