Yamaha 123 at Le Mans

From Yamaha: Valentino Rossi made another historic step in his incredible career today when he took his 90th career victory in Le Mans, equalling the record set by the great Angel Nieto (pictured celbrating with Rossi on the vioctory lap), to move into second in the all-time winners list behind Giacomo Agostini. It was an outstanding display from the Fiat Yamaha Team rider and he celebrated in fine style when Nieto joined him on his slow-down lap, the Spaniard taking charge of the bike with Rossi riding pillion behind him.

It was a superb day for Yamaha in general as Jorge Lorenzo once again defied his injuries to ride into an astonishing second place behind his team-mate and Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards joined the pair on the podium in third place.

Rossi had an average start and was tailing the lead group in fifth at the end of lap one. It was soon clear how well his Yamaha-Bridgestone package was working however and he picked off first Nicky Hayden then Edwards and Dani Pedrosa to move into second behind Casey Stoner, before passing him too on lap eight. From then on Rossi was too strong for the chasing pack, stretching his lead lap after lap until some spots of rain forced him to slow slightly in the last third of the race. The sun soon came back out however, allowing the riders to continue without changing bikes and the Italian to cross the line 4.997 seconds in front to take his first back-to-back victory since 2006.

The 29-year-old's 90th win moves him two points clear at the top of the championship with 97 points, whilst Lorenzo and Pedrosa are just behind him with 94 points each. Rossi will now stay here for two days of testing to ready himself for his home race at Mugello in Italy in two week's time, when he will be looking for his 7th consecutive win at the track.

Valentino Rossi 1st 44'30.799; "To arrive at 90 wins like this and equal Angel's record is a dream for me. I had quite a lot of pressure because Angel was waiting with the special leathers to join me on the bike, so I really needed to win! It was great to ride with him - I think maybe with some practice he can be as fast as us! 180 victories together on one bike is quite impressive I think!

Honestly I didn't expect to be so fast today but together with Jeremy and my guys we decided to make some small modifications this morning and in the race my M1 and my Bridgestone tyres worked brilliantly from start to finish. When is started to rain a little bit I thought "oh no!' and so I steadied a bit and tried to ride very sweetly; I had such a good rhythm and I really didn't want to have to change bikes. Luckily the rain soon stopped and I was able to continue in the same way. It's great for Yamaha to have the first three and I want to congratulate Jorge especially for doing such a good job in his condition. Thanks to everybody in the team; the job that Yamaha has done in three months is incredible. I enjoyed myself so much today, the atmosphere in our garage is perfect and now we will make two important days of testing, try to improve even more and then head to Mugello."

Jorge Lorenzo 2nd +4'997; "Firstly I want to say congratulations to Yamaha because it's fantastic to have three on the podium and it demonstrates how strong our bike is. After the weekend I have had, with the crashes and so much pain, I can't believe I'm here! All last night I worried about this race because I really thought it might be too hard. It was a dream to finish sixth or seventh, especially when I could only manage 11th in the warm-up. I knew I had to try however and on the grid one of my mechanics reminded me that my rivals were just the same ones as in Portugal; this was a good motivation! I had some problems at the start and it's clear that we need to work on these, but after a while I found my rhythm and once again I was able to make my way through the field and pass some riders. I think the rain helped me for the first time in my life because everyone was a little bit slower for a few laps, but second is unbelievable and I think I look a bit happier this afternoon! Now we have to work as hard as possible to heal my injuries and improve my physical condition, so that we can be back to our best in Mugello."

Colin Edwards 3rd +6.805; "I honestly thought that today was going to be my day with the pace I'd been able to run all weekend. I was fastest in free practice, fastest in the warm-up and second on the grid so I had high expectations. I really thought I could have got my first win out there, but I'll still settle for third because it was a tough race. I thought I'd got a good start and then Casey and Dani came flying by and it was almost impossible to pass them. I tried everything, but they just didn't make any mistakes and I couldn't get close enough. I wanted to get by them because looking at my lap times I know I had more in the locker, but I couldn't pass. They just had the jump on me coming out of the corners with acceleration and it would have taken a risky move for me to do it.

I'm an experienced rider and those guys are fighting for the world title while I'm in fifth, so I wasn't going to do anything stupid. And when Valentino came blazing by like a cowboy with his guns shooting I knew he was going to push hard and that it would be tough for me. Casey had a problem and I got by him and then I passed Dani, as he seemed to check a bit at the first corner because of the rain. I didn't think the rain was that bad and the lap times were not that much slower. I got to say a huge thanks to my team because I've wanted to give them a podium, and I guess there is no better to do it than in their home race. They've worked so hard and I'm glad to give them that podium. Congratulations to Yamaha as well because to have a 1-2-3 is fantastic. My Michelin tyres worked great too, so hopefully next time I can be closer to the win."

STONER'S LOUSY DAY
From Ducati: An otherwise positive weekend for Casey Stoner at Le Mans ended on a negative note today as his unbroken run of 22 points-scoring finishes came to an end.

The Australian had produced another top performance in the race as he was forced to ride around an unfortunate lack of grip from one side of his front tyre - possibly due to the slight change in track conditions caused by a wet morning warm-up - on the back of another impressive display during practice.

Stoner battled through his problems to stay in the podium fight but on the 21st lap the engine of his Ducati also ran into difficulty and forced him to return to the pits. With the white flags having been shown to indicate a wet race, Stoner was able to take his second bike and return to the race on rain tyres - eventually crossing the line in 16th place, missing the points for the first time with Ducati.

After losing thirty seconds at the start of the race when his bike stalled on the grid, Marco Melandri also ended the race on rain tyres after gambling on an early change. Unfortunately for Marco the light rainfall never turned into a downpour, although he did manage to take a point in 15th.

Stoner: "I got a decent start to the race today but unfortunately I just didn't have any feeling for the right hand side of the front tyre. I was losing a lot of grip at maximum lean and kept closing the front so I lost a lot of confidence. I couldn't brake as late as I had been doing during practice so I had to ride around it and managed to get to the point where it was only when the tyre was right on the edge, in T4, that I was really losing time. I was there or thereabouts, still in with a shout of a podium position, and it started to rain so I thought that could give us a chance. Unfortunately that was when I started to have a problem with the engine, I couldn't get any drive off the bottom end and couldn't overtake anybody. Then a couple of laps later the engine problem effectively ended the race for us. This weekend has had a lot of positive aspects to it - we've got back up to speed again and found our old feeling with the bike so it's just a case of everything coming together in a race. That's why I'm looking forward to the next one."