Valentino Rossi extended his Estoril podium record with third place today, meaning he has now finished on the podium at all of his nine career visits to the Portuguese track. The Fiat Yamaha Team rider played a key part in an exciting first half of the race but was unable to keep pace with his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who took his maiden premier-class victory today to make it a second consecutive double podium for the Yamaha pair.
Rossi got a good start from third on the grid and managed to take the lead from Lorenzo at the end of the straight after one lap. Spots of rain complicated issues and it was a tense first few laps with Rossi leading and Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso bunched together close behind him. Rossi pushed as hard as he dared whilst trying to conserve his tyres, but he was unable to pull a gap from the chasing pack and was eventua lly caught by his team-mate on lap 13 of 28. Pedrosa in turn passed him three laps later and from then on it was a somewhat lonely race in third for the multiple world-champion, as he dropped back and eventually crossed the line 12.723 seconds adrift.
Rossi’s podium today gave him an important 16 points and he remains third in the championship. The Fiat Yamaha Team tops the team’s table, Yamaha the Manufacturer’s, whilst Tech 3 riders Colin Edwards and James Toseland finished fourth and seventh respectively to make it a good day all round for the Japanese factory. Rossi will stay on for a one-day test tomorrow ahead of the next race in China on 4th May.
Valentino Rossi - Position: 3rd Time: +17.223“At the end of the day this isn’t a bad result for us because we expected this to be quite a difficult track for us. My M1 worked well today; I got a good start and was able to stay at the front to begin with and have some fun. My Bridgestone tyres were working well but I was thinking about trying to conserve them as much as possible because I knew 28 laps was going to be hard. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay with Lorenzo and Pedrosa in the later stages and I started to slide a little bit, but anyway to have two podiums in a row with Bridgestone is very important because we’re still in the learning stages of our relationship. I think we’ve made another step forward this weekend and we have an important test tomorrow – I hope in China we will be able to fight for the win!”
Davide Brivio -Team Manager“Valentino defended very well today despite difficult conditions for us and we took a good podium and some important points. We expected it to be hard and I want to thank the team and our engineers for working hard all week and keeping the level of our Yamaha-Bridgestone package at the maximum. We’re looking forward to another 15 races and we hope that in China we’ll be in attacking form and able to get our first win with Bridgestone! We will work on tyres and settings for China tomorrow and then everyone will have a good rest before the next challenge.”
Masahiko Nakajima - Team Director
“Unfortunately we are still struggling a bit in some areas but anyway the combination between our chassis and the Bridgestone tyres is improving race by race. Step-by-step we are making progress and for sure here in Estoril everything went even better than in Jerez. This is a very unusual track; it requires a very delicate chassis balance because it has the slowest average speed in the world championship but also some very high-speed areas. In conclusion, I am happy with Valentino’s podium in these difficult conditions and I am confident that next time we will improve even more together with Bridgestone.”
Ambient temperature: 18 degrees
Track temperature: 21 degrees
Humidity: 53%
Results: 1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 45'53.089
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda + 1.817
3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team + 12.7234. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha + 17.223
5. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing + 23.752
6. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro + 26.688
7. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha + 32.631
8. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki + 36.382
9. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 38.268
10. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 39.476
11. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1'01.306
12. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team + 1'03.867
13. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro + 1'09.525
14. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team + 1'09.634
15. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP + 1'11.542
16. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing + 1'23.629
Not Classified:
Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 12 Lap
Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 13 Lap
Championship Standings: 1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 61
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 61
3. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 474. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 40
5. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 29
6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 26
7. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 24
8. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 22
9. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 21
10. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 19
11. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 16
12. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 14
13. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 12
14. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 8
15. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 7
16. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 7
17. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 3
18. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 3
Estoril: Lap Record: J. Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2008, 1'37.404
Best Lap: J. Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2008, 1'35.715
