Thread: Rossi Equal Agostini 68 Premier Class Win

The Misano circuit is just over the hill from Valevtino Rossi's home town of Tavullia. Fittingly , it was the venue for yet another bit of history from the towering genius of the FiatYamaha team, and watched byan army of his fans, making up a large proportion of the relatively small 51,00-strong crowd. Of course, he won the race, run on a third day of baking heat, thanks to a second successive crash for Casey Stoner and the Marlboro Ducati while fully three seconds in the lead. Of course it was his third win in a row, his sixth of the year, though his first ever at the track where he first rode a racing bike.

Historically, it was his 68th win in the premier class - putting him equal with legendary compatriot Giacomo Agostini. One more win will make him the biggest top class winner of all time. Earlier this year, he surpassed Angel Nieto's total of 90 wins in all classes. Prior to that, the Spaniard had already come to him at win 87 to arrange a celebration. "Agostini was not so pleased," revealed a jubilant Rossi after today's race. "But today he came to me and said: 'Okay, I am happy'." But Ago remains the biggest winner in all classes, with a total of 123. Rossi today brought his total to 94.

More importantly in the short term, he extended his points lead over Stoner to 75. With five rounds left, he is now all but unassailable. It came after Stoner had dominated all practice sessions, and blazed away to an early lead three seconds by the time Rossi had taken second off Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) on the second lap. The gap stayed constant for the next five laps. At Brno, I thought I could catch Casey, but today I was not so sure," revealed Rossi. "But I could keep the same rhythm, and the race is long." For a second time in succession, he was relieved of having to make the effort, when Stoner slid off on a right-hand corner.

The Australian, surprisingly cheerful afterwards, said the circumstances had been different from Brno. "There the right side of the tyre was destroyed. Here, we tried to do something clever. My front tyre takes two or three laps to scrub in, so I did one lap on the tyre in warm-up to take the scrub off. But it did something to the right hand side. It kept closing on me in righthanders. I wasn't even pushing it at that point when it closed too fast for me. "I tried to lift the bike, and the handlebar snapped so the race was over." But he revealed that nagging worries about the newly troublesome old wrist injury had indirectly led to the fall. "Today if I'd been in a battle I think it would have been a struggle." Thatwas why he had tried to hard to escape.



Rossi had his own moment, and needed all his legendary luck. On lap one a big slide almost chucked him. "A year ago" (when he was on Michelins rather than Bridgestones) "it would have been a crash," he said. And even after Stoner had gone, his own charging team-mate Jorge Lorenzo kept him honest, pushing from behind to the end, when he was 3.1 seconds behind. It was Lorenzo's first good race since he and Rossi finished first and second at Le Mans, four months ago. "When I saw the big celebration Rossi's fans made round the circuit, it made me want to win again," he said. But trying to catch and pass Rossi would have been "too much risk he was very fast." But his result was a vindication for beleaguered Michelin, after two disas¬trous races.

A second podium place in succession was vindication also of Toni Elias, who has been with the other Ducati back-markers for most of the season. Since getting new rear suspension parts in Germany, his progress has been transformed. Dropped for next year by his Alice Ducati team, he beamed: "Brno was the start of the season for me, and that's it." He had passed faststarting Pedrosa (to resounding cheers) on lap six of 28 and tried to catch Lorenzo, only to start making mistakes. "Dani caught me again and I decided to relax, then get my rhythm again. My results are good and at this moment I am free. We will see who talks to me for next year."

Pedrosa was as bleak as usual in fourth, complaining about the heat in the blazing sunshine, but saying: "I am quite happy with the result. We had two different rear tyres to choose from and I chose on the grid. I went for the softer thinking to gain some advantage early in the race. Obviously it wasn't the better option."Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) was fifth after another strong ride, using the new chassis, after moving through from 13th on lap one. He'd broken the fairing with his knee in a near crash earlier on and spent the rest of the afternoon recovering, catching a fierce battle between James Toseland (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Honda), and then outpacing them both. "My best lap was the 25th of 28. It's a shame I wasn't with the front group from the beginning or things might have been very different," the Australian said. Toseland hung on to sixth, his first good result in six races. "Michelin has had a lot of stick recently and so have 1. We have kept working hard and today we showed what we can achieve," he said, describing himself as "the widest Yamaha in history" for his blocking moves on the last lap.

They were to hold Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) at bay, after the Italianhadgained speed as his front tyre improved and consigned Dovizioso to a close eighth. Colin Edwards was a distant tenth after circulating at the back in the early laps, unable to get his rear tyre up to temperature until it was way too late and adding a fourth bad result to his worst run since joining Yamaha. Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) crashed out on the first lap and Alex de Angelis (San Carlos Honda) on the second; Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) pulled out before the race because his foot injury was getting worse every time he rode.