Rossi celebrates historic date at Assen with another win

Valentino Rossi once again proved that he is the man for the big occasion as
he took victory in the 75th anniversary of the Gauloises TT Assen in another
exciting MotoGP race on Saturday. Rossi's sixth win from the opening seven
rounds of the 2005 series was also his fifth in succession, the longest winning
run by a Yamaha rider in the history of motorcycle racing's premier-class, and
extended his lead to 63 points over Honda's Marco Melandri, who was second
today. Two weeks ahead of their own 50th anniversary celebrations at Laguna
Seca, Yamaha's joy was complete today as Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards also
stepped up to the podium with third place.

"Today was another hard battle, as it has been all season," said Rossi.
"Melandri was very strong today and he came back to fight until the end. I had
to keep pushing at 100% and really concentrate, especially on the last lap, when
I made no mistakes and the fastest lap of the race.  It was incredible for
everybody. I can't believe that I am the first Yamaha rider to win five races in
a row, when you look at the company I am in with Yamaha 's former World
Champions - Agostini, Lawson, Roberts and Rainey, it's great!"

Sete Gibernau remains fourth in the championship behind Max Biaggi after losing
out on fourth place in today's race to Nicky Hayden. Gibernau lapped behind
Melandri as his young team-mate led in the early stages of the race but, having
lost his Chief Mechanic Juan Martinez for the opening day of qualifying due to
illness, he was unable to maintain the pace in the second half of the race and
eventually dropped back to fifth.

Biaggi fought his way up to sixth place after a bad start that saw him down in
eleventh after the first lap, winning a tight battle with former Dutch TT winner
Alex Barros that went all the way to the final lap. Shinya Nakano made the most
of a terrific start, when he briefly held third place after starting from fourth
on the grid, to take another top ten finish in eighth on the constantly
improving Kawasaki, although his team-mate Alex Hofmann was denied a similar
result as he was forced to retire after six laps when battling for ninth.

The final top ten positions went to Ducati pair Carlos Checa and Loris
Capirossi, who had an entertaining battle on the Italian machines, whilst Troy
Bayliss called on the experience of his previous wins here in World Superbikes
to hold off the challenge of Ruben Xaus, John Hopkins and Makoto Tamada. David
Checa won the chase with former World Champion Kenny Roberts for the final point
in just his third MotoGP appearance as a replacement for Toni Elias, who hopes
to back in action for the eagerly awaited return of the USGP at Laguna Seca in
two weeks' time.

Sebastian Porto clinched his first victory of the season in the 250cc race with
a masterful ride that saw him take the lead form Jorge Lorenzo at the end of the
penultimate lap before setting the quickest time of the race to hold off a late
challenge from Dani Pedrosa. Lorenzo had led the way throughout after starting
from pole position and bravely hung on to third place despite riding with a
titanium plate and seven screws in the collarbone he broke just thirteen days
previously at Catalunya. With Casey Stoner struggling to sixth place and Andrea
Dovizioso seventh, Pedrosa now leads the championship with an advantage of 37
and 41 points respectively over the Australian and the Italian.

Gabor Talmacsi shares the lead in the 125cc World Championship with Mattia
Pasini after taking his second victory of the season in today's final race. The
Hungarian escaped from a frenetic front group of up to nine riders when Marco
Simoncelli and Thomas Luthi collided on the last lap, with the Italian rider
crashing and the Swiss youngster recovering to take tenth place. Talmacsi was
joined on the podium by Hector Faubel and Pasini, who recovered six places on
the last six laps to cross the line in third and ensure a share of the series
lead, with both riders on 100 points.

INFO 2005/88. 25-06-2005
DORNA COMMUNICATIONS
www.motogp.com