British Grand Prix
Donington Park, UK
Sunday 24th July

ROSSI SPLASHES TO SEVENTH WIN FROM NINE AT DONINGTON

Gauloises Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi extended his advantage at the top of the
MotoGP World Championship to 104 points, with his seventh victory from nine
races this season in the British Grand Prix today. The Italian splashed his way
through several centimetres of standing water and lashings of torrential rain to
clinch his fourth MotoGP win at Donington Park after a treacherous race that saw
no fewer than eleven riders crash. Rossi didn't get the best of starts as he
dropped from pole position to seventh but fought his way back to the front by
the fourth lap. A slight mistake at the midway point saw him lose ground on the
lead group but two fast laps brought him back into contention. Another burst
from the Italian seven laps from the end shaved over 2 seconds from the fastest
lap of the race up to that point and left Kenny Roberts (Suzuki) and Alex
Barros (Honda) trailing in his wake. Rossi's Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin
Edwards joined in the battle for a top three finish but settled with fourth
place at the end of the intense race, another solid points haul moving him up to
third in the championship, just one point behind Marco Melandri (Honda), who
crashed out of the race.

VALENTINO ROSSI (1st; 1'45.377)

"That was one of the most difficult races of my career - the conditions were
incredible. It was very, very cold and the track was very slippery. At the
beginning I was lucky because I made a mistake on the start and spun the tyre
but after that I came back fast to the front. Biaggi crashed in front of me,
then Gibernau... there were a lot of people making mistakes, also me, so I
preferred to wait. Alex had a good rhythm so I stayed behind him but I made a
mistake at the chicane when I was fighting with Kenny and locked the brakes.
Today was not like riding a bike, it was like riding a boat because there was a
lot of water between the wheels and the track - always spinning the rear and
locking the front. I tried to understand the points where I could push more and
said to myself: 'Now I try and we see what happens!' I was able to go a lot
faster and keep the advantage. It was a great job by the team because the bike
worked well even though we only had 20 minutes this morning to find the
wet-weather set-up. Yesterday when I looked at my best lap time I thought it was
like a symphony of violins - perfect, so I decided that if I won I would do this
celebration across the finish line!"

COLIN EDWARDS (4th; + 10.292)

"After the warm-up I was a bit down because it wasn't great. We made some
changes to the spring settings but we weren't really sure whether it was the
right option. Anyway, I got out on the warm-up lap and the balance of the bike
was awesome. The race was basically a case of survival. My start wasn't as good
as it might have looked and the pace felt really slow to start with, but then it
picked up and it was a pretty eventful first few laps. Then the front locked
when I was braking in a straight line and I almost ended up in the dirt! I
caught up very quickly but about 12 laps from the end I had another scary moment
and the bike spat me up out of my seat, so I thought about the situation and
decided to wait and see what happened in front of me. Towards the end I was
keeping an eye on Checa behind me because he was quite close.  The points are
really important; it's great to have moved into third place and to be so close
to Melandri.  It wasn't the result we wanted, but I'm really pleased with what
we've achieved this weekend."

DAVIDE BRIVIO - GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR

"Another special win! Every time Valentino races there is something special
about it - today it was those two incredibly fast laps when he needed them at
the end. All the way through he rode unbelievably well and it was amazing to
watch. Colin also rode really well today and both riders scored important points
for the championship. Now Colin is very close to second place so we hope to
continue with the trend of having both riders at the front. A big thank you to
the whole team, they are working really well together and it shows in our
results."

RESULTS

 1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Gauloises Yamaha Team  52'58.675
 2. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP          +3.169
 3. Alex Barros (BRA) Camel Honda                   +4.006
 4. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Gauloises Yamaha Team      +10.292
 5. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team        +13.020
 6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team     +23.321
 7. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda       +37.833
 8. Alex Hofmann (GER) Kawasaki Racing Team        +44.617
 9. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Yamaha Team            +1 lap
10. Roberto Rolfo (ITA) Team D'Antin Pramac         +1 lap
11. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP          +2 laps

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

 1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA)  211
 2. Marco Melandri (ITA)   107
 3. COLIN EDWARDS (USA)    106
 4. Max Biaggi (ITA)       100
 5. Sete Gibernau (SPA)     95
 6. Alex Barros (BRA)       90
 7. Nicky Hayden (USA)      85
 8. Loris Capirossi (ITA)   65
 9. Shinya Nakano (JAP)     55
10. Carlos Checa (SPA)      51