Rossi one step away from the title after Brno victory

Valentino Rossi edged ever closer to the 2005 MotoGP World Championship title
after taking his ninth victory from eleven rounds in the Gauloises Grand Prix
Ceske republiky today. The Italian overcame another brave resistance from Sete
Gibernau that lasted just short of the 22-lap distance at Brno, the Spaniard
suffering from a technical problem just three corners from the finish line and
losing any slim hopes he had of reacting to a pass from Rossi at the end of the
penultimate lap. For Rossi the victory represented a record-breaking achievement
as he became the first rider in the history of the series to win nine races for
five consecutive seasons.

"That was one of the hardest races of the season," reflected Rossi. "After the
warm-up I saw Sete's time and I wasn't very confident that I could beat him.
There were a lot of fast riders out there but Gibernau was my hardest opponent
so I tried to push him and put the pressure on. Sincerely it was a great fight
with a lot of overtaking and in the middle of the race I decided to try and go
but Sete came back. At the end I did three or four good laps, made the pass on
Sete and then did a perfect final lap. Unfortunately Sete had a problem, which
was bad luck for him because he should have been on the podium. Anyway this is a
good win for me and now I just need one more for the title but it is not over
yet."

Loris Capirossi benefited from Gibernau's misfortune as he collected his second
podium of the season on the Ducati after a sterling second half to the race that
saw the Italian mount an electric charge from sixth place. Capirossi's
performance was marginally overshadowed by that of his compatriot Max Biaggi,
who completed an all-Italian podium in third place after starting from tenth on
the grid.

It was a doubly satisfying recovery for Biaggi as he moved up to second in the
championship for the first time this season, edging out Marco Melandri after the
youngster dropped down the order in the second half of the race. Melandri had
made an excellent start, lapping in third place for the opening three laps
behind Rossi and Gibernau before becoming involved in an entertaining skirmish
with Nicky Hayden. The young Honda pair paid for their early endeavours as the
experienced trio of Capirossi, Biaggi and then Alex Barros came past.

Gibernau's retirement effectively promoted Colin Edwards to seventh place after
another disappointing race for the American, who finished ahead of Carlos Checa,
Troy Bayliss and Makoto Tamada. Kenny Roberts recovered from a bout of illness
last night to clinch eleventh place ahead of his team-mate John Hopkins, with
Toni Elias and Alex Hofmann completing the points

Dani Pedrosa extended his advantage at the top of the 250cc World Championship
to 59 points after clinching his sixth victory of the season with an impeccable
performance. Pedrosa hung at the back of the front group for much of the race as
Hiroshi Aoyama and Jorge Lorenzo battled for the lead, making his move at the
halfway stage and gradually edging to the front. A brief battle with Lorenzo
ensued as Aoyama lost several places but Pedrosa stepped up the pace on the
final two laps to leave his fellow Spaniard trailing. Casey Stoner fought off
Alex de Angelis to complete the podium and distance himself in second place in
the championship from Andrea Dovizioso, who was sixth.

Thomas Luthi took his second victory of the season to extend his points
advantage at the top of the 125cc World Championship to nine over Mika Kallio.
Luthi made his break from a combative lead group with just two laps remaining,
Mattia Pasini then crashing out as he led the chase behind the Swiss youngster.
Marco Simoncelli consequently moved up to second place but he lost out to Kallio
after a crafty move from the Finnish rider in the final corner.

INFO 2005/127. 28-08-2005
DORNA COMMUNICATIONS
www.motogp.com