Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128232
World Championship R o a d R a c e S e r ie s R o u n d 1 1 : G r a n d P r ix of Portugal Valentino Rossi shows that he's still tile man B y M ICHAEL S COTT P HOT OS B y G OLD G OO SE s ESTORIL, PORTUGAL, SEPT, 7 r:\n 0 m ore pretend ers . That was th e lJ\J Portuguese lesson from Val entino Rossi ended up stalking 8iaggl for the first 13 laps. Then he made his m ove and went on to victory, his fifth of the year. 10 S EPTEMB ER 17,2003' cue I e n e vv s Ros si as he claimed his fifth win of th e season and pro ved beyon d doubt that he is righ t back on co urse for a third successive World Cha mpio nsh ip. T he Repso l Honda rider's special number is 4 6 , and that is exactly his points margin ove r four-tim e rac e winner Sete Gibern au , on his Telefon ica MoviStar Ho nd a, who was fourth toda y . But the other big number is 55 - his c aree r t ota l of GP w ins in 125 , 250 , 500c c and MotoGP class es . It puts him o ne ahead of M ick Dooh an (a ll of his ca m e in th e top class, howeve r), and fourth overall behi nd Gia c om o Ag os t ini (122 ) , Ang e l Ni et o (90 ) and Mike Hail wood (75 ) . As sign ifi ca nt was his clear defeat of deadl y riva l Max Biaggi and th e Came l Pons Honda. Biagg i had taken off like a sca lded ca t to buil d up an ear ly lead , but Ross i wasted no time in pushi ng to second p la ce and closing the ga p . He shadowed Bia ggi un til half di st anc e, th e p ac e high. Then, on th e 14 th of 28 lap s of the twi st y and challeng ing 2.59 -mile Est o ril circu it, he pounced and started to pull away convincingly. His rac e ti me was fu ll y . 3 7 secon d s faster th an th e last dry r a c e h er e two years ago, and he cl aimed a new lap rec ord 1.5 seconds faster than Lo r i s Cap iro ssi 's 200 1 ben chmark. "T oday was a very high lev el rac e w ith a fast rh ythm ," said Rossi. After m a na g in g t o get w ith B i aggi , "we conti nue d to m ak e 1:3 9 la ps. I didn 't think it wa s possi ble to stay at this pace . The win is very im po rta nt for the championship , esp ecially as Set e [Gibernau] arrived on ly fourth ." B iagg i was on ly two seconds b ehind at th e finish , sustaining h is pa ce , if n ot qu ite able to match Rossi 's . " I' m ve ry pleased with my rac e especially after I c ou ldn 't m ak e the p odium at Brno ," he said , " I knew from practice that Rossi had a m ar gi n, and whe n he passed, he was ab le to get away in just a co uple of cor• ner s. I ke pt my pac e, and I made the pod ium. " Gibe ma u a nd M arlb oro Du ca t i ' s pol e st arter Lor is Capirossi had a bat tl e roya l for t hi rd, resolved o nly o n th e l as t la p. The D uca t i ri der was obviously battling waywa rd hand li ng and d ropped to fo urt h afte r runn in g >