MotoGP – Estoril – Valentino Rossi: "I want to dedicate this victory to Colin McRae"

The fight that everyone had been waiting for since the start of the 2007 championship has finally arrived: a tight head-to-head between Daniel Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi, with Stoner behind them holding on with his head held high. The Doctor fought until the end, pushing his M1 to the limit during the first laps to recover the first two and then fighting with the Spaniard to take first position, obtained at the last minute. This is an important victory, which gives hope to Yamaha and to the rider himself, who has recently been put under pressure and discredited by the media.

“First of all I want to dedicate this victory to Colin McRae, who left us yesterday. Colin has been one of my idols since I was little and I owe my passion for rallying to him. It's a very sad day for me and I'm honored to be able to dedicate this victory to him. It's a very important victory for us from all points of view. Furthermore, it is the fourth victory of the season, and the statistics are starting to look a little better... It's a great feeling to win again after so long without a podium. Today my Yamaha and the tires went very well. Our new engine runs better and today on the straight I managed to stay in the slipstream of the Honda and Ducati and even go faster than them in some places. Michelin did a good job with the tires and today we were perhaps stronger than our rivals. Once again we showed that when the tires work we can fight at the front. There was a great duel with Casey but above all with Dani and it was fantastic fun to race like this again, at the maximum and with lots of overtaking. When I overtook Dani for the first time I tried to pull away but he was too strong so I knew he would come back in the final laps. In the end Dani started to slide a bit and I knew I was stronger than him in braking in some places, so I managed to make a good overtaking. Then when I came out of the last corner on the penultimate lap I was reminded of what happened last year, when I lost the championship at that very point, so I knew I should have had a bigger advantage on the next lap! I want to thank Yamaha, Michelin, my Team and everyone close to me! It's a great day and he's given us a lot of confidence to keep fighting until the end of the season.”

Chiara Folci