MotoGP
Malaysian GP: Michelin race notes
ROSSI SCORES GENIUS WIN TO BOOST TITLE HOPES World Champion Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) scored one of the greatest wins of his illustrious career with a thrilling last-lap pass on Loris Capirossi (Ducati Marlboro ...
Edited: Dec 11, 2006, 4:16 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
ROSSI SCORES GENIUS WIN TO BOOST TITLE HOPES
World Champion Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) scored one of the greatest wins of his illustrious career with a thrilling last-lap pass on Loris Capirossi (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici) at steamy hot Sepang this afternoon. Injured Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin) rode a hero's race to third, just ahead of World Championship leader Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin).
The race was 19.7 seconds faster than last year's Malaysian GP, the biggest year-on-year improvement this season, and maintained Michelin's grip on the World Championship with Hayden, Pedrosa and Rossi separated by just 26 points at the top of the table. Michelin riders have won 11 of 13 races so far this year and currently occupy seven of the first eight positions in the points chase.
"Our congratulations to Valentino, and that was a very good race for us, almost one second a lap faster than last year," commented Nicolas Goubert, Michelin's director of motorcycle racing. "I was confident after seeing how fast Dani was on Friday, but then he crashed. Then Valentino was really fast on Saturday morning and I was confident he could run with Loris. He was very fast at the end, he chose quite a hard rear, harder than the other guys, as he often does. I'm sure that Dani could also have fought for the win if he hadn't gashed his right knee on Friday. Now we go to Phillip Island where I understand the temperature is about eight degrees. I'm tempted to contact my WRC colleagues at BFGoodrich to talk about snow tyres!"
Rossi was full of praise for his tyres after his 58th victory with Michelin, which is Michelin's 349th win in premier-class bike racing. "I don't often say thank you, thank you to everyone, but Michelin gave us a big help here," said the Italian.
Michelin currently leads both the MotoGP and Formula One car World Championships, while fellow Michelin group member BFGoodrich leads the WRC World Championship with Sebastian Loeb (Citroen/BFGoodrich) who won again in Japan last weekend.
-credit: michelin
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rossi claims victory in Malaysia
Next article Malaysian GP: Team Roberts race notes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Nicky Hayden
Nicky Hayden: Remembering motorsport's much-loved "one-off"
MotoGP
MotoGP
Nicky Hayden: Remembering motorsport's much-loved "one-off"
MotoGP retires Hayden’s famous #69 in Austin ceremony
MotoGP
MotoGP
MotoGP retires Hayden’s famous #69 in Austin ceremony
MotoGP to retire Hayden's number
MotoGP
MotoGP
MotoGP to retire Hayden's number
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
WRC
WRC
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
Latest news
MotoGP to stage demo at F1 United States Grand Prix
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 32 min
MotoGP to stage demo at F1 United States Grand Prix
WRC star Thierry Neuville makes successful historic circuit racing debut
WRC
WRC WRC 1 h
WRC star Thierry Neuville makes successful historic circuit racing debut
Christian Horner: Kimi Antonelli has 'earned' the right to be Mercedes' number one
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
3 h
Christian Horner: Kimi Antonelli has 'earned' the right to be Mercedes' number one
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe