The five-time world champion Valentino Rossi drew away in the final laps on his Fiat Yamaha to finally shake off the challenge of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who was second ahead of reigning world champion Casey Stoner of Ducati Marlboro.
It was Rossi’s first win since the Portuguese race last season - eight races ago. That was the longest spell without a win for the Italian since his first eight winless races in 2000, his first season in 500cc, the forerunner to MotoGP.
“I’m very, very happy, as its been a long time without victory,” Rossi said. “This was a difficult period. We changed tires and we had to work very hard. I knew that we had good potential and we felt good from Friday.”
He and Pedrosa broke away from the pursuing pack and looked set for a battle to the line before the Italian pulled away with three laps to go. Rossi set a new circuit record in the closing stages - 1 minute, 59.273 seconds.
Pedrosa declared himself happy with second place after the demanding battle with Rossi.
“In the end I just slowed down because I saw that I couldn’t get Valentino, and I just decided to keep the engine alive and finish second,” the 22-year-old said.
Stoner was less satisfied, left to mull over the choice of a soft compound tire on a track that was wet for the 250cc and 125cc races but was all but dry by the time of the main event.
“I don’t know if we would have been better with a harder compound,” the Australian said. “The team worked hard as always, but we have room to improve and I’m not entirely satisfied with this result.”
Lorenzo, who qualified fourth on his Yamaha despite suffering a fractured left ankle after being thrown off his bike in practice, finished fourth after a late surge on the day of his 21st birthday.
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