Over

After his inopportune failure to finish Sunday's American Grand Prix, Valentino Rossi has admitted that his championship hopes are now over. "We're 51 points down on Hayden with only six races left, so for the first time I will race without thinking about the pressure of the championship," he said.

The seven time champion endured a difficult weekend under the stare of the immense Hayden mural at the entry to the Corskscrew with the Laguna Seca track soaring up into the mid fifties. But from tenth on the grid he was on the verge of another stunning feat, having raced to fourth behind Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki).

The Camel Yamaha rider looked certain to take the Australian for third before it all went downhill - more rapidly than Hayden through the Corkscrew - as rear tyre problems forced him to slow down on the searing track before his cooling system decided to pack it in.

"We've been in a really difficult situation all weekend with a lot of problems and unfortunately things got even worse today!" said The Doctor. "We made a big improvement this morning in warm-up and I was much faster, so I thought that maybe we could do a good job in the race and to start with we made good progress from our grid position.

"But then we had a problem with the rear tyre and I lost all grip and was forced to slow right down in order not to crash. Then we had a problem with the water-cooling system for the engine, it overheated and when I saw the smoke, I knew it was over."

Rossi had embarked upon a remarkable comeback from a disappointing start to the season and his incredible victory in the German Grand Prix brought him within 26 points of Hayden.

Germany was his fourth victory of the year while Hayden's home victory at Laguna Seca was only his second, but compared with Rossi's three DNFs, the Kentucky Kid has only had two results from eleven races outside the top three (fifth in France and seventh Britain).

Scoring no points in California has basically flattened his hopes of contesting the title and, while his competitive spirit has in no way diminished, the focus will now be more on enjoying himself.
"My plan is to have a lot of fun over the remaining races and try to win as many as possible," he said. "Then who knows what might happen?"

Rossi's incredible win at Germany

World champion Valentino Rossi won a fantastic four-way scrap to take victory in the German MotoGP race.

The Italian held off the challenges of fellow countryman Marco Melandri, American Nicky Hayden and Spaniard Dani Pedrosa to take the win in front of 93,748 spectators at the Sachsenring.

Rossi had started the race in 10th on the Camel Yamaha but cut his way through the field to take the lead on the 13th of 30 laps and was able to keep Melandri's Fortuna Honda and the Repsol Hondas of Hayden and Pedrosa behind him.

Melandri grabbed the lead with three laps to go into turn one but Rossi was back in front later in the same lap and held his advantage to the chequered flag for his fourth race win of the season.

"That was an unbelievable race for me and my team. The first thing I have to say is 'sorry' to my M1 because last night was the first time in our relationship that I ever doubted her! But she was true to me once again and for this I owe a huge thank you to Jeremy and all my mechanics and engineers." Rossi said after the race.

"Last night I didn't think I could win this race but we made a change in the morning warm-up and then again before the race in the afternoon and today my M1 flew. In some parts of the track it was very, very fast. We also did a great job together with Michelin and at the start I realised that my rhythm was good enough to battle for the win." The Doctor add.

Rossi, who show Marco Materazzi's jeresy on podium and said,"Italy became World Champions in the football last weekend and I won today; Germany is a good country for us!"

However, being Rossi's team-mate can be the best or worst job in motorcycle racing - the best if you can compare favourable to one of the greatest riders of all time, and the worst when he makes you look ordinary on the same machinery.


Unfortunately for Rossi and his team-mate Colin Edwards had suffered severe handling problems during qualifying, leaving Rossi eleventh and Edwards 15th on the grid, the Italian "pulled out his 700th miracle" to take a thrilling win while Edwards crept home in twelfth, having lost almost one second a lap to his team-mate.

"What can I say? I guess I'm just slow around here," shrugged the Texan. "The guys worked their butts off all weekend trying to give me something but we simply couldn't get the bike working and I never had the pace.

It looked like Valentino was in the same situation but today he pulled out something like his 700th miracle and you can only take your hat off to a great champion."

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Chasing new record

A victory for Valentino Rossi at this weekend's German Grand Prix would make him the first rider in history to pass the 3000 point mark in all categories, but more importantly, the victory would also go a long way towards easing his championship situation ahead of a tricky voyage to Laguna Seca.

Valentino Rossi arrives in Germany with the benefit of an extra weekend to recover from the hand injuries he sustained in the middle of a Grand Prix triple-header at Assen. After struggling through the discomfort to score valuable points in Holland and Great Britain, he is now hoping to be fit enough to fight for his fourth win of the season and his fourth in all classes at the Sachsenring circuit.

“I am very confident that by Sachsenring my hand will be back to 100%, or near enough,” says Rossi, who won the German Grand Prix for Yamaha last year to add to previous MotoGP and 250cc successes in 2002 and 1999.

“I have been working hard with my physiotherapist Marco Montanari and Dr Costa and hopefully it will continue to improve at this rate," he added. "It's really nice to have had time for a rest now after three very hard weeks, even if it's not so long. I spent some time in Italy and then a few days at home in London, relaxing and seeing friends."

The Sachsenring isn't one of Rossi favoured circuits due to its slow, meandering and undulating character, and with only three prior victories, it is far from being one of his more successful circuits. However, a victory is almost necessary as a week later, championship leader Nicky Hayden is likely to claim important points at Laguna Seca - location of his maiden win.

"The important thing for Sachsenring is that we come out of the box on Friday morning ready to make the most of every available minute of practice time," Rossi said. "We can't afford to lose time in practice with set-up problems like we had in Donington.

"Yamaha has been working at the maximum over the break so we will be ready to be competitive from Friday morning," he added. "Sachsenring is quite a different track, very tight and twisty, but last year our bike worked very well there, we were able to win and hopefully that will be the case again this year."

Rossi comic book : B46K

A Verona Graphics company has put on sale a collection of cells drawn by comic book artist Milo Manara for "Quarantasei", a comic written in collaboration with Valentino Rossi. The cells featured in the new book are drawings by the author before the colouring process. This first edition contains 3000 pictures.

Rossi is the main charater of the story, which also features his dog Guido and a selection of his heroes, including Steve McQueen, Jim Morrison and Enzo Ferrar. Camel Yamaha's reigning World Champion has already shown a selection of the etchings on his helmet at the Italian GP in Mugello. The MotoGP star has also penned a short introduction for the graphic novel.

"Comics are magical. For a big fan like me, to be part of this imaginary collective created by the most important comic book author in the world is an unbeatable feeling."

"In addition to being an amazing artist, Milo is a person with great humanity. He's someone who you love from the first instant," add Rossi.

Injury Doctor on podium

Valentino Rossi proved why is a World Champion today, with a breathtaking display at Donington, moving from 12th on the grid, inexorably closer to the front of the pack, and eventually scoring a second place.

The first half of th race was generally dull, with only Pedrosa's error in trying to overtake Melandri for the lead livening things up. Pedrosa regrouped himself and settled in to a comfortable lead on lap 12 of the 30 lap GP, whilst Melandri, Kenny Roberts and Casey Stoner kept close company, weighing each other up.

But the race edged towards a true grandstand finish as Ross - still carrying a wrist injury from Assen last week, worked his way to the battle for 2nd place on the podium - and some valuable points.

An error by Melandri let Rossi slip past two riders, jumping from 5th to 3rd in one corner, but Melandri hadn't given up the battle and eventually, it became a hectic dice for the final three laps between these two Italian rivals. Melandri#s last lap mistake on the Melbourne loop saw him run wide, at exactly the point where Rossi had taken a wide corner entry, so he could take advantage of any error by Melandri - Rossi slipped past and one corner later was looking at the chequered flag.