Valentino Rossi snatched the MotoGP World Championship lead in dramatic fashion as title rival Nicky Hayden was forced out of the Estoril race by his own team-mate. Rossi finished second in the race in Portugal behind Toni Elias but the real drama came on lap five as Dani Pedrosa crashed and took Hayden out of the race with him.
Reigning champion Rossi had gone into the race trailing Repsol Honda's Hayden by 12 points but came out leading by eight on the Camel Yamaha. With one race remaining at Valencia in two weeks' time, Rossi knows he only needs to beat Hayden in Spain and he will have his eighth world title.
Rossi was not too disappointed to lose the race to the Fortuna Honda of Elias despite leading for most of the 28 laps and also fighting hard before the Spaniard took the win by two one thousandths of a second.
Rossi said: "Toni rode like the devil. I tried to play the game but I also tried to stay in the race, I decided not to risk too much. Eight points ahead as we go to Valencia is very important for me. I am sure Valencia will be a very good race."
Rossi had dominated the early stages of the race from pole position and on lap five his title ambitions received an unexpected boost. Pedrosa and Hayden were battling for third place and the Spaniard went too tight inside his team-mate through a left-hand corner, clipped the inside kerb and was thrown from his bike.
Pedrosa then crashed into Hayden and took them off the track into the gravel trap. As Pedrosa nursed a broken finger Hayden was left beating the gravel in frustration as he saw his world title hopes all but disappear.
The GP was watched by 41,000 spectators at a circuit which will host the next two Portuguese GPs after the operators signed a new two-year deal.
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