Incredible come back !

Valentino Rossi, riding a Yamaha, made an incredible comeback to win the Dutch Grand Prix here on Saturday. It was a remarkable victory for Rossi who started 11th on the grid but had already risen to third with a quarter of the race run.

Rossi snatched victory 1.909-seconds ahead of championship leader Casey Stoner of Australia with American reigning champion Nicky Hayden jumping from 13th position to third at 6.077 after 26 laps on the TT track.

"Waouw, amazing! What a great race! Everything worked like a dream," said Rossi.

"The motorcycle was perfectly adapted and the Michelin tyres were perfect. I adopted an aggressive tactic and they were worn at the end of the race but they held up.

"It's a great result and important for the championship. I didn't really expect to have such an achievement," said Rossi.

Stoner quickly passed pole-sitter and countryman Chris Vermeulen and he was soon followed by American John Hopkins.

Hopkins failed to exert much pressure on Stoner but that came soon enough as a storming Rossi passed the American just before the halfway mark in the race.

The battle for victory raged with Rossi hounding Stoner until three laps from the end when he passed the 22-year-old on a long corner and comfortably eased away to reignite his championship bid.

It was the sixth win at Assen for Rossi, having won four times in MotoGP, 2007, 2005, 2004, 2002, once in 250cc in 1998 and once in 125cc in 1997.

Stoner now leads Rossi by just 19 points at the top of the standings.

But Rossi's confidence is building at the half-way stage of the 18-leg world championship series.

"It's not a slim margin by any means against a rider of Casey's calibre. But if we succeed in improving the motorcycle and above all the tyres, everything remains possible."

Rossi has room to work on the improvements he needs as the next round takes place in Sachenring, Germany on July 17.