Rossi second and closes the gap

Valentino Rossi picked up 20 vital points in the Czech Republic after taking second place in a race which saw series leader Nicky Hayden stumble to ninth – a result which reduces the gap between the pair to 38 points and 13 points down Dani Pedrosa - with five rounds remaining.

Rossi had to fend off a valiant challenge from rookie Dani Pedrosa four laps from the end before comfortably sealing the runner-up spot.

Valentino Rossi: “It was a good race today and I am very happy with the weekend. Obviously starting from pole position you hope that you can win but today Loris had a completely different pace to the rest of us and I couldn’t believe the gap he made!

We weren’t perfect today and we still had a few problems, but anyway I was able to do a good race and fight hard to the end. I had a great battle with Pedrosa with many good overtakes, which was great fun, especially since I finally managed to finish in front of him! Even though I didn’t win today this is a very important result for the championship; we are now third and we’ve gained on Pedrosa and Hayden.

After this weekend the situation is much clearer for us with the bike and the tyres and now we have two days of testing, during which we have some new things to try in order to help us be even more competitive for the final five races.

This weekend my M1 worked well from Friday morning, which is very encouraging after the problems we’ve had during practice this season. Everyone at Yamaha has worked so hard to come back to this level so I want to thank my team and all the engineers. Now there are five more races and five riders who can still fight for the championship, so I think it’s going to be a very exciting end to the season!"