Rossi Closes Gap

VALENTINO ROSSI cut the MotoGP World Championship lead of Nicky Hayden on Sunday as rain at Phillip Island resulted in the first white flag wet weather race in the series.

Rossi finished third on the Camel Yamaha behind fellow Italian Marco Melandri, who won the race on the Fortuna Honda and the Rizla Suzuki of Australian Chris Vermeulen who took his first MotoGP podium finish.

Ahead of Spaniard Sete Gibernau and the Repsol Honda of US rider Hayden, Rossi was able to pick up five points on Hayden, as the race was dominated by the changing weather conditions.

Predicted rainfall led to a delay in the start of the race and then, as the weather changed, the white flag was shown to indicate that riders were able to change machines to be able to use tyres better suited to the conditions.

Japan's Shinya Nakano had led on the Kawasaki, but saw his early advantage reduced to nothing during the machine changes. Hayden had a disastrous first lap from pole position and dropped back to 16th before making the most of the machine change.

Melandri was rewarded for a controlled race as he led home Vermeulen and Rossi, who grabbed third off Gibernau with a late pass. Hayden still leads the series, but saw his advantage over Rossi drop to 21 points with three races remaining. Melandri moved up to joint third alongside Spaniard Dani Pedrosa who struggled in the conditions.

Pedrosa, who was still suffering with a badly gashed knee picked up at the previous round, finished 15th on the Repsol Honda and was lapped during the closing stages of the race as his lack of wet-weather riding ability was once again exposed.