World champion Valentino Rossi easily won Saturday's Rio Grand Prix for his fourth consecutive victory in the Moto GP category at the Nelson Piquet Circuit.
The Italian started at the pole and set an unofficial record for the fastest lap on the 4.93km track of 1 minute, 50.453 seconds. It was his sixth victory in Rio in six years, but the first two wins came when he was racing in the 125cc and 250cc categories.
Starting out, Rossi briefly lost the lead to second place finisher Sete Gibernau of Spain. But Rossi retook it in the fourth lap on his Honda and never looked back. He finished with a time of 44:36.633 over 24 laps.
PHOTO: AP
"Today the bike was perfect," said a beaming Rossi, his hair dyed yellow and green like the Brazilian flag. Rossi has now won six of the 12 races in the season so far.
"For four or five races, every race had a new man and every time we had to start from zero," he said. "Now it's four races with the whole crew all together, so we built a team."
Gibernau, also on a Honda, finished 3.109 seconds behind Rossi. Third place went to Makoto Tamada of Japan, who rode his Honda to finish 7.298 behind the winner.
PHOTO: AP
With the win, Rossi widens his lead to 262 points against Gibernau's 211 points. Rossi could conceivably take the championship at the next race at Motegi, Japan, if he wins and Gibernau fails to finish.
Gibernau chafed at that notion.
"I think this is a very good year," he said. "We are battling Valentino and myself in every race really hard, in very fair and square races."
But Gibernau said he was satisfied with the outcome, considering his crash Friday during the final stretch of the last qualifying run.
It was Tamada's first finish on the winners' podium.
In the 250cc category, Manuel Poggiali of San Marino breezed to victory after Spain's Toni Elias spun out on the last lap at Nelson Piquet Circuit.
Poggiali, driving an Aprilia, clocked a time of 42:09.055 over 22 laps. He took the lead early and held it until the 12th lap, when he was overtaken by Elias, who was in the lead until the 18th lap.
From then on, it was a two-horse race, with Poggiali barely holding onto the lead in the face of repeated challenges from Elias.
In the last lap, Elias overtook Poggiali briefly before losing control of his Aprilia and spinning out. He was unhurt and got back on his motorcycle, finishing the race in 18th place.
Second place went to Roberto Rolfo of Italy, who came in 12.901 seconds behind on his Honda. France's Randy De Puniet took third, trailing by 12.956 on his Aprilia.
In the 125cc category, Spain's Jorge Lorenzo overtook Australia's Casey Stoner on the final curve to win on his Derbi with a time of 41:51.624 over 21 laps.
Stoner, riding an Aprilia, came in 0.232 seconds behind. Third place went to Alex De Angelis of San Marino, who came in 0.372 behind on his Honda.
Daniel Pedrosa of Spain finished fourth on his Honda, 0.589 behind Lorenzo.
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