Italian Valentino Rossi has taken his fifth 500cc world championship win of the season with victory in the British Grand Prix. The Nastro Azzurro Honda rider beat his bitter rival and compatriot Max Biaggi with a controlled piece of aggressive riding to increase his championship lead over the Marlboro Yamaha rider to 26 points.
Rossi made a poor start from the third row of the grid and was outside the top ten in the early stages. Defending world champion Kenny Roberts took his Telefonica Movistar Suzuki to the front on lap one, but Rossi played a patient waiting game and slowly rose up the field from 11th on lap one. Roberts held the lead for the first half of the race before being overtaken by both Biaggi and the West Honda of Brazilian Alex Barros on the same lap. Biaggi got by on Starkey's Straight and Barros forced his way past the American through the Melbourne Hairpin.
Rossi was steadily creeping up the field and he was soon challenging Barros and Biaggi for the race win. Rossi moved into second ahead of Barros on the 16th of the 30 laps when he dived inside at the Esses. Two laps later, he used the same passing place to take the lead away from Biaggi. Rossi then slowly pulled away from his rival and won the race by 1.794 seconds in front of 40,000 spectators. Red Bull Yamaha of Japanese rider Noriyuki Haga had to settle for fourth, despite a strong challenge to Barros.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
