San Marino's Manuel Poggiali pipped Japanese rider Youichi Ui on the line to win the Portuguese 125cc motorcycling Grand Prix on Sunday and close in on championship leader Toni Elias of Spain. Poggiali began in pole position but had to fight back with some deft cornering on his Gilera and a short-lived lap record for the sinuous and bumpy Estoril circuit after he slipped to fifth place with a poor start.
Ui led for much of the race, occasionally losing the leadership to Poggiali on the circuit's many tight bends but often overtaking again on the straight on a fast Derbi which set a new lap record of one minute 46.329 seconds.
Elias, on a Honda, quickly lost his early lead but stayed in contention in the early laps by taking a daring inside line on the bends that often saw him elbow-to-elbow with Poggiali and Ui, although he later flagged and finished third, more than eight seconds adrift of the winner.
Poggiali clocked 42:55.454 for the 24 lap race, finishing barely one hundredth of a second ahead of Ui, and is now just 13 points behind Elias, on 158, in the championship standings with five races to go and 125 points up for grabs. The next race is the Valencia Grand Prix on September 23.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
