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2006-10-17 Toni Elias takes maiden Estoril victory
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High expectations from Grand Prix of Portugal have paid-off for Valentino Rossi, while they transformed to worst nightmare for Nicky Hayden. Maiden victory of Spanish youngster Toni Elias came almost unnoticed due to sudden twist in championship standings, as Valentino Rossi now leads championship by 8 points.
Rossi had strong start and get in front of others, followed by his team-mate, Colin Edwards. Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden stormed behind Yamaha duo, with Dani Pedrosa attacking Edwards for second and getting in front of him for a while, before Edwards returned to second place. Casey Stoner (crashed on lap two taking down Sete Gibernau with him. The Spaniard, who was taken immediately to the Clinica Mobile for treatment, sustained a broken bone in his right hand and further damage to the left collarbone he broke in June.
Roberts, making his way through the field from a fifth row start, showed he was right on the early pace with a fastest lap of 1m 38.4 seconds, while Hayden wanted to get on terms with the two front men and barged past Pedrosa for third. Then on lap five the incident that every team dreads unfolded. Dani
outbraked himself at the same tight left turn where Nicky had passed him and lost the front end. Dani’s bike skittled Nicky and the two hit the gravel – Dani’s race over, Nicky’s title hopes compromised by the crash.
Toni Elias who had been fifth until the demise of the Repsol duo, was now third and attacking Edwards for second. Roberts had now eased past Loris Capirossi for fourth setting another fastest lap of 1m 37.9s in the process. By mid-race distance Elias had secured second after a hard fight with Edwards and the Spanish rider was now working on reducing the 1.1 second gap that Rossi held for the lead. By lap 19 of the scheduled 28 Tony was just 0.4 seconds adrift of Rossi and Roberts was shadowing Edwards who was still third.
Capirossi held fifth for several laps but then slipped backwards due to rear grip problems. In an effort to gain more grip on the partially resurfaced track Bridgestone brought tyres from their European base in Germany overnight but the gamble didn't work and Capirossi had to ease his pace, finishing race in 12th place.
On lap 22 Elias swooped up the inside of Rossi on the brakes at turn one before the reigning Champion grabbed back the lead on the next lap at the uphill chicane. But Roberts had now taken Edwards and then he moved on Elias for second.
On the penultimate lap Roberts made his bid for the lead at turn one and held onto it for the lap (Kenny would later reveal he miscounted the laps and expected to see the flag at the end of that lap). But on the final tour of Estoril’s 4.182km Elias made the same move from third place taking both
Rossi and Roberts in one hit.
Rossi stole second back from Roberts and then slipped past Elias at the final chicane – but Toni held his ground and kept the power down on the outside and as the pair rounded the Parabolica onto the finish straight, Elias slipped out of Rossi’s draft to win by two thousandths of a second. Colin Edwards finished race in 4th place. Makoto Tamada completed top 5 Estoril race finishers.
Hopkins was lucky to escape an early scare when Shinya Nakano ran into his back wheel and flipped over the back of Hopkins’ bike – leaving a large tyre mark over the Anglo-Americans back. Hopkins knuckled down and battled back through the field, eventually moving up to sixth place from a series of passes. The 6th place firmly establishes Hopkins in the top 10 of the MotoGP World Championship, a position he will be looking to improve upon at Valencia in two weeks time.
The Tech 3 Yamaha Team equalled its best result of the 2006 season as Carlos Checa finished in a superb seventh position. It was a fitting result to help celebrate Carlos' 34th birthday. Still third in the championship standings, Marco Melandri finished in eighth after a difficult weekend. The crash he suffered on Friday spoiled the race preparation.
Vermeulen got off to a good start and was up into eighth place by the third lap. He was involved in a long battle with Marco Melandri and Loris Capirossi. Who both passed him when the Australian made a mistake and ran off the track. Having composed himself and re-joined the race, Vermeulen eventually passed Capirossi but was unable to catch Melandri and brought his Rizla Suzuki home in ninth place.
Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet posted his best result of the season so far at Estoril, overcoming the rear grip problems that have plagued him all weekend to bring his Ninja ZX-RR home in tenth place in this afternoon's 28-lap Portuguese Grand Prix. De Puniet was the only Kawasaki rider to make the finish, as Shinya Nakano crashed out of the race on the opening lap, after being hit from behind at the left-hand turn four. The 29-year-old Japanese rider crashed heavily, but was passed fit to return to the Kawasaki pit box after a precautionary examination by circuit medical staff.
The World Championship has now swung in Rossi’s favour. The Italian has 244 points to Hayden’s 236 with the final round to be played out in Valencia in two weeks time.
Estoril race results:
1 Toni Elias
2 Valentino Rossi
3 Kenny Roberts
4 Colin Edwards
5 Makato Tamada
6 John Hopkins
7 Carlos Checa
8 Marco Melandri
9 Chris Vermeulen
10 Randy De Puniet
11 Alex Hofmann
12 Loris Capirossi
13 James Ellison
14 Jose Luis Cardoso
15 Garry McCoy
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