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Valentino Rossi prepares to appear for the 100th time on a Yamaha factory engine in the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal,
a circuit where he has claimed wins on five occasions in the premier session. The Italian hero is aware that another
Portuguese victory will take him closer to keeping the MotoGP title.
Rossi has a 30 point championship advantage
following 13 events, the finals which saw him claim a win on home soil at Misano. Rossi’s main objective at Estoril
will be to finish ahead of his Fiat Yamaha colleague Jorge Lorenzo, who still has an opportunity of catching his rival in
the standings. Lorenzo took a maiden MotoGP victory in Portugal last season in only his third premier class event and the
Spaniard will be aiming to repeat the success.
Lorenzo has also finished in first and second places at the last
two rounds of the current year to fight his way back into the title fight after consecutive DNF results at Donington and Brno.
For third-placed competitorDani Pedrosa, Estoril is one of only four circuits on the calendar where he has not been
victorious in any class of Grand Prix racing. However, Pedrosa has finished in second place in Portugal for the past two years
and the Repsol Honda racer will be highly challenged to stay above the return of Casey Stoner in the standings following the
remaining four 2009 GPs.
Stoner comes back for Ducati Marlboro at round 14, after skipping three events due to
illness, he will endeavour to claim his early season competitiveness which allowed him wins at Losail International (Qatar)
and Mugello, plus three further stage appearances. The Aussie is 87 points behind Rossi, 57 behind Lorenzo and only seven
away from Pedrosa.
Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso, currently in fifth place, is ten points above Colin Edwards,
and has ended fourth in the final three events since his initial MotoGP win at Donington in July.
Edwards’
blameless first lap smash and DNF at Misano the previous time was his first non-scoring result since Germany last season and
the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 racer would be elated with repeating his 2008 and 2006 fourth spots at Estoril.
Behind
Edwards is Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and Marco
Melandri (Hayate Racing), they finish the current MotoGP top ten.
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