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Rossi the real winner in Japan
Loris Capirossi won the Japanese GP this weekend, but runner up Valentino Rossi was the real victor as he once again ate into Nicky Hayden's lead at the top of the MotoGP championship.
Capirossi started in pole position and sparred with Marco Melandri for the lead over the first ten laps until the Honda rider made a costly error; thereafter, Capirossi held off the challenge of Rossi to comfortably win the race.
Yet it is the Yamaha rider who will be the most jubilant after this result, having also profited from Melandri's blunder and finished strongly to ensure he took second spot, thereby cutting Hayden's lead at the top of the table to just 12 points.
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Rossi said afterwards: "I'm really happy with this second position today. It wasn't a great battle like in Sepang, but my rhythm was really good and my bike worked very well.
He added: "20 points is a great result for me at this track, which isn't one of my favourites and now we're only 12 points behind in the championship. We have two races left and if we can continue in this way then it's possible!"
Having only scraped into fifth because of an error by Shinya Nakano, Hayden was far more downbeat and declared himself dissatisfied with the result, although he praised the performance of both his bike and his tyres.
Meanwhile, the victorious Capirossi described the race as "pretty amazing" and feels that the remaining two rounds could prove to be similarly exciting, warning that he does not think "the championship will be over until the last race".
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