Rossi leads Yamaha 1-2-3 at Le Mans

This is the Italian's 90th Grand Prix victory, slotting him in second on the all-time winners list, tied with Spaniard Angel Nieto.

Rossi and 61-year-old Nieto celebrated this historic victory with the former stopping on his parade lap, and the latter, who wore overalls saying 'Bravo Valentino 90', jumping on Rossi's M1 bike and taking them both back to the pits, with Rossi waving a flag saying '90+90'.

Rossi, who now tops the championship table, took the lead with his Fiat Yamaha on lap seven of the 28-lap race from Ducati Marlboro's Casey Stoner and never relinquished it, opening a gap as wide as ten seconds over man-of-the-day Lorenzo.

The Spanish rookie, who dropped down to tenth at the start from fifth on the grid, began to really make an impression in the race on lap nine, when in a single lap he overtook John Hopkins's Kawasaki, Loris Capirossi's Suzuki and Nicky Hayden's Repsol Honda to slot into sixth.

The works Yamaha rider then made up a gap to Chris Vermeulen's Suzuki to overtake him for fifth place on lap 15, five laps before passing Edwards in fourth place and challenging Stoner for third.

When Lorenzo made a move on the Australian on the Le Mans front straight, the reigning champion's Ducati suffered a mechanical problem that dropped him down the order on lap 21. On the same lap the Spaniard overtook arch-rival and compatriot Dani Pedrosa's Repsol Honda for second place.

After his injury in China Lorenzo had to walk to the podium on crutches and sat on a chair during the celebrations.

Today's race was affected by the weather, with rain drops prompting the stewards to show the white flag on lap 16, thus allowing the riders to switch to bikes fitted with wet-weather tyres.

The rain increased for a couple of laps, with Rossi notably slowing down, but in the end only two riders switched bikes.

These were the two works Ducatis, with Stoner taking advantage of this rule to rejoin the track after his mechanical gremlins, and Melandri taking a gamble after his engine switched off at the start forcing him to be push-started by a mechanic.

In the end the two teammates finished the race in a disappointing 15th and 16th position for the Italian and the Australian respectively.

Three seconds behind Tech 3 Yamaha's Edwards came Pedrosa in fourth, followed a further eleven seconds back by Vermeulen, with JiR Team Scot Honda's Andrea Dovizioso in close pursuit.

Capirossi finished in seventh place, ahead of Hayden in eighth and the two customer Hondas of Randy de Puniet (LCR) and Shinya Nakano (Gresini).

Hopkins retired from seventh place on lap 17 after losing his Suzuki's chain, which almost went in the way of Dovizioso who was following.

Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland crashed out of the race from ninth place on lap 3.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  44:30.799
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  +   4.997
 3.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  +   6.805
 4.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  +  10.157
 5.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  +  21.762
 6.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  +  22.395
 7.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  +  27.806
 8.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  +  27.995
 9.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  +  29.344
10.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  +  30.822
11.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  +  35.154
12.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  +  36.216
13.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  +  52.038
14.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  +1:29.307
15.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  +   1 lap
16.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  +  2 laps

Retirements:

     Rider             Bike           Laps
     John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  16
     James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  2