Rossi glad race was stopped

The race was halted on lap 21 as increasing wind and rain made conditions too dangerous to continue.

At first there were suggestions that it would be restarted, causing leader Rossi and title rival Casey Stoner to lobby Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta to get the race result declared, and eventually the officials deemed that the results could be taken from lap 20.

"When I got in the lead I was a tad quicker in certain spots and I tried to push hard, but an incredible wind started, it began to rain a lot and you couldn't see anything anymore, on the straight there were gusts making the bike uncontrollable," Rossi told Italia1 television.

"I didn't raise my arm up because otherwise they would have said 'he raised it up because he's ahead', but every lap I was hoping to see the red flag and in the end I saw it.

"To win here is incredible. Today I've had plenty of different emotions. At one point I honestly thought we wouldn't race, because when the downpour started the track was impossible to use. I think they've been very good because they cleared all the water that was standing on the track.

"With the same conditions elsewhere we wouldn't have raced, but they had these trucks to remove the water. So from there I started finding my focus again and to prepare for the race.

"The problem then was the wind, it was incredible, inconsistent, with gusts. You couldn't go over the front straight, with beer cans, paper cups, plastic bags going over the track. It was a mess, the artificial grass was coming off."

Rossi's Indianapolis win was his fourth straight victory, and puts him 87 points ahead of Stoner in the championship. He can therefore clinch the 2008 title at Motegi in a fortnight.

"Things are very good for the championship, we have a lot of points," he said. "Today we finished in front and then we'll go to Motegi. We'll see.

"I can't remember when was the last time I won four races in a row. I'm extremely happy, I hadn't won a wet race for a very long time.

"I feel in shape, I'm riding well. We are working hard with the entire team, with Yamaha, and Bridgestone. Even though we have some problems, we always try to solve them calmly and we never give up.

"The advantage is 87 points, I need to leave Motegi with 76 ahead, so I can also finish behind Stoner there. In 2005 I could win the championship in Japan but I crashed and brought (Marco) Melandri down with me, so history isn't very positive. So we need to keep focused and try to do a good race there too, and then we'll see."

The Italian dedicated today's win to his grandfather, who passed away this weekend.

"I've just received the news that my grandfather, who was very sick, has died," Rossi said. "It's a shame, because I would have liked to show him whether I could win the title because he cared for it. But he was very sick, these things happen, he was very old. I'm happy to have a victory to dedicate to him."