Elias plays down brush with Rossi

Both riders nearly fell when they made contact in the final complex while battling for second.

Elias emerged from the manoeuvre ahead and pulled away to earn a comfortable runner-up spot for Gresini Honda, while Rossi encountered tyre problems soon afterwards and fell to 10th.

"It was risky, yeah, but you need to see clearly what happened," Elias told Italia1 television.

"We were trying to catch Casey. It was me and Rossi, and in that moment I felt I was a bit faster so I decided to overtake him.

"When we were side by side his bike started to get close to mine, and it was a very dangerous moment. In the end [of the manoeuvre] my bike started sliding on the side and that was the dangerous thing on my part. I tried to control that but it happened.

"These things happen in racing and I'm happy with today's result. The way I drive may look risky but I feel comfortable with it and I will carry on like this."

Elias felt that he could have battled with dominant winner Casey Stoner had he not lost time earlier in the race while repeatedly swapping positions with John Hopkins.

"I lost a bit of time with Hopkins," he said. "If I didn't maybe I could have gone with Casey, but today he was too strong."