Rossi thrilled to reach second place

Pedrosa's victory puts him just seven points behind Rossi, who had to battle through the field from ninth on the grid.

But Rossi was extremely upbeat after the race, having thoroughly enjoyed charging up the order and winning a long dice for second with Casey Stoner.

"What a race," Rossi exclaimed in the press conference.

"I'm very happy, especially because I had great fun during the race. I did a lot of overtaking, like in the old times.

"My target was the podium, but in the end I was able to battle with Casey, and we had a great, great battle with a lot of overtaking. I enjoyed it a lot."

He believes the 20 points he claimed today on a relatively bad weekend for Yamaha could be crucial in the title battle, and he was very pleased not to have lost more ground to Pedrosa considering his lowly starting position.

"These 20 points are very important for my championship," Rossi said.

"I lost five to Dani, but we know that to beat Dani we have to start in front and yesterday was a bad day for us."