'Battle not over' but Rossi on the brink.

After a season full of races labelled 'significant' or a 'turning point', Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix looks to have been the real thing: Valentino Rossi's victory, combined with seventh for Sete Gibernau, means that the Italian now has one hand on Yamaha's first world championship since 1992.

Sepang was seen as the defining moment simply because it could all have been so different. With Rossi's title lead having dropped from 39 to 14-points after his Qatar disaster, Gibernau was thrown back into contention - and if he'd beaten Rossi on Sunday, even by one position, the title would have been too close to call.

But that's not what happened. Vale was fired-up all weekend and used his anger to take a tough but determined victory, while Gibernau suffered his worst result of the year (in the races he's finished) - extending Rossi's lead to 30 with just 50-points remaining from the final two rounds.

Put simply, if Rossi finishes ahead of Gibernau at Phillip Island this Sunday - or keeps his advantage at 25-points or more - he's won his sixth world championship. Gibernau must now rely on Rossi suffering bad luck to resurrect his dying title hopes.

"That was a brilliant race," beamed Rossi after the podium celebrations. "It was very important for me to make a good result here, especially after Qatar. We were very motivated, not only me but also all the mechanics, because what happened in Qatar was bad for us."

"The strongest point for us is that despite what happened last weekend nobody from the team or from Yamaha started to panic," added factory Yamaha team director Davide Brivio.

"Having said that, we knew it was important to win and regain the points gap. This was the way to put Qatar behind us, so we have forgotten everything that happened last Saturday. Valentino had a great reaction to what happened at the last race," added Brivio, pictured nervously watching the race with Yamaha managing director of motor racing Lin Jarvis.

Meanwhile, despite being on the brink of title victory, too much has happened this season for Rossi to become complacent:

"With 30 points it is a good advantage but we need to keep concentration at 100% because the championship lead was 39 points before Qatar, then much less after it," he said. "The battle is only over when it's over, and it's certainly not over yet!"

That 'anything can still happen' attitude was echoed by Rossi's experienced crew chief Jerry Burgess.

"It's good to go to Australia with a nice lead but a week is a long time in motorcycle racing, as it is in politics. It's been a hard season and many mistakes have been made by the top three riders," said the Australian.

First qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix takes place this Friday.