Rossi: My hardest race - ever!

Valentino Rossi survived one of the most accident-strewn races in MotoGP history to seal his seventh win of the season with a brilliant performance in Sunday's British Grand Prix at Donington Park - a race he would later call the hardest of his career.

The Italian splashed his way through several centimetres of standing water and lashings of torrential rain to clinch his fourth MotoGP win at the sweeping 4km racetrack, after a treacherous race that saw no fewer than 11 of the 21 riders crash.

Rossi had dropped from pole position to seventh at the start, but quickly fought his way back to the front of a six-man lead group when early leader Sete Gibernau fell on lap four.

However, Rossi still had Alex Barros, Kenny Roberts, John Hopkins and hi own Gauloises Yamaha team-matte Colin Edwards to contend with and - in a sign of the sizable challenge he faced - would drop from first to third on the very next lap... it wouldn't be until 18 laps later that Rossi finally returned to the lead.

That pivotal moment came with when he overtook Barros at the Melbourne hairpin with eight laps to go - the Italian then stunning his rivals as he instantly shaved over two-seconds from the fastest lap of the race up to that point. That won him the race, and left Roberts, Barros and Edwards to fight for the remaining podium positions.

"That was the hardest race of my entire career - the conditions were incredible. It was very, very cold and the track was very slippery," revealed a shivering Rossi. "At the beginning I was lucky because I made a mistake on the start and spun the tyre but after that I came back fast to the front.

"Biaggi crashed in front of me, then Gibernau... there were a lot of people making mistakes, also me, so I preferred to wait," he explained. "Alex had a good rhythm so I stayed behind him but I made a mistake at the chicane when I was fighting with Kenny and locked the brakes.

"Today was not like riding a bike, it was like riding a boat because there was a lot of water between the wheels and the track - always spinning the rear and locking the front. I could not believe when I looked at my pit board and it told me there were still 16 laps remaining," he continued.

"I tried to understand the points where I could push more and said to myself: 'Now I try and we see what happens!' I was able to go a lot faster and keep the advantage. It was a great job by the team because the bike worked well even though we only had 20 minutes this morning to find the wet-weather set-up."

But his factory Yamaha team knew the win was down to Rossi - and were as amazed as any of the huge Donington crowd at The Doctor's late race victory charge.

"Another special win! Every time Valentino races there is something special about it - today it was those two incredibly fast laps when he needed them at the end. All the way through he rode unbelievably well and it was amazing to watch," said a delighted Davide Brivio, Rossi's team director.

As he crossed the line, Rossi stood up on his YZR-M1 and played an imaginary violin for the latest in a long line of eye-catching victory celebrations.

"(On Saturday) when I looked at my best lap time I thought it was like a symphony of violins - perfect, so I decided that if I won I would do this celebration across the finish line!" he explained.

The result, combined with DNFs for Rossi's three nearest title rivals - Marco Melandri, Max Biaggi and Gibernau - means Valentino now holds a frightening 104-point lead over Honda rider Melandri.