Estoril 2006

1st Toni Elias

2nd Valentino Rossi +0.002 s 3rd Kenny Roberts Junior +0.176 s

This was the infamous race in which Dani Pedrosa took out Repsol Honda team-mate and world championship leader Nicky Hayden. With both factory RC213Vs out, the race turned into a three-way dogfight among Hayden’s title-rival Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha YZR-M1), wild-riding Spaniard Toni Elias (Fortuna Honda RC211V) and Kenny Roberts Jr (Roberts KR211V).

Elias was spectacular to watch, rear end skittering this way and that into corners and kicking sideways out of them, but the technique worked for him and had him charging through the pack to take the lead from Rossi. “Toni arrived like a devil,” Rossi said later.

The final six laps were epic. Elias led, but the stress was too much and he kept making mistakes, so he waved Rossi past. But now Roberts was on the charge, out-braking the Italian on what he thought was the last lap. But it wasn’t. Rossi and Elias took advantage of KRJR’s confusion, the Spaniard ahead with half a lap to go. As they sped into the final complex of corners Rossi inched past but Elias out-drafted him in the run to the line, Rossi then diving out of the Honda’s slipstream. At the finish-line they were separated by 0.002 seconds, the closest finish in the premier class since Alex Criville beat Mick Doohan by the same margin at Brno in 1996.