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'Great feeling' for winner Rossi

The seemingly unstoppable Valentino Rossi powered to another victory and another step closer to the 2009 world title on Sunday. By winning the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, 'donkey' Rossi stretches his championship-leading advantage to 30 points over Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

With two races within the space of a week, a busy seven days were over for Rossi after taking the chequered flag at Misano. Having committed an unforced error and sliding out of the Indianapolis Grand Prix one weekend previous, Rossi's dominance over the San Marino meeting saw the Italian top all sessions at his home track.

"This is a great feeling!" he said after the race. "It's taken me some time to get used to Misano and view it as a 'home' race - because Mugello is so special to me - but I can honestly say that winning here today, in front of everyone dressed in yellow and with 46s everywhere, is a great emotion and I want to thank everyone for making it so special.

'Signor Donkey' was by far the happiest man at Misano

"Today I had to go quite carefully with the full tank at the start and I took some time to get to the front but once I was there it was great and my bike felt fantastic; we didn't expect to be this competitive here but it's been a perfect weekend so I have to say a huge thank you to the team for a brilliant job. Since Indianapolis, when I made that mistake, we have been so focused and concentrated and everyone deserves this result."

Due to the Indy slip-up, the donkey ears on Rossi's helmet were adapted in order to signify a 'stupid mistake' by the Italian. "I was the 'flying donkey' today!" he laughed. "I am happy that we are going into a month without racing - with these memories and this points lead - but, as we saw at Indy, everything can change quickly so we will be fully focused once again in Estoril when we come back."

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