Rossi claims 50th GP win with Aussie MotoGP triumph

Australia (Agence France-Presse): World champion Valentine Rossi celebrated his 50th grand prix win in coming from behind to take consecutive Australian MotoGPs at Phillip Island on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Italian superstar mastered clutch problems on his dominating Repsol Honda four-stroke bike to wear down Brazilian frontrunner Alex Barros.

It was Rossi's 11th victory of the season giving him the opportunity of equaling Australian Michael Doohan's record of 12 wins in a calendar year at the season-ending race invalencia, Spain, on Nov. 3.

races ago, got past Barros with four laps left and went on to win comfortably after Barros attempted a desperate undertaking maneuver on a hairpin bend on his Honda and slewed off the circuit inside the final lap.

Rossi screamed down the home straight to win the penultimate race of the season by 9.782 seconds from Barros, who had enough of a break to hold on for second place from Japan's Tohru Ukawa.

He won here last year to claim his first world 500cc title in a dramatic split-second finish with Max Biaggi.

Barros, on a four-stroke bike for only the third time, had led the race for 22 of the 27 laps and at one stage led Rossi by one and half seconds before he was reeled in.

Rossi, who set an unofficial lap record of 1min 32.233sec on the 11th lap, leads the championship by 136 points from Max Biaggi.

"Barros was incredible at the beginning of the race, he was making Imin 32sec every lap and it was very difficult to keep up with him," Rossi said.

"But I knew that when the tires were wearing out towards the end of the race I would have more chance and we had a big fight when I passed him with a few laps to go.

Barros took comfort that since jumping on the same 990cc machine as Rossi they have a win each.

"On the last lap I tried to muscle past him but I lost control of the bike and I went straight on (at the hairpin), but I at least managed to keep the bike upright and finish second," Barros said.

Rossi's time for the 27-lap race over 120.096 kilometers was 42mins 02.041 seconds.

Ukawa advanced to 198 points and just one behind Biaggi ahead of the Valencia showdown in the scramble to finish second behind tear-away Rossi on the championship standings.