Barros cashes in on wet weather

Brazilian Alex Barros, pictured celebrating, won the rain-hit Portuguese Grand Prix motorcycling grand prix yesterday with world champion Valentino Rossi finishing second to increase his championship lead.
Honda rider Barros had started from pole position and weathered treacherous conditions to claim his first victory since the Valencia Grand Prix in 2002 and the seventh of his career.
Spanish championship contender Sete Gibernau had led from the start of the 28-lap race despite riding with an injured shoulder but he lost control of his bike on lap 16 and slid out.
It was a bitter disappointment for a second successive week for the Honda rider after he was pushed into second place by Italian Yamaha rider Rossi on the final corner of the Spanish Grand Prix and ended up in the gravel trap.
Brazilian flags peppered the 26,000-strong crowd and Barros was greeted with loud cheers as he took the chequered flag.
"It started raining and I tried to pressure (Gibernau) a little bit, it was the only way, and he responded," Barros told a news conference.
"He braked late and lost the front of the bike. After that I tried to just keep a good pace, to go a little bit slower."
Rossi's compatriot Max Biaggi, who has endured a nightmare start to the year, finished third after clawing his way back from eighth place on the starting grid on his Honda.
The result left Rossi, who is chasing a fifth successive world title, seven points clear at the top of the MotoGP standings on 45 points followed by Barros on 38 with Honda rider Marco Melandri on 29. Gibernau is fifth on 20 points.
"I am very, very happy. These 20 points are important for us and for the championship," said Rossi, who had won at Estoril for the last four years.
Biaggi, who described his qualifying performance in Spain last week as the low point of his career, was delighted to bounce back with a podium finish ahead of Italian Melandri.
"We've improved a lot since Spain," said the 33-year-old. "Now I think the team has more experience and the bike will get even better before the next race."
Ducati's Carlos Checa, another injured rider, started third on the grid but was running as low as ninth at one stage before recovering to finish fifth.
"When you consider the things we had to carry into this weekend, with my shoulder injury and so on, to finish fifth is a positive result," the Spaniard said.
Japan's Makoto Tamada, who finished second here last year, failed to even start the race, pulling out after injuring his wrist in a fall during Saturday's qualifying.
Sunday's race saw the first use of a new white flag system in MotoGP, which allows riders to change bike at will if conditions are wet, although no one did.
"It is a little bit dangerous because none of the riders would chose to stop," said Rossi. "You would lose 40 or 50 seconds and your race basically is over. Maybe if the rain was very bad, maybe, someone would stop to change the bike."
There were first-time winners in the 250cc and 125cc classes.
Australian Aprilia rider Casey Stoner got his maiden 250cc victory, while Mika Kallio became Finland's first grand prix winner in three decades when he won the 125cc race on a KTM. ? Reuters