Estoril, 16 September: Honda LCR rider Carlos Checa rode superbly in today’s Portuguese Grand Prix, finishing a brilliant seventh in hot and humid conditions at Estoril. Checa’s race pace showed that without some problems in qualifying and a better starting position, he could have challenged for fifth position.

Checa made a fast start and charged through the traffic to pass Toni Elias, Colin Edwards and Anthony West to be eighth on lap four and in pursuit of Makoto Tamada’s Yamaha. Two laps later Checa was seventh by which time the leading group had opened a gap and maintained a strong pace to the finish. The race was won by Valentino Rossi.

CHECA: Seventh - Championship 14th/54 points

CHECA: “I’m very satisfied with this result after some problems in qualifying meant I started on the fourth row. It was a good race, I enjoyed it, especially from the start and passing many riders including Elias, West and Edwards and finally Tamada for seventh. My feeling was that if I had started closer to the front I could raced with Melandri and Hopkins for fifth but anyway, this is a positive step forward with the new tyres from Michelin and our set-up from Honda.”

In the 250cc prix Eugene Laverty finished 14th to again score world championship points despite not being able to confirm a new race set-up in the morning warm-up because of rain.

LAVERTY: “It’s great to score some points but I should have been much faster today, this was a gift. We gambled on the race set-up to try and fix the problems with braking stability from practice but it didn’t work, the rear wheel was still bouncing too much. Plus I got pushed wide at turn one after making up some places with a good start.”