Rossi records GP win No 99

Valentino Rossi won his 99th career MotoGP race at the Catalunya Grand Prix on Sunday after overtaking teammate Jorge Lorenzo in the last bend.

Rossi finished in 43 minutes, 11.897 seconds to beat Lorenzo by 0.095 seconds. Casey Stoner finished third. The trio is now tied on 106 points in the overall standings.

"I'm happy, very happy. I congratulate Jorge, he gave me one hell of a final lap," said Rossi.

Lorenzo, who had started in pole position, traded the lead several times with Rossi in a hard-fought head-to-head race.

"I didn't expect him to overtake me on the last bend," Lorenzo said. "He was very brave."

Yuki Takahashi fell and hit the crash barrier hard in the opening lap, and Toni Elias lost grip on his rear tire and fell into the gravel.

The big talking point of the day was the finish in the 125cc category, where race leader Julian Simon mistakenly started celebrating after crossing the finish line with one lap still to go.

That allowed Andrea Iannone to seize the lead and the victory, with Simon not realizing his mistake until he saw his crew gesticulating to him to carry on racing.

"I reacted too hastily, I thought I'd seen the final lap marker on the start of the lap but should have known better when I didn't see the checkered flag when I crossed the line," Simon said.

Simon recovered to finish fourth, and leads the overall standings with 84 points, ahead of Bradley Smith with 82.5.

Iannone finished in 41 minutes, 10.494 seconds ahead of Nico Terol and Sergio Gadea.

Alvaro Bautista won the 250cc class in 41:09.018 seconds and extended his championship lead to 12 points after defending champion Marco Simoncelli abandoned the race after falling on the third lap.

AP