"The fall in the warm-up actually helped because it made me more cautious as I had to race on my second bike.

"I used softer tyres than my rivals and when I began to push hard I was able to get away from Biaggi. Everything went well."

Biaggi himself was pleased with second place, the best performance from his Yamaha this year.

"The new chassis worked well, and we can still improve a lot as we now know what we have to do to get closer to Rossi who is still ahead of us," he said.

"This second place is important because it's my best finish of the season and because it came in front of my home fans. I'm sure we're going to keep on improving."

Ukawa's position also satisfied him, the Honda rider saying: "My bike went well today and that allowed me to get third place. This isn't an ideal circuit for me, but I made it on to the podium and that's a good result."

Rossi now leads in the overall standings by 43 points, with Ukawa in second.

Melandri victory

Marco Melandri moved to within 15 points of Spaniard Fonsi Nieto in the 250cc standings after winning is class ahead of fellow Italian Aprilia rider Roberto Locatelli.

Nieto was third, beating compatriot Toni Elias, as Asprilias monopolised the first six places.

In the 125cc class race, world champion Manuel Poggiali overtook Pablo Nieto in the final lap to win.