Yamaha rider shaves another five points off Hayden's lead (ANSA) - Melbourne, September 18 - The first pit stop in MotoGP history probably kept Valentino Rossi from winning his sixth Australian Grand Prix in a row, but his third place finish allowed him to shave a further five points from Nicky Hayden's lead for the championship .

Rossi is now 21 points behind the Honda rider with three races left to go, the first next Sunday at Honda's home track .

The 27-year-old Italian would probably have cut Hayden's lead even more had it not rained and the so-called white flag rule allowing riders to change bikes been applied for the first time .

"I was certainly the fastest when the track was dry and could have won. But that's the way things go. What was important for me was to catch up on some points and in the end I gained five points on Hayden," Rossi said after the race .

"It was as if I won the race and Nicky came in second," the seven times world champion observed. Before going into the pits Hayden had fallen back to 16th place, after starting from pole, and Rossi was a comfortable third .

The pit stop and the time needed to adjust to the new tires put Rossi back in eighth place, behind Hayden, but once he got adjusted he went on the offensive and soon passed the American to get into fourth place .

Rossi then made up over seven seconds on Sete Gibernau and burned him on the last corner, putting the Ducati rider between him and Hayden .

Honda's Marco Melandri won the race and his third victory of the season allowed him to join Hayden's teammate Daniel Pedrosa in third place in the overall standings. The Spaniard finished only 15th .

Australian Chris Vermeulen came in second to pick up his and his Suzuki team's first podium finish of the season .

Looking ahead to the final three races, Rossi predicted "they're going to be difficult. We're going to have to work hard to get the bike just right" .

"Anything can happen now. Hayden is my biggest problem with his 21-point advantage, but we're going to give it all we've got right up to that last checkered flag," Rossi concluded .