The odds were stacked against Nicky Hayden heading into Sunday's Valencian title showdown, but the American went on to produce one of the greatest upsets in MotoGP history and take the title from five-times world champion Valentino Rossi.

After leading the championship for almost the entire season, the Repsol Honda rider began the 17th and final round eight-points behind Rossi - after devastatingly being taken out by team-mate Dani Pedrosa at Estoril - and, with Rossi then taking pole position for the title decider, Nicky looked like he'd need a miracle to defeat one of the greatest riders of all time.

But the Italian struggled to launch his Camel Yamaha off the start line and Hayden was ahead of the #46 within one lap, before charging quickly from sixth to second - after being waved past by Pedrosa - by lap three of 30. Hayden then set his sights on race leader Troy Bayliss, but when Rossi fell on lap five the Kentuckian no longer needed to become involved in what would have been a risky battle for victory and settled into a safe third behind Bayliss and Ducati team-mate Loris Capirossi.

Hayden held that position right to the flag, handing him the final 990cc world championship by just five points over Rossi, who remounted to finish 13th.

To put Hayden's achievement into perspective, he is only the second rider in history to have come from behind and won the title at the final race - and on the only previous occasion, in 1992, Wayne Rainey had been just two points behind Mick Doohan, who was also recovering from injury.

"When you dedicate your life to something and the dream comes true it feels so good," began an emotional Hayden, who has been with Repsol Honda ever since his 2003 MotoGP debut. "This is a proud day for me, the team and my family. I want to thank everybody back home and I hope they're partying back there in Owensboro.

"When I went down at the beginning of the Estoril race I thought the dream was over but I just didn't give up. Anything can happen in racing and you just keep fighting until the end. I just believe good things happen to good people and this is a great day for me.

"On the warm-up lap, when I was riding round in front of a full house, I had tears in my eyes because I knew this was the chance of a lifetime and I had to go for it. I've felt all year that this was my year - even at Estoril when Elias beat Rossi I believed it. I knew that win or lose I was going to sleep well tonight because I was gonna give it my all today.

"I got a good start and I was just fighting to get to the front in the first few laps. I saw some marks on the track and then I came round and my pit-board said "Rossi P19". Then it went to P17, P15 and P14 and it was a tough situation because I knew there was probably going to be a couple of riders pull over for him. And I knew that you can never count Valentino out - if his bike was ok then he can make up a lot of positions in a hurry.