Valentino Rossi fought a focused battle in Sunday's British Grand Prix, as the Italian - unable to threaten runaway winner
Casey Stoner - instead concentrated all his efforts on defeating nearest title rival
Dani Pedrosa.
Riding in his 200th grand prix, Rossi found himself under pressure from Pedrosa by the halfway mark of the 30 laps.
Twice Pedrosa overtook the Fiat Yamaha rider and twice Rossi got back past until - over the final stages - he was able to create a safe cushion from the Spaniard, crossing the line just under six seconds behind Stoner and 2.558 ahead of Pedrosa.
Rossi thus gained four points on Pedrosa and is now 11 points clear at the of the standings, with Stoner still 45 points from the top.
"I am quite happy about this result, although of course I would have preferred to have been fighting with Stoner for the win!" said Rossi. "I got a good start today and I tried to stay with Casey, but in some corners he was faster than me and it was impossible to keep up with his pace as the race went on.
"I knew that second place was important because of the points so I had to win my fight with Pedrosa in the middle of the race!" he recalled. "Luckily we took second and now I have extended my lead by four points, which is very important for our championship.
"We are leading the championship but Stoner showed his potential today so I think that this hard battle between us all is going to continue race by race. I am glad we only have a few days to Assen and I am looking forward to doing better there," Vale concluded.
"We're not quite at the half-way point of the championship yet - one more week - but we're pretty happy with our season so far and the important thing is that we're leading the championship," added team manager Davide Brivio. "We have no time to rest before Assen but we will be going there with the aim of getting back to the top step of the podium."
Rossi's team-mate
Jorge Lorenzo put his recent injuries and Saturday's poor qualifying behind him to come through from 17th on the grid to take sixth.
