Grand Prix 2000 - Round 13 - Valencia

Waldmann looked to maybe have jumped the start followed by the normal Chesterfield Yamaha duo of Nakano & Jacque. Jacque up into 2nd and then the lead before they were halfway through the first lap.

As they started lap two the race order was Jacque, Nakano, Waldmann, Ukawa, Melandri, Katoh, Battaini, West.

Ukawa through on Waldmann for 3rd on lap three and the next time around Waldmann got the sign informing him that he had a stop&go penalty which he would have knew was coming anyway.

Melandri went through on Ukawa for 3rd on lap seven. West is 7th.

Ukawa back through on Melandri on lap eight.

Nakano and Jacque pulled out a huge gap on Ukawa and Melandri over the next 6 laps. Nakano the leader with 2 seconds over his team-mate Jacque while Ukawa was trying to hold off Melandri to maintain his 3rd position but it does not look as they will get anywhere near the lead as they are 10 seconds behind the two Yamaha riders.

Nakano continued to open the gap over his team-mate and had a 5 second lead with 8 laps to go but Jacque does not have much chance of being caught by Ukawa and Melandri are a further 10 seconds behind. Yamaha domination at Valencia today.

Melandri took 3rd place from Ukawa with 3 laps to go and they started to battle hard.

Final lap - Ukawa shows Melandri a wheel, Melandri shuts the door, Ukawa tries again but Melandri maintains his 3rd position again. Ukawa under on a tight line but Melandri manages to hold him out even though he was on a much wider line. Melandri does not have a championship standing to worry about. Melandri beats Ukawa across the line for 3rd.