MotoGP Race

Sete Gibernau had been the fastest man in every practice session of the weekend at Jerez but Valentino Rossi played a masterful stroke of psychological warfare by heading out in the dying minutes of the one and only qualifying session and promptly stuck his Yamaha on pole position.  Max Biaggi had a woeful qualifying session and is well down in 16th position on the grid, his worst ever starting position in MotoGP, and on a full factory Honda...  Some serious head scratching going on there I'm sure. 

In the morning warm up session Rossi did serious damage to his Yamaha after going down early in the session and didn't bother going out on the other bike.  Maybe the champion was using the warm up session to test a new idea that obviously didn't pay off.  It was a fairly big fall but as usual Rossi proved as malleable as ever and walked away uninjured.

When the lights went out to start the race it was Rossi and Gibernau away well and side by side at the end of the main straight but Rossi had the line and tipped into turn one with his nose in front, but Gibernau shot through to the lead between turns 1 and 2 while Nicky Hayden had used his qualifying position to good effect to be running third through the early turns and then pushed Rossi back to third place a few corners later to make it Honda 1-2 at the front and Rossi in third, Melandri fourth, Nakano fifth, Bayliss sixth, Capirossi seventh, Checa eighth.  Biaggi had not managed to gain space on the start from his 16th position in the grid and at the end of lap one was running in 17th. 

Rossi set a new race lap record on the second lap but was still running in 3rd place but ran in a little too deep and allowed Marco Melandri to slip past him early on the 3rd lap.  Ruben Xaus entered the pits to get some work done on his Ducati before heading back out to join the race a few minutes later at the back of the field a couple of laps down.

Nicky Hayden broke the newly set lap record on the third lap with a 1m40.9 to close a little on Gibernau but the top four running fairly close together and fifth placed Shinya Nakano a bit more than a second behind the leading quartet and Troy Bayliss a little further behind in 6th.

Rossi put a block pass on Hayden up the inside to take second place which made Hayden stand his machine up temporarily to avoid a clash between the pair but the young American recovered reasonably well and didn't lose too much ground.  Rossi immediately closed onto the tail of Sete Gibernau after breaking the new lap record yet again with a 1m40.5 scorcher which would have put him in 5th place on the grid during qualifying on his spare machine after destroying his #1 bike during the morning warm up session.

Rossi all over the back of Gibernau but Nicky Hayden also right there.  Rossi lost a little drive onto the main straight it seemed at the beginning of lap 8 which enabled Gibernau to pull a few bike lengths and gave Hayden the opportunity to start looking for a way past Rossi.  Tyre wear critical here at Jerez and this leading trio all on medium compound Michelins at both ends of their machines.

The next few laps saw some new developments however as Rossi stepped it up a little to pull away from Nicky Hayden and close back onto the tail of Gibernau and with 15 laps to run had sat right on the tail of the Spaniard and was making his presence felt.  Marco Melandri was still running a very strong fourth place a couple of second behind Hayden and Nakano remained in 5th while a close tussle for 6th place was being fought out between Barros, Tamada, Bayliss with that trio not too far behind the Kawasaki man and ready to pounce should Nakano slow his pace in the slightest.

A lap later Barros did get through on Nakano to take that 5th place away from the Kawasaki man.

With 10 laps to run Hayden was 2 seconds down on the leading pair with Melandri a further 4 seconds behind in a very safe looking 4th place. Biaggi had worked his way up to 9th place.  Bayliss was all over the rear of Tamada and was looking for a way to take 7th place off the Konica Minolta rider.

Nicky Hayden then crashed out of third place after looking as though he had actually pulled a couple of tenths back on the leading pair with 7 laps to run.  Troy Bayliss had got the better of Makoto Tamada for that 7th position which after Hayden's demise had become a 6th place.  Hayden had managed to dig his machine out of the kitty litter and remounted his machine and tried to circulate before realising it was fruitless and returned to pit lane.

With Hayden's premature demise Marco Melandri looked to have a spot on the podium safe as he ran around by himself well behind the pair fighting for the lead and also well ahead of the 4th placed Alex Barros.  Biaggi had moved past Tamada for 7th place and was looking for a way past Bayliss.

Rossi made his move at the last turn as they ran down the main straight to start the penultimate lap and took the lead from Gibernau and the gauntlet was finally thrown and this would from now on be an all out fight to the flag.

But Gibernau did not seem to want to fight that hard and ran that lap a couple of bike lengths behind Rossi and watched the Yamaha man from behind. Last lap and Gibernau still not looking for a way through but Rossi then ran into the next corner a little deep and left the door wide open for the Spaniard to get through and he took it, Rossi deliriously sideways out of the next turns trying to get him back then does get back in front in to the first part of the double apex right but Gibernau had the inside and got him into the next part of the turn and then into the final turn Rossi just put it up the inside while upright where there was no place to be and just pushed Gibernau all the way off the track into the kitty litter and then leaned his Yamaha back down to make the corner and ran onto the main straight to take the win.  Gibernau was left to fight his way out of the kitty litter to limp home in 2nd place but I would not be surprised if an appeal is lodged.

Melandri brought his Yamaha home to a great third position while Barros was further back in 4th, Nakano 5th and Troy Bayliss earned 6th place on his Honda debut after keeping Biaggi at bay in the closing laps while Tamada had drifted back to 8th.  Colin Edwards scored 9th place in his Yamaha MotoGP debut to come home 37 seconds adrift of his race winning team-mate.

Sete Gibernau was civil to Rossi in Parc Ferme and on the podium when Rossi offered his hand but the Spaniard is obviously gutted at that final turn move by Rossi.  When the Italian national anthem was played with the riders on the podium the huge Spanish crowd responded with loud and continuing boos. 

Race Result

1. Rossi
2. Gibernau 8.6secs
3. Melandri 18.4secs
4. Barros 26.9secs
5. Nakano 27.6secs
6. Bayliss 28.5secs
7. Biaggi 30.6secs
8. Tamada 36.8secs
9. Edwards 37.6secs
10. Checa 39.6secs
11. Hofmann 42.2secs
12. Elias 55.4secs
13. Capirossi 62.3secs
14. Hopkins 79.3secs
15. Rolfo 93.6secs
16. Ellison 1 lap
17. Battaini 1 lap
18. Xaus 3 laps

Championship Points

1. Rossi 25
2. Gibernau 20
3. Melandri 16
4. Barros 13
5. Nakano 11
6. Bayliss 10
7. Biaggi 9
8. Tamada 8
9. Edwards 7
10. Checa 6
11. Hofmann 5
12. Elias 4
13. Capirossi 3
14. Hopkins 2
15. Rolfo 1