MotoGP Race

Factory Yamaha riders started from positions one and two on the grid at Le Mans for the first time since the Dutch TT last year when Rossi and Checa took the top spots at Assen. Rossi the polesitter just ahead of his Texan team-mate Colin Edwards. This was Rossi's 27th pole position across the 500cc/MotoGP categories while it was Colin Edwards' first ever front row start in Grand Prix.

Qualifying was amazingly close across the board however with the top 12 riders all less than a second, 0.765 of a second to be exact, from the polesitter. Making those qualifying times even more amazing was that all of those 12 riders were also under the lap record set by Max Biaggi last year.

Marco Melandri once again put his Honda on the front row making it three front row appearance for the rejuvenated Italian out of four rounds so far this year. 

Sete Gibernau just missed the front row but has been strong at Le Mans before with victories in both 2003 and 2004 at the French circuit to make it the only circuit where he has scored multiple victories.

Both Melandri and Edwards got away well with the front wheel in the air but Edwards had the best launch to shoot through to the lead but his American compatriot Colin Edwards was soon back through while Capirossi watched on in 3rd. Not even making the first lap was Rolfo and Checa who ended up in the gravel while John Hopkins returned to the pits with a broken bike and returned to the pits to pick up his other machine which of course he is allowed to do as the race had been declared wet.  Shane Byrne also went down and was carried away on a stretcher but conscious and moving around okay.

As they started lap two it was still Edwards out in front with Hayden in second place with Capirossi in 3rd and then a small gap to Melandri who was being stalked closely by Valentino Rossi who then slipped through to take that 4th position.

Loris Capirossi was looking dangerous after recording the fastest lap next time around while Rossi had broken away from Melandri and was starting to catch up to the leading trio.  Ellison also went out of the race to end the English involvement in this Grand Prix.

Rossi was down to 1m34.2 on the next lap around to underline his progress forward.

Edwards had started to build some ground on Hayden to make his lead more pronounced as Rossi started to challenge Loris Capirossi for 3rd place. Rossi took that 3rd spot on the next lap and the next target in his sights was the Repsol Honda of his ex team-mate Nicky Hayden while of course out in front was his new team-mate Colin Edwards.

Edwards, Hayden, Rossi, Capirossi, Melandri, Gibernau, Biaggi, Nakano, Barros the top nine riders with 20 laps to run. Rossi had closed right onto the pipe of Hayden while a little further back Sete Gibernau was having major dramas in trying to put a pass on his team-mate Marco Melandri.

Hayden then ran a little wide which left the door open for Rossi who then also ran a little wide a couple of corners later but Hayden was too slow to capitalise on an opportunity that was there to be had.

Gibernau had managed to finally get past Melandri for 5th place and was running the fastest pace on the track but his poor earlier laps could prevent him from being able to battle for the lead but there are still 18 laps to run and it is certainly not out of the question if the Spaniard can really step up to the plate here at Le Mans.

Up front it is Yamaha 1-2 with their 1-2 grid positions in reverse, on the track it is still Edwards ahead of Rossi and while Rossi has had to have been the one to chase Edwards down he might have used more of his Michelins to do so which could be a telling point as the laps count down.

Gibernau the first man down to the 1-minute-33-second bracket with a 1m33.937 to set a new lap record and the Spaniard was starting to challenge Loris Capirossi by 4th. Gibernau makes his move into that 3rd place but the gap to Rossi in 2nd place was still a full 3 seconds which is a big gap to close at this level.

Barros skidded off into the kitty litter and while conscious looks perhaps injured. Another blow to Honda's hopes for the championship as the Brazilian was running 3rd in the championship. Gibernau has to prove himself here today by getting up to the Yamaha and taking the battle to them or seemingly Honda can just about right off their hopes of the 2005 title here and now.

Gibernau looked to be doing exactly that as he blasted past Hayden and then started reeling in Rossi hand over fist. The Yamaha pits prepared Valentino's pit board to tell him Sete was on the way.

With 12 laps to run Gibernau had just broke the new lap record yet again with a 1m33.907 to close to within 1.5 seconds of the Yamaha men. Rossi might have previously been content to run behind his team-mate for much of this race but with the news that Gibernau was on the way it seemed obvious that Rossi would soon force his way past his team-mate and try to break away.

Gibernau closing more and more at every turn, pulling tenths out of the Yamaha men left, right and centre.  Rossi tried a hard move on his team-mate but made a complete mess of it and ran over the ripple strip which made him have to get out of the throttle and let his team-mate back through and Gibernau took advantage of the mistake and pushed Rossi back to 3rd as the final ten laps looked set to be something special.

Gibernau has a medium front and a medium rear while Rossi has a hard rear tyre which could help him out in the closing stages of this race.

The leading trio running nose-to-tail, Yamaha, Honda, Yamaha - Edwards, Gibernau, Rossi. It seemed as though nobody else was in the race.

Rossi came back at Gibernau then and pushed the Spaniard back to 3rd but the question was going to be could Rossi this time manage to eclipse his team-mate without making a mistake and then could he break away?

Rossi goes underneath Edwards as the Texan makes a small mistake and Gibernau also takes advantage of the tiny miscalculation so it is Rossi and Gibernau up front now and will the pace hot up again now after the battle had slowed the pace of the race by a full second and was Edwards slowing them down a little?

That question looked to be answered on the next lap as Rossi and Gibernau started to pull some ground on the Texan but Rossi was certainly not breaking away from Gibernau.

Biaggi had recovered from a huge crash in morning warm-up and a poor start from his 8th place on the grid but had soldiered on and worked his way forward to 4th place after taking Marco Melandri. Not sure what had happened to Nicky Hayden but he had gone back to 6th place after running up front for the first few laps where he was looking strong.

Rossi and Gibernau had really pulled away from Edwards and the 4th placed battle between Melandri and Biaggi was being waged not too far behind the Texan and if he is not careful a pair of Honda men might push him off the podium.

Two laps to run and Gibernau was still right on the tail of Rossi's Yamaha. Could this be Sete's chance to stick it up the inside and push Rossi out into the gravel to return that favour dished out earlier in the season...?

Last lap and nose to tail the are, down the back straight and Rossi still has the advantage and he might have played his cards right once again, only 3 turns to run, and no he can't do it and Rossi takes the win with a new lap record (1m33.678) set on the final circuit.  Amazing stuff, especially as Gibernau had also done his fastest lap of the race on that last time around and that was still not good enough to overcome the phenom that is Rossi.

The race for the championship still all Rossi with a huge 37 point advantage after only four rounds. The next best on the ladder is the Telefonica Movistar pairing of Marco Melandri and Sete Gibernau with 58 and 53 points each respectively. Biaggi moves up to 4th with 47 points while Barros still holds down 5th place with 43 points despite not finishing this race while Edwards graduates to 6th place in the series after a strong podium finish here at Le Mans.

Race Result

1. Rossi
2. Gibernau 0.4secs
3. Edwards 5.7secs
4. Melandri 7.2secs
5. Biaggi
6. Hayden
7. Capirossi
8. Nakano
9. Elias
10. Bayliss
11. Jacque
12. Xaus
13. Roberts
14. Vd Goorbergh
15. Rolfo
16. Hopkins
17. Battaini

Championship Points

1. Rossi 95
2. Melandri 58
3. Gibernau 53
4. Biaggi 47
5. Barros 43
6. Edwards 41
7. Nakano 27
8. Hayden 26
9. Jacque 25
10. Capirossi 23
11. Bayliss 21
12. Checa 17
13. Xaus 16