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MotoGP
2005 - Round 5 - Mugello MotoGP Race Report June 5th, 2005 - By, Trevor Hedge
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MotoGP
2005 - Round 5 - Mugello MotoGP Race Report June 5th, 2005 - By, Trevor Hedge
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Loris Capirossi was the early leader in this encounter with his Ducati team-mate Carlos Checa with him along with Gibernau, Rossi and Melandri while Biaggi didn't get the best of starts. Rossi went underneath Gibernau late on the first lap to take second place then on the change of direction he moves past Capirossi to take the read lead. Melandri got a great run on to the straight and braked very late at the end of the straight to push past a number of riders and close right on the tail of Rossi. Biaggi another one keen to improve his position. Melandri was the first one to smash the lap record and Biaggi has pushed his way past the Ducati men before then taking third place from Gibernau with 20 laps still to run. Biaggi broke the lap record again on the fifth lap to close right onto the tail of Melandri before taking that second spot off the younger rider on the next lap. Another telling point in the race also came in the sixth lap when Sete Gibernau slid off into the kitty litter and out of the race. That fifth lap for Biaggi was the fastest lap of the whole race. Biaggi then started chasing down Rossi after pulling away from Melandri. And he managed to chase down Rossi reasonably quickly and he was looking on a mission. His Honda was also pulling real well and he managed to record the second highest top speed of the race with 334.3kph while Checa's Ducati took the outright top speed gong of the race with a 337.1kph top whack. The slowest machine through the traps during the race was Battaini on the Blata entry and even he just managed to crack the 300kph mark. Rossi's Yamaha recorded the sixth highest top speed during the race with 330.8kph showing that the Yamaha is certainly not far off the Honda or Yamaha when it comes to outright top speed. Marco Melandri eventually went forward with Biaggi before again making an absolutely berserk outbraking manoeuvre to slot past both Biaggi and Rossi and the Italian youngster made it stick and kept the race lead through the next series of turns. Pretty amazing really. As they past the halfway mark Biaggi tried to squeeze past Rossi for second place but ran a little wide in turn one which allowed his arch nemesis to slip straight back up to that second spot. Half a lap later Rossi took the lead off Melandri again. Biaggi pushed Melandri back to third a short while later and Loris Capirossi had started to close up to the leading trio once again. As they approached two-thirds race distance Max Biaggi redoubled his efforts to take the lead from Rossi and he did exactly that a couple of laps later and Capirossi also decided he was not happy with his position and momentarily slipped past Melandri for third position. Italians 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th and all covered by only a handful of bike lengths. Rossi took the lead back from Biaggi with three laps to run while Capirossi and Melandri continued a frantic haggle over third place which continued at nearly every turn during the final laps. In the wash up though it is Rossi who comes out on top once again to find himself with 49 point lead in the series over Marco Melandri with Biaggi a further four points adrift in third place. Marco Melandri perhaps the revelation of the 2005 season with his boost in speed and consistency this year extremely impressive. Hopefully this round has marked the turning point in Biaggi's season and we can see him gain the consistency required for him to have a hope of challenging for the title this year. Nicky Hayden still plugging away and getting another reasonable points haul with sixth place only 8 seconds behind the winners and three seconds ahead of the seventh placed Alex Barros. Colin Edwards had not perhaps continued quite as he liked from the previous round by only taking ninth place at Mugello some 25 seconds down on his race winning teammate. With Rossi and Yamaha on top in the points race with 120 to their credit the depth of field held by Honda in the class is shown with Honda riders holding second, third, fourth and fifth places in the series with Melandri, Biaggi, Gibernau and Barros their prime performers while the consistency of Colin Edwards is shown by the Texan's current sixth place in the series which is one position and nine points better than the best of the Ducati men which is Loris Capirossi with 39 points in seventh place. But at this stage of the game it must be said that you have to be mad to bet against Valentino Rossi wrapping up back to back championships for Yamaha this year.
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MotoGP Championship
2005
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