2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

MotoGP Race

Dani Pedrosa capitalised on his fourth pole position of the year to lead the field away with Kenny Roberts and Nicky Hayden in close formation. Halfway around the first lap Nicky Hayden slotted through to the lead while Makoto Tamada moved past Melandri for fourth place. Valentino Rossi got away well from his lowly 11th place on the grid to quickly move up through the field to sixth place by the end of lap one. Kenny Roberts got mobbed and pushed all the way back to fifth place as Melandri moved up to third place. Rossi pushed Roberts further back to sixth place with an inside move on lap five. Casey Stoner was left to watch from pitlane as a crash in morning warm up meant that doctors refused to let him race much to the disappointment of the young Australia and team manager Lucio Cecchinello.

Nicky Hayden continued to lead his diminutive team-mate and was pulling off some beautiful slides while still carrying plenty of lean angle. The look of a man very confident in his tyre and the predictability of his machine. Hayden was keen to head to America next week off the back of a strong win in Germany which would certainly ramp things up in preparation for Laguna Seca next weekend.

Marco Melandri moved past Pedrosa to take second place on lap nine. The whole top six were covered by a single second and Loris Capirossi caught onto the back of them on lap 11 as Marco Melandri slotted his Fortuna Honda past the Repsol machine of Nicky Hayden to take the lead while Rossi was all over the back of Pedrosa but then in a big surprise Hayden went back to fourth and only a few corners later Rossi pushed his way past Pedrosa to take second place. That lap also saw Makoto Tamada and Kenny Roberts tripped each other up and tumbled off into the gravel trap. Kenny Roberts lost the front and skittled Tamada and the Japanese rider looked to have come off the worse for wear as he was obviously in pain and struggled to pick himself up out of the kitty litter.

Rossi hit the lead with 17 laps to run but he still had four pursuers on his tail with the whole top five covered by only 6-tenths of a second. Shinya Nakano was four seconds behind in a clear sixth place while Chris Vermeulen had moved past his team-mate for seventh place as the race passed the halfway mark.

Rossi continued to lead the way while Pedrosa and Melandri gave chase while Nicky Hayden watched on a couple of bike lengths further behind. Loris Capirossi had lost touch with them a little but still had two seconds over Nakano. On lap 21 Melandri squeezed past Pedrosa to take second place and Pedrosa was also then nearly mobbed by his team-mate Nicky Hayden. The top four was still only covered by 6-tenths of a second.

Pedrosa moved back past Melandri to take second place on lap 24 of the 30 lap journey. Nicky Hayden was still right there in fourth place and watching the proceedings unfold inches ahead of his front tyre. Melandri took second place again late on lap 24, the trio still right with Rossi but nobody had managed to mount a serious challenge for the lead since the Yamaha man had hit the front. Pedrosa and Melandri swapped placed again on lap 25 but Pedrosa then made a small mistake half a lap later which allowed both Melandri and Hayden through which relegated him to fourth place. The trio had started to trip each up which was working to the advantage of Valentino Rossi who with four laps to run had 4-tenths of a second over Melandri which was about the biggest lead of the race. Melandri came right back though with an awesome lap that saw him close onto the tail cowling of the Camel Yamaha and then slot his Fortuna Honda through to the lead at turn one with three laps to run.

Marco Melandri has been carrying an injury for a couple of rounds and still had been challenging for the wins but was close to 100% fitness in Germany and it showed. After hitting the lead he managed to pull a couple of bike lengths out of Rossi but the with two laps to run Rossi closed right onto the pipe of Melandri's RC211V.

Rossi went up the inside under brakes late on the penultimate lap to take the lead, Hayden and Pedrosa were right there also and it was still going to be a 4-way dice for the win...

Rossi had the lead as they started the last lap, Melandri was all over the back of him, Melandri did his best to get past but Rossi had the edge and took the win. Melandri home for second place and Hayden rounded out the podium with Pedrosa fourth. The whole top four crossed the line separated by only 3-tenths of a second. Hayden's podium result was his third in as many years in Germany. The first Bridgestone man home was Loris Capirossi in fifth place ahead of Nakano and Vermeulen.

Rossi's win promoted him into second place in the series with a three point buffer over Pedrosa. Melandri only a further six points adrift. Nicky Hayden left Germany to wing his way home to America with the same buffer he went to Germany with, 26 points.