2006 MotoGP Championship - Round 15 - Motegi, Japan - September 22/23/24

MotoGP Race

Loris Capirossi capitalised on his pole position to lead the field away in hot conditions at Motegi ahead of Melandri and Gibernau. Championship leader Nicky Hayden was in ninth position on the first lap and Marco Melandri waited only half a lap before sticking his Fortuna Honda alongside Capirossi but the Ducati man came right back at him and Melandri tucked back in behind. Valentino Rossi made short work of Sete Gibernau to tuck in behind Melandri and Capirossi. Stoner had an average start but was on an immediate charge to move up to fifth place behind Gibernau and took no time dispensing with the Spaniard before then setting his sights on Rossi. Hayden had only managed to move up to eighth place after two laps and was being frustrated by Toni Elias. Stoner was the quickest man on lap two. John Hopkins took a detour through the gravel trap on lap three before rejoining the race.

One second covered the leading quartet after three laps even though Capirossi set a new fastest lap of the race and a new lap record on that third lap. Gibernau and Nakano were not too far from that leading quartet either.

Melandri was all over the back of Capirossi throughout the fourth and fifth lap while Rossi watched on around half a second behind. Stoner's charge forward seemed to have come to a halt as the young Australian started to lose some ground on Rossi and was falling back into the clutches of Gibernau and Nakano. Hayden finally managed to get the better of Elias on lap six to move up to seventh place but was over four seconds behind the race leaders and nearly two seconds behind sixth placed Nakano. Championship contender Dani Pedrosa was struggling down in 13th place just in front of Chris Vermeulen. A lap later Randy De Puniet crashed out of the race.

Melandri had continued to ride on the tail cowling of Capirossi's Ducati until lap ten when the young Honda rider made a mistake and ran in a little too hot which allowed Capirossi to enjoy a handy buffer of 8-tenths of a second over his challenger. Casey Stoner had continued to lose pace and by lap 11 had been pushed back to eighth place after showing stunning speed in the opening laps. Hayden was less than a second behind Shinya Nakano at the halfway point of the 24 lap race. Casey Stoner lost the front on lap 13 and slid out of the race.

Loris Capirossi took advantage of the breathing space Melandri's mistake had given him and over the next few laps stretched his lead out to 1.6 seconds. Rossi was trying to get the better of Melandri but the Fortuna Honda man looked to be getting better drive off the turns than the reigning world champion. Rossi finally managed to move up to second place with nine laps to run. Loris Capirossi was enjoying a 1.5 second lead and Rossi's efforts to close the gap were obvious as he backed his Yamaha into the turns and slid it out to pull away from Melandri and start to pull a little ground back on Capirossi. Championship leader Nicky Hayden was still trying to get on terms with Nakano.

Capirossi had responded to Rossi's challenge to stretch his lead back out to 2.5 seconds with four laps to run as Rossi gave up the fight after saving numerous front end slides and nasty moments as he pushed his machine and tyres beyond their limits but in the end even he realised that 20 points is a whole lot more important than crashing out for 0 points. Especially when he was well ahead of Hayden and in with a chance of narrowing the gap to the series leader by a considerable margin. Melandri's third place looked safe but fourth was still open with a couple of laps to run with Gibernau, Nakano and Hayden covered by only a second and running in that order.

Loris Capirossi did not back over the closing laps and with two laps to go had stretched his lead over Rossi to more than four seconds in another brilliant ride for the likeable Italian.

Capirossi went on to take a dominant win for the second time in as many weeks, Rossi second, Melandri third. Shinya Nakano challenged Gibernau for fourth on the final lap but made a mistake and went down in the gravel trap which promoted Hayden to a fifth place finish. That extra couple of points gained by the American courtesy of Nakano's demise could become crucial but this was again not a great round for Hayden. Second, third and fourth placed men in the championship all moved closer and his buffer again shrank considerably. He will be hoping he can turn that trend around when the series heads back to Europe for the final two rounds.

MotoGP now enjoys a three week break before hostilities resume at Estoril on October 15 before moving onto the championship finale at Valencia a fortnight later. The odds have recently swung in favour of Rossi but Melandri, Capirossi and Pedrosa are still in with a chance. All it would take is a melee involving some of the front runners like was saw early in the season to change the balance completely....