MotoGP 2006 - Round Three

A first turn disaster for Ducati at Catalunya with both Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau going down along with Randy De Puniet. Dani Pedrosa and John Hopkins both also got caught up in the incident and had to take to the gravel trap. Meanwhile Casey Stoner had got away well and put in a ripper of a first lap to lead the field and had built a small buffer over his pursuers only for the red flag to be produced as he crossed the line to commence lap two. The red flag was produced not because of the number of riders down but because of medical concerns for Marco Melandri. It was some minutes before the Fortuna Honda man was strapped to a stretcher to the satisfaction of the medical personnel and was stretchered away to the medical centre. Another rider not to make the restart was Sete Gibernau who suffered a huge tumble in the crash and his body would have been battered into bruises covering the whole spectrum of the rainbow. Capirossi's tumble was not quite as frightening but the Italian veteran sustained plenty of injuries which saw him taken off to hospital in the helicopter.

The initial incident that seemed to set off the chain reaction stemmed came from Capirossi moving over on Gibernau and touching the Spaniard's brake lever effectively applying maximum braking force which sent the machine instantly nose over tail and started it cart wheeling down the track and the resulting carnage sent many other riders down the road. Loris Capirossi also failed to make the restart.

Just when it looked as though we were up for a restart after the successful conclusion of the warm up lap the amber lights started flashing for some reason. Possibly due to one of the Suzuki machines stalling on the grid. A further delay of around five minutes ensued before the riders again headed out for another warm up lap. Some riders took the opportunity to change to their spare machines for one reason or another.

When they finally got underway it was John Hopkins who led the field away but again Stoner took the lead into the first turn with Hopkins, Hayden, Roberts, Nakano and Rossi in pursuit. Roberts appeared to be having some trouble with getting his machine to hook up and drive off the turns with the back end visibly stepping out but the 2000 World Champion was showing brilliant throttle control to bring it back into line.

Stoner put in a blistering opening lap to pull away from Hayden while Hopkins and Roberts tussled over third place as Rossi watched on. Not far behind the reigning world champion was Chris Vermeulen who had Nakano and Elias hard on his tail. Nakano was awarded a penalty for jumping the start however so would not be a threat in the final wash up.

Valentino Rossi got the better of Kenny Roberts on lap four after proving the fastest man on lap three. The Italian quickly closed on Hopkins who was a few bike lengths behind Hayden who was steadily inching closer to race leader Casey Stoner.

Hopkins was feeling the pressure of Rossi and ran in quite deep but managed to gather it up in time to stay ahead of the Yamaha man. He was determined not to let the yellow #46 past and held the Italian off for a further lap and a half before the world champion sneaked up the inside. Once past the Suzuki Rossi immediately latched on to the tail of Hayden. The ex Repsol team-mates then commenced battle while Stoner continued to lead the way up front. Dani Pedrosa had been steadily working his way forward from 12th place and was up to seventh place and reeling off very fast lap times with 18 laps to run.

On the next lap Rossi got the better of Hayden to move through to second place while Shinya Nakano was shown the black flag for failing to come in for his stop-go penalty. All the front runners were running hard compound front tyres and medium rears. Stoner, Rossi and Hayden on Michelins and Hopkins on Bridgestones.

Rossi took the lead on lap nine of the 24 lap race. Pedrosa was continuing to make progress and was less than three seconds behind the leaders and definitely a good chance of making his way to the front. Stoner then lost the rear just past the apex while still lent hard over in a left hander and skidded off into the kitty litter. The young Australian struggled to get going again but was up fighting fit in no time but a perfect chance to make good ground in the championship gone up in smoke. Toni Elias had been running very strongly but also went off into the kitty litter.

Meanwhile Pedrosa had arrived on the tail of Kenny Roberts and was looking very dangerous. But only one lap later Pedrosa lost the front and also skidded off into the kitty litter. A few front end loses from the Michelin men encouraging for the Bridgestone boys. Stoner made it back to the pits but his race was run, likewise Elias was down and out but Pedrosa was back up and running in the aim of salvaging some points.

As they approached the halfway point of the race Rossi had half a second over Hayden while Kenny Roberts was coming on strong once again and had pushed his way past Hopkins for third place. Pedrosa gave up the ghost and returned to the pits with 12 laps to run after experiencing some trouble with his Honda following that earlier crash. Stoner and Pedrosa's failure to finish, along with Capirossi and Melandri's failure to start meaning a Rossi race win would catapult him up to third place in the championship only nine points adrift of Capirossi and right back in the hunt for the title. Capirossi's failure to score points also robbed him of the opportunity of taking the outright record for points finishes, the Italian currently tied in first with Brazilian Alex Barros with the pair recording 193 points scoring finishes apiece.

With eight laps to run Hayden was remaining within striking distance of Rossi while Roberts maintained his third position a couple of bike lengths ahead of John Hopkins, that pair 5.5 seconds down on the leading duo of Rossi and Hayden.

With five laps to run Hopkins put his nose in front of Roberts while Rossi had started to pull away from Hayden. Roberts took that third position back off Hopkins on the next lap.

With two laps to run Rossi had over two seconds on Hayden. Roberts had pulled away from Hopkins but was not going to be able to threaten Hayden for second place as he was more than five seconds behind the Repsol man.

Rossi stamped his authority in the closing laps to further extend his lead to more than three seconds and put on a sideways smoky show for the Spanish crowd and raised a finger in the air in triumph while negotiating the final turns and celebrated his third win of the season with a mono before sitting side saddle across the tank for the warm down lap. Hayden home in second place to extend his championship lead out to a healthy 25 points ahead of Capirossi. Rossi's dominant win promoted him right back into contention and into third place in the series, a single point ahead of Melandri and nine points behind second place Capirossi. But with Melandri and Capirossi both leaving Catalunya with injuries Rossi's title hopes have increased dramatically.

While Rossi's ride will take the headlines major kudos also must go to John Hopkins who was nursing plenty of injuries from the crash he got caught up in at the first start of the race and the young American struggled to walk away from his Suzuki when he returned to the pits. Catalunya also marks a very welcome return to the podium for Kenny Roberts. Many naysayers had written Roberts off a couple of years ago and I am glad that Roberts has proved them wrong.

Colin Edwards brought home fifth place a long way behind Hopkins while Chris Vermeulen brought home a creditable sixth place ahead of Makoto Tamada. Dunlop runners Carlos Checa and James Ellison benefitted from the large number of riders that failed to finish the race to bring home eighth and ninth respectively while rounding out the finishers was Alex Hofmann in tenth and Cardoso the final finisher in eleventh.

With the next round of the championship less than seven days away with the eighth round of the series unfolding at Assen this coming Saturday the injuries sustained by championship contenders Capirossi and Melandri become even more critical. The remarkable consistency of Nicky Hayden and the unrivalled speed of Rossi suggests that the smart money will be on the #46 or #69 men in the race for the title. Assen marks the halfway point of the season however so anything could happen, and as we saw today, it probably will...

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