Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Grand Prix of Valencia
Valencia, Spain
MotoGP Race Results:

1. Valentino ROSSI, Honda, 30 laps, 47:13.078
2. Sete GIBERNAU, Honda, -0.681 second
3. Loris CAPIROSSI, Ducati, -11.227 seconds
4. Max BIAGGI, Honda, -16.293 seconds
5. Carlos CHECA, Yamaha, -20.868 seconds
6. Alex BARROS, Yamaha, -30.851 seconds
7. Troy BAYLISS, Ducati, -37.770 seconds
8. Colin EDWARDS, Aprilia, -38.922 seconds
9. Norick ABE, Yamaha, -40.229 seconds
10. Makoto TAMADA, Honda, -46.500 seconds
11. Kenny ROBERTS, Suzuki, -61.496 seconds
12. Jeremy McWILLIAMS, Proton, -64.510 seconds
13. John HOPKINS, Suzuki, -65.191 seconds
14. Ryuichi KIYONARI, Honda, -66.012 seconds
15. Noriyuki HAGA, Aprilia, -66.154 seconds
16. Nicky HAYDEN, Honda, -71.432 seconds, crash
17. Nobuatsu AOKI, Proton, -86.736 seconds
18. Andrew PITT, Kawasaki, -87.016 seconds
19. Garry McCOY, Kawasaki, -87.450 seconds
20. David DE GEA, Harris WCM, -1 lap
21. Olivier JACQUE, Yamaha, -2 laps, DNF, mechanical
22. Tohru UKAWA, Honda, -26 laps, DNF, crash
23. Shinya NAKANO, Yamaha, -26 laps, DNF, crash


Final MotoGP World Championship Point Standings:

1. ROSSI, Valentino, 357 points
2. GIBERNAU, Sete, 277 points
3. BIAGGI, Max, 228 points
4. CAPIROSSI, Loris, 177 points
5. HAYDEN, Nicky, 130 points
6. BAYLISS, Troy, 128 points
7. TIE, CHECA, Carlos/UKAWA, Tohru, 123 points
9. TIE, BARROS, Alex/NAKANO, Shinya, 101 points
11. TAMADA, Makoto, 87 points
12. JACQUE, Olivier, 71 points
13. EDWARDS, Colin, 62 points
14. HAGA, Noriyuki, 47 points
15. MELANDRI, Marco, 45 points
16. ABE, Norick, 31 points
17. HOPKINS, John, 29 points
18. McWILLIAMS, Jeremy, 27 points
19. ROBERTS, Kenny, 22 points
20. KIYONARI, Ryuichi, 22 points
21. AOKI, Nobuatsu, 19 points
22. McCOY, Garry, 11 points
23. HOFMANN, Alex, 8 points
24. RYO, Akira, 6 points
25. KAGAYAMA, Yukio, 4 points
26. PITT, Andrew, 4 points


More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Yamaha:

SOLID FINAL RACE OF THE YEAR FOR CHECA

Fortuna Yamaha riders Carlos Checa and Norick Abe rode home to fifth and ninth place respectively in today’s Valencia Grand Prix, the final race of the 2003 season. Racing with a new evolution of Yamaha’s Deltabox frame on his YZR-M1, Checa started well from fifth on the grid and raced with the leading group throughout the opening laps. However before the second half of the 30-lap race the front-runners had spread out and Checa rode a lonely race home.

MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi (Honda) underlined his dominance of the 2003 season with an emphatic win over nearest challenger Sete Gibernau (Honda). Rossi snatched the holeshot but had to take back the lead once from Loris Capirossi (Ducati) and later from Gibernau. However, despite close contact from Gibernau for much of the race, his lead was not challenged from lap 12 onwards. Rossi eventually took the chequered flag by only six-tenths of a second after wheelying the full length of the start finish straight. Capirossi followed Gibernau home a full ten-and-a-half seconds later with Max Biaggi (Honda) in fourth place ahead of Checa.

“I only had two hours on the new chassis this weekend, and not quite enough time to perfect the set-up before the race,” explained Checa. “It was still a good race, I got some good lap times and I was the fastest of the Yamaha riders. I’m a bit disappointed not to have managed to increase my points standings by more, and I take seventh place in the championship. Anyway I can make more progress with the new chassis in our team test this coming week, and try some things we didn’t try this weekend. There is still quite a way to go but I’m optimistic for next year.”

Experienced and popular Japanese rider Norick Abe was drafted into the Fortuna Yamaha Team squad as a replacement for injured Italian Marco Melandri. Melandri underwent successful surgery on his injured shoulder in Italy on Monday in order to ensure that he is fully fit to start pre-season testing in January. Despite not having raced since a wildcard entry in July’s German GP, Abe put in a creditable performance to bring his YZR-M1 home in ninth place after a lonely race.

“I’m not especially happy because I made a bad start and my position at the beginning was not good,” said Japanese Abe. “By mid-race my tyres were sliding, and I’ve never ridden under these conditions before. I tried a lot of different riding styles during the race and changes in my work with the throttle. Eventually I found a slightly better way to ride and I managed to stay in the same position. I really want to say a big thank you to my staff because they did a lot of work in not much time and all worked really hard this weekend.”

Team Director Davide Brivio summarised the season and the weekend: “Today was a solid result for both riders. At the beginning of the race Carlos was able to stay with the top group and kept a good pace, and Norick was also very consistent with his times. We took advantage of the last race of the year by using the latest chassis development that we tried for the first time yesterday. However, without any real pressure it was good to be able to use it for the race and so get plenty of data to feedback to our engineers. It seems to have some positive points.

“Although this was the last race of the season we’ll still be here working hard until Wednesday. Tomorrow we have a number of lucky journalists who will get the chance to try the Yamaha YZR-M1 and then we have a two-day test to work further on new developments for our winter test programme and for 2004.

“This season has been difficult and there have been tough times for everyone. However, I would like to thank each person in the team, and Yamaha and its engineers, for their constant hard work and professionalism.”


More, from a press release issued by Fuchs Kawasaki:

FUCHS KAWASAKI RIDERS GO HEAD-TO-HEAD IN VALENCIA GP

For Fuchs Kawasaki riders Andrew Pitt and Garry McCoy the Valencia Grand Prix was a two man contest, as the Australian pair staged an almost race long Ninja ZX-RR duel in the finale to the MotoGP season.

Despite the riveting inter-team contest the race outcome was less than satisfying for the highly competitive Australian pair, with Pitt finishing 18th, just half a second ahead of McCoy in 19th.

After qualifying on the fourth row both riders had hoped to score World Championship points, with Pitt eager to back-up his 12th place finish in this race a year ago. However both riders were shuffled down the order in the hectic charge for track position in the opening lap.

>From around one third distance of the 30 lap race fading grip levels became the controlling factor on the performance of Pitt, McCoy and their Ninja ZX-RRs on the tortuous Ricardo Tormo circuit.

They had little choice but to race each other and embraced that contest with enthusiasm, swapping positions frequently during the middle stages as they battled both front and rear end slides.

This was McCoy’s final race aboard the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR. His farewell to the Kawasaki MotoGP squad was a massive, tyre smoking pit lane burn out, a show enthusiastically received by his hard working pit crew.

For Pitt and Kawasaki’s already signed 2004 GP rider, Alex Hofmann, the work continues next week when they begin the test program at Valencia that will be the platform for the 2004 MotoGP championship campaign.

Andrew Pitt – 18th
“I ran a good pace for the first few laps and got back up to 16th after getting shuffled back on the first lap, but then I just really struggled with tyre grip both front and rear. The bike was really sliding around and I couldn’t carry any corner speed. I had a good dice with Gaz, but it felt like we were tripping over each other and looked like he was in as much trouble with grip as I was. I would have liked to have been closer to the front than a year ago here, but it makes it hard work when you’re riding around on basically the same bike.”

Garry McCoy – 19th
“That was bloody hard work. The rear tyre took a big drop in grip after about ten laps and that just made the front chatter really bad and I was struggling to keep it in a straight line. I battled with Pitty for a few laps and there were some close calls because I could make time on him driving sideways up behind through the long left onto the straight; but in the end there wasn’t a lot of motivation to take big risks for 18th when I’ve won this GP and been on pole here. That’s my last race with the team and I want to thank the mechanics for their hard work and Kawasaki for putting all their resources into the MotoGP effort.”

Harald Eckl – Team Manager
“The season is over and it has been a long and difficult year in the toughest class in motorcycle racing. I’m happy we got through it and now look forward to working even harder, starting with the Valencia test next week with our new prototype. I’m positive we can make a big step forward in 2004.”


More, from a press release issued by Harris WCM:

DAVID DE GEA: 20th

“This weekend I was not really able to find the perfect setting and after five laps today I began to slide and it became difficult to ride the machine to the maximum. If the engine continues to be developed we really need to find some more speed and to work more on engine breaking.

This year has been a good learning experience for me. Good to work with such an experienced team that has won GP’s before and I have learnt from this.

I want to thank my mechanics and my Crew Chief “Beefy” for the work this year, they have been very supportive of me and have worked long hours each weekend to give me a competitive bike.”


CHRIS BURNS: DNS ­ Broken Collarbone in Free Practice on Friday

PETER CLIFFORD ­ (Team Manager)

“Good ride from David to keep pressing on all the way through. The lack of performance was really a result of us not arriving at the best set-up and tyre solution. We found some significant improvements this morning in the warm-up concerning the chassis set-up but 20 minutes wasn¹t enough for us to find a right tyre match to go with it.

All credit to the entire crew for a fantastic job of work throughout the year, never letting up even in the most difficult circumstances.”


More, from a press release issued by John Hopkins’ publicist:

HOPKINS CLOSES OUT 2003 SEASON WITH A 13TH AT VALENCIA

VALENCIA, Spain (Nov. 2, 2003) – Suzuki’s John Hopkins finished the 2003 MotoGP season with a 13th-place finish at Valencia. Hopkins enjoyed a race-long battle with three other riders – Jeremy McWilliams (Proton), Nori Haga (Aprilia) and Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda). He passed Haga on the final lap, held off Kiyonari and came up just short of getting past McWilliams for his final finishing position. Valencia marked a moral victory of sorts for Hopkins. It was his eighth points-paying finish, giving him points in half of the 16 world championship races this season. Hopkins ended the year ranked 17th. World Champion Valentino Rossi won the race just over a minute ahead of Hopkins.

“I had a solid battle with Haga, McWilliams and some others,” Hopkins said. “We ended up doing OK, but again today we had problems with the bike’s shifting. It worse than it was all weekend.”

Hopkins said he’d hoped to ride up higher in the field, but the gearbox issues kept him from doing so.

“Honestly I was just glad to finish,” he admitted. “On the last lap I got by Haga on the brakes going into Turn 2 and I tried to gain on McWilliams, who was right in front of me. Unfortunately I couldn’t make up any ground on him, but I scored points and with the issues we had today I consider that a major accomplishment.”

Hopkins now looks forward to taking some time off back home in California, to recharge after a long season before testing begins for the 2004 season. “We start in January,” he explained.

Hopper is hopeful that Suzuki will learn from this challenging season and comeback much stronger next year. “Suzuki is used to having success in racing. There’s no way they can be happy with this season so I’m sure they’ll be working hard to do something about it. I know I’m going to come back stronger and more eager than ever.”


More, from a press release issued by Pramac Honda:

Makoto Tamada tenth at Valencia. The talented Japanese rider ends debut season in MotoGP with positive set of results.

Together with the Pramac Honda Team and the Japanese giant Bridgestone, Makoto Tamada has reached the end of a very important season. As well as the huge amount of data and information collected throughout the year, making a great contribution to the technical development and to the entire workgroup, some very honourable results were achieved: Tamada made the rostrum at Rio, and rode a great race at Mugello in Italy. And he made a highly respectable position in the overall standings. Makoto Tamada, who took all the passion and determination of the entire workgroup out onto the track, finished the world championship in 11th position, just a few points (14) from the top ten.

Again in today’s race in Valencia, a contest that was by no means easy, the talented Pramac Honda Team’s Japanese rider went past the last chequered flag of 2003 in tenth place. The author of a strong-willed fight up through the ranks – he was 19th at the end of the first lap – Makoto upped the ante in the central part of the race, maintaining a good rhythm and making enough good passes to earn six points from 10th position. Even though the ground temperature was slightly higher than yesterday’s Makoto still wasn’t able to achieve lap times that would have got him higher up. In any case, this is still a race that adds a lot to the already rich experience he has gained this year.

MAKOTO TAMADA (PRAMAC HONDA TEAM): 10th – 47:59.578 – 11th in the overall championship standings with 87 points.

“It was slightly hotter during the race today, and things went a bit better. I was able to achieve a good pace only a couple of laps after the start, and then I really started racing. I made a few good passes and, though I started out from the back of the pack, I moved up to tenth place at the end. The championship has come to an end, so it’s only right to express an initial opinion right away. As a rider – as someone who has and must have a burning desire to win – I must say I’m a bit critical of my performance. I wanted to do better. But if I think reasonably about all the factors that have made up this challenge of ours, about my debut in the premier class of the MotoGP, the enormous strides made by Bridgestone in this new motorcycling project, about the workgroup and the team that have been behind this first world championship adventure, then I must say I really am extremely satisfied, even though I can see there’s still plenty of room for improvement. Thank you, all of you.”


More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

Ducati Marlboro Team ends amazing year on the podium

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss completed the Desmosedici’s remarkable rookie season with third- and seventh-place finishes in today’s season-ending Marlboro Valencia GP, watched by a capacity crowd of 120,000 appreciative fans.

This has been an incredible year for the Ducati Marlboro Team. At the end of its first GP season in more than three decades Ducati has taken second in the constructors’ World Championship, the Ducati Marlboro Team has secured third in the teams’ championship, while Capirossi and Bayliss ended up fourth and sixth in the riders’ World Championship. Other results from the factory’s remarkable rookie MotoGP season include one victory, nine podium finishes, three pole positions and 14 front-row starts. The team’s Desmosedici was also the fastest bike of 2003, exceeding 332kmh at June’s Italian GP and once again heading the top-speed chart here.

“Today’s race ends an amazing first season for us,” said Ducati Marlboro Team director Livio Suppo.

“I’d like to thank everyone involved, from the riders and the team to everyone at the factory, as well as our technical partners, including Shell Advance and Michelin. The fact that we didn’t have a single mechanical failure in a race all year is a testament to our engineers and the people at Shell. Loris did an incredible job today, Troy had more of a struggle after his crash on Friday.”

Ducati Marlboro Team technical director Corrado Cecchinelli also expressed his satisfaction at his team’s 2003 season. “The year was better than we expected,” he said. “And we’ve completed it with another podium at a track which wasn’t supposed to be so good for our bike. Everyone in this project has worked so hard this season, during which it’s always been hard to find a balance between making small improvements for the next race and concentrating on more important improvements for the future. We always try to take the long-term view, so we hope to make a good step forward for next year. We test here next week, though we’ve no major new parts to try. Our first real test with our 2004 development bike will probably take place at Sepang in February.”

Impressive Capirossi scores 81st podium in 200th GP

Loris Capirossi scored his sixth podium of the season at Valencia today, leading the race for the first lap and bringing his Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici home in third spot. The podium ceremony gave the Italian the perfect opportunity to celebrate his 200th GP start as well as a fantastic first season with the Ducati Marlboro Team, during which he scored the Italian factory’s first-ever MotoGP victory.

“I’m very, very happy – a fantastic result and a great way to end the year,” said Capirossi, who has claimed 81 podium finishes in his 14-year GP career that spans the 125, 250, 500 and MotoGP classes. “The podium result allowed me to have a bit of a party after my 200th race and it also gives us great motivation to take us into winter testing. I’d like to thank Marlboro, Ducati and everyone else who believed in this project. I signed with Ducati because I believe in them. I’m delighted with the way we’ve worked together, they react so quickly when we want new parts or any other improvements. It’s been an unforgettable year – one win plus many podiums and front-row starts.

“I got a great start today and gave my everything during the early laps. When Valentino and Sete passed me they were just a bit faster, but I always had Biaggi under control.”

Bayliss just two points shy of Rookie of the year Ducati Marlboro Team rider Troy Bayliss rode a gritty race to seventh place this afternoon, the result moving him up to sixth place overall, just two points shy of fifth place in the World Championship, which would also have given him the Rookie of the Year award. The Australian had to work hard here after crashing on Friday and ending up on the third row of the grid. But he rode well throughout, spending the later stages all alone.

“Today was satisfactory – it was just nice to finish a race after a few up and down weeks,” said Bayliss who crashed out of his home race two weeks ago. “The crash at Phillip Island wasn’t good, then I had another crash here during qualifying. Even today things were a bit hectic, I had a few dramas and we had something missing with the suspension that used the tyre about nine laps from the finish. Seventh wasn’t too bad but it’s a pain to have missed fifth in the championship by a couple of points. I’ve really enjoyed this year, well, most of it, and I’m really looking forward to testing and building an even better bike for next season. Finally, a big thank you to everyone who’s helped us along the way – in the team, at the factory, all our technical partners – you know who you are!”


More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki:

Roberts and Hopkins take double points at last race

Ricardo Tormo Circuit, Valencia, Spain – Sunday, November 2, 2003: Team Suzuki riders Kenny Roberts Jr. and John Hopkins finished 11th and 13th in today’s Valencia GP, the last round of the 2003 season – both improving on their qualifying form in a hot and fiercely competitive race.

Roberts had a relatively quiet afternoon, getting away in 14th position, and moving up into the top ten after passing Olivier Jacque on the sixth of 30 laps of the 4.005km Ricardo Tormo circuit outside Valencia. He dropped back one place when slow starter Makoto Tamada came past, but stayed with the Japanese rider for much of the rest of the race, losing touch in the final laps.

Hopkins had a very different afternoon, involved almost from the start in a fierce four-rider group, fighting tooth and nail almost the full distance. The group shrank to three as Jacque ran off the track, overcome by the fast pace; then Kiyonari joined up from behind to pump up the temperature again.

At the finish, Hopkins was ahead of all but one of his erstwhile rivals, overtaking Haga on the final lap to finish close behind Jeremy McWilliams.

After the race, his fiercely loyal crew celebrated by shaving the 20-year-old Anglo-American rider’s head.

The race was won by 2003 World Champion Valentino Rossi, with a sell-out crowd of more than 120,000 avid Spanish fans treated to an afternoon of close and exciting action, in warm and sunny conditions.

Suzuki’s task is now to take the lessons learned in a hard season, and build them into next year’s machine, already under development for first tests in January. The goal is to get riders, team and factory back to fighting for race wins and the World Championship, last won for Suzuki in 2000 by Kenny Roberts Jr.

Kenny Roberts Jr. – 11th Position
Basically it was a pretty lonely race for me. I tried really hard to stay with Norick (Abe), but sometimes the harder I pushed I went a bit slower, so I just had to ride to the limit of the machine. Then I saw Tamada coming and again, once he came by, I was trying everything I could to stay with him. But the little bit I could make up by riding a little bit differently I’d lose on acceleration out of the corners. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough to be a threat. The bike stayed pretty consistent. There may have been a small problem in the last nine laps, but we haven’t confirmed anything yet. The Michelin tyres stayed absolutely perfect the whole race. Well, they win all the races, so we just need to use them better. We finished healthy, and we just need to look forward to improving our situation.

John Hopkins – 13th Position
I just wanted to make it to the end, and see what position I could get. I stayed in the group with Haga and them – some were dropping off and some were pulling away. Jacque was ahead of me, and we braked at about the same time, but he seemed a bit timid and he just went straight – so I thought, well, that was easy enough. I had to fight so hard. The gearbox problem was worse in the race than all weekend. Every time I’d shift from second to third or third to fourth it would cut out for a quarter of a second then all of a sudden be back. I was fighting that every time I was shifting to third, and people were making a lot of time there. On the last lap I was behind Haga, but I was really good on the brakes going into Turn Two, so I figured that was where I’d make my pass, and make as many positions as possible. It’s a shame we didn’t make it into the top ten, but hopefully the factory will have enough information from this year to go off and improve this bike dramatically for next year.

Garry Taylor – Team Manager
You can believe our team is happy to have this season over. It’s been incredibly hard work for everyone. Kenny and John have both been superb. They’ve kept their focus and kept going, and given the factory engineers good information. The crew worked their backsides off. Now we are all looking forward to next year, hoping for the machine development that will make us fully competitive again. We start testing in January.


More, from a press release issued by Alice Aprilia:

COLIN’S GREAT PERFORMANCE IN THE LAST GP
Thorugh a spectacular and exciting MotoGp race the 2003 season is over. Amongst 120.000 motoGp fans, Colin Edwards put his RS Cube in the 7th position whilst Nori Haga afer some troubles during the practices got the 15th position .

Edwards qualified 13th with 62 points and Haga 14th with 47 points. In the Constructor standing Aprilia is fourth with 81 points behind Honda, Ducati and Yamaha and ahead of Suzuki, Proton and Kawasaki. Good position also for the Team classification where Aprilia got the 7th place among 12 teams.

COLIN EDWARDS: “Honestly I started the season in the best way and the end is not so bad as well. This track is strange, for sure I could go much faster with a SBK. I wanted to show to everybody that I am a professional rider doing all the best also in the last race. Unfortunately I had a problem with the brake system that slowed my pace. Thanks to my team for their good work and this exciting season”.

NORIYUKI HAGA: “If I check the lap time fo the race I did a big progress comapred with yesterday. I had a good start doing all the best to say good bye to my team in the best way. Now I feel very tired.”

GIGI DALL’IGNA (Project Leader): “Today we shown that our bike is improving and our project is valid. This result makes us very confident for the future and we feel ready to start immediately the development of the bike. Now we will test here starting from Tuesday in order to set uo the new chassis for the next season”.

JAN WITTEVEEN (Direttore Reparto Corse Aprilia) – “With this race we finished the collaboration between Aprilia and both MotoGP riders: Colin Edwartds and Nori Haga. In the name of Aprilia I want to thank them for their good work trying to develop a new bike. I jsu want to say good bye and hope to enjoy the challlenge next year”.


More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing Information:

Community of Valencia Grand Prix at Ricardo Tormo Circuit

Raceday Sunday November 2

Track temperature: 30 degrees
Humidity: 31%
Ambient temperature: 22 degrees, dry and sunny

ROSSI BOWS OUT WITH RECORD POINTS HAUL AS CHALLENGERS WILT

Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda RC211V) today rode his last race for Honda (for the immediate future at least). The three times premier class World Champion is leaving after one of the most dominant displays of consistent winning for Honda since the days of Mick Doohan. In front of a crowd of 121,000 Spaniards Rossi fended off the challenge of local hero Sete Gibernau (Telefonica Movistar Honda RC211V) who was second, and he chalked up win number 59 in all classes and his ninth this season in MotoGP. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) finished a distant third.

Rossi is now looking for a new challenge after scoring the highest ever points tally of 357 in the blue ribband class. He beat the previous record (his own) by two points and has now scored 22 consecutive podium finishes equalling the record set by Giacomo Agostini from 1967 to 1969. The Italian ace will leave Honda to try and repeat his phenomenal success with another factory next season after achieving all he felt he could with the most successful factory in Grand Prix racing.

The sun was out and the wind that had caused big problems for riders on Thursday, and to a lesser extent Friday, had dropped significantly. The track temperature was 30 degrees and the ambient temperature 22. Rossi started from pole after pulverising the opposition with a 1m 32.478s qualifying lap and he led into turn one when the lights went green at 2:00 this afternoon. With 30 tortuous laps of the 4.005km Ricardo Tormo Circuit ahead of him, he was in no mood to make the race last any longer than it had to. He wanted a win and he wanted it fast.

But Capirossi fired his Ducati past him at turn two on the opening lap and Rossi responded by blasting past Capirossi on the next lap as the riders gradually shifted into an early race order. That order was Rossi, Capirossi, Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V), Gibernau, Max Biaggi (Camel Pramac Pons RC211V) and Carlos Checa (Yamaha).

But then Hayden lost the back end of his RC211V on lap four and hit the dirt. But the American, who collected the coveted Rookie of the Year title here after the race, held onto the bars as the bike spun and then was on his feet with the RC211V upright again almost before they had come to rest. He restarted the bike and rejoined the race – in 20th place. Hayden eventually finished 16th.

But out front Rossi was finding it hard to shake off the man who has posed him the most problems this season: Sete Gibernau. The Spaniard eventually made it past Rossi briefly on lap 11, but that was to be his only experience of leading this contest.

Rossi turned up the heat and pulled out a gap of 0.250 seconds, a significant margin after they had been locked in close combat for ten laps. But Gibernau responded with a fastest lap of the race so far at 1m 33.657s and it looked as if this would be a battle on a par with the epic tussles at Welkom, Le Mans and the Sachsenring between these Championship rivals.

But Rossi, as so often, had more to give and on lap 21 he scorched round the track in 1m 33.518s to set a fastest lap aimed at breaking Gibernau’s spirit. The gap between the two now stood at just over half a second. But the Spaniard, as he showed many times this year, was never going to lie down and meekly accept the inevitable. He came back again with a 1m 33.404s circuit on lap 23 to keep the fight alive.

But Rossi had more in store and cut a 1m 33.317s lap on the next tour to put 1.7 seconds between himself and his pursuer. By now Capirossi was six seconds adrift of the leading duo and Biaggi was three seconds back on Capirossi. They would remain there until the flag.

Rossi eased off on his final lap to pull a monumental stand-up wheelie across the line to sign off his Honda days in style. “I’ve never won at this track before,” said Rossi. “And this is a really good feeling this time. The weekend was perfect with the pole position but today was hard because Sete is in good shape and riding well. This has been a great season for MotoGP.”

Gibernau was typically generous to Rossi. “This race resembles the picture of the whole year,” he said. “Battling away until the end of each race and this Championship. It was a fun race at a high pace but in the final laps I started losing a few tenths of seconds as the bike started moving around a bit more. I’ve been competitive in races this year and to end the Championship in second is not bad.”

Hayden was disappointed. “I got a good start, felt good and was going good,” he said. “Then I got a little bit too excited and got into turn two a bit hot. It was a stupid mistake and I’ve got to learn from that. I’m really not happy about it because I was running strong.”

Max Biaggi is looking forward to another year on the RC211V after his fourth-place finish today and conceded that this year had been tough. “I had trouble with engine braking today and after five laps I had to brake deep into the turns and that destroyed my front tyre,” he said. “I knew this year would be hard and now I’m looking forward to another season with H