MotoGP Rd1: Rossi takes dramatic last gasp win
from Motorcycles (356 articles)
He has extraordinary talent and he is good enough to take the ultimate prize if he has some luck, but like Max Biaggi, he may find at the end of his career that he was racing motorcycles at exactly the wrong time in history.
Our greatest hope is that he finds the mental toughness to keep pushing Rossi beyond the limits, even if it’s only to see what Rossi can conjure up next to get to the quequered flag first. The 2005 season has the potential to be one of the greatest motorsport spectacles ever staged and a fit and motivated Gibernau is an essential ingredient. Let’s hope so!
Biaggi, as we suggested in our preview to the season, would continue to display his unfortunate outlook on the world and his place in it whenever he spoke to the media and we were right. His team-mate Nicky Hayden ran with Rossi and Gibernau on one of the true riders’ circuits to within cooee of the end – he was the closest rider to the talent of Rossi and Gibernau and we’ll see more of the young and talented American this year.
Biaggi has always complained he didn’t have the machinery, but even that’s no longer a factor. Biaggi has the most coveted ride in the world - the official factory bike from HRC. He gets first call on everything the massively powerful and knowledgeable Honda Racing Corporation has. The bike Hayden rode is EXACTLY the same as Biaggi’s, right down to the placement of the stickers. The only thing we can’t understand is what HRC was thinking when they gave him the job!!!!!
Marco Melandri rode into third spot, inheriting the last step on the podium when Hayden crashed out with seven laps to go. He couldn’t maintain the incredibly hot pace of the three at the front, but he was much faster than anyone else in the field and he knew his limits where Hayden didn’t. Melandri has enormous talent and it is to be hoped he continues to develop as a front-runner. Melandri will win races this year on his Jerez showing.
Fourth and sixth place went to the Camel Honda duo of Alex Barros and Troy Bayliss and both riders performed admirably. Barros had a bad start and got as far back as thirteenth place on lap three, just a few metres in front of Biaggi. That he gritted his teeth and rode through the field to pass Elias, Edwards, Hoffman, Checa, Capirossi, Tamada, Bayliss and Nakano to run into fourth place speaks volumes for his determination and abilities after 20 years of GP racing.
Bayliss was even better, given that he is still learning how to ride the small, light and finely balanced Honda when he has come from a career of streetfighting ill-handling monsters into submission on the bumpy racetracks of Australia and subsequently the American, British and World Superbike championships. Lacklustre practise times in the pre-season and average qualifying times went out the window when the race started and when the red mist descends in Bayliss’ visor, he is capable of mixing it with anyone. Let’s hope he continues to adapt to the Honda as he is definitely one who has the intestinal fortitude to go nose-to-nose with Rossi.
Sandwiched between the yellow livery of the two Camel Honda riders was the lime green of the Kawasaki of Shinya Nakano. From the start Nakano rode with his trademark mixture of style and aggression, and at the end of the 27-lap race he was the first rider using Bridgestone tyres to greet the chequered flag.
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