MotoGP: The Yamaha M1 wins its fifth race from six starts

From the time that Gibernau took the lead on the sixth lap, he appeared ready to break from Rossi. He set the fastest lap of the race on the fourth lap (1.43.570), again on the seventh lap (1.43.423) and again on the eighth lap (1.43.253) but he couldn’t break Rossi, who somehow nursed the gap back to manageable around mid-race and from that point onwards, each time it grew beyond half a second, he would eek out an extra tenth here and there and the gap was wrestled back down again, so that with three laps to go, Rossi had drawn to Gibernau’s rear wheel and the stage was set.

What followed was one of the most remarkable laps in memory. On tyres that were 22 blisteringly fast laps old, attempting to transmit 250 horsepower in the midst of a 32 degree Spanish afternoon, Rossi dived past Gibernau and somehow managed to will the bike upright again at each corner after diving in faster and harder than anyone had done all day – even when their tyres were new and sticky. He stopped the clocks at 1.43.195 on that lap and extended is lead on every lap to the finish.

Rossi’s third last lap was the crux of the weekend. Up until that point, as he had done so many times before, Gibernau had done everything right. He had been fastest qualifier and had controlled the race until Rossi simply took it away from him. Gibernau is a gifted rider on a faster machine but sadly, he might need to wait until Valentino decides to do something other than motorcycle racing before he’ll get his title. Everyone watching the race suddenly knew that too.

Just as he had done with Max Biaggi (Honda) at Mugello last weekend and Gibernau himself two weeks previously at Le Mans, Rossi timed his victory charge to perfection, carving almost 1.5 seconds off Gibernau’s 2004 circuit record, opening a decisive advantage over the final two laps, and snuffing out Gibernau’s best effort yet again.

Whilst Marco Melandri (Honda) won a dramatic battle to the line for the final podium finish ahead of Alex Barros (Honda) and Nicky Hayden (Honda). Rossi’s Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards could only manage seventh place behind Biaggi.

Edwards remains sixth in the MotoGP World Championship, which is now led by Rossi with an advantage of 58 points over Melandri.

The next round of the MotoGP World Championship will be the Dutch TT from Assen Holland on Saturday 25th June.

Gran Premio Gauloises de Catalunya Race Classification: 1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 43’16.487: 2. Sete Gibernau (Honda) +1.094: 3. Marco Melandri (Honda) +7.810: 4. Alex Barros (Honda) +8.204: 5. Nicky Hayden (Honda) +8.273: 6. Max Biaggi (Honda) +12.051: 7. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) +18.762: 8. Troy Bayliss (Honda) +42.631: 9. Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki) 46.638: 10: Ruben Xaus (Yamaha) +46.692

...continued