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Emotional win for Gibernau

Kato’s team win
By Dan Moakes May 8 2003
The MotoGP teams reconvened at Welkom, in South Africa, for the first race since the death of Honda’s Daijiro Kato. In a difficult time for all concerned, round two of the series was the priority. Honda were still favourite, but Kato’s Gresini team-mate, Sete Gibernau, was the surprise pace setter.

As expected, the Honda RC211V riders monopolised the top of the qualifying timesheets, but with Gibernau on pole ahead of the ‘usual’ top two, Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi. Loris Capirossi maintained Ducati’s strong early form by qualifying fourth on the Desmosedici, while row two was made up of Shin’ya Nakano (Yamaha), Tohru Ukawa (Honda), Carlos Checa (Yamaha) and Colin Edwards (Aprilia). Proceedings were delayed when Kenny Roberts’ Suzuki dropped oil on the circuit as he made his way to the grid, prompting a rapid clean up operation.

The start of the race itself was somewhat chaotic, as Edwards lost control and collided with John Hopkins. The Suzuki rider kept himself upright, but Edwards went down towards the outside of the first bend. Jeremy McWilliams was forced to go wide in avoidance, and fell from the Proton as it went over the grass. Neither Edwards or McWilliams would continue.

Ahead of the accident, Troy Bayliss had gone into an unexpected lead, pursued by Gibernau, Biaggi, Rossi, and Norick Abe - still filling in for the injured Marco Melandri. Ukawa was sixth, from Nicky Hayden, Checa, Alex Barros, Olivier Jacque, Hopkins and Andrew Pitt. Capirossi was in trouble almost immediately, going wide and off the track as they rounded the second bend, and dropping out of contention in the process. He suffered a similar excursion as the race progressed, and withdrew to the pits not long afterwards.

Meanwhile, team-mate Bayliss was still involved in what soon became a four-way race for the lead. He was quickly under pressure from Gibernau, as the Spaniard set fastest lap, whilst Biaggi and Rossi were not far away. The champion was on the attack, at one point taking the inside line away from his rival, but in the process he went too wide, and Biaggi was immediately back into third. Ukawa was a short way back, but still leading the Yamaha runners, with Abe now in front of Barros and Checa.

Gibernau took the lead of the race when Bayliss ran wide for a corner, and was able to move clear of the Australian quite quickly. Biaggi was the next to pass the number twelve Ducati, setting up a good battle for third between Rossi and Bayliss. The Repsol Honda man went through in pursuit of his compatriot, only for Troy to scrap his way back past and regain the podium position. Rossi had the place again presently, but went wide through a slippery bend and ended up behind the red machine once more. Finally he banged in a fastest lap and made his pass stick as he started to hunt Biaggi again.

Fifth was being disputed by the trio of Ukawa, Abe and Barros, with Checa eighth from Hayden, Jacque, Nakano, Nobuatsu Aoki, Hopkins and Makoto Tamada. Barros was still troubled by his knee injury from Suzuka, but this didn’t prevent him from following Abe as they both passed the Honda of Ukawa. Indeed, the Brazilian was soon through to P5 at the expense of his Yamaha colleague, and Abe was to drop back from hereon in.

Up front, Rossi caught up to Biaggi, and was able to pass when the Roman ran wide, possibly on some oil. This set up a showdown between ‘the Doctor’ and Sete Gibernau, whose lead began to diminish as Valentino started his chase. Initially Biaggi stayed with Rossi, this duo now clear of Bayliss, but it wasn’t too long before he fell back from his nemesis.

As the laps counted down, Rossi started cutting into Gibernau’s advantage by around half a second each circuit, but then the Spaniard seemed to stabilise the gap at around two seconds. With three to go, the lead was at 1.2 seconds, but with two remaining it was just over 0.5 seconds. At this stage it seemed Gibernau was having tyre trouble, whilst Rossi’s harder compound rubber was holding up better. However, the gap was virtually unchanged as they went onto the final lap. Although it closed up as they raced on, Gibernau stood up to the pressure, and Rossi never found an opening.

It was an emotional and popular second career victory for Gibernau, his Telefónica MoviStar Honda also carrying Kato’s number 74 on the front fairing. Rossi seemed happy with second, well clear of Biaggi, and Bayliss maintained his impressive form with a solid fourth. Barros was fifth from Ukawa and Hayden, while Abe was down to eighth at the flag. Next home were Checa, Jacque, Nakano, Aoki and Hopkins. Once again it was Honda’s day, but Ducati’s promise was fully evident.

Standings after two races: Rossi 45; Gibernau 38; Biaggi 36; Bayliss 24; Barros 19; Hayden 18; Capirossi 16; Checa and Abe 13; Nakano 12.


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