Qualifying had ended with Rossi’s fourth pole position of the season, his RCV in front of Capirossi’s Ducati, Olivier Jacque’s Yamaha and local favourite Sete Gibernau, on another Honda. The second row was filled by Alex Barros, Shin’ya Nakano (both Yamaha), Colin Edwards (Aprilia), and Carlos Checa (also Yamaha). Max Biaggi led the third rank on his customer RCV. Suzuki’s Kenny Roberts was not present, due to injuries sustained at Mugello.

As the race got under way, Jacque seemed to be the quickest off the mark. But Capirossi, Rossi and Gibernau managed to slot in ahead of him as they made their way through the first turns. During the lap, ‘OJ’ was also relegated by Biaggi and Barros, leaving him ahead of his ex-team-mate, seventh placed Nakano. The Fortuna Yamaha pair of Checa and Marco Melandri were next in line.

As the riders moved on around the back end of the circuit, three of them came to grief in the same incident. Two Kawasaki ZX-RRs came together with Jeremy McWilliams, on the Proton KR5, and they all ended up on the deck. The Unfortunate McWilliams, in his 150th GP, and Andrew Pitt were fine, but wildcard Akira Yanagawa had obviously been hurt in the crash, as he was loaded onto a stretcher. The blame was later attributed to Pitt.

In the meantime, Rossi was quickly past Capirossi, and it looked like another win for ‘the Doctor’ might be on the cards already. Behind them, Jacque passed Gauloises team-mate Barros for fifth, at turn one, only for the Brazilian to get back through almost immediately. Also in a battle were the Honda pair of Biaggi (Pramac Pons) and Gibernau (Gresini). The Italian took P3 on the inside of a left-hander, his rival took it back on a right-hander, and then Max took his turn again by passing on the straight.

Even in the early stages, the two Italians at the front were pulling away from the pursuing group. In contrast, both Edwards and Jacque hit trouble at this stage, with technical problems apparently forcing the Aprilia man out of the race. His French rival ended his run of scoring finishes when he fell in his tussle with the other Yamaha runners.

As things moved on, the first six developed into three two-way contests. Behind Rossi and Capirossi, Gibernau, having seen off his compatriot Checa, remained hard on Biaggi’s tail. Carlos now led the Yamaha charge, with Nakano on the d’Antin M1 right in his wake. Troy Bayliss was moving forward on the second Ducati Desmosedici, passing Nicky Hayden and Barros to run eighth, behind the Honda of Tohru Ukawa. The top fifteen was completed by Makoto Tamada, Melandri, Ryuichi Kiyonari, John Hopkins and Noriyuki Haga.

Now the excitement started to happen. First Rossi went too wide for a left-hander, leaving room for Capirossi to come through and lead. Then, in his efforts to recover, Valentino tried to go around the outside of the Ducati. All he succeeded in doing was going too hot into the corner, which meant he had to run straight on into the gravel trap. This lost him a lot of ground, and he recovered the track to find himself now sixth, and some way behind his nearest rival.

Capirossi was now on his own, a softer set of tyres helping maintain a gap to Biaggi and Gibernau. Checa seemed to be moving clear of Nakano, but the Japanese rider was able to respond. Rossi was well ahead of Ukawa and Hayden and, with seven laps left to run, started breaking the lap record as he chased after the first five. Meanwhile, Bayliss had just had an excursion through the gravel, losing himself his eighth place.

The front end of Biaggi’s Honda came up on him as he went down the main straight, giving Gibernau the chance to get on the inside for the first corner, into second place. As they motored on, this pair seemed to be edging up on Capirossi. With five laps remaining, Nakano was attacking Checa, and behind Rossi, the order was now Ukawa, Tamada, Hayden, Barros, Bayliss, Kiyonari, Melandri, Haga and Hopkins.

With Rossi still moving rapidly, at three laps to go Capirossi’s mount was starting to slide around. He now had a two second lead. The champion caught Nakano, going through on the inside at turn one, and then moved onto Checa’s tail. In no time he was past the Yamaha, and right onto the exhaust of Biaggi. Moments earlier the Roman had passed Gibernau, but drifted wide in the process and gifted the place right back.

Rossi sliced past Biaggi in a right-hander, with his big rival fighting back in the next turn, and Rossi making it stick on the one after that! He then went into second place, going inside Gibernau at the end of the main straight. With less than two laps to go, Capirossi’s lead was just three seconds. Max also passed Sete, on the back straight, but took himself off into the gravel as a consequence. His bike went down, but he scrambled back up and regained the circuit.

As the leaders started their final lap, Capirossi was 2.7s ahead of Rossi. It looked a bit too much of a gap for Valentino to bring down and, in fact, Loris actually extended it to 3.0s, which was his margin at the flag. Gibernau finished third, moving ahead of Biaggi in the points as a result. Nakano had attacked Checa at the first turn, but the local man had repaid the compliment later in the lap, and duly took fourth. The remaining points went to Ukawa, Tamada, Barros, Hayden, Bayliss, Kiyonari, Haga, Melandri, Biaggi and Hopkins.

It was an historic day for Ducati, and also marked Loris Capirossi’s first victory since May 2000. It had been a long time coming for him, but proved that his new machine had been a good choice. Rossi and Honda will be aware that they won’t have it all their own way this year. But the champion’s run of three wins and three seconds still give him a 47 point lead.

Standings after six races: Rossi 135; Gibernau 88; Biaggi 85; Capirossi 61; Barros 54; Ukawa 52; Bayliss 46; Nakano 44; Tamada and Checa 34; Hayden 33; Jacque 32.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS

• Think you know your sport? Click here to try the Sportnetwork Prize Quizzes