Qualifying for the Czech Grand Prix at Brno saw another very close front row, with Rossi securing his fifth pole position of the season, improving on the lap record, ahead of Gibernau, Biaggi and Capirossi. Row two was led by Carlos Checa’s Yamaha, with sixth-placed Bayliss ahead of two more Hondas, ridden by Nicky Hayden and Tohru Ukawa. Row three had two further Yamahas - Barros ninth, Jacque eleventh - plus Makoto Tamada on a sixth RC211V (tenth), and Colin Edwards on the first Aprilia ‘Cube.’

Rossi and Gibernau, the class of the field on the works RCVs in Germany, were once again in the best position. The Italian was now using new exhaust pipes, which boosted his bike’s top end power. For Biaggi, polesitter here in the last three years, and a seven-time winner at the circuit, perhaps this would be his best chance of racing head-to-head with his two rivals. And Ducati were also looking good, especially compared with the experienced Yamaha and Suzuki teams.

At the start, Bayliss went straight into the lead, from Biaggi, Rossi, Gibernau, Capirossi, Checa and Hayden. Barros, Marco Melandri and Ukawa made up the top ten. Very quickly, Rossi moved back past Biaggi, who then came under early fire from Gibernau. This pair swapped places twice in quick succession whilst powering after Rossi, and then Capirossi also exchanged places with Gibernau, who then reversed the order again - twice. Very soon the five battling leaders had begun to pull away from sixth man Checa.

With an early fastest lap, Bayliss initially seemed to be building a small gap back to Rossi, but the Italian responded and made several attempted passes. On more than one occasion he ran wide in the process of going ahead, and so lost the lead almost immediately to the unruffled Australian. The first time he made this mistake dropped Valentino to fourth, as both Biaggi and Gibernau followed Troy through. But Rossi fought his way back into second.

Bayliss looked completely in control, even when sliding the rear of his Marlboro Desmosedici. His choice of a softer rear tyre, in relation to a hard compound on the Hondas, was obviously right for the cool conditions. However, it remained a five-way battle for many laps, and eventually Troy ran wide, giving Rossi the opportunity he needed. ‘The Doctor’ fought off his rival’s response, and was then able to start pulling clear. Almost immediately Gibernau passed Bayliss in an attempt to stay with the champion, and was able to keep the lead at half a second. There were eleven laps left.

The first three now seemed to stretch away from Biaggi and Capirossi, which prompted Loris to overtake his compatriot and re-catch the leaders. Max appeared to be struggling by now, as he fell behind Checa to run sixth. Meanwhile, Gibernau had passed Rossi on the inside for a left-hander, only for the Repsol rider to go wide in his attempt to re-pass at a right-hander. Bayliss was still in touch.

A moment of high drama occurred when, all in the space of a few seconds, Bayliss attacked Rossi for second, but Rossi went for the inside of Gibernau and ran wide. He was passed by both Ducatis. It remained a four-way struggle for several more laps, with Bayliss momentarily leading again, on straightline speed, but then the order resolved to Rossi, Gibernau, Bayliss and Capirossi again.

With only a few laps left it was down to three men. Capirossi had passed his team-mate, but before long he then pulled up with a mechanical problem. A sixth top four position had been on the cards. Towards the end Gibernau had a small gap back to Bayliss, but was right on Rossi’s tail. A minor mistake from the Spaniard gave the leader a bit more margin on the penultimate lap, but then Valentino repaid the favour. Sete was able to take advantage of Valentino running a little wide, grabbing the inside line for a right-hand bend and taking the lead.

Rossi then managed to outbrake himself in attacking Gibernau, running wide behind his rival and giving him a bit of breathing space. However, Valentino was obviously pushing on during the final lap, and gradually crept closer, with Bayliss still not far off in third. Once again the champion dived in on the brakes for a right-hand corner, but this time kept his bike on line and went back ahead. Gibernau renewed his own attack for the last few turns, but Rossi kept the edge to the finishing line, for his 54th GP victory - equalling Mick Doohan.

Bayliss converted his strong form into a third podium visit; and a surprise fourth, on the so-far disapponting Yamaha M1, was Checa. The Spaniard had been ‘best of the rest’ throughout the race, pulling Hayden along as the pair of them chased the leaders. Eventually, Carlos had shaken off Nicky’s Honda - the American finishing sixth - and after passing Biaggi had kept his ex-team-mate at bay to the flag, even getting away from Max in the latter stages.

Barros was seventh, having got the best of Ukawa towards the end, and then came Tamada on the Pramac Honda. Makoto had fought past Melandri (tenth), Edwards (twelfth) and then Jacque (eleventh) for his final reward, with the Texan leading home team-mate Noriyuki Haga, and Ryuichi Kiyonari on the last of the Hondas. The Kawasaki-Suzuki group all failed to score, with Andrew Pitt sixteenth from John Hopkins, Garry McCoy, Alex Hofmann and Kenny Roberts.

Chris Burns, on his Harris WCM-run 500cc ROC Yamaha from 1993, had been an early retirement. He was joined in the pits by both the Proton V5 riders, Nobuatsu Aoki after a brief off-track excursion, and Jeremy McWilliams with yet more technical problems for the new machine.

With another Rossi-Gibernau finish, and given Biaggi’s apparent difficulties, it is now evolving into a two-way race for the title. The Italian now holds a 34 point lead. But although the Ducati pairing may not be title contenders this year, it does look like they’ll be popping up to give the Honda guys a run for their money.

Standings after ten races: Rossi 212; Gibernau 178; Biaggi 141; Capirossi 97; Bayliss 96; Checa 78; Ukawa 74; Barros 71; Hayden 67; Nakano 65; Jacque 55.

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