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Another win gives Rossi his fifth Grand Prix title

Champion!
By Dan Moakes October 14 2003
With just three races left in the championship, Valentino Rossi only needed a second place finish at Sepang, in the Malaysian Grand Prix, to wrap up yet another GP title. But Rossi isn’t the type to settle for second and, after starting from pole position, he gave us another demonstration race.

The surprise of qualifying was Carlos Checa, who slotted his Fortuna Yamaha next to Rossi. It was only the eighth time the M1 had been on the front row this season, and the Spaniard matched Alex Barros’ best performance in France. Another Yamaha was on row two - Shin’ya Nakano fifth - with Loris Capirossi’s sixth-placed Ducati joining it among the Honda RC211V hordes: Makoto Tamada third, Max Biaggi fourth, Sete Gibernau seventh, Tohru Ukawa eighth and Nicky Hayden ninth.

Kenny Roberts’ Suzuki GSV-R looked in better shape than of late, in tenth, and Akira Ryo had his wildcard machine five places further back. John Hopkins, however, was missing - banned for one race having been blamed for the startline incident in Motegi. Bayliss had the second Ducati twelfth, ahead of Barros, Colin Edwards (Aprilia) and Marco Melandri (Yamaha). The first Kawasaki was Garry McCoy’s in sixteenth. Olivier Jacque was a non-starter.

The man who got the race start right was Sete Gibernau, moving from seventh into an immediate lead. Needing to win, the Spaniard was able to pull away from the rest of the field, which had Capirossi leading Checa, Rossi, Biaggi, Bayliss, Hayden, Noriyuki Haga (eighth from seventeenth!), Nakano, Ukawa, Tamada (down eight places), Roberts, Melandri, Edwards, Ryo, Jeremy McWilliams, McCoy and Nobuatsu Aoki. Missing at this stage was Barros, who had been a faller in the scramble, but would remount. WCM’s Chris Burns was given a penalty for jumping the start.

Rossi was already pretty racy on the first lap, passing Checa, but the Yamaha man took the place back immediately. Meanwhile, Ukawa and Nakano passed Haga’s Aprilia, and Melandri overtook Roberts’ lead Suzuki. Even early on, the battle at the front looked like being for second place. Checa went by Capirossi on the back straight, and had the pace to pull clear. Rossi was not slow to follow suit, passing his countryman at turn one and chasing after Checa. Gibernau remained alone out in front.

Before long, Checa and Rossi had moved clear of their pursuers. Setting a fastest lap, Valentino overtook Carlos in the final hairpin, and then came the inevitable move to the front. Catching Gibernau, ‘the Doctor’ went on the attack, getting through on the inside at the turn nine hairpin. Sete and the Telefónica RCV had no answer to the Repsol rider, and Rossi then built himself a few seconds’ advantage, only backing this down to a couple towards the end.

Although Biaggi had come through on Capirossi and Checa, and started to close on the first two, he was ultimately not on the pace of Gibernau and dropped away later in the race. Sete was a comfortable second, with Max an equally lonely third. Checa almost survived the close attentions of the sliding Hayden - this pair swapped places four times in succession at one point! - but was put back to fifth in the end, still his best result in four races. Hayden was fourth, whilst Capirossi faded to sixth at the flag.

The early battle for seventh had seen Bayliss on top, but the Australian was caught by the place changing duo of Ukawa and Nakano. They finished Honda, Yamaha and then Ducati. Tamada came through for tenth, fending off Melandri and Haga, and then it was Edwards, Roberts and Barros. Although the Protons, Kawasakis and Harris WCMs were not in the points, Kenny Roberts’ fourteenth position was his best since round three of the series.

So, Valentino Rossi’s seventh win of 2003, and his 57th in GP racing, meant that he secured the MotoGP title for the second year running. The last time another rider won the title in the top class, it was in the old 500cc category, three years ago. The only question now is whether the ‘new’ champion is going to be tempted to join Yamaha, or maybe Ducati, to defend his latest title. Second in Malaysia means that Sete Gibernau is virtually assured of the same result overall, whilst Carlos Checa has given himself a chance to be top Yamaha runner...

Standings after fourteen races: Rossi 307; Gibernau 244; Biaggi 215; Capirossi 141; Bayliss 119; Hayden 114; Ukawa 112; Checa 104; Nakano 92; Barros 91; Tamada 75.


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