In addition, Ducati were in the enviable position of defending an unbeaten run stretching back to the opening race of 2003, with twenty-two straight victories. This event was Suzuki’s last chance to break the stranglehold, but Lavilla faced a tough task with six of the Italian bikes heading him on the grid.

The best performance of qualifying came from Toseland, in the last appearance for the HM Plant team. The 23-year-old planted his 998F02 on pole position for the first time in his career, just ahead of champion Neil Hodgson. The two English riders were followed by Laconi, Rubén Xaus, Frankie Chili and Chris Walker. Next to seventh-placed Lavilla was Suzuki wildcard rider Sébastien Gimbert.

Row three was filled by the Ducati 998RS machines of Steve Martin, Leon Haslam, Juan Borja and David García. Foggy, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Honda runners made up most of the rest of the field, along with the odd slower Ducati and Suzuki.

Sunday was a fairly cold day, but at the start of race one Hodgson was into the groove quickly as he took the lead. Behind him, Laconi forced his way into second, from Toseland, Xaus, Walker, Chili, Haslam and Martin. Not in good shape were García and Alex Gramigni, both of whom took to the gravel on the outside of the long bend following turn one. And James Haydon was a very early faller.

Hodgson wasn’t about to have it easy. Toseland and Xaus made quick work of Laconi, and James then put an impressive pass on Neil, on the inside for the fast Estoril bend. Hodgson managed to get back ahead at the following Adelaide hairpin. Meanwhile, fastest man Walker looked like getting in on the act by moving up to fourth, from Laconi, Lavilla and Chili, but Régis would soon find himself last in this group.

At the front, Hodgson eased the number 100 Ducati clear of Toseland, but when Xaus followed suit, passing at the hairpin, he was able to start reducing his team-mate’s lead from 2.5s, and the rest were left trailing. With three laps remaining, Rubén was just 0.8 behind, and then he improved the fastest lap twice as he made his challenge. Hodgson went even faster to get the gap back to 0.7s, and duly took win number thirteen. It transpired he had done all this despite a split boot!

Third place had come down to an interesting battle between Toseland, Walker and Lavilla. The first of these looked to be troubled with rear tyre wear, and Walker seemed to be defending Toseland from the attacks of the Suzuki. But James was obviously struggling, and so Chris went through at the hairpin, with Gregorio following at the 180, and the pair moving clear. These three finished in this order.

Laconi had got the better of Chili for sixth, but then Frankie was forced off track with a very obvious engine failure. So seventh went to Martin, from Troy Corser (just), and then Borja, Mauro Sanchini, Sergio Fuertes and Christian Zaiser. Haslam had run behind Martin, but was another retirement.

The race one results put Laconi on 267, Toseland on 251 and Lavilla on 243, so it was looking good for the Frenchman to finish third overall. Once again Hodgson led away, but in race two he was pursued by Toseland, Laconi, Walker, Chili, Lavilla, Xaus, Martin, Haslam, Borja, Gimbert and Haydon. Walker was looking good again, his return to fitness obviously having made the difference. He quickly went past Laconi and soon the first three were threatening to break away. The HM Plant team-mates had a good tussle over second, with Chris getting the best of James at Estoril and defending at the hairpin.

But the man on the move was Xaus. Setting the fastest lap, the Spaniard caught up to Chili and this made it back into a five man group at the front, with Lavilla and Laconi starting to trail behind. Xaus took Chili on the inside at turn one, leaving the Italian to deal with Lavilla’s Suzuki. Hodgson was moving faster than the orange bikes behind him, but Xaus was not giving up.

With Toseland passing Walker on the inside at the hairpin, Chris was back to fourth when Xaus pulled the same move on him. Before long he also did it to Toseland, setting up a battle between the two Fila Ducati riders for the lead. Xaus attacked at the hairpin, with Hodgson coming back on the exit. Then Rubén got inside at the 180, getting himself a small gap of 0.7s.

Xaus was in sliding mode as ever, and it seemed that Hodgson might be closing back in again. With the gap around 0.6, Neil made a mistake at the Château d’Eau. Sliding off the track, the champion was unable to restart the 999, and appeared pretty cross with himself about it. All of which handed Xaus his seventh win of 2003, leaving him just over 100 points behind in the final reckoning...

Second place would be going to one of the HM Plant men, but Toseland’s pursuit of third overall was helped considerably when Laconi was seen heading up an escape road, having been in P7. The French rider had to pit for a hurried rear tyre change, leaving him with the tough task of getting back into the points. He managed to get up to sixteenth, from nineteenth, but Toseland held off Walker’s late attack, and twenty points put the youngster four ahead of the unfortunate Caracchi rider.

Fifth in the race might have gone to Chili, but he suffered yet another mechanical drama, and it amounted to his ninth no-score of the season. So Lavilla was next home, from Martin, Haslam, Borja, Gimbert, and the Kawasakis of Ivan Clementi and Sanchini. Marco Borciani was down in fourteenth after a jump-start penalty, whilst both the Foggy bikes were out through crashes, quite spectacularly in Haydon’s case.

So, that brought the season to a close. There were nine Ducatis in the top ten, with the works 999 machines of the Fila team clearly superior to the various customer bikes. But Neil Hodgson - and maybe Rubén Xaus too - is probably joining the d’Antín team for a crack at MotoGP on a Ducati Desmosedici. Into the Fila team are coming the number 52 and 55 riders, James Toseland and Régis Laconi. One of these two would seem a likely champion in 2004.

Final standings, after twenty-four races:
1 Neil Hodgson (Ducati) · 489
2 Rubén Xaus (Ducati) · 386
3 James Toseland (Ducati) · 271
4 Régis Laconi (Ducati) · 267
5 Gregorio Lavilla (Suzuki) · 256
6 Chris Walker (Ducati) · 234
7 Pier-Francesco Chili (Ducati) · 197
8 Steve Martin (Ducati) · 139
9 Lucio Pedercini (Ducati) · 112
10 Marco Borciani (Ducati) · 111
11 Mauro Sanchini (Kawasaki) · 108
12 Troy Corser (Foggy) · 107

Check in at this site for a full season review very soon.

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