Sunday’s British MotoGP encounter took place at the drenched Donington Park circuit, where Valentino Rossi again displayed his dominance in an incredible race that only 11 riders finished.
Sunday’s British MotoGP encounter took place at the drenched Donington Park circuit, where Valentino Rossi again displayed his dominance in an incredible race that only 11 riders finished.
By the time the race started, most of the four-kilometre track’s surface was covered with pooled water, while the rain continued to beat down on the circuit.
Veteran rider Max Biaggi was the track’s first casualty, as he went down on lap four and retired after making a failed attempt to return to the circuit. He set the tone for the incident-filled race as later Marco Melandri, Troy Bayliss, Sete Gibernau (leading the race at the time), locals Shane Byrne and James Ellison, Ruben Xaus, Nicky Hayden, Shinya Nakano and Franco Battaino all failed to complete the 29-lap race.
However, the leading pack had practically been decided by lap six when John Hopkins led for two laps before he ran wide and fell from his Suzuki. Hopkins remounted and returned to the pits for repairs before rejoining the race, which he would eventually finish in last position.
With Hopkins gone, Alex Barros headed the race before swapping with former world champion Kenny Roberts. When Rossi tried to challenge for the lead thought, he was promptly expelled and sent to the back of the group.
It was then that the Italian maestro quickly raked in a three-second gap to slot behind his team-mate, Colin Edwards, in third place. One lap later, Rossi sliced past his partner and immediately toppled second-placed Roberts under braking, to challenge Barros at the front.
But the Brazilian rider was tough to dispel and would hold the lead until lap 21, even though Rossi, Roberts and Edwards remained close behind. But Rossi made his move at the end of the twenty-first lap, when he dove inside of Barros and swiftly made a run for the finish.
The Italian gained time at virtually every turn, and was a mammoth eight-seconds ahead of the rest with only three laps to go. Behind him Barros and Roberts did battle to decide who would claim the next best podium slot, when the American slipped through on the inside to claim his best result since 2000 when the won the world championship. It was also Suzuki’s first podium position since 2002.
Barros finished third in his 250th race start while Edwards finished fourth, some way back. Carlos Checa finished fifth, ahead of Loris Capirossi and Makoto Tamada. John Hopkins followed Alex Hofmann and rookies Toni Elias and Roberto Rolfo to the flag to finish 11th and last at the Donington Park circuit.
“That was one of the most difficult races of my career,” Rossi said after the win, which he had celebrated by crossing the line imitating a violin player. “The conditions were incredible – it was very, very cold and the track was very slippery. It was like sailing a boat because there was so much water between the wheels and the track and I was always spinning the rear and locking the front. I tried to understand the points where I could push more and said: ‘Now I’ll try harder and we’ll see what happens.’ I was able to go a lot faster and keep the advantage.”
Rossi’s latest win, combined with the zero points scored by most of his main rivals, has placed The Doctor 104-points ahead of his main rivals in the points race. More good news for his team was that team-mate Edwards has moved ahead of Gibernau and Biaggi into third place on the log, only one point behind Melandri.