Spaniard Sete Gibernau triumphed at the Dutch MotoGP on Sunday after battling with Italian Max Biaggi on the wet Assen track.
Spaniard Sete Gibernau triumphed at the Dutch MotoGP on Sunday after battling with Italian Max Biaggi on the wet Assen track.
World champion Valentino Rossi finished third, with Carlos Checa taking fourth after Troy Bayliss slid off the track.
The race was delayed when rain interrupted the warm-up lap and riders had to switch to full wet tyres.
Gibernau and Rossi twice traded the lead in the early laps. The Spaniard had a close call when his front wheel lost grip and he came close to crashing, but he managed to control his bike to ease back into the lead.
“The weather was good for us,” said Gibernau after his third win of the season. “It would have been much harder, for sure, in the dry. Valentino and Max had better pace than me in the dry.”
It was Rossi’s worst finish of the season. “I had a good start and tried to stay with Sete Gibernau, but from behind it was very, very difficult,” said Rossi. “I didn’t see exactly where he was and two or three times I very nearly crashed,” he said.
Biaggi could not keep up with Gibernau after initially staying on his tail. “I got a good start and got into a good rhythm very quickly. I was a little bit quicker than Sete at the beginning of the race, but I really didn’t want to take too many risks early on,” said Biaggi.
“So I settled for following him, but then McCoy got in the way and when I tried to catch up I nearly had two high sides and Sete got further and further away. So I just concentrated on holding onto my second place,” he said.
Australian Anthony West won the 250cc race, his first career victory, while German Steve Jenkner won the 125cc race.