Rossi starts title defence with a victory

Valentino Rossi began his MotoGP World Championship defence with a determined
performance at Jerez today, snatching victory from home favourite Sete Gibernau
in a dramatic final corner manoeuvre. A minute's silence in memory of Pope John
Paul II provided the calm before the storm as Rossi stalked Gibernau for
virtually the entire race, making his move on the penultimate lap only to make a
mistake in the final circulation and hand the lead back to the Spaniard.

It set up a breathtaking finale, with the pair exchanging places in the fast
right corners which lead into the final left-hand hairpin, where they collided
as Rossi forced his way up the inside. Gibernau ran it wide into the gravel but
returned to the track to limp across the line in second place, benefiting from
the huge gap the two riders had opened up over third-placed Marco Melandri, who
completed the podium in his first MotoGP appearance for Honda.

"This was for sure a great race, especially after the problems I had in the
morning," said Rossi, who had crashed out of the warm-up and caused extensive
damage to his number one Yamaha machine. "Sete rode a great race and set a very
fast pace. I attacked at the end but made a mistake on the last lap and then we
touched in the final corner. I'm sure Sete's angry about it right now but racing
motorcycles is hard. There are 16 races to go and it will be a hard battle."

Melandri took third place after Nicky Hayden had crashed out with just eight
laps to go, ending hopes of what looked like a certain podium for the American,
the only rider to match the pace of Rossi and Gibernau throughout the race. Alex
Barros clinched a distant fourth after a hard battle with Kawasaki rider Shinya
Nakano and his Honda team-mate Troy Bayliss, who took a creditable sixth place
on his debut for the Japanese factory.

Max Biaggi recovered from his worst ever grid position of 16th to take seventh
after overcoming the challenge of Honda colleague Makoto Tamada and Yamaha's
Colin Edwards, whilst Carlos Checa fought through the pain of a recovering
shoulder injury to complete the top ten at his home circuit on the Ducati.

Despite Gibernau's misfortune in the premier-class the 127,000 crowd had plenty
to cheer in the 250cc race, as reigning World Champion Dani Pedrosa and his
Honda stormed to a clear victory over Aprilia's Sebastian Porto. Randy de Puniet
and Casey Stoner both crashed out of third place to leave Aprilia colleague Alex
de Angelis with his third career podium in the quarter-litre class ahead of
Honda debutantes Andrea Dovizioso, Hector Barbera and Andrea Dovizioso.

Marco Simoncelli proved his wet victory here last year was no fluke as he went
from pole position to the top step of the podium for the second successive
season in the 125cc. The Aprilia teenager rode a controlled race in a typically
frenetic lead group, which saw home hope Pablo Nieto crash his Derbi just two
laps from the end when challenging for second place. Nieto's misfortune opened
the way for KTM rider Mika Kallio to snatch second with a last-corner move on
Fabrizio Lai, who took third on his debut for Honda.

INFO 2005/28. 10-04-2005
DORNA COMMUNICATIONS
www.motogp.com