First MotoGP win for Ducati

Loris Capirossi has taken the first MotoGP win for Ducati after only six races.

The Italian rider started the sixth round of the world championship, in Catalunya, in second place but took the lead from Valentino Rossi on lap 15 going on to win the race by more than three seconds.

Rossi led the first half of the race but after Capriossi came past him he pushed a little too hard and ran wide in to the gravel on lap 16. The current world champion managed to get back on the track but rejoined the race in sixth position.

It took Rossi two laps to catch the leading pack of five but when he did he stormed past Shinya Nakano, Carlos Checa, SeteGibernau and Max Biaggi in just one lap, setting two new lap records in the process.

Biaggi appeared so surprised by the return of his Italian rival that he ran wide in to the gravel not long afterwards. He smashed in to the barrier, only just managing to get up to finish in 14th.

Capirossi managed to hang on to the lead leaving Rossi to take a well deserved second place and Sete Gibernau, who spent the race duelling with Biaggi, filling the last spot on the podium.

Andrew Pitt had trouble on the first lap, loosing control of his Kawasaki and taking out team-mate Akira Yanagawa and Proton’s Jeremy McWilliams. Colin Edwards pulled out on lap 19 after trouble with his bike.

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