Capirossi wins at Jerez

Loris Capirossi has won a dramatic Jerez GP from Dani Pedrosa, as Valentino Rossi recovered to 14th following a crash in the first corner of the first lap.

As Capirossi led away from pole position, Valentino Rossi looked to be settling into fourth of fifth place as he was tagged by the Fortuna Yamaha of Toni Elias, dropping the Yamaha and damaging the right side of the machine, but somehow able to restart.

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On lap two, Sete Gibernau dropped from second place with a mechanical retirement, as Nicky Hayden and Marco Melandri took up the chase, but by lap eight, Pedrosa had moved from fourth to second to pressure Capirossi. Meanwhile Rossi was lapping at a similar pace to the fourth, fifth and sixth place runners, making up a forty second gap to the tail-end riders.

Lap 15 saw the retirement fo Jose Luis Cardoso, and a lap later, Rossi had moved up to 15th, into the points. Meanwhile Toni Elias moved past team-mate Melandri into fourth, and set about chasing Nicky Hayden.

At the flag Capirossi had managed to rear wheel slide to victory, with Pedrosa taking second on his MotoGP debut. Nicky Hayden narrowly held onto third place from Elias. Melandri was fifth, just ahead of another MotoGP rookie, Casey Stoner, in a fantastic sixth place. Valentino Rossi eventually finished 14th, ahead of Alex Hofmann and Britain’s James Ellison. For full results, click here.

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250cc: Jorge Lorenzo has won the opening 250cc GP at Jerez, from Alex De Angelis and Andrea Dovizioso.

Lorenzo was the second Spanish winner of the day, following the 125cc GP win for fellow countryman Alvaro Bautista. The pole sitter had to battle with Hiroshi and Shuhei Aoyama and Tuki Takahashi on the opening lap, but soon broke to the front, fighting with De Angelis.

Sebastien Porto was among the retirements, as was Anthony West, and Shuhei Aoyama. Both Jules Cluzel and Marco Simoncelli crashed out of the race. Britain’s Chaz Davies scored a fantastic 13th position for the opening round, especially as he should get a much faster bike for later races. For full results, click here.

125cc: Alvaro Bautista won his first 125cc GP at his home round, breaking away once he took the lead on the second lap, battling with Lukas Pesek, who eventually finished second. Third place went to Mattia Pasini, who dropped to sixth after a bad start from pole position.

Reigning world champion Thomas Luthi crashed out on lap 11, whilst still recovering from a fractured collarbone in preseason. Alex Espargaro also crashed out on the same lap.

Bradley Smith finished a great debut weekend in 125 GPs with a 17th place finish on the Repsol Honda. To see the full list of results, click here.