Rossi wins at Suzuka

Reigning Champion Valentino Rossi staked his claim to this year’s MotoGP world championship title with an impressive win at the first round in Suzuka, Japan, today.

The Italian stormed away from the field on his Repsol Honda eventually winning the race by more than six seconds. He was showing off all the way to the finish line, backing his bike wide in to the last corner and pulling a one handed wheelie across the line.

The comedy started after Rossi won the race when his Honda lost power and died on the lap of honour. Unperturbed Rossi simply parked up the bike, ran back to the track, stuck out his thumb, and hitched a lift back to the pits on the back of Haga’s Alice Aprilia.

Ducati’s Loris Capirossi lead a stunning race taking the lead right from the start but a mistake on the new chicane saw the dueling Rossi and Max Biaggi slip past. He came back on to the track in third place and managed to hold on to it all the way to the finish.

Biaggi could only watch as Rossi slowly pulled away but was kept on his toes by Capirossi who was never far behind.

Sete Gibernau ran a lonely race for most of the 21 laps finishing fourth overall five seconds down on Capirossi but a full 10 seconds ahead of the second Ducati rider, Troy Bayliss.

Tohru Ukawa was fighting hard for fifth place but a miss judged overtaking maneuver on lap 5 saw him run wide on to the grass. The Japanese rider failed to get his bike back under control and crashed head-first in to the bales, eventually managing to limp home in last place.

Kenny Roberts’ Proton team faired badly with Jeremy McWilliams crashing out on lap six just after his team-mate Nobuatso Aoki retired with engine trouble.

Alex Barros made a valiant attempt but only managed to hang on to eighth place while struggling to cope with a knee injury picked up in the morning’s practice.

Nicky Hayden improved significantly on his poor qualifying performance climbing up from 23rd place on the grid to finish seventh after a furious battle with Colin Edwards.

Daijiro Kato crashed out badly early on in the race and was flown to hospital by helicopter with head and chest injuries.

Times:

V.Rossi: 44:13.182, M.Biaggi: 44:19.627, L. Capirossi: 44:21.391, S. Gibernau: 44:26.391, T. Bayliss: 44:36.281, C. Edwards: 44:42.222, N. Hayden: 44:42.308, A. Barros: 44:43.708, S. Nakano: 44:46.629, C. Checa: 44:53.382

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