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Sete Gibernau wins the Dutch TT

Three from seven
By Dan Moakes
June 29 2003
As you might expect, Assen is one of those circuits where rain is not unusual. For Sete Gibernau, this meant a chance to challenge the three Italians who remain quickest in MotoGP - Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi and Loris Capirossi. Saturday’s race was wet, and Sete took his third win of the year.

In qualifying, it was Capirossi and the Ducati Desmosedici that came out on top, his second pole on the V4 putting him ahead of the Honda RCVs of Biaggi (second), Rossi (third) and Gibernau (seventh), as well as a bunch of rapid Yamaha M1s - Carlos Checa (fourth), Olivier Jacque (fifth), Alex Barros (sixth), Marco Melandri (eighth) and Shin’ya Nakano (tenth). Colin Edwards’ Aprilia was ninth, with the top ten covered by about one second. Suzuki factory rider Yukio Kagayama, campaigning a Superbike this year, was in place of the injured Kenny Roberts.

As the field lined up in preparation for the start, the track was damp from a previous rain shower. However, when they went onto the final parade lap, rain started falling heavily once again. All the riders dived straight for the pits, to change their bikes’ settings and tyres, and the start was delayed substantially. As you might expect, it was then declared an official ‘wet race’.

When they finally got going, it was Rossi that went into the lead, from Biaggi, Gibernau, Barros, Jacque, Bayliss, Edwards, Melandri and Tohru Ukawa. As the riders started to get their bearings in the tricky conditions, the first three went into turn one almost together. Biaggi cut inside Rossi, but Gibernau was in tight underneath the pair of them, and took over the lead almost immediately. On the first lap, Jacque went past Gauloises team-mate Barros, and Troy Bayliss, on the Ducati, was not long in following his example.

Checa had not maintained his front row form at the getaway, but finished the first lap eighth, after moving through on Ukawa and Melandri. Also going forward was Noriyuki Haga, on the other Aprilia ‘Cube’, as he went past this same pair. Capirossi had fallen from pole to twelfth as they went onto lap two, and he was followed by Nicky Hayden (Honda), Kagayama, and Alex Hofmann on the wildcard Kawasaki.

In the next couple of laps, the first two looked to be getting away from the rest, with Biaggi passing Gibernau to lead. The Spaniard was equal to Max’s pace, though, and stayed right with him, still looking pretty threatening. Both Jacque and Bayliss managed to pass Rossi for third, but the Italian re-passed Troy at the chicane, and held off the Australian’s further advances. Indeed, he soon started to build a gap over the Ducati, which now came under pressure from Barros and his Yamaha. Edwards was not too far behind them.

Rossi was not keen to see Biaggi and Gibernau get away, so he went inside Jacque at a right-hander, reclaiming P3. The Frenchman had a bad few moments, as Bayliss then went around him on the start line and Barros got through on the inside of the first corner. With Biaggi setting the fastest lap in front, now Rossi and Bayliss moved clear of the Barros-Jacque-Edwards group. Valentino seemed to be quicker than Troy, but the gap would grow and then shrink as they battled on. By now, Haga was eighth, ahead of Checa, Capirossi and Ukawa.

The rain was not letting up, and the circuit continued to be tricky. Gibernau managed to get alongside Biaggi, and went through into the next bend, but then had a bit of a slide that gave the place back to his rival. He finally got ahead by going to the outside on the main straight and powering past, presumably helped by his works-spec machinery. He then started to break away from the Roman. Fastest on lap three had been Haga, who was catching up to the leaders as a result. Meanwhile, Bayliss went around the outside of Rossi on a right-hand bend.

Gibernau was the new fastest lap holder after the fourth tour, and was soon lapping the likes of Nobuatsu Aoki, on the Proton, and Garry McCoy’s Kawasaki. In fact, Biaggi was delayed by the Australian, and this helped Sete to ease away from the yellow Honda. By now, Rossi had dropped Jacque, who had also got clear of his pursuers. However, Haga had caught team-mate Edwards, the wet obviously suiting him well. Bayliss was in trouble at this stage, as difficulties with changing gear helped him to drop his machine in the gravel. He rejoined way down the field.

By lap ten gaps had developed between each of the first three. The next four riders were quite close to each other, in the order Jacque, Haga, Edwards and Checa. Haga was definitely catching the man ahead. Capirossi was now up to eighth, while Barros had dropped to ninth, and Hofmann was going well behind them. Next came Hayden, Ukawa, Kagayama, Melandri and Bayliss. Jeremy McWilliams went out now, his Proton KR5 a victim of the conditions.

Gibernau brought the fastest lap down further on lap eleven, taking his gap over Biaggi to almost three seconds. He continued to pull away. By now, Makoto Tamada and John Hopkins were among the lapped runners, soon joined by Andrew Pitt. Aoki ended Proton’s day as he crashed out, with Barros lucky to avoid hitting the V5 machine, as he was just behind Nobu on the track, albeit a lap to the good.

With Haga already in front of Jacque, Checa moved his Fortuna machine onto the tail of the French rider’s M1. When Carlos found room to pass him on the inside, he was able to speed away in pursuit of the fourth-placed Aprilia. Behind, Capirossi went past Edwards for seventh, while Melandri was forced into the pits with technical issues, ending his day disappointingly.

With five laps remaining, Gibernau’s lead was up to over six seconds, and it was almost eight a lap later. Rossi’s Repsol Honda looked a bit closer to Biaggi’s Camel example, but both the Italians seemed to have settled for second and third, as Sete clearly had the edge. As if to prove it, the Telefónica bike managed a new fastest lap on its fifteenth time around, heading for a lead of almost ten seconds.

In the last couple of minutes it was the minor places that were hotly disputed. Checa was obviously homing in on Haga, and the Yamaha was soon on the attack. Noriyuki pushed his mount hard to stay ahead, but in vain. Even so, fifth would have been a great result for the Aprilia, improving on Edwards’ sixth in Japan. Unfortunately, Haga overdid it in his attempts to stay with Checa, and he went down. Aprilia would have to be satisfied with the Texan’s seventh place.

So, Gibernau duly took the flag first, with Biaggi clear of Rossi, and a bigger gap back to Checa. Capirossi pushed Jacque in the closing stages, but the Yamaha stayed ahead. Edwards was followed home by Barros, Bayliss, Hofmann, Ukawa, Nakano, Pitt and Hopkins. Kagayama was another late faller, dropping out from a points position and ahead of team-mate Hopkins. Gibernau and Biaggi both clawed a little nearer to Rossi in the points, with ‘the Doctor’ recording his worst result for thirteen races!

Standings after seven races: Rossi 151; Gibernau 113; Biaggi 105; Capirossi 71; Barros 62; Ukawa 56; Bayliss 53; Nakano and Checa 47; Jacque 43; Hayden 38.


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