In qualifying, however, the Honda RCVs of Max Biaggi, Rossi and Gibernau were beaten to pole position by the Ducati Desmosedici of Loris Capirossi. It was his third time at the head of the field, and meant that the other three had to be content with second, third and fourth, respectively.

Yamaha had a strong presence on row two, with Olivier Jacque fifth, Shin’ya Nakano sixth and Carlos Checa seventh. These three were followed by the second Ducati of Troy Bayliss. The next row was made up of Makoto Tamada and Tohru Ukawa (both Honda), Marco Melandri and Alex Barros (both Yamaha).

Further down the grid, the four-stroke Proton KR5 was back in action after some troubled development, and the Harris WCM990 also made an appearance. This machine, of course, had been ruled ineligible early in the season, but revisions to the engine had put that right. It was making its race début in the hands of David de Gea, although team-leader Chris Burns had managed to break his bike in a warm-up crash, and was sitting it out.

Max Biaggi made the best start of the front men, leading away from Capirossi, Gibernau, Rossi, Bayliss, Jacque, Nakano, Ukawa, Checa and Melandri. Indeed, Biaggi was particularly quick in the early stages, quite possibly helped by running softer tyres than most of his rivals. The Roman obviously meant to build a lead while the tyres were fresh, and Rossi was not slow to spot this.

Going into turn one at the start of the second lap, Valentino went past Gibernau on the inside to move into third. Biaggi was pulling away, improving on the lap record in the process, but Rossi passed Capirossi for second and began to ease away from the Ducati man. Sure enough, ‘the Doctor’ was then able to improve on Max’s fastest lap, and the race at the front developed into a sustained two-way duel, Rossi pressuring all the while.

By half distance, the first two had a two second margin over their pursuers, and it was at this stage that Valentino made his move. Pulling alongside at turn one, Rossi took the Repsol machine through on the inside and almost immediately began to extend his lead. Sliding the rear of his bike, the champion pulled out a second in a lap, and from that point Biaggi was unable to get close enough to challenge.

More excitement was generated by the tussle over third, between Capirossi and Gibernau. These two had soon got clear of Bayliss, but the Italian had by now lost out to Sete. Going deep and wide into the first corner, Capirossi had given his Honda rival the chance he needed to pass, and Gibernau took advantage. However, the Ducati rider fought back in the later stages.

Rossi was leading by 3.5s with two laps to go, and so was comfortably able to add his fifth win of 2003. Gibernau, however, was only 0.5s clear at the same stage, and came under attack from Capirossi on the last lap. The Italian found a way through, and held the place despite going into a twitch. But then Sete dived onto his inside at the tight uphill chicane, recovering the position.

This didn’t decide it, though, as Capirossi concentrated on carrying as much speed through the long final right-hander. He was able to slingshot onto the finishing straight, just edging past the RC211V as the pair crossed the line. It was a thrilling finish, with Capirossi getting the verdict and preventing an all-Honda podium ceremony. It also meant that Sete was pushed back to 46 points behind the number 46 rider in the table.

Fifth place went to Ukawa, despite the attentions of Bayliss. The Australian’s early form had seen him run with Capirossi and Gibernau, but then he fell back towards the battle between Ukawa, Nakano and Melandri. The Fortuna Yamaha rider had been the best of these initially, coming through from tenth to pass Checa, Nakano and then Ukawa. Bayliss was another on softer rubber, and was caught by the Melandri-Ukawa tussle. The Japanese rider came out on top, but Troy fought past Marco to finally finish sixth. Seventh for the Italian was his best so far in the top class.

Eighth man Checa was the second Yamaha rider home, as Jacque (thirteenth), Nakano (twelfth) and Barros (eleventh) had eventually fallen victim to the Hondas of Nicky Hayden (ninth) and Makoto Tamada (tenth). The last two points scorers were the Aprilia pair, Colin Edwards ahead of Noriyuki Haga, with Ryuichi Kiyonari bringing the final Honda into sixteenth.

The remaining finishers were Kenny Roberts and John Hopkins (both Suzuki), Jeremy McWilliams and Nobuatsu Aoki (both Proton), Andrew Pitt (Kawasaki) and de Gea on the WCM. Garry McCoy was the only retirement on the other Kawasaki.

As many expected, Valentino Rossi has now begun to take control in the championship battle. At this stage, to defeat Sete Gibernau he only needs to finish second or third in the last five races. Of course, a non-finish could still be costly to the Italian, but we all know that he is out there to win. If he carries on doing that, nothing is likely to stand in his way.

Standings after eleven races: Rossi 237; Gibernau 191; Biaggi 161; Capirossi 113; Bayliss 106; Checa 86; Ukawa 85; Barros 76; Hayden 74; Nakano 69; Jacque 58.

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