Valentino Rossi was once again the top man in MotoGP competition and, in his second year with the re-vitalised Yamaha YZF-M1, it was a record-breaking season for the Italian. He didn’t beat Mick Doohan’s total of twelve wins in 1997, but Valentino matched Giacomo Agostini as the only other man to win eleven in a year at the top level - and this was the third time the 26-year-old had done so. The record he set was with a final points total of 367, beating his own mark from 2003 by ten. This came with a run of sixteen podium finishes from seventeen races, and put him an incredible 147 ahead of his nearest rival at the finish.

Statistically, even more remarkable is that, of the 65 races held since the change to the 990cc four-stroke formula, Rossi has won forty. That’s over sixty per cent in a category which has seen nine different race winners. A seventh Grand Prix world title in the solo classes puts him level with John Surtees and Phil Read, and behind just four riders in the all-time lists: Agostini, Angel Nieto, Carlo Ubbiali and Mike Hailwood. Only one man, though, has been the MotoGP champion across these last four years, and this was his fifth top class title in a row. Rossi’s overall GP victory tally reached 79 during 2005, taking him past Hailwood to slot in behind Agostini and Nieto.

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Judging from the 2005 qualifying records, the Honda RC211V was still fastest, and the bike to have. But Rossi’s machine did not seem to suffer any lack of drive, and a number of overtaking moves showed that further development work had all but eliminated any acceleration deficit. In addition, the most experienced and successful of Honda’s riders - Alex Barros (now 35), Max Biaggi (34), and Sete Gibernau (32 as the season ended) - had largely disappointing fortunes with their V5-engined equipment; and the emergence of youngsters Nicky Hayden (24) and Marco Melandri (23) instead perhaps meant that Rossi was not put under the pressure he might have expected from Honda. Even so, there is surely no denying that the man himself was a step or two ahead of where he had been, and can only form an even more potent combination with Yamaha next year.

The proof of Rossi’s pre-eminence surely came in the form of two peerless wet weather demonstrations, in the races of China and Great Britain. Other riders have previously shown their skill in these conditions, but in 2005 were unable to live with the new virtuoso of the discipline, which at one time was something Rossi had not mastered. Factoring all this in, the best of Honda’s riders had no chance if they could not string together consistent top results. Even if they could, they would have to beat Rossi on occasion, too. And it proved a disappointing year for them: Honda moved past the 600 mark in total GP wins during 2005, recording nine more in the 250cc category, and five in the 125s. However, their total of just four in the MotoGP class was the worst performance for the marque in twelve seasons - and 1993 had seen Doohan fighting back to full fitness, as most of the winning was done by Kevin Schwantz and Wayne Rainey, for Suzuki and Yamaha.

As mentioned, Honda’s biggest problem was the mixed form of their senior riders. Barros and Biaggi swapped places and, of the two, again it was with Sito Pons’ leading Camel sponsored bike that the best single result was recorded, this time Barros the man on board. Of all the Repsol Honda riders, Rossi has been the only man to score regular wins since 1999. Their other successes in the period have been one apiece for three different pilots. Biaggi, with his first proper HRC works machine, failed to win all year - breaking a stretch that went right back to 1992 and his first full GP season. Indeed, the Roman was overtaken by ‘junior’ team-mate Hayden - actually in his third year with Repsol - and the American was a popular first time winner in the revived United States GP at Laguna Seca, mid-way through his best season to date.

The experienced Barros took his win in Portugal, but rarely showed podium pace anywhere else, and thus overall was behind both Hayden and Biaggi. But, in common with the last two years, it was the MoviStar badged customer team of Fausto Gresini that led the way for Honda. Lead rider Gibernau was on pole for five races, whilst new signing Melandri was a regular top five man, and often on the front row. The Italian made a very good impression across his first seven races, adding more consistency after his move from Yamaha. He became a double winner as the season ended strongly for him. Meanwhile, Gibernau seemed to falter under the pressure to succeed - rather publicly, and on a number of occasions. He scored four second places, but none after round ten.

A new Honda team took the form of the Japan Italy Racing concern, in the Konica Minolta colours. Makoto Tamada’s first taste of the Michelin GP tyres saw him mostly finishing in the lower reaches of the top ten, in contrast to his sometimes inspirational Bridgestone-shod rides a year earlier. The exception was at home in Japan, and meanwhile the team’s second best result came from their substitute rider in a wet weather race. But it was not really Honda’s year and, indeed, they actually failed to get a rider on the podium in Malaysia, ending an incredible four year streak.

Yamaha had made progress, but new second rider Colin Edwards rarely showed the same form as Rossi, although he had a strong record just the same, getting the points to out-score apparently faster men. The customer Tech 3 bikes were not on a par with the Gauloises pair for results, but rookie Toní Elías made good progress as he put team-mate Rubén Xaus in the shade. But the best of the ‘others’ turned out to be Ducati, with both Loris Capirossi and Carlos Checa looking good towards the end of the year. Loris had already starred at times in the early rounds, especially at home, but Brno was the beginning of their best period. This included three consecutive poles for the Italian, in places where the Bridgestones liked the heat, plus a second and two race wins, and with Carlos twice on the podium. Pramac-d’Antín ran the only other Ducati, on Dunlops, with Roberto Rolfo usually finishing ahead of the tail-end WCM men.

It was a tough year for some of the smaller, and not so small manufacturers. Kawasaki and Suzuki showed potential, helped of course by the Bridgestone tyres, and in fact both marques took their best results in the two wettest races - with Kawasaki cracking the top ten more often in the dry. They each ended the year with a look to the future, opting to sign a youthful newcomer alongside their best 2005 rider, and this meant an end to Kenny Roberts’ Suzuki years. His still-youthful team-mate John Hopkins had shown plenty of promise, and so it was time for the marque’s only World Champion in twelve years to move on. Chris Vermeulen replaces him. Meanwhile, Shin’ya Nakano saw off both Alex Hofmann and Olivier Jacque on the green machines, despite the Frenchman’s great exploits in China, and in 2006 will partner Randy de Puniet.

There was little success to be had in the liaison between (Proton) Team Roberts and engine partners KTM, with their V4 motor; or in the link-up of Harris/WCM and Blata, who had the first MotoGP V6 engine in production. Revisions for KTM made for no discernible upturn in fortunes and, with just one point scored, the manufacturer withdrew mid-summer. KR wheeled out the old V5 bike, but only at the two remaining venues within a reasonable travelling distance, and with KTM-contracted Shane Byrne losing his ride in the process. Meanwhile, the Blata unit was forever delayed, such that WCM continued at the back of the pack with their own under-powered unit. James Ellison showed continued promise, and a two-rider haul of points was thirteen better than Team Roberts. The Moriwaki-Honda raced twice, scoring a single point.

The year 2005 also saw the advent of new ‘flag-to-flag’ rules. When a wet race has been declared, these give riders the option of pulling into the pits and swapping to a second bike with wet settings and tyres - or they can obviously risk staying out on track with a less than ideal set-up. This eliminates the potentially confusing aggregate result system, as the race will not be stopped, but it also means that playing safe is tactically inadvisable. Unless everyone stops, competitors who do are losing time to those who don’t, and it is therefore better to wobble around where you are than drop to the tail of the field. A dramatic mid-race downpour in 2006 may test this option more fully.

The expected Rossi versus Gibernau battle played out in round one, with a particularly tight contest on the second half of the final lap. A running place-swapping battle was resolved when Rossi went for the inside on the final hairpin, and the two bikes touched. Gibernau was forced out into the gravel, losing the race but still taking second, and was plainly aggrieved, as well as injured, by what he felt was an unacceptable move, especially at his home race. Sete was rattled, and his mood seemed to carry over into the season as a whole. Several later races saw him in potential winning positions, and yet somehow the continued close presence of Valentino was enough to force mistakes from the Spaniard. He never did take a tenth GP victory, and it has to be recalled that Rossi had vowed not to let him win again after the Qatar controversy in 2004.

After this dramatic start, the season developed with first Barros, after two rounds, then Melandri, for the next seven rounds, leading the challenge to Rossi on points. A quiet mid-season for Marco allowed Edwards, Biaggi and Gibernau to close up for a tight second group, now well adrift of Rossi. Max took the initiative with a second and third behind title outsider Capirossi, but then faltered as Melandri and Hayden came on strong. Edwards was constantly on the score sheet to emerge behind them, as Capirossi joined in until his Australian practice crash. The troubled Gibernau, then Barros and Checa came into the next positions at the finish. In summary, it was an incredibly competitive season for second place. No one really wants to finish second, but with ‘moto genius’ Rossi in the field, this was all anyone else could reasonably have hoped for.

It was truly another exceptional year for Valentino Rossi and, with the series adopting an 800cc limit from 2007, the Italian now only needs one further title to take a clean sweep of the five-year 990cc MotoGP era. Adding to his 125cc, 250cc and 500cc crowns, could Rossi become unchallengeable as the only man to be champion in five capacity classes? As it is, only Mike Hailwood and Phil Read can be credited with anything similar, and these two English champions did it in ‘just’ three different classes.

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Motorcycle Racing Online’s 2005 MotoGP top ten

1 Valentino Rossi - Gauloises Yamaha Team
In year two with the bike, and following another winter of developing the Yamaha M1, Valentino Rossi was the undoubted favourite for yet another title. And this was borne out as ‘the Doctor’ recorded an eventual tally of eleven wins - two more than in 2004, and a record for Yamaha. A huge points advantage came with 16 podiums from 17 races, and with five poles and six fastest laps for good measure. Sublime skills were on display - such as when he held a couple of wayward moments at Donington before destroying the opposition - but he also had the psychological measure of his expected rival. Rossi’s apparent destabilising influence on Gibernau saw to it that he would face no sustained threat from his potential Honda-mounted adversaries. In fact, his run was only interrupted by one serious misjudgement, and this came in Japan, when he managed to fumble his braking and run into Melandri. He is still the benchmark, but are there any pretenders ready to step up?

2 Marco Melandri - MoviStar Honda MotoGP
Marco Melandri was a proven winner at 125 and 250cc level, and had shown his speed with the second string Yamahas on graduation to MotoGP. A patchy finishing record marked him as erratic, but a move to Gresini Honda saw Marco attain a new degree of maturity. Although he wasn’t ready to win immediately, he saw the wisdom in racking up finishes, which he did more effectively than team leader Gibernau. An early run of fourths and thirds, plus a fighting second at Assen, meant that he was already Rossi’s closest challenger, and twenty points clear of next challenger Biaggi. As Gibernau’s problems multiplied, so Melandri came out of a relative lull in mid-season and got stronger in the closing races, shaking off a foot injury from Rossi’s Motegi miscue. A close second in Qatar preceded two straight defeats of Rossi and Hayden, with fastest lap in the three final races reflecting his position as the man on form. He could well lead the way for Honda again in 2006.

3 Loris Capirossi - Ducati Marlboro Team
Ducati made great strides during 2005, and lead rider Loris Capirossi recorded their second and third MotoGP class wins in the last third of the season - overcoming first Biaggi in Japan, and then Rossi in Malaysia. He had already made it onto the front row in China, beaten five of the Hondas for an acclaimed third place at home in Mugello, and gone one better with second in Brno, after Gibernau’s exit. The 2004 bike had made it difficult for the diminutive 25-time GP winner to display his undoubted skills, but this year he emerged as a genuine threat once again, cementing his ‘hard trier’ reputation after starting out injured. Unfortunately, his late season run, including three poles and two fastest laps, was halted by a major accident in practice at Phillip Island, and a chance to finish second overall was lost as he missed two races. He faded during the Qatar race, in the midst of his best form, but had otherwise proved himself once again as a real asset to any top team.

4 Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda Team
Nicky Hayden matched up to his third different team-mate in the works Repsol Honda squad, and this time he was more than equal to the task - indeed he out-performed Max Biaggi across the season. Despite a run of second row starts, and the initial lead in France, it took a while for him to creep into top five results, especially as he fell off in Spain, but two early sixths were improved on with fifth in Barcelona and fourth at Assen. His home race then saw the first of three pole positions, and it was at Laguna Seca that he broke Repsol’s 23-race losing streak, with a ride that owed as much to his spectacular skills as to circuit knowledge. He also went well in Germany, where a number of consecutive left-handers suited his style, and then became a podium fixture at the last four venues, racing with Rossi and Melandri, and also turning the best times in Malaysia and Qatar. This late run brought him to third overall, and he must now be ready to win regularly.

5 Max Biaggi - Repsol Honda Team
Max Biaggi was finally rewarded with his first proper works ride for Honda, for whom he had already taken five top class wins. He wasn’t able to take full advantage and, unusually for the serial pole man, was on the grid’s front row only once all year. Indeed, six times he was not even onto row three, and this surely gave him more work on race day. He certainly put this in when rising from tenth to third in Brno, and mostly joined the top six battles elsewhere, but only translated this to three other podium finishes. In Italy, scene of his P3 start, he raced to a close second behind Rossi and also took fastest lap. The result was the same in Japan, this time with Rossi’s threat gone, but there were also crashes in the UK and Australia - the second of these during a poor late season spell, with electronic problems in Qatar and a lacklustre run in Turkey. He ultimately fell from second to fifth, therefore, and was rejected by Honda after speaking out about their flaws. Is his chance gone?

6 Sete Gibernau - MoviStar Honda MotoGP
Sete Gibernau, after two good seasons with Gresini Honda, again started as closest challenger to the mighty Rossi. He obviously felt he’d overcome the Italian for victory in Jeréz but, after the last corner incident, the pressure then seemed a bit much at times. Mistakes followed in too many races, and he let himself down when victories seemed distinctly possible - and likely on perhaps four occasions. The other side of the coin is that Sete was the best qualifier all year, with five poles and eight times second, and his front-running speed was clear in a majority of races. He finished a close second in France and in Catalunya, and was hit by a notable slice of bad luck - including a late problem in China; a terminal one on the last lap in Brno, when right with Rossi; and then engine failure in Valencia. His other pair of second place results were a letdown, with the dramatic Spanish and German incidents, but with the off-season to regroup, he surely has it in him to repair some of the damage.

• Sete’s catalogue of errors
He slid out of the lead in damp-to-wet conditions at Estoril; had a similar Italian exit; crashed out of a good lead at torrential Donington; and out-braked himself going into the last lap in Germany - he’d been ahead, and this allowed Rossi to take his eighth win. He crashed in Motegi, then fell off trying to out-brake Nakano at Sepang, taking the Kawasaki man out; he made a mistake trying to fight off Melandri in Qatar, dropping back and ending up fifth; and he also ran off track when leading in Turkey, but fought back to fourth.

7 Toní Elías - Fortuna Yamaha Team
Toní Elías had been a regular title challenger in the lower classes, taking nine GP wins over four seasons and getting closest overall in 2001 and 2003. Expectations were not as high for a MotoGP rookie in the Tech 3 Yamaha team, and yet the Spaniard handled the machinery well, put together a consistent season and showed improvement all the way. For one thing, he got the better of team-mate Xaus eleven times in qualifying, and for another he out-scored his countryman by 23 points despite missing three races. At the new circuit in Shanghai he qualified eighth, ran third in the wet, but with a jump start penalty was pushed back. Three ninth placed results followed, and he then started from the third row twice more in the season’s latter stages - seventh in Australia, then sixth at another new track, in Turkey. There, he finished in the same position after dropping from fifth to ninth, his route back taking him past Barros, Tamada and Edwards. Still a man for the future.

8 Colin Edwards - Gauloises Yamaha Team
Colin Edwards’ third year in MotoGP meant his third different motorcycle, as he graduated to a Yamaha berth alongside Rossi. A consistent run of results involved scoring points in every single race, and this added up to fourth in the championship - just ahead of Biaggi, and also beating Honda riders Gibernau and Barros. But the comparison to his team-mate was always likely to be a harsh one. Colin only made the front row once, and he only beat Rossi home once - on familiar ground at Laguna Seca. That race saw the best of the Texan and, along with the fastest lap, he went by Rossi as he chased leader Hayden. Earlier, he had been strong in France, racing for the lead after his start from second, and finally taking third. Assen had seen another good run to third, and he also joined in the lead battle at Donington, where he was fourth on a difficult day. His place in the category is assured for now, but we are still to see whether Colin can put together a true title challenge.

9 Carlos Checa - Ducati Marlboro Team
The popular Carlos Checa joined Ducati after six years with Yamaha, which had seen two pole positions and ten second place finishes. He started from the front row in only his second outing on the bike, and converted this to the first of three fifths over rounds one to nine - including at Donington, where he was one of the fastest men in the wet. But the last section of his season was the most encouraging, backing up Capirossi’s form with top six results in the final six races, and qualifying fourth twice. These results included third place in both Malaysia and Australia - notably defeating the on-form Melandri at the finish of the latter race - and this took his GP podium tally up to 24. He was also fourth in Japan and Valencia, and therefore seized his best final score for three seasons. It was the kind of form that might well have secured his ride, if not for the fact that Ducati had already signed Gibernau to replace him. The team will hope that it made the right choice.

10 Alex Barros - Camel Honda
Experience didn’t equate to any lack of speed for Alex Barros, who passed 250 GP starts during the season, but still a title challenge didn’t look on the cards. The Portuguese GP was the closest to a home race for Alex in 2005 and, as the weekend-long quickest man, he duly converted his fifth pole into victory in the rain affected race. He may have benefited from the switch back to Sito Pons’ customer Hondas, with expectations not as high as they had been at Repsol, and yet this win was one of only two podium visits, and four non-finishes cost him the chance of threatening his regular fourth place overall. He did race well through the field, but sometimes disappointing grid slots forced him into it, as he only made the front row twice more. Donington saw him lead often in the rain, finishing a good third, with conditions having a hand in his two fastest laps - one in Portugal and the other in fully wet China. But another inconclusive year finally ended his two decades in the ‘circus’.

The best of the rest

The ever-consistent Shin’ya Nakano just misses the top ten, as he also did this time with another podium result in the races. The latest version of the Kawasaki ZX-RR employed a ‘big-bang’ revised firing order power unit, which was utilised to good effect by their established team leader, boosting his points score with some strong rides. He made frequent fourth row starts, but was up on the second row four times, and only once behind a team-mate. He started his racing campaign with fifth in Spain, from the same grid slot, and started strongly in France and Catalunya. But perhaps his best day was in Germany, lapping fast enough in sixth to close on the leading group, until his tyres could no longer cope. He still kept the place comfortably to the flag. In fact, he might have done better in Malaysia, where he was second for a lap and in third early on, but was then unceremoniously bundled out by Gibernau when the Spaniard made his error. The Nakano-Kawasaki partnership continues into 2006.

Olivier Jacque, the 250cc World Champion in 2000, made a surprise return to the top class during 2005, filling in for the injured Alex Hofmann at Kawasaki. ‘OJ’ was fortunate with the conditions on race day in China, but exploited the water-logged circuit in fine style, beating all of the regulars bar the inevitable Rossi. He made five more appearances, but did not distinguish himself so readily in dry weather, especially as he and Hofmann collided at the start in Germany. Nevertheless, his Shanghai result marked a first top class podium for the rider, and is the best result so far for the 990cc ZX-RR. Hofmann was absent from seven races, thanks to a pair of separate battle injuries. The first of these came when he crashed unnecessarily in a street demo, but the second came from an early collision with Rolfo in the Japanese race. He did well enough to take eighth in the Donington rains, but did not compare well to Nakano, all told.

Kenny Roberts is another of the 2000 World Champions, and also another to take full advantage of wet weather conditions. The 2005 Suzuki was obviously not up to the standards of Honda and Yamaha and, in his seventh year as the team’s leader, Kenny’s form was mostly overshadowed by that of 22-year-old partner Hopkins. But the races of China and Britain allowed for the older man to show that his skill is still right up there, and he only lost out in the first of these due to technical problems when leading. Donington was different, and again he ran up front, this time defeating Barros for second as Rossi found a different gear. Roberts’ best results elsewhere were similarly aided by the Bridgestone tyre deal, as hotter conditions in Japan and Malaysia yielded eighth and seventh positions. But, overall, his season’s work was not enough to keep his job.

As mentioned, John Hopkins usually led the way in the Suzuki team. He twice started from the front row of the grid, in hot conditions, and in fact out-qualified Roberts in 12 of 13 outings. The only time he didn’t came after sustaining injuries in practice for the German GP - which would lead to his spectacular exit from the race. Although he would often be amongst the top guys early on, once again John’s best races were in the wet. He had been in P7 at Estoril when new rainfall caught him out, but was an earlier leader at drenched Shanghai, and Donington saw him get to the front in similar conditions. But both times he hit trouble, firstly running off into the gravel, and secondly falling in a similar manner due to a fogged up visor. He made the finish both times, but was outside the top six by then. However, a good fifth in Japan saw him ahead of Edwards and Hayden.

James Ellison was the clear team leader in the Blata WCM squad, on the Dunlop-shod Harris machine. The tyre supply was a disadvantage, and the non-appearance of the projected V6 Blata motor will not have helped. For Ellison and Franco Battaini, it usually came down to a contest to avoid starting last each time, and in this James had much the better record. He was among many to be caught out at Donington, but had used the conditions to move up to eleventh in the race, and a finish in this position would have been his best of the season. Battaini managed it in Japan, in a race hit by a rash of non-finishes, but this was one outing Ellison missed with injury. Team principal Peter Clifford was heard to say that he rates James as the best rider the team has worked with, therefore picking him out from a list of prominent riders such as Neil Hodgson, Simon Crafar, Garry McCoy, Régis Laconi and Noriyuki Haga. His pre-Grand Prix form would certainly back up such opinions, and it will be interesting to watch his progress on more competitive machinery.

Makoto Tamada was unable to match his impressive exploits on the 2004 Honda, and a switch from Bridgestone tyres was perhaps part of this equation. The exception to the rule was in his home race at Motegi, where a second row start translated into third at the finish, ahead of the likes of Edwards and Hayden. In Catalunya he’d been sixth until sliding off, after missing three races, but he then reached the finish almost every time. Outside Japan, his best results were two mid-season sevenths, but this former GP and SBK winner will have been looking for better.

35-year-old Jürgen van den Goorbergh, a former double GP pole sitter, made a brief return to the series after two years away. Like Jacque, he arrived to substitute for an injured rider at the Chinese race, making his 990cc début an effective one - and securing only his fifth top six finish from a career of eleven full seasons. Standing in for Tamada, he ran fifth and finished sixth in the water-logged conditions there, and scored two more points in France.

Troy Bayliss had a disappointing year, and it seemed to spell the end of his Grand Prix adventure. He was sixty points down on team-mate Barros after eleven rounds, and then missed the last six through a non-GP injury. But not before qualifying fourth in the US, where he would also run second, and being forced out when running fifth in the UK. He had raced into sixth place twice, including at Laguna Seca. His absence offered chances to Tohru Ukawa, Shane Byrne, Chris Vermeulen and Ryuichi Kiyonari, and the débutant Australian made the biggest impact with two eleventh places. The Superbike runner-up was quickly picked up for Suzuki’s GP team.

Despite a crash in the first race, Rubén Xaus managed to maintain a regular finishing record, and was good for 52 points overall; but four tenth place results were his best work, and he wound up some way off rookie team-mate Elías as a result. A return to Superbikes beckons, as it does for former 250 runner Roberto Rolfo. He got to the finish regularly enough on the Dunlop-shod customer Ducati, but only made the top ten once, by staying on track in Great Britain. Having said that, he ran seventh early in Qatar, but was demoted to P12 by the finish. Consistent low scores got him among the second and third Kawasakis. He joins Xaus in 2006.

Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne had troubles aplenty with the KR-KTM, including with the engine and throttle, and one or two incidents duly followed. He ran an excellent sixth in the wet at Donington, where he’d won a BSB race in similar conditions three years earlier, but was one of many to crash. This left him with a single point, from Laguna, after nine outings. Thereafter, he had a pair of chances with Camel Honda, but without enough time to fully adapt to the RCV he added only five further points. He will no doubt be happier as a potential winner again back in the UK for 2006.

Speaking of which, is something of a new era on the way, that will go down as having started in 2006? Of the riders over thirty, Bayliss, Barros and Biaggi will not be there, Checa and Roberts may also be gone, and the other older riders unlikely to be seen include Jeremy McWilliams, Shin’ichi Itoh, van den Goorbergh and Nobuatsu Aoki. Coming in will be 250cc stars Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Randy de Puniet, surely the first in a new wave of heroes. • Join us here for coverage of the 2006 season.

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