Photographs courtesy of Dorna - click to enlarge

There was a lad I was at school with who hailed from The Midlands, and I always remember that whenever it rained a lot his mum would say "Nice weather for ducks." So it seemed appropriate to use that as a headline for probably the wettest race of the year, especially as it was here, in the heart of The Midlands.

Donington is a fast, flowing circuit with lots of interesting elevation changes and a good few blind or off camber bends. It's also a little bumpy in places but, rather more importantly, it doesn't seem to drain very well. Personal experience says it's not very grippy - I never finished a race there but got to examine the gravel traps quite closely - but, most importantly, there are a couple of points where the grip is really treacherously low.

Qualifying was in the dry, the threatened rain holding off and the skies staying, in the main, blue. Valentino Rossi makes no secret about the fact that he loves this circuit, and demonstrated his affection by taking a huge chunk off his 2004 lap record on the way to yet another pole position. Gibernau, Melandri and Barros all took their turns to lead before being ousted by The Doctor and qualifying in order. Nicky Hayden did well, sneaking his Honda in just ahead of Colin Edwards, while Troy Bayliss called on his British Superbike experience of the circuit to post a season best sixth place on the grid ahead of similarly mounted Max Biaggi and Makoto Tamada. Shane Byrne again did well, coming in eighteenth but only just behind Kenny Roberts Junior and Tony Elias.

Race Day dawned about as grim as it gets. Though not really windy, it was raining hard ad the ambient temperature was way down on the previous days. Which meant nobody had any really good data. Warmup proved invaluable as teams struggled to get a good setup and the man of the moment appeared to be Kenny Roberts Junior, the slightly underpowered Suzuki being less of a handful in the treacherous conditions.

So as the riders lined up to race it became apparent that conditions had got worse. Far worse. Rather than the somewhat damp track they had been facing before, the riders now had the delights of what looked more like a power boat course than a bike racing circuit. The warm up lap went fine and then something happened on the grid because there was a two minute delay before a second warmup lap was run. This time at the end everything went as advertised and the pack streaked away. Valentino Rossi made a dreadful start, dropping back to seventh position before clawing his way back up to fourth by the end of the lap. Sete Gibernau, in the meantime, had made hay while the sun shone. Not the most appropriate cliche here but humour me. The Spaniard took advantage of the conditions, a clear track and lots of raw ability to extend a large lead over Alex Barros and Marco Melandri. Troy Bayliss was up into fifth behind Rossi but ahead of Colin Edwards while, astonishingly, Shane Byrne showed just how good he really is by coming from eighteenth to seventh in one lap on the massively underdeveloped KTM.

Max Biaggi's weekend went from dreadful to atrocious in just one lap as he slid out at the exit of Goddard's before even crossing the line for the first time. Though he rejoined for a couple of laps he then crashed out again, uninjured but with his championship hopes surely in tatters. That crash seemed to signal the start of something major as Ruben Xaus visited the beach a few moment later, Nicky Hayden ended a truly forgettable day for the works Honda team with a trip to the grass and Marco Melandri chucked his Honda away, again exiting Goddard's, forcing the luckless Troy Bayliss onto the wet and slippery grass and thence onto the list of crashers. Meanwhile, up front, Sete Gibernau managed, yet again, to fall off while apparently under no pressure at all, highsiding the Honda and being lucky to escape injury as he and the bike remained together all the way across the track and into the gravel.

Which put Valentino Rossi into the lead, followed by Barros, Roberts and John Hopkins with Colin Edwards and Shakey Byrne just behind. Sadly this was to be Byrne's high spot as, a few moments later, the Kent rider lost the front and crashed out. But while that was happening another small miracle wa staking place. John Hopkins made a fantastic set of moves to pass his team-mate, Barros and Rossi in the space of a couple of bends. And in front he stayed until, a couple of laps later, his visor fogged up and he misjudged the braking point (Hey - it's not my theory, it's what the team say) at the approach to Foggy Esses, ran onto the grass and crashed out. But he's a terrier, and he got the bike restarted, pitted to be sure it was safe and then got back out there, riding a rather bent and battered Suzuki but staying upright and finishing in eleventh place for a solid and useful five points. Alex Barros now inherited the lead while Rossi and Roberts duked it out, Roberts at one time taking the lead completely. Colin Edwards was in the scrap as well, passing Rossi after the Italian had one of several major (and frankly uncatchable) moments that proved he is not only master of the racetrack but also seems to be able to change the laws of physics as well.

Things then settled down for a bit, Barros holding off Rossi with Roberts close behind and Edwards maintaining a watching brief a second or so back. Further down the field Checa and Capirossi were taking turns in posting fastest laps on the big Ducatis, though still a long way behind the leading pack. The other British hope, James Ellison, crashed out from eleventh while the whole field were suffering from huge slides along with lack of visibility, steaming up visors and such like.

Then, with seven laps to go, Rossi made a pass on Barros and made it stick. For a while we had thought that just possibly Rossi was holding back, almost teasing Barros like a cat teases a mouse. And it appeared we were right as the Yamaha pilot raised the game to a new level, immediately opening a huge gap which, three laps later, had extended to over eight seconds. At this point it appears that prudence temp red Rossi's actions as he backed right off, finally crossing the line just three seconds clear of the next rider. Kenny Roberts managed to mug Alex Barros in a beautifully executed pass going into Coppice, forcing the Brazilian wide and taking his, and Suzuki's, first podium for over three years in second place. Even more impressive bearing in mind his lowly sixteenth place start. Colin Edwards splashed in fourth with the Ducatis of Checa and Capirossi flying in formation in fifth and sixth respectively, albeit ten seconds apart. Long gaps saw Makoto Tamada and Alex Hoffmann cross the line as the only riders still on the same lap while Toni Elias and Roberto Rolfo rounded off the top ten.

So we've seen a truly inspirational ride from someone who claims not to be very good in the wet, a fantastic effort from someone whose bike is claimed to be off the pace and a truly disappointing showing from the only real challengers to the World Championship. The next rounds, Germany, the Czech Republic and Japan, are Rossi's least favourites. But he's now so far ahead he could sit them out and still have a decent lead. Still, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that, on top of a brilliant ride by Rossi, we saw some truly excellent work by our local talent and a few amazing temper tantrums after people had slid off. All part of the entertainment, especially with absolutely no injury...

Results

1 V Rossi, Yamaha
2 K Roberts Jnr, Suzuki
3 A Barros, Honda
4 C Edwards, Yamaha
5 C Checa, Ducati
6 L Capirossi, Ducati
7 M Tamada, Honda
8 A Hoffmann, Kawasaki
9 T Elias, Yamaha
10 R Rolfo, Ducati

Championship Standing after 9 rounds

211 V Rossi
107 M Melandri
106 C Edwards
100 M Biaggi
95 S Gibernau
90 A Barros
85 N Hayden
65 L Capirossi
55 S Nakano
51 C Checa