Photographs courtesy of Dorna - click to enlarge

...Valentino Rossi style.

Jerez is often a bit of a gamble in lots of ways. The weather, as we saw last year, can be a little unpredictable. The circuit is extremely demanding on the rider and can provoke all sorts of little foibles in the results. And the couple of long fast straights have been known to encourage race bikes to give the spectators a closer than planned view of their engine internals. But I'm not sure that it's ever seen a race like this before.

Practice and qualifying were interesting. It was great to see a return to form for the Suzuki team who shone throughout practice despite illness rampaging through the team. John Hopkins, riddled with flu, managed to get himself right onto the front of the second row in practice with team mate Kenny Roberts Jnr not far behind. Kawasaki too have made huge strides over the closed season, making some changes to the engine management of the rather unruly bike to make it more rideable. Ducati seem to have sent their bike to obedience classes as the frankly ill mannered brute of 2004 has been replaced by an outwardly identical but far more pleasant machine this year. Honda, of course, are still Honda and in pre season testing Sete Gibernau destroyed the opposition, making it look very much as though this would, at last, be his year. Rossi and Edwards were both languishing way down the field as the Yamaha, sweet handling though it is, showed its lack of power against the mighty V5 Honda.

And then it was qualifying. And from nowhere, Rossi pulled a lap out that was a full half second quicker than Gibernau. And didn't look stressed at all. The Spaniard had to settle for second place with his team-mate Marco Melandri third in his first ever start for Honda. Nicky Hayden, who was so good in his first year and so disappointing in 2004, put his factory Honda in fourth place, heading the second row next to Shinya Nakano and Loris Capirossi while the third row consisted of the Hondas of Tamada, Barros and Bayliss. Alex Hoffman rounded off the top ten on the second Kawasaki, just ahead of the sick John Hopkins and Carlos Checa.

Max Biaggi has now got what he always wanted. A full factory Honda RC211V and, there's no doubt, number one status in the team. Which makes it difficult to understand why he qualified sixteenth behind Colin Edwards, Kenny Roberts Jnr and newcomer Toni Elias on the Fortuna Yamaha in his first ever MotoGP. No doubt there's a perfectly good explanation.

British hopes rested on the likeable shoulders of Shane Byrne, who qualified well in the rain here last year, and James Ellison. Byrne put his KTM/Roberts machine into 20th while Ellison put the Blata WCM bike into 21st. Both are on tiny budgets and are way behind in terms of development. Ellison is still on the 2004 engine while Byrne is waiting for more developments than you can shake a stick at, so no shame in their performance at all.

Race day, then, dawned almost exactly unlike last year. Cool and very windy but sunny and dry. Great for hanging out the laundry. The warmup showed how treacherous things were, though, as strong gusts of wind made life extremely interesting for the riders, especially strong gusting crosswinds when the front wheel is barely touching the ground... Only one faller in warmup, though. None other that Valentino Rossi making an unforced and uncharacteristic error and hitting the gravel, happily without injury. Honourable mentions, too, to Loris Capirossi, who lined up on the grid with a chipped ankle after rather a nasty highside during the closing stages of qualifying.

So. On the grid and the warmup lap passed without incident. Phew. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the lights went out and the first round of the 2005 MotoGP championship was underway for real.

Sete Gibernau got a storming start with Nicky Hayden hot on his heels, Rossi in third and Melandri close behind in fourth. Troy Bayliss was tucked in behind fifth placed Shinya Nakano having made a brilliant start to come up from ninth. Melandri spent some time climbing all over the back of Rossi's Yamaha before dropping back slightly as the leading trio maintained a punishing pace. Four laps in and Rossi overwhelmed Hayden, making a textbook pass under braking and immediately setting about closing the gap that had opened from Gibernau. It looked as though Rossi had an impossible task, though, as not only was he still being pressured by the young American but the Yamaha seemed not to have the legs to catch the Spaniard on his home turf. A slight hiccup in Rossi's game saw Gibernau pull out a seeming unassailable 0.8 second lead before gradually, inexorably, Rossi started to close the gap down again. The leading trio had, by now, opened an immense lead over the rest of the pack with Marco Melandri riding brilliantly in fourth place but some eight seconds behind. At this stage, some eighteen laps in, the leaders were running at a pace that would have put them fourth in qualifying. On standard race tyres which, at this point, would be well past their best. And that pace can't be easy to maintain. Nicky Hayden, the only man on the grid able to run with the leaders and showing signs of fulfilling the promise he showed in his first season, lost the front braking into one of the many downhill bends and bit the dust.

And so it looked as though it would continue. Rossi was undoubtedly faster on most of the circuit than Gibernau but the Honda had just too much grunt for the Yamaha to beat. This showed most on the exit to the last corner as Gibernau extended a two or three bike lead each lap, only to have Rossi all over the back of the Honda before the halfway point. Which made Rossi's audacious overtake at the start of the penultimate lap all the more surprising. The next two laps were mayhem. Though Rossi's pace was staggering and he quickly opened a gap of nearly half a second, the Spaniard recovered well and by the time the last lap was underway was ready to counterattack. Rossi was running at the very limit of everything and as the Yamaha bucked and weaved under braking Gibernau saw his chance and slipped underneath to retake the lead. A couple of corners later Rossi returned the compliment but this time Gibernau was ready and had the ideal line for the next corner, forcing the Italian to yield. Approaching the final bend, both leaving their braking to the last possible picosecond, Gibernau appeared to stay a little wide. To a rider like Rossi, of course, this is the equivalent of sending a limousine to collect him and he immediately seized the opportunity. The Yamaha rider took the inside line, braking hard, and executed a perfect blocking pass. Perfect except that the two riders collided. Rossi looked as though he was going to come off but managed to recover and get round the corner, wheelying across the line to take the chequered flag. Gibernau had no choice but to pick the Honda up and take to the gravel. Fortunately he remained upright and, thanks to the huge gulf between the leaders and third place, was able to cross the line without dropping another position.

Further down the field, Marco Melandri was riding a lonely but faultless race to take a well deserved first podium. Alex Barros, having started poorly, finally got the better of his team-mate Bayliss and fellow Honda pilot Makoto Tamada as well as passing Shinya Nakano to take a hard fought fourth. The Kawasaki rider was fifth with Bayliss just behind, giving some idea of just what he may be capable of once he gets used to a bike that isn't trying to kill him. Max Biaggi salvaged something from the weekend, dragging himself up to seventh place ahead of Tamada, his team-mate from last year. Colin Edwards was reeling Tamada in when he ran out of laps. Ninth place isn't bad but hopefully we'll see more from the Texas Tornado as the season moves on. Rounding out the top ten, Carlos Checa stayed on the Ducati and rode a solid though uninspiring race.

Loris Capirossi dropped back as the pain from his ankle got in the way of his riding. A brave effort nonetheless. Kenny Roberts Jnr retired with an electrical problem while his flu ridden team-mate limped home fourteenth. Toni Elias, in his first ever MotoGP race, finished a creditable twelfth while James Ellison brought the Blata WCM machine home sixteenth. Fellow Brit Shakey Byrne failed to finish with mechanical gremlins but remained upbeat about the rest of the season, quipping that it couldn't really get much worse.

So there we are. First blood to Yamaha and Rossi. A controversial race and something that won't do anything to calm the already simmering dislike between Rossi and Gibernau following the Honda protest in Qatar last year that saw Rossi relegated to the back of the grid. Before the race Rossi was complaining that he may be struggling for motivation. Maybe opening an intense personal feud with his closest rival is a way of getting that motivation back?

Results

1 V Rossi, Yamaha
2 S Gibernau, Honda
3 M Melandri, Honda
4 A Barros, Honda
5 S Nakano, Kawasaki
6 T Bayliss, Honda
7 M Biaggi, Honda
8 M Tamada, Honda
9 C Edwards, Honda
10 C Checa, Ducati

Championship Standing after 1 round

25 V Rossi
20 S Gibernau
16 M Melandri
13 A Barros
11 S Nakano
10 T Bayliss
9 M Biaggi
8 M Tamada
7 C Edwards
6 C Checa