Photographs courtesy of Dorna - click to enlarge

After taking the win last time out at Brno, another circuit that he doesn't really like, Valentino Rossi didn't even have to stand on the top step of the podium in Japan in order to wrap up the championship for 2005. Which perhaps was just as well, as in free practice on Friday and Saturday his Yamaha was in far from dominant form. The Honda RCV211 certainly appeared to be the bike to have, with Barros and Hopkins topping the early timesheets, closely followed by Capirossi on the Ducati, and it was perhaps no coincidence that all three were on Bridgestone tyres, at a circuit where the company does the majority of it's testing. Saturday practice saw last year's winner Makoto Tamada on the Michelin-shod Honda move to the top of the lap charts, with Capirossi still snapping at his rear tyre, and at long last Rossi moving up to third fastest. Well, he doesn't like the circuit does he?

But qualifying is a different matter isn't it? And for Rossi it was a complete disaster!

With a third of the session gone, it was Capirossi in the lead, closely followed by Hayden, Roberts, Biaggi and Barros. But by the halfway stage Tamada had made good on his morning form and moved ahead of the small Italian. Rossi meantime was languishing down in 14th! Then it was the Bridgestone-shod Suzukis of Hopkins and Roberts in the lead briefly, until Capirossi bounced back with the first 1min 46sec lap of the weekend. Then, with four minutes to go Biaggi carved his way into second spot, but any hope of pole looked unlikely as Loris Capirossi responded by going even faster and taking 0.59 seconds off Tamada's 2004 pole record time. In the final minute Melandri edged-out Biaggi from second place, only to lose it immediately to a late charge from Hopkins on the Suzuki. But where was Vale? With eight minutes to go he was still only in eighth place, but then it all went wrong with a last minute tyre change and Rossi crossed the line for a final all-out attack just three seconds after the flag came out for the end of session. By the time the dust had died down and the watches had stopped, Rossi was only eleventh fastest and that would mean a fourth row start. Not good for settling the outcome of the 2005 MotoGP Championship, but it looked like it was going to be a great race for the spectators.

In the Sunday warm-up session, it was Capirossi who showed that qualifying wasn't going to be a one-off, and that he was seriously on the pace for the race itself. He was closely followed by Hopkins and Gibernau, up from a lowly seventh place in the qualifying session, but Rossi's fourth-fastest time showed that the reigning champion was going to be the one to watch.

Absent from the grid this weekend once again was Shane Byrne, following KTM pulling the plug on their engine/sponsorship deal with Kenny Roberts' team. Also missing, though this time due to injury, were Troy Bayliss, with his seat on the Camel Honda filled by Tohru Ukawa, and James Ellison out with an injured elbow from a testing accident after the last round at Brno

When the lights went out and the grid charged down to the first corner, it was Melandri who got the drop on his front-row colleagues, closely followed by Biaggi and Capirossi, with Hopkins slipping to fourth, ahead of Tamada and Hayden, and Gibernau holding his seventh grid position. Further back, Rossi was straight on to the attack and was up to seventh by the end of the end of the first lap and breathing down Gibernau's neck, passing him for sixth just after they crossed the line, while at the front Capirossi had passed Max Biaggi and was eyeing up Melandri. All this excitement was obviously too much for Naoki Matsudo, who managed to go straight on at the hairpin and drop the Moriwaki in the gravel before even getting to the end of the first lap, but he got back on the saddle and retired to the pits to have a good think. But he could take some comfort from the fact that he wasn't going to be the only retirement in what turned out to be almost a race of attrition.

Rossi was obviously in "hurry-up" mode, as he was straight past Hopkins on the Suzuki and looking hungrily at the back of Tamada's Honda before the second lap was half complete. At the front, Melandri had given himself a bit of breathing space from Capirossi, but Loris was obviously not going to let him get away, closing him right down by the end of the lap. Neither was Biaggi, holding a close third.

The next rider to go was Roberto Rolfo on the D'Antin Ducati who got collected by Alex Hoffman's Kawasaki, with both riders ending up in the gravel at the hairpin. Three laps - three down. Would the remaining seventeen make it to lap twenty four? - well, not all of them as it turned out. The third lap also saw Rossi pass Tamada and up into fourth place, while Capirossi again set the fastest lap as he got right up onto the back wheel of Melandri's Honda.

For the next few laps things were pretty static at the front, with the leading group of Melandri, Capirossi and Biaggi, then a gap that was slowly closing to Rossi and Tamada, who Valentino had failed to shake off after the pass, and the rest of the field gradually dropping away. However, Max was still very much in contention, showing Loris his front wheel on a number of occasions under braking for the corners. But dropping right out of the picture altogether was Tohru Ukawa, retiring the Camel Honda to the garage on lap five, but hopefully leaving it in a serviceable condition for Shakey Byrne to ride at the next round at Sepang. Then on lap nine the engine of the remaining Kawasaki of Shinya Nakano let go, denying him any possibility of a repeat of last year's podium finish. Five down - fifteen riders left on track.

Then on lap ten Capirossi mounted an attack on Melandri that oh so nearly came off, but he carried too much speed into the corner and got seriously squirrelly and out of shape, allowing Max on the Repsol Honda to breeze straight past him, into second spot and right onto Melandri's back wheel. It was all to do again for Loris, but he didn't take too long to get back up to speed and hooked onto the back of Biaggi's RCV211. Then it was Max's turn to go for the lead, on the brakes into the right-hander before the bridge. But once again, it was a case of too much corner speed and Marco was able to cut back inside and re-take the lead as Biaggi ran wide on the exit. Max wasn't giving up though, and for the next few corners Biaggi gave Melandri a good working over, finally getting past him and into the lead, and almost pulling Capirossi through behind him and into second spot. Something which he managed to achieve on his own a few corners later, dropping Melandri down from first to third in under half a lap.

Sete Gibernau's season got no better when he crashed out on lap eleven. It seems the only luck he's had this year is bad luck, but at least this time he wouldn't be able to blame it on the fuel - or lack of it! One lap later it was Barros' turn to taste the gravel.

Melandri's sudden demotion from first to third seemed to have an unsettling effect upon the rider, as he started to make some minor errors and running wide on a number of corners. Or maybe he was having problems with his tyres. Whatever it was, he was slowly coming in range of Rossi's Yamaha. Then, as Capirossi attempted to outbrake Biaggi and take the lead, Rossi tried a desperately late outbraking manoeuvre on Melandri that was never going to succeed. The result was that the M1 hit the right hand side of Marco's RCV211 as he turned into the apex to take the normal racing line. The Honda flipped and both bikes ended up in the gravel with Melandri clutching his right leg. As Marco was stretched off, Rossi was clearly upset by the accident that he knew he had caused.

Back on the track, Capirossi was crawling all over the back of Biaggi's Honda, and with six laps to go, he made the pass down the inside of the double apex right-hander, and then proceeded to put everything into getting clear air between the Ducati and the pursuing Honda. After two laps of intense he'd managed to take the gap out to one second, and that's the way it stayed until the chequered flag was waved at the end of twenty four laps. Behind them, Tamada took a lonely third and his first podium of 2005. while further back down the field, Colin Edwards recovered well after a dreadful start and managed to claw his way up to sixth behind Checa and John Hopkins. The last to finish of the twenty starters was Franco Battaini, one lap down in eleventh on the Blata WCM.

So with five races still to go, it would be a brave man - or woman - who would put money on Rossi not lifting the title for Yamaha for a second time. But there would be no home victory this time for the Japanese team. We'll just have to see what happens in a week's time at Sepang.

Results

1 L Capirossi, Ducati
2 M Biaggi, Honda
3 M Tamada, Honda
4 C Checa, Ducati
5 J Hopkins, Suzuki
6 C Edwards, Yamaha
7 N Hayden, Honda
8 K Roberts, Suzuki
9 T Elias, Yamaha
10 R Xaus, Yamaha
11 F Battaini, Blata

Championship Standing after 12 rounds

261 V Rossi
149 M Biaggi
133 C Edwards
126 M Melandri
121 N Hayden
117 L Capirossi
115 S Gibernau
114 A Barros
72 C Checa
69 S Nakano

DH