An emotional Sete Gibernau held off a determined challenge from Valentino Rossi to secure his first MotoGP win just a week after his team-mate, Daijiro Kato, succumbed to the injuries he sustained in the opening round at Suzuka.

Everybody wanted him to win but nobody wanted to insult him or Kato's memory by gifting him the race which he won, fair and square, after forcing his way past early leader Troy Bayliss on lap ten.

The race start was delayed by 50 minutes after Kenny Robert's Suzuki grenaded in a very messy style during the warm-up lap, dumping a sumpful of oil around the track. Things got even messier when the flag dropped as Colin Edwards inexplicably lost control of his Aprilia and collided with John Hopkins before falling off and skittling through the pack towards the grass. Mercifully, nobody hit either the unfortunate Texan or his sliding bike although his violent evasive action resulted in Jeremy McWilliams taking a large mouthful of African soil as he slid to a halt, face down, on the grass. Edwards' team mate Nori Haga was also involved and left the track although he rejoined without further incident.

Troy Bayliss showed exactly what made him a world champion as he hustled the new Ducati, still in only its second competitive outing, to an early lead while the three Hondas of Gibernau, Rossi and Biaggi tripped each other up behind him. However, the punishing pace forced an error from the popular Australian on lap ten, allowing the hard charging Gibernau to slip through, closely followed by Biaggi. Rossi, who had started with a slightly harder tyre, initially had neither the grip nor the power to get past and for a while it looked as though we were going to see the rare sight of a rookie getting the better of an established champion, but then Rossi's combination of experience and racecraft came to the fore and he managed a neat overtake.

A few laps later and Rossi was past arch rival Biaggi who ran wide, letting the champion through on the inside, and it was a straight race to the line. With just five laps to go, Rossi was closing on Gibernau at a phenomenal rate but was unable to get close enough soon enough to make a realistic move on the Spaniard, who simply did not put a foot wrong all weekend.

After the race, which was preceded by a minute's silence, Gibernau had this to say:

"I don´t really have words to express what this means. There have been two sides to this weekend. One is dealing with the tragedy in Suzuka, where everybody, myself the team and the sport in general has been suffering. The other side is the sheer wave of support from sponsors, supporters and the team that made this weekend bearable. Motorcycling and Motorcycle racing is the winner today.
All the riders, not only myself, have made the best tribute we can give to Daijiro Kato.
I have to thank my family and the team, from the first person to the last. I am happy to win for them and Daijiro is someone we will carry in our hearts for all our lives.´

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