A dramatic race at Motegi in Japan saw Loris Capirossi emerge as the victor, after a tough battle with Max Biaggi, who finished second. Makoto Tamada was third.

But the real story of the race occurred about halfway through it, when World Champion Valentino Rossi, braked too late, clashed with Marco Melandri and both riders went into the gravel. That was the end of Rossi’s chances of wrapping up the 2005 championship in Japan.

Gibernau, Barros, Rolfo and Hofmann also failed to finish. In fact only 11 riders did complete this dramatic race. Britain’s James Ellison did not start the GP, due to an injury.

A great win for Capirossi, who set the fastest qualifying time yesterday, held off strong challenges from Melandri, then Biaggi, to finally cross the line after 24 laps, taking his first victory of 2005. Capirossi has already announced he is staying with Ducati for 2006, so there may be more wins yet for the Italian.

Next round is Sepang in Malaysia, where Rossi is expected to score enough points to effectively take the 2005 MotoGP title.

(this article was taken from insidebikes.com)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2005 at 10:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

A dramatic race at Motegi in Japan saw Loris Capirossi emerge as the victor, after a tough battle with Max Biaggi, who finished second. Makoto Tamada was third.

But the real story of the race occurred about halfway through it, when World Champion Valentino Rossi, braked too late, clashed with Marco Melandri and both riders went into the gravel. That was the end of Rossi’s chances of wrapping up the 2005 championship in Japan.

Gibernau, Barros, Rolfo and Hofmann also failed to finish. In fact only 11 riders did complete this dramatic race. Britain’s James Ellison did not start the GP, due to an injury.

A great win for Capirossi, who set the fastest qualifying time yesterday, held off strong challenges from Melandri, then Biaggi, to finally cross the line after 24 laps, taking his first victory of 2005. Capirossi has already announced he is staying with Ducati for 2006, so there may be more wins yet for the Italian.

Next round is Sepang in Malaysia, where Rossi is expected to score enough points to effectively take the 2005 MotoGP title.

(this article was taken from insidebikes.com)

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2005 at 10:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.