MUGELLO, Italy, 7 June 2004 — Home favorite Valentino Rossi mastered championship leader Sete Gibernau and the weather to win a rain-interrupted MotoGP race at the Italian Grand Prix yesterday.
The victory was the five-time world champion’s third in a row at Mugello and helped him close the gap on Honda’s Gibernau, who was second. Italy’s Max Biaggi was third, also on a Honda.
Gibernau leads the championship on 86 points, 10 more than Yamaha-riding Rossi, who has moved ahead of Biaggi (72 points).
Rossi’s victory, on a Yamaha, also ended Honda’s 11-year stranglehold on the Italian title.
“It was an incredible race, and an incredible feeling to win in front of all these fans,” Rossi said.
“It was like I had to win two races — one in the dry, then in the wet.”
Rossi made a superb start from third on the grid, reaching the opening corner first ahead of Biaggi and Ducati’s Loris Capirossi.
Briefly, the home fans were tantalized with the possibility of a repeat of last year’s clean sweep, when Rossi led Capirossi and Biaggi across the line, but Capirossi, who has struggled with Ducati’s new bike, dropped off the pace.
Pole-sitter Gibernau, who had won the previous two rounds in Spain and France, made a poor start, falling back to eighth before working his way through the field.
On the seventh lap he squeezed past third-placed Biaggi on the tight right-hand bend at the end of Mugello’s long straight.
His progress to the front, however, was hampered by inspired riding from Makoto Tamada until mechanical failure forced the Japanese rider to retire on lap 13.
With six of the 23 laps remaining, rain forced the race to be restarted.
It nearly produced an upset when, with three laps to go, unfancied Ducati rider Ruben Xaus led former world superbike champion Troy Bayliss and Honda’s Alex Barros.
Rossi, however, regained the lead as Gibernau got stuck behind Bayliss. The Spaniard, a wet-weather specialist, snatched second on the penultimate lap but by then Rossi had built up a one-second cushion.
Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano escaped serious injury when his tire blew halfway down the straight on lap 12, bucking him off the bike at around 300kph.
Argentina’s Sebastian Porto held off the challenge of championship leader Randy De Puniet and Spain’s Daniel Pedrosa to grab his second career win in the 250cc race.
In the 125cc category, home rider Roberto Locatelli recorded his first win in nearly four years to slash Andrea Dovizioso’s lead by 12 points.
Dovizioso, who finished the race in fourth, has 76 points, three more than Locatelli.
