BARCELONA, 14 June 2004 — World champion Valentino Rossi used every ounce of his expertise to edge out title rival Sete Gibernau and win a breathless battle for victory in the Catalan MotoGP race yesterday.
The Yamaha rider, who won his home grand prix in Italy last weekend, snatched the lead from Gibernau with just under two laps to go to claim his second win in a row and his third of the season.
Fellow Italian and former 250cc world champion Marco Melandri, also riding a Yamaha, crossed the line in third to take his first podium since moving up to the MotoGP class, while Rossi’s Spanish teammate Carlos Checa finished fourth.
Gibernau, who won at both Jerez and Le Mans earlier in the season, retains the lead in the world championship with 106 points from five races, but Rossi is now just five behind in second.
Fellow Italian Max Biaggi, who finished in eighth place, is third in the standings on 80 points and Checa is fourth on 49.
Rossi, who appeared in confident mood after his masterful win at Mugello last weekend, was fastest off the grid, leading Gibernau and Biaggi into the first corner of the 4.7-km Circuit de Catalunya. But Gibernau, who set a scorching pace in qualifying to post a new lap record and claim his third successive pole position, slipped past on the inside to take the lead on the second lap when Rossi was forced wide into a corner after a wobble.
The leading duo, who had shared out the spoils in all four of the previous rounds of the championship, proceeded to pull away from the rest of the field, leaving Melandri, Biaggi, Makoto Tamada and Checa trailing in their wake.
