The Australian GP has been today the scenery of an incredible battle between Sete Gibernau and Valentino Rossi.

After a good weekend, the Spaniard started from the pole and le

d the race for the first part until he made himself overtake in order to study the Italian rider. Unfortunatly a problem at the gas throttle hasn’t allowed Sete Gibernau to do his race. The last lap has been decisive, an incredible duel that finished with Sete Gibernau second at only 0.097 from the leader Valentino Rossi.

With this result, Sete Gibernau is World Vice Champion for the second time, always with Team Telefonica MoviStar Honda.

A good race also for Sete’s team mate Colin Edwards, who after taking the start from the second row, rode aggressively and finished fourth.

SETE GIBERNAU

(2° at 0.097): “After two positive practice sessions, today the bike had a problem at the gas throttle and I struggled for the whole race around this problem. I had to anticipate what was happening with the throttle so I couldn’t focus only on pushing hard to win the race. I started leading the race but then I let Valentino overtake me because I wanted to study him and see where I could gain some tenths. The last lap was an incredible battle between me and Valentino. I’m disappointed more because of this problem that didn’t allow me to race as I wanted. Anyway, races are like this. We showed once again to be very competitive and we have given an incredible show, as we have done all along the season.” 

COLIN EDWARDS

(4° at 10.817): “the bike was feeling good and with my team we have done a fìgreat job. I had not a great start and I struggled a bit in the first laps because the rhythm was too slow. I recovered some positions and could pass Bayliss and Biaggi. At the last corner Barros made a mistake so I overtook him but I couldn’t catch Capirossi because the gap between us was too much. All in all I’m happy with this result and  it was a good race.”

FAUSTO GRESINI

(Team manager): “Here we were concentrated on winning the race and this was our target. Sete’s second position is a great result that crowns him – for the second time – World Vice Champion. My compliments to Sete, he has done a great season. Now we want to analyse the whole championship in order to improve for the next year. My compliments also to Colin Edwards, he has done a good race finishing forth”.   

AUSTRALIAN GP

1. Valentino Rossi (Ita/Yamaha) 41’25.819

2. Sete Gibernau (Sp/Honda) at 0.097

3. Loris Capirossi (Ita/Ducati) at 10.486

4. Colin Edwards (USA/Honda) at 10.817

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

1. Valentino Rossi (Ita/Yamaha) 279 p.

2. Sete Gibernau (Sp/Honda) 244 p.

3. Max Biaggi (Ita /Honda) 197 p.

4. Alex Barros (BR/Honda) 155 p.

5. Colin Edwards (USA/Honda) 149 p.