MotoGP Race Results

2005 British Grand Prix, Donington Park

2005 MotoGP, British Grand Prix, Donington Park

Valentino Rossi took victory today in one of the most accident-strewn races in MotoGP history to seal his seventh win of the season at the British Grand Prix at Donington Park.

With torrential rain throughout the day leaving several centimeters of standing water on the track, Rossi was one of only ten riders to stay on two wheels throughout the race, although he had to avoid several scares before eventually taking both Kenny Roberts and Alex Barros with a breathtaking surge to victory seven laps from the end.

“That was one of the most difficult races of my career – the conditions were incredible,” reflected Rossi, who crossed the line imitating a violin player by way of celebration. “It was very, very cold and the track was very slippery".

"Today was not like riding a bike, it was like a boat because there was a lot of water between the wheels and the track – always spinning the rear and locking the front. I tried to understand the points where I could push more and said: ‘Now I try and we see what happens.’ I was able to go a lot faster and keep the advantage. It was a great job by the team because the bike worked well even though we only had 20 minutes this morning. I did the violin celebration because after my pole lap yesterday I decided it was a fine art – like the violin!”.

Second place for Roberts represented a first podium for the former World Champion and his Suzuki team since Rio in 2002, while Honda’s Alex Barros was able to celebrate his 250th Grand Prix appearance in style by joining the rostrum in third place. However, the biggest celebrations in the paddock took place at Yamaha, where Rossi’s team-mate Colin Edwards picked up fourth place to move ahead of Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau into third in the championship, just one point behind Marco Melandri in second.

The race started inauspiciously when the starting lights failed to turn red. Perhaps the ghost of J. Lucas? In the mess of rain, pit crews scrambled to restart the bikes, and one lap was eliminated from the race to account for the second sighting lap.

Rossi had one of his patented bad starts, this time ending up 7th by the first turn, as rider after rider passed him like he had an anchor dragging. But their haste was in vain -- Biaggi was out within the first couple of turns, then the race proceeded to be an endurance rally with only a handful of riders left at the end.

In addition to Biaggi, victims of the roller bearing surface included Xaus, Hayden, Ellison, Hopkins (who came back in and finished two laps down), Byrne and Nakano. Another dangerous-looking crash on lap 4 took out Melandri and Bayliss, with Bayliss running over Melandri's sliding body in a scary moment. Both riders appeared unhurt.

Gibernau took off like a shot, but as usually happens in these conditions, anyone traveling that much faster than the rest of the pack is likely to be going way too fast for conditions, and Gibernau also fell victim to the sloppy conditions.

It was so bad at times that several riders had their legs out for support in the turns, a method normally seen only in dirt track racing. But by lap 25 of the 29 lap shortened race, it was Rossi, Barros and Roberts battling for the podium with a 1.5 second spread, with Edwards not far behind. Somehow, Rossi started lapping in the 1.45's, and ended up with a comfortable lead over the rest.

Roberts and Barros battled up the the penultimate corner, where Roberts took the lead and finished second. Roberts is a good rain rider, and this was his first podium of the season. He was visibly happy.