Last year at Catalunya

Last year at Catalunya

Loris Capirossi took an historic victory for Ducati at Catalunya last season in what was just the sixth race of their debut MotoGP campaign. Capirossi made history after race leader Valentino Rossi made two mistakes in the same lap, running his Honda off track to leave his fellow Italian with a clear lead.

Rossi dropped back to sixth before launching back in fine style with two fastest laps on his way past Shinya Nakano, Carlos Checa, Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau to capture second place and the lap record inside seven laps. So rattled was Biaggi at his fierce rival's repost that he promptly ran off the circuit himself and crashed while in fourth.

Gibernau could not threaten the Italian domination at the front but took his third podium of the season to consolidate second place, although he still lay 47 points adrift of series leader Rossi.