Cartoon: Fighting for second.
With Yamaha's Valentino Rossi having won five of the first six races of the 2005 MotoGP season, it's starting to look increasingly like the biggest battle in MotoGP this season won't be Rossi vs. Honda but Honda vs. Honda for second.
To their credit, HRC has again avoided adopting any form of team orders - resulting in some of the toughest conflicts seen so far this year being RCV-against-RCV.
With Yamaha's Valentino Rossi having won five of the first six races of the 2005 MotoGP season, it's starting to look increasingly like the biggest battle in MotoGP this season won't be Rossi vs. Honda but Honda vs. Honda for second.
To their credit, HRC has again avoided adopting any form of team orders - resulting in some of the toughest conflicts seen so far this year being RCV-against-RCV.
Sunday's Catalan Grand Prix was no exception, with the first 5 laps featuring a frantic fight for supremacy between Honda riders Gibernau, Melandri, Hayden, Barros, Tamada and Biaggi.
Rossi was also in the thick of the action on his lone YZR-M1, but somehow it seemed like he was simply waiting for his challenger to emerge from the melee:
This time it would be Gibernau, and the Catalan would pull away from the pack with Rossi right behind him... then be coolly overtaken by the world champion with three laps to go.
Illustration by Crash.net cartoonist Sprockett.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
