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But as Hayden watched his points lead shrink to 12 points over his nearest challenger Rossi, Honda clinched both the Constructors’ World Championship and the Team prize via the Repsol Honda outfit. With two rounds to go Honda cannot be caught, but with a further 50 points up for grabs in the Riders’ series Hayden is now under acute pressure.

Capirossi stole into the lead into turn one at the lights with Melandri Marco close enough to him to edge past only to be re-passed by the Ducati man on that opening lap. Rossi lay third, with Sete Gibernau (Ducati) fourth, Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki) fifth and Casey Stoner (LCR Honda RC211V) sixth.

Stoner was flying and moved up to fourth on lap two setting an early fastest lap of this 24-lap race of 1m 47.910s. Capirossi responded immediately on lap three to record a 1m 47.797s time. Then it was Melandri’s turn on lap four with a 1m 47.552s lap. The pace would get hotter still.

Hayden had suffered a poor start and the Kentucky Kid was labouring in seventh place on lap six. Capirossi, Melandri and Rossi had separated from Stoner in fourth and Gibernau in fifth by lap seven. The gap to Stoner was 2.3 seconds, when Gibernau relieved Casey of fourth.

By mid-race distance the leading trio had put four seconds between themselves and Gibernau. But of more significance was the advantage Capirossi was pulling out over Melandri and Rossi ­ one second and rising. Stoner had now dropped down the order to eighth.

Casey couldn’t hold it either and crashed out of that position on lap 13 while Capirossi worked on stretching his lead even further. Rossi had now pounced on Marco for second and he then applied pressure on Capirossi. The Ducati man responded by working even harder on attacking the closing laps of this punishing track.

Hayden was trying desperately to reel in Nakano for fifth place and the gap stood at one second in the closing stages. Capirossi was a full 2.2 seconds ahead of Rossi and Melandri was not making any impression on the second-placed Yamaha man either.

This looked like the order the flagman would see as the final lap began but Nakano would crash at the bottom of the hill after running into the back of Gibernau’s machine in a last gasp bid to wrest fourth place from the Spaniard. Gibernau stayed on to secure that place, while Nicky inherited fifth from the over-ambitious Nakano.

Capirossi took the flag by a full five seconds in front of a 63,000 crowd here, with Rossi a clinical second and Melandri a valiant third. The World Championship lead is still Nicky’s with 236 accruing to the American Honda man. But Rossi now has 224 and Melandri 209. Capirossi sits fourth with 205.

The Constructors’ Championship is now Honda’s. The factory has amassed 319 points to Yamaha’s 262, with Ducati third on 218 points. Repsol Honda has won the Teams’ prize with 438 points to Camel Yamaha’s 328, with Ducati again third on 307.

Marco said, “It’s nice to be on the podium at Honda’s home race and I’m happy to have given them the Constructors’ title. Today the pace set by Loris was extremely fast but the balance of my bike was also good and the tyres worked really well. After a tough warm-up, when we struggled a little to get the right feeling with a harder rear tyre, I went for slightly softer rubber for the race. At the start I felt I had the pace to lead the race because the feeling with the bike and tyres was perfect. Then when the tyres started to go off I first took some risks to maintain my position but then I decided not to take any further risks and to bring it home in third place.”

Hayden said, “Well that’s another fifth place which isn’t great obviously. Lap one was pretty wild and luckily in the first couple of corners I made up a lot of positions because my start was a bit of a disaster ­ that was the worst part of the race for me. Luckily that first lap turned out as good as it did because otherwise the result could have been much worse. I tried to come through the pack but it’s hard ­ you’re coming past fast guys and in this class it’s really tough. Luckily we’ve got a couple of days here to test now.”

Toni Elias (Fortuna Honda RC211V), who was sixth, said, “I’m happy with sixth place, even though I was hoping for better. I started well and tried to go with the leading group but it wasn’t possible because they had a pace that was a couple of tenths quicker than I was capable of. I got involved in the second group with Gibernau, Hayden and Nakano, focused on my rhythm and pushed as hard as I could, even though I was missing a little rear traction. Now I am looking forward to Portugal because we have taken another step forward here.”

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC211V) finished seventh, and said, “My race didn’t go well at the beginning. In the first left-hander Elias made a mistake, I was just behind and I couldn’t avoid him so I went off track. Everybody passed me, I was near the back of the field and I was making mistakes trying to pass people. My race pace was quite good but the problem was we didn’t manage to get this pace early in the practice sessions this weekend. I’m happy to have won the Rookie of the Year though because I got it in the 125cc and 250cc classes, so it’s nice to get it also in MotoGP.”

Ninth-placed finisher Kenny Roberts (Roberts KR211V) said, “Felt great this morning. Seems like when I get out on my own and get in my own rhythm and I don’t have to slam the brakes on or really accelerate hard, I’m OK. But when I’ve got to start doing that I start getting sucked in and it feels like I’m going to run into the back of people. And when I get on the gas at the same time I just spin, so it’s like I keep a certain distance and then I’m OK. It’s like I’m riding just too much corner speed. And we’ve been trying to fix that. That was obviously one of the things we were trying ­ to get more rear grip so I can avoid doing that.”

“I’m really sorry for my home race result,” said tenth-placed Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda RC211V). “I was competitive at the start and I made up some positions during the first lap. The feeling with my bike was better than yesterday but not sufficient to turn with the necessary pace to stay with the leading group. It’s very sad for me to race like this but the worst thing is that I have not found the way to overcome this situation yet.”

A dejected Stoner said, “For two laps from the start the bike felt OK, and I was up to fourth place after passing Gibernau. Unfortunately in the morning warm-up the team decided to put an extra turn of preload on the front and it was fine with a full load of fuel. But as the fuel went down I had no feeling at the front, the rear was lifting under the brakes and I was running wide. I’m disappointed, because since free practice 3, we had the perfect set-up and we didn’t need to change anything. I wasn’t happy with the race, I should have been able to run low 1’47s, and I really have no explanation for the crash, I don’t know what I did wrong.”

Hiro Aoyama (KTM) won the 23-lap 250cc race from Alex de Angelis (Aprilia) with series points leader Jorge Lorenzo (Aprilia) third. Andrea Dovizioso (Humangest Racing Honda RS250RW) could only manage fourth place after leading the early laps.

De Angelis got the holeshot off the line but was passed by Dovi later in the opening lap with Yuki Takahashi (Humangest Racing Honda RS250RW) third, Aoyama in fourth and Lorenzo at this stage a distant fifth by 1.5 seconds. He drifted further back further to 2.02 seconds by mid-race.

But Dovi had lost control of the race by this stage too. The Italian title challenger dropped to fourth as first de Angelis and then Aoyama took control at the front. The KTM rider set a fastest lap of 1m 52.800s as he piled on the pressure on his pursuers. Takahashi had by now fallen while holding third place.

Hiro Aoyama and de Angelis were comfortably clear of Lorenzo and Dovizioso at the flag with Roberto Locatelli in fifth and Shuhei Aoyama (Repsol Honda RS250RW) sixth. David de Gea, standing in for the injured Martin Cardenas, (Repsol Honda RS250RW) also fell without injury.

Dovi said, “This is bad luck. Yuki crashed out in front of me and I lost ground to Aoyama; he had a good rhythm and I wasn’t able to catch him afterwards. And at the end, also Lorenzo got close to me as his Aprilia was faster. I was losing on the straights and so I tried to attack in the braking points. Here it was important to gain points but we have lost them instead; 27 points is a big gap with only two races remaining. Yuki and I didn’t set any strategy as I think that it is right that both riders ride their own race and I want to win by myself without any help.”

“I’m very disappointed,” said Aoyama. “I made a good start, but as the first lap went by I lost several positions. The other riders managed to outbrake me in the corners and there was nothing I could do, then I would pass them back and wanted to push, but it was very difficult, the lap times were very similar. As the race went by the grip of the tyres was better and I was able to improve my times, but so did the others. I don’t really know the reason ­ but it’s sad.”

Takahashi said, “In the turn I crashed out and had suffered some problems in the previous laps too. I fell off because in the middle of the turn, when I shifted down, the engine was too powerful and I couldn’t avoid the crash. I’m really disappointed because this race was important for me in front of my supporters and also because I compromised Andrea’s result.”

Ratthapark Wilairot of the Thai Honda Castrol Endurance Team finished a creditable 10th. He said, “My aim was to finish within top five so I couldn’t achieve this goal but I am satisfied with the result. My start was not so bad but I couldn’t improve my pace. The second half was a fight under pressure to keep the position. I really enjoyed taking part in the race and want to thank Honda, Bridgestone, and all the other sponsors.”

The World Championship points table now shows Lorenzo leading with 265 points to Dovi’s 238 with de Angelis third on 187 points. Aprilia heads the Constructors’ Championship with 316 points to Honda’s 255.

RACE RESULTS