Alex Barros and Sebastian Porto on the podium in Malaysia.
Barros third in MotoGP, his team-mate Hayden fourth and Porto second in the 250cc.
The fourteenth Grand Prix of the season was staged today and without hardly any time to rest, reflect or recover from the bruises of the event, the Repsol riders will take off for Australia to take part in the penultimate round of the 2004 World Championship. Under high temperatures and remarkable humidity, the race today was a huge resistance test for both bikes and riders on the Malaysian track of Sepang.
In the premier class, the victory was taken by the leader of the overall standings Valentino Rossi, whilst his direct rival for the title chase, Gibernau, crossed the finish line in a backwards seventh place. The Repsol riders had almost the chance to get both on the podium today, but it was finally Barros who managed to get on the third step, while his team-mate Nicky Hayden was fourth under the chequered flag. The race began with Barros leading the pack, closely followed by Rossi, Hayden, Biaggi, Gibernau and Checa. After a couple of laps Rossi overtook the rider of the Repsol Honda Team and changed the pace, thus splitting up the initial group into two smaller groups of three riders each: Rossi, Barros and Biaggi in the first and Hayden, Gibernau and Checa in the second. Biaggi overtook Barros and opened a gap, trying to get Rossi, so that the leading three were separated by a bit over one second between them. There were no further changes in the leading group from then on. In the back, Hayden was the fourth on a lonely ride, several seconds behind the leader and ahead of his followers, keeping the position until the finish line. Rubén Xaus, after starting from the fifteenth place of the starting grid, finished thirteenth riding all alone during most of the race as well.
In the 250cc class, Sebastián Porto was not able to hinder the victory of Dani Pedrosa, who took the lead right after the start and quickly opened a gap to the rest of the riders. Sebastián Porto, third after the first lap, behind Pedrosa and Elias, had an intense duel throughout the race with Toni Elias, finally managing to finish second and to keep mathematical possibilities to take the World Championship title. His team-mate Fonsi Nieto, who started from the second row with the seventh fastest time, finished the race eighth.
Pablo Nieto had little luck during the 125cc race, with mechanical problems before the race forcing him to start from the last position of the grid. Then, on the third lap of the race, he suffered a strong crash together with Perugini, fortunately without physical consequences. The accident happened after Simoncelli’s crash, whose bike was left on the racing line of Perugini and Pablo, making both riders crash in a rather spectacular way. Fortunately the Repsol rider suffered only some bruises and a strong blow on his right hand and his face, so there is no doubt about Pablo taking part in the Australian Grand Prix next weekend. His team-mate Sergio Gadea made a climbing race, constantly improving positions, and although having started from the twenty-third place of the grid, he managed to finish twelfth, scoring new and important points for the overall standings
