Report. 2003 season review

Repsol riders finish a succesful 2003 season
Title for Valentino Rossi in MotoGP, title for Dani Pedrosa in 125 GP, and title for the Repsol Honda Team in the teams’ championship
This has been with no doubt a good year for the Repsol riders at the Motorcycle World Championship. In the MotoGP class, the Repsol Honda Team has excelled by far the expectations set in the team and its riders. The result of the excellent 2003 season has been Valentino Rossi’s World Championship title, a fifth overall place for Nicky Hayden in his rookie year in the MotoGP class and, as the finishing flourish, the team’s world championship. Valentino Rossi started the 2003 season in Japan just like he finished it, winning and without leaving any chance for his rivals. His figures are a proof of both the Repsol rider’s and his team’s superiority, with nine victories, five runner-ups and two third places. In short, Valentino has been on the podium throughout the season. After a strong beginning of the 2003 World Championship, Valentino had a light performance drop after the Catalunya Grand Prix and was overtaken twice by Sete Gibernau and once by Biaggi, turning the alarm lights of the Repsol Honda team on. However, after the summer break, Rossi reacted clinching three victories in a row in the Czech Republic, Portugal and Brazil, thus engaging top gear towards the MotoGP title.His teammate Nicky Hayden, in his first year in the championship after winning the AMA Championship in the USA the year before, made a brilliant 2003 season. His preseason was not easy at all, setting discrete times, far behind of those set by his teammate. But the Repsol rider didn’t give up and kept on working methodically and with firm consistency, leading him to start the second half of the season having already the podium in mind. And the podium finally arrived, although not the way he wanted, because at the Pacific Grand Prix, Hayden moved up from fourth to third after Tamada’s disqualification due to an incident with Gibernau. But as he explained, his aim was to achieve a real podium, on the track. So at the Australian Grand Prix and after an intense fight with much more experienced riders such as Gibernau, Ukawa and Checa, the Kentucky-born rider clinched his first podium in the class. His good job in the second half of the season has turned him into one of the riders to be taken into account in a near future. His final fifth place in his first season is good evidence.In addition to the success of both riders of the Repsol Honda Team, the team as such has also been able to win the Teams’ World Championship title. The Repsol Honda Team took the lead of the standings from the first race and has not left the top place until the end of the 2003 season. It was always followed by the Camel Pramac Honda Pons team, that finally became runner-up. The Repsol Honda Team has scored a total 487 points, exactly 136 points over the second classified team. Of the sixteen races staged, the Repsol Honda Team has been the team scoring more points by both team riders at races, namely ten. This has been with no doubt an excellent season for the Repsol Honda Team.In the quarter of a litre class, the season began with problems for Jorge Martínez ‘Aspar’s’ pupils, Fonsi Nieto and Toni Elias. But despite the difficulties, Elias clinched in his second season in the class an exciting victory at the Spanish GP and was very close to the title after his five victories of the season. Unfortunately, he lost his title options after the crash suffered at the Brazilian GP, and the title went finally to the San Marino rider Manuel Poggiali. Elias finished third in the overall standings, behind Roberto Rolfo. The 2003 season has been especially difficult for Fonsi Nieto: despite stepping six times on the podium, he only took one victory and one pole, both at the British GP. He finished fifth in the overall standings. Héctor Faubel and Joan Olivé made their best race of the season at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Aspar’s pupils finished sixth and seventh respectively. This was the first season in the 250 GP for Joan Olivé, who had to focus on a difficult adaptation process after the change of class and make. Olivé was not able to repeat the podium finish he managed to take last year in Assen in the 125cc and finally finished twelfth overall while Héctor Faubel was thirteenth. The Argentinean Sebastián Porto, whose main aim at the beginning of the season had been a podium finish, was not able to make his dream come true due to several difficulties. Porto took the pole at the German Grand Prix this year and finished the season in eighth position.In the 125GP Dani Pedrosa, under the guidance of Alberto Puig, was crowned world champion at the Malaysian Grand Prix with two races left for the end of the season after taking 5 victories and 6 podium finishes. Pedrosa arrived in Japan as a firm candidate for the title and from the second race of the season – in South Africa, where he qualified first – he showed that he was ready to fight for the title. The successive victories in France, Catalunya, the Czech Republic and Malaysia confirmed the spectacular development of the Spanish rider, who finally took a well-deserved title. Pablo Nieto, in the team managed by Jorge Martínez ‘Aspar’ in the minor category of the championship, took the first victory of his sports career at the Portugal GP. However this has been a good year for the Spanish rider who finished the season seventh overall with a total two pole positions, one second and one third place. Héctor Barberá, Pablo Nieto’s teammate with the Aspar structure, has been the season’s revelation in the eighth of a litre class. Barberá who had already been the fastest Repsol rider at the preseason IRTA tests in Jerez and at the young age of sixteen, managed to take in his second season in the class, two victories and five podium finishes, that gave him the final third position in the overall standings.