Sebastián Porto´s, second place in the 250 allows him to keep his title aspirations.
Hayden fourth and Barros ninth in MotoGP; Fonsi Nieto fifth in the 250cc and Pablo Nieto crashed in the first lap of the 125cc.
The morning was not really inviting for motorbike racing: dark clouds, low temperatures, rain and wind were the protagonists at the British circuit in Donington. The warm-up of the three classes was carried out under wet conditions causing several problems for technicians and riders to find a good rain set-up. Fortunately the strong wind took away the black clouds and the threatening rain was nothing more than an anecdote. Some drops fell during the second part of the MotoGP race but eventually it was possible to finish the event under normal conditions. The race of the premier class started with a surprising Loris Capirossi in the lead, followed by Rossi, Gibernau, Bayliss, Edwards and Biaggi. The riders of the Repsol Honda Team did not make a good start, which set them back for the rest of the race. Hayden was eighth and Barros ninth after the first lap, and the fast pace set by the leading group hindered them both from catching up with the lead. Hayden was able to move forward, overtaking Bayliss, Capirossi, Biaggi and Checa, managing to finish fourth. His teammate Barros seemed to be able to follow Haydens trail but problems with the settings of his bike made him loose several positions until crossing the finish line in a back ninth position. Rookie Rubén Xaus, had again a good performance. He was tenth after the first lap and spent the whole race fighting for the place against Roberts, Abe, Hopkins and Hodgson, finally taking the chequered flag in eleventh place. Winner of the race was the current World Champion Valentino Rossi.
The 250cc race was very similar to that in Germany one week ago: Pedrosa took the lead right after the start pushing very hard, Porto was the only rider able to follow him during the first laps and both escaped quickly from the rest of the pack. Bit by bit, the advantage of the Honda rider was getting bigger until reaching almost 8 seconds over the Argentinean Repsol rider. Behind those two riders, the fight for the third place didnt have many protagonists either: Fonsi Nieto tried to stay third after his excellent start but De Puniet overtook him and escaped in solitaire until taking the chequered flag. Behind the French rider, Fonsi Nieto, De Angelis and Elias fought for the fourth place until the last of them had to retire due to mechanical problems. De Angelis finally managed to escape from Nieto and took the fourth place, with Fonsi fifth and West sixth.
The race of the 125cc class was not a long story for Pablo Nieto who, after a good start moving up to seventh at the end of the straight, crashed in the first left-hand corner after the rear tyre of his Aprilia suddenly skidded hard making him loose control over the bike. Despite it being a light crash, Nieto was forced to retire. His teammate Sergio Gadea, was thirtieth after the first laps but managed to regain positions finally finishing sixteenth, one place behind the scoring positions. Winner of the race was the leader of the World Championship, the Italian Andrea Dovizioso.
