No victories for the Repsol riders today.
Pablo Nieto, 3rd in the 125, achieves the best result. Porto and Nieto almost on the rostrum in the 250. Barros and Hayden retire in MotoGP.
The catalan GP finished with no victories for the Repsol riders after very good performances during the practices that had raised high expectations among all of them. 102,000 gathered in the Circuit de Catalunya and only in the 125cc race, the first of the races, Nieto managed to be really close to victory. The results of the rest of the riders were average. Porto and Nieto finished 4th and 5th in the 250cc without having the possibility to take part in the fight for the podium, and Hayden and Barros did not manage to finish in the MotoGP. The North American rider had to retire due to mechanical problems and the Brazilian crashed without physical consequences. The winners of the races were Héctor Barberá in the 125, Randy de Puniet in the 250 and Valentino Rossi in MotoGP.
The morning started however with brilliant performances thanks to a splendid 125 race with Spanish protagonists. Nieto started from the back but made up positions spectacularly. Despite being 17th after the first lap he caught-up with the leading group without making any mistake. In lap 17 of 22, he was already second fighting with Barberá, Locatelli, Lorenzo and Dovizioso for the lead. Locatelli’s crash left Nieto leading the race but an incredible end of the race with Barbera left him finally in third place 0.342 behind the rider from Valencia. In the overall standings, Nieto is fifth with 22 points.
De Puniet, Pedrosa and Elias escaped from the first laps in the 250 race. After the first lap Fonsi Nieto was fifth and Sebastián Porto seventh, but the differences with regard to the leading group were been insuperable all times. The Repsol riders have been riding together with Roberto Rolfo and Manuel Poggiali almost all the race until the Italians crashed out leaving the way free. Porto escaped riding alone on fourth place and finished in that position, while Fonsi finished fifth. Porto is third in the overall standings, 35 points behind the leader De Puniet and Fonsi is fourth.Bad result for the Repsol riders in the MotoGP class. Alex Barros crashed while being third and Hayden had to retire due to mechanical problems while he was ninth, fighting with Nakano and Roberts. The North American made a bad start, while Rubén Xaus managed to get an excellent result finishing sixth. In the overall standings Barros is fifth and Hayden tenth.The next round of the World Championship will be the Dutch GP in Assen on 24th to 26th June.
