1996
Mick Doohan and Alex Crivillé were the big protagonists of the season. They both kept an intense fight throughout the season that ended up eclipsing the other participants. A duel, where the Number One took his third championship title in a row, whilst the Spanish rider had to settle for runner-up. Tadayuki Okada finished seventh and Shinichi Itoh twelfth that season. Spectacular debut of the Honda V2 in Malaysia, with Okada setting the first pole for a twin-cylinder bike in 21 years. He would lead half of the race until his own impetuosity took him to the gravel, just as team-mates Itoh and Criville who had to undergo surgery on his hand. Only five days later, the Spaniard was back on his bike at the Indonesian Grand Prix.
1997
Mick Doohan was 12 times on the highest step of the podium in a season where neither the Australian (12 out of 15) nor Honda (15 out of 15) left any chance to their rivals. Riders of the Repsol Honda Team took all of the podium steps at four events: Japan, Spain, Germany and Indonesia. Tadayuki Okada surprised everybody with the speed of the four-cylinder bike setting three consecutive poles at the three first races of the Championship, becoming runner-up of the premier class at the end of the year. Alex Crivillé had to settle for the overall fourth place, since after good start of the season, he suffered a serious crash in Assen, hurting his left hand. The injury kept him away from the racing tracks for five races, until the Czech Grand Prix. The fourth rider of the Repsol Honda Team, Japanese Takuma Aoki, took a meritorious fifth position on the V2 in his first season in the championship.
1998
While he was conquering titles, Mick Doohan was becoming a legend of motorcycling. The Australian was crowned Champion in Australia, in front of his fans and with one race left for the end of the season. A crash at the Catalan GP, with three races left for the end of the season left Alex Crivillé out of the fight for the title, having to settle for the third overall position after loosing his second place in the last race on Biaggi. Tadayuki Okada, who missed three races after breaking his wrist at the practice session of the Italian Grand Prix, finished eighth overall, while the new rider of the Repsol Honda Team, Sete Gibernau, finished eleventh. Gibernau, in charge of the evolution of the V2, was rewarded for his efforts with a podium finish at the Jarama Circuit.
1999
Good and bad for the knights of the Repsol Honda Team. At the Spanish Grand Prix, five-times World Champion Doohan was unconscious after the serious crash suffered during the practices, forcing him to miss the rest of the season and to finally announce his retirement as a rider. Alex Crivillé climbed onto the highest step of the podium in that same race, and from then on took one good result after the other thus managing to clinch the World Championship in Brazil. The race in Catalunya was an anthological race with victory for Crivillé, second Okada and third Sete Gibernau. Okada, rather irregular at the beginning but with good results at the end of the season, finished third overall. Gibernau, who had started riding the V2 and finished on the V4 after Doohans injury managed to get on the podium on two consecutive races, and then again at the South African GP, finishing fifth overall.
2000
An especially hard year for the Repsol Honda Team. Doohans retirement after the previous season, evident problems with the Honda machines and more than average results of the riders made the 2000 season become a season of transition. Never before had Alex Crivillé had such a difficult start. In addition to the physical problems that ruined his preseason, he had technical problems, taking the reigning world champion to a total discouragement. A victory in Le Mans, nine non-scorers, fourteen crashes and the ninth final overall place were the result of a season to forget. The results of Tadayuki Okada werent better either and he finished the season eleventh overall. He got on the podium once, at the Japanese Grand Prix in his final season at the World Championship. Despite the hopes set on Sete Gibernau, after his fifth overall place at the end of the previous season and a pole position in the first race of the season, the Spanish rider was not able to get better than a fifteenth overall place in the Championship.
2001
If the 2000 season had been a season to forget, the 2001 wasnt much better. Two podium finishes for Alex Criville (a second place in Brno and a third place in Jerez) and one for his new team-mate Tohru Ukawa (third in South Africa) were the only ones of the season. The Spanish rider fought hard as always and despite the problems, he managed to get good results until the German Grand Prix were he suffered two very strong crashes that affected him both physically and mentally. Things were not working out well and despite the second place in Brno, he finished the championship in eighth place. Finally, he announced his decision to retire before the start of the new season. Things didnt work out well for Ukawa, second rider of the team, either. A pole position, the only one of the team, and a podium finish were his best results after the first season in the premier class.
2002
In the debut year of the new MotoGP class, there was a rider who had managed to filled the gap left by Doohan: Valentino Rossi. The Italian rider and the Honda RC211V showed themselves relentless and swept away everything they found on their way until becoming world champions with four races left for the end of the season. The Italian set spectacular figures: seven poles and only one non-scoring race, in the remaining races he took eleven victories and four second places. The superiority shown by the Repsol Honda Team was underlined with Ukawas good results, who, with one victory and eight podium finishes, finished third overall. The incredible dominance of the Italian rider was only broken when, after Rossi had already been crowned champion, Alex Barros got the RC211V in Motegi. It was a contended and spectacular end of the season, but the World Championship title had already an owner: Valentino Rossi.
2003
The year began with a clear favourite to revalidate the world championship title: Valentino Rossi. The Italian rider, who once again showed his unquestionable superiority, became World Champion for the third time in a row, without getting off the podium and with two races left for the end of the season, having an advantage of 80 points over the runner-up, Sete Gibernau. Despite Rossis dominance, the 2003 season was very exciting and contended, but the Italian knew how to set the differences in key moments. The second rider of the Repsol Honda Team, North American Nicky Hayden, made an excellent season in his championship debut year, finishing fifth overall. The rider from Kentucky had an extraordinary end of the season, getting on the podium twice. His perseverance and attitude to adapt to a totally unknown surrounding and competition made him become worthy of the 2003 Rookie of the Year award.
2004
In the 2004 season, the Repsol Honda Team celebrated ten years of success in the 500cc/MotoGP class, eight of which had been rounded up with the world class title. After Valentino Rossis departure, the team strengthened itself with Alex Barros. The experimented Brazilian rider, senior member of the grids, made a rather irregular season and stepped on the podium four times third in Jerez, Portugal and Malaysia and second in Germany- finishing fourth overall in the World Championship. Nicky Hayden continued with his learning process in the MotoGP class and managed to step on the podium two times in a row, with two third places in Rio and Germany. The Kentucky rider finished again fifth overall in the Championship after a season where he only left the top ten at the French GP.
2005
Max Biaggi and Nicky Hayden were in charge of trying to regain the title for the Repsol Honda Team in 2005, an aim that had not been possible to achieve in 2004. However, none of them was able to stop Valentino Rossis unstoppable race to the title, even though Nicky Hayden made an impressive second half of the season, with a victory in the World Championships comeback race in his home-country, the USA and five podium finishes, four of them in a row. The North American rider was the only one, together with Marco Melandri, able to keep Rossis pace in the last part of the season which was again dominated by the World Champion. Hayden finished third overall. Max Biaggi was fifth overall after getting four times on the podium: Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic and Japan.
