 One of things we have not seen for a long time was Valentino Rossi jumping like a kid after a victory. After first corner crash in Jerez and with only two points under his belt, Rossi was under great pressure to get good results in Qatar, and as we all saw he managed to handle it in to show to the rest of the field who is the boss in the paddock. Things were dramatic through whole Qatar event, with rookie Stoner having great results in all practice sessions, putting additional pressure to other riders.
Stoner started well from the pole position and got an early lead, followed by Hayden. Rossi had solid start and soon he was behind Hayden, overtaking him in lap 5, and started chasing Stoner who was still in the lead, with just over a second advantage. Stoner has ridden mature and stable, but Rossi was on his tail and managed to overtake him in lap 9. From there on, Rossi continued to lead race, trying to break from the rest of the field, but without much of a success. Meanwhile, Nicky Hayden got his rhythm and started chasing Stoner, finally getting in front of him in lap 11. Hayden then started chasing Rossi, following him on about half of a second distance, waiting for a chance to get in front of him. That chance came in lap 18, when he managed to get in front of Rossi, but this was only for a short time, before Rossi regained his first position and never let it go untill the end of the race. Hayden finished race in second place behind Rossi, leaving impression that he still did not get that edge needed to overtake in critical moments of the race.
Behing Rossi and Hayden, Stoner was going backwards, being overtaken first by Capirossi and then, three laps before end of the race, by Sete Gibernau. Capirossi was somehow managing to stay close to Rossi and Hayden, but it seems that he give all to do that, without any realistic chance to get in front of them. Anyway, he picked valuable championship points to stay first in championship. Sete Gibernau ended his bad luck period by finishing in credible fourth, ahead of Stoner. Stoner, despite not completely materializing his qualifying results into race results, had great race and shown mature ride, finishing in 5th place.
Not far down the field, great race long battle was led by Dani Pedrosa and fellow Honda riders Melandri and Elias. Battle was won by Pedrosa, who finished in 6th place, ahead of Melandri and Elias. Colin Edwards finished race in non-impressive 9th place, ahead of Kenny Roberts Jr.
Title of the crasher of the day goes to Kawasaki's Randy De Puniet, who crashed his Ninja ZX-RR before even finishing first lap. Some serious fairing bills are going to bother Herald Eckl this year...
Sight of John Hopkins kicking his Suzuki in anger was best description of the state in Suzuki garage. After Hopkins retired, he was followed to garage by team-mate Vermeulen, completing disaster in 'ever improving' Suzuki camp. Long time we didn't see rider kicking his bike like this, but it was worth waiting for...
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