Results Spanish Grand Prix At Jerez

[Andy]

Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) won this Spanish Grand

Prix from Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) with

Colin Edwards (Yamaha) third. In front of a

passionate 138,000 crowd in perfect racing

conditions, this race was never quite as close as

the tight-fought qualifying session promised it might be.

Dani hit turn one in the lead from pole with

Rossi right on his rear tyre and Edwards just

behind. With track temperature at 31 degrees and

with a 19 degree ambient temperature the

atmosphere was set for a close contest.

Especially when Rossi slipped past Dani at the first hairpin to take the lead.

Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) was up to

fourth after starting from 11th on the grid with

Casey Stoner (Ducati) in fifth ahead of Carlos

Checa (LCR Honda RC212V) and John Hopkins

(Suzuki) in seventh ahead of Marco Melandri

(Gresini Honda RC212V) and Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V).

Hopkins set an early race fastest lap of 1m

40.938s as he moved up to fifth place, while

Stoner dropped back and Melandri charged up to

seventh. Dani was hanging onto Rossi comfortably

at this stage even though the Italian had set a new fastest lap on lap five.

As Dani kept in touch with Rossi, Edwards dropped

off the pace and by lap 11 Rossi led Dani by 0.75

seconds while the pair enjoyed a 1.1 second

cushion over Edwards who led Nicky and Hopkins by

2.5 seconds. Melandri was now sixth and Elias seventh.

The leaders would not switch position now until

after the flag, but at mid-race distance there

was still plenty of action to unfold behind the

podium places. Hopkins fell while holding fourth

place on lap 17. This elevated the flying Elias

from fifth. Hayden had now slipped back to seventh.

Dani pressed on after Rossi but the Italian was

in control here. His team-mate Edwards couldn