I watched the race on SpeedTV. I liked the race Capirossi ran and I think the Ducati will improve even more, which will make things interesting. Rossi made a mistake, getting off course while trying to stay wide of Capirossi in a curve. HOwever, he corrected that by not falling, maintaing control of the bike beautifully, getting back on track (after being deep in the gravel pit) even though at that point he was running 9th or so. THEN, the show began!!! One of the greatest, if not the greatest show of riding ability I have ever seen. Rossi was a maniac and was gaining more than ONE SECOND (even 1.5) per lap on Capirossi and the other leaders. He was running lap record times well after the time the commentators had said that tires were going to be shredded early because of the heat, and that it was impossible to run record times in that heat. He passed Checa and Nakano like they were on trikes. He passed GIbernau for second and at that point he was 3 seconds behind Capirossi (after being something like 18 seconds behind) with two laps to go, and even Rossi could not make that up, especially after Capirossi realized what was going on and pushed harder for the last two laps. BY then the bike was fishtailing all over the place under braking and was skidding (actually could see smoke a couple of times) in curves. I don't like Valentino Rossi in some ways, but right now he is by far the best rider there is on this planet. Anyone who saw the race and disputes that needs to have his eyes and head examined.
Giulio