Photographs courtesy of Dorna and Suzuki- click to enlarge

Honda, and Camel Honda in particular, must be grinning like Cheshire cats this evening. Makoto Tamada, wild man that he is, came good in Rio and brought his yellow Honda home in first place, a massive 2 seconds ahead of team-mate Max Biaggi, with suddenly on form Nicky Hayden in third.

In fact this was a weekend for people and teams suddenly getting it together. Suzuki and Kenny Roberts Junior, so long the nearly men of MotoGP, astonished everyone by taking an emphatic pole position and utterly destroying the lap record. Suzuki said they had done some development work on the bike, and clearly it has paid off, breaking their drought of success and gaining their first pole since Valencia in 2000. It was also the first pole for Bridgestone tyres since they came into MotoGP a couple of seasons ago. Loris Capirossi made his best qualifying run of the season, putting him in sixth. Valentino Rossi struggled to get the Yamaha working properly on the Rio circuit, qualifying a lowly eighth ahead of Shinya Nakano on the Kawasaki.

When the lights changed, there was one thing that was certain. Whoever took the chequered flag first out of Rossi and Gibernau would be the new championship leader. Both riders went in with 126 points, enough to guarantee that nobody could pass them even in the unlikely event that neither of them finished. So when Rossi saw Gibernau disappear into the gravel after just one lap you'd think he would relax and just play for points, wouldn't you. Well, I would have done, but maybe that's why he is a multiple world champion and I'm a journalist. Anyway, the next few laps saw Rossi steadily progress up the field, seeming to use sheer willpower to force the recalcitrant Yamaha into doing what he wanted. And it worked, too, as he moved up from his poor starting position to a podium finish by the eigth lap. Then the unthinkable happened. On the thirteenth lap Rossi fell off. Now we're used to seieng the man go gardening occasionally, usually before a ridiculous burst of speed and style that puts everyone else on the grid to shame, but this was The Real Deal, and he wasn't about to remount the decidedly second hand looking Yamaha.

So that left a few interesting developments in the rest of the field. Roberts, after his brilliant qualifying, was unable to capitalise on his position and went steadily backwards through the field. Colin Edwards put in a steady performance to capture and hold 6th place while Troy Bayliss' miserable season continued with yet another crash from 13th position on the third lap. But the man on the move was Makoto Tamada, who carved his way through the field, edging past team-mate Biaggi with five laps to go and then pulling out a comfortable lead to take his debut win in style. Biaggi, who had lead from the second lap, took a solid second place to put him into easy striking distance of the lead, just 13 points behind Rossi and Gibernau. Nick Hayden, who hasn't really shone this season, was yet another success story from the USA this weekend. Maybe it's something to do with their 4th July celebrations. His first podium of the season brought him back into the top 10 for the first time in a while.

And what of the Brits? Jeremy McWilliams came in 14th on the ever improving Aprilia with team-mate Shane Byrne in 17th, immediately behind Neil Hodgson on the Ducati. And Chrid Burns came in a lap behind on the Harris WCM. Last place but a finish and solid data for the team to build on so no shame there.

Next stop, Germany, with a newly wide-open championship and some old scores to settle...

Results

1 M Tamada, Honda
2 M Biaggi, Honda
3 N Hayden, Honda
4 L Capirossi, Ducati
5 A Barros, Honda
6 C Edwards, Honda
7 K Roberts, Suzuki
8 N Abe, Yamaha
9 S Nakano, Kawasaki
10 C Checa, Yamaha

Championship Standing after 2 rounds

126 V Rossi
126 S Gibernau
113 M Biaggi
64 C Edwards
62 C Checa
59 A Barros
57 M Melandri
55 L Capirossi
54 N Hayden
44 M Tamada