The 2003 German motorcycle Grand Prix was the ninth round of the 2003 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 25–27 July 2003 at the Sachsenring. MotoGP race report This race was most notable for the titanic battle between Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau, with the Spaniard narrowly winning after a dramatic finale. Valentino Rossi leads the standings with 187 points, followed by Sete Gibernau with 158 and Max Biaggi with 130 points. Max Biaggi took pole position on Saturday - his second of the season - with Jeremy McWilliams only +0.002 seconds behind him in second. Loris Capirossi lined up third and Valentino Rossi in fourth, who suffered from a cold as well as tyre problems. Sete Gibernau took fifth place, with Troy Bayliss lining up in sixth, Carlos Checa in seventh and Tohru Ukawa in eighth place. Chris Burns will not be taking part in the race, after being declared unfit due to his collarbone fracture after a crash in the previous British race two weeks ago. The pack make their way back to their respective starting positions and as the lights go out, Rossi makes a great start and moves up into the lead at Turn 1, followed by the two Ducati's of Capirossi and Bayliss. Gibernau moved up one spot to take fourth, Melandri moved from twelfth to fifth. McWilliams and pole sitter Biaggi had terrible starts, dropping from second to sixth and from first to ninth. At Turn 13, Gibernau dives down the inside of Bayliss to take third from him. Olivier Jacque did likewise and overtook both Biaggi and Nobuatsu Aoki by going side by side with them at the short straight before Turn 13, finalising the move at the entrance after Biaggi went wide. As lap two begins, Bayliss tries to use the superior Ducati top speed to pass Gibernau at the start/finish straight, almost bumping into him as a result. He isn't able to finalise the move and stays behind for the time being. The top six is as follows: Rossi, Capirossi, Gibernau, Bayliss, Melandri and McWilliams. Going down into Turn 1, Melandri takes fourth by going up his inside at the end of the start/finish straight. Jacque has also made up ten places on the opening lap, going from eighteenth to eighth place. Rossi opens up a gap to Capirossi during the lap. Rossi's teammate and rookie Nicky Hayden