races in Indonesia and Japan, finishing 17th and 20th. At round four in Spain, Gibernau scored his first world championship points with an 11th-place finish. At the Italian GP, he finished 24th and once again failed to score any points. Gibernau retired in two consecutive races—France and the Netherlands—before finishing in 19th place in Germany, once more outside of the points. At the British round however, Gibernau finished 11th for the second time this season to score points yet again. In Austria, his 18th-place finish meant he finished outside the points yet again, but he recovered well by scoring points for the third time in his rookie season by finishing 14th at the Czech Republic race. In Imola, he finished outside of the points with an 18th-place finish. With three races left to go, he was hired by former world champion Wayne Rainey's Yamaha team to replace Tetsuya Harada. He retired from the Catalan round, but finished in eighth place at the penultimate round of the season in Brazil—his highest classification of the season. At the final race in Australia, Gibernau retired for the fifth time this season. Gibernau finished 22nd in the championship with 20 points, 254 points behind the champion Max Biaggi and 248 points behind runner-up Ralf Waldmann. 500cc World Championship Yamaha (1997) 1997 After a rollercoaster rookie season in 1996, Gibernau moved up to the 500cc class with the official Team Rainey team for the 1997 season. In his first ever 500cc race, Gibernau finished in ninth place at the Malaysian round. In Japan, he recorded his first retirement, but bounced back well to score two consecutive ninth-place finishes in Spain and Italy. At the Austrian race, Gibernau retired for the second time this season. In France, he finished 13th but a 19th place finish at the next round in the Netherlands meant that he failed to score any points. After Assen, Gibernau went back to scoring points by finishing in 11th at Imola and seventh in Germany—his then highest finish of the year, as well as his career. The good fortunes would end after the German round for Gibernau, with four consecutive retirements at the Rio de Janeiro, British, Czech Republic and Catalan grands prix. However, he finished the season on a high note by finishing the last two races of the season in the points, by taking eighth in Indonesia and sixth in Australia,