behind Edwards but couldn't do anything about the ever-increasing gap he pulled as the race went on. Gibernau crossed the line +4.426 seconds behind race winner Rossi. This third place however meant that Gibernau was now 22 points behind Rossi in the standings, with seven races to go. In the Czech Republic, Gibernau won his third race of the season. On Saturday, he took pole position in a rain-affected final qualifying session, beating Barros and Rossi for the top spot. When the lights went out on Sunday, Gibernau briefly battled with Bayliss' Ducati before building a one-second lead that he maintained until lap seven, when a four-man group of Rossi, Biaggi, Barros and Nicky Hayden caught up to him. Gibernau stayed ahead when Barros, Biaggi and Rossi fought with each other over positions, until Barros slid out of contention on lap fifteen, promoting Biaggi and Hayden to third and fourth place respectively. With five laps to go, Rossi tried to overtake Gibernau when he pulled alongside him on the entry to the left hander, but the attack failed when Gibernau held on and let the inside line come to him at the following turn. Rossi then outbraked Gibernau down the inside at the end of the next straight, in which Gibernau responded by cutting across behind Rossi's rear wheel as they entered the first part of the corner, then held a very tight line and accelerated to beat Rossi to the second apex - leaving a long, black line of burning rubber on the tarmac. After this battle, Gibernau pulled away to cross the line +3.514 clear of Rossi, reducing his championship lead to 17 points. and Losail. In Portugal, Gibernau narrowly lost out on a third-place podium, finishing fourth whilst Rossi won, and finished in sixth place at the Japanese GP with Rossi finishing second. At the Qatar race, their previously good-natured rivalry spilled over, as Rossi accused Gibernau of pressuring officials to disqualify his qualifying result for allegedly later tampering with the track patch from which he started, to get better grip off an unusually dusty surface. However, it was Gibernau's team, not Gibernau himself, who had noticed the track alteration and asked race organisers to investigate. The security camera tapes showed Rossi's team tampering with the track, doing extended burnouts on his starting zone which embedded rubber across it and provided better grip. Because of this, race