from third to fifth in the championship standings. In Japan, Gibernau would crash out of the race on lap twelve. In Malaysia, Gibernau was eliminated at the end of lap one when he collided with Shinya Nakano whilst trying to overtake him for third into the final hairpin. At the following three rounds - the Qatar, Australian and Turkish grands prix - Gibernau only scored two fifth and one fourth place, despite claiming pole at the Turkish race. At the final round in Valencia, Gibernau took his fifth and final pole of the season when Rossi only managed to qualify in fifteenth place after a high-speed incident on Saturday. On Sunday, Gibernau had a poor getaway and was relegated to fourth as the lights went out, before retaking third from Carlos Checa at the following left-hand hairpin. Afterwards, Melandri, Hayden and Gibernau started to move away from fourth-place Biaggi, until Gibernau's engine broke down in a cloud of white smoke and he was forced to retire on lap four. All he could do was park the bike, stare at it with his arms crossed and then crouch with his head in his hands as he wondered, once again, what might have been. Gibernau finished seventh in the championship with 150 points, 217 points behind the champion Valentino Rossi. Ducati (2006) 2006 In 2006, Gibernau joined the Factory Ducati team to replace Carlos Checa, showing impressive speed with the Ducati Desmosedici race bike in pre-season testing. At the opening round in Spain, Gibernau qualified in a strong second place on Saturday, showing promise that Gibernau would be in contention for the title once more. However, Gibernau retired on lap two when he raised his at the exit of a turn to signal mechanical problems - later identified as electronics issues - on Sunday, marking it his first DNF of the season. At Qatar, Gibernau finished fourth after overtaking rookie Casey Stoner with three laps to go. In Turkey however, he only managed to finish in eleventh place after suffering tyre problems with his Bridgestone compound. In China and France, he only managed to finish ninth and eighth while his more experienced teammate Loris Capirossi finished ahead of him on both occasions - eighth and second. At the Italian GP, Gibernau took his final MotoGP pole by beating his teammate Capirossi by just +0.089 seconds on Saturday. On Sunday, Gibernau fought hard