impressed by finishing in fourth position, battling with Nobuatsu Aoki and Norifumi Abe for third place. His good form continued when he took third in his home race in Catalunya, moving up from seventh to third place going into the first corner and battling with teammate Doohan and Carlos Checa for the lead throughout the race. Another distant third place podium followed at the penultimate round in Indonesia, with another all-Factory Honda podium due to the win of Okada and the second place of Doohan. In Australia, Crivillé took his second and final victory of the season. Doohan started on pole but crashed out of the race, allowing Crivillé to win the race by 2.268 seconds from the second place Takuma Aoki. Crivillé finished fourth in the championship with 172 points, 168 points behind the champion and teammate Mick Doohan and 25 points behind runner-up Tadayuki Okada. 1998 Despite losing out on a title chance in 1997, Crivillé continued with the Repsol Honda team for 1998. Initially he started off with two fourth-place finishes in Japan and Malaysia. In Spain, Crivillé scored his first win of the season. He battled with Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa and Alex Barros and, in the closing stages, with teammate Mick Doohan as well. After Doohan took the lead and led for about 15 laps, with Biaggi and Crivillé behind him. Crivillé then overtook Biaggi for second and hunted down the Australian, who he eventually passed for the lead in the last remaining laps. Doohan tried to fight back but failed, allowing the Catalan to win by 0.393 seconds. He dedicated this victory to his father, who died during the winter. He also took the fastest lap. After his first victory of the season in Jerez, Crivillé's good form continued at the Italian GP where he finished third. In France, his second and final win of the year came after Crivillé overtook then-leader Carlos Checa three laps before the end and then held off Doohan and Checa to win by a margin of 0.283 seconds. He took his second fastest lap of the year at this venue as well. At the Madrid, Dutch and British rounds, he finished fifth, sixth and fourth. In Germany, Crivillé returned on the podium in third, albeit a distant 11.379 seconds behind race winner Doohan. At the next two races in the Czech Republic and the City of Imola, Crivillé