The aborted celebration of Rossi that burst Sete Gibernau

December 26, 2021

Beyond his nine world championships, one of the things that contributed most to Valentino Rossi’s popularity was his charisma on and off the bike. Throughout 26 seasons in the World Cup, the Italian left countless moments for history. Il dottore accumulated 115 victories, which he celebrated like no one else.

The #46 surprised the world with great celebrations, dressing up as Robin Hood, putting a gigantic chicken on his Aprilia, entering a bathroom after a race or giving the handlebars of the Yamaha to Ángel Nieto when he matched his number of victories, among many others. .

For years, Rossi managed to capture the public’s attention both during and after the races. Fans stayed tuned to see what he was going to surprise with every Sunday, managing to leave no one indifferent.

Such was Rossi’s superiority in the early 2000s, that almost every weekend he had prepared something. That was the case at the 2003 German Grand Prix, the last one before the summer break. The one from Tavullia, who had just won the last two titles in the queen category, began to get on track for the third. Midway through the season, only a surprising Sete Gibernau managed to keep the pulse of what was then his friend.

Rossi arrived at the Sachsenring with a 34-point advantage in qualifying over the Spaniard and with three wins each. Although Max Biaggi took pole on the German track, he soon crashed and the race was a heads-up between the top two in the championship.

The Repsol Honda rider took the lead at the start and tried to break away, but Gibernau caught on his wheel. The duo opened up a gap and reached the last lap with enough of an advantage to play for victory. With three corners to go, Rossi overtook Gresini ‘s, who had taken the lead nine laps earlier.

However, in the last corner Rossi miscalculated. He jumped inside to close the gap, but Gibernau made the normal line and passed him on acceleration on the slope that gives access to the Sachsenring finish straight.

That July 27, Rossi’s fan club had everything ready to celebrate in a big way a new victory for the transalpine. Until there they displaced the priest of Tavullia and built a replica of the tower of the local church. On the final lap they started to deploy everything on the run-out of a corner, but when they realized Gibernau’s victory they had to quickly abort.

“For the 2003 German GP, the fan club brought the Tavullia priest, recalls Alex Briggs , Rossi’s mechanic for 21 years, in Bike Magazine . “They built a replica of the Tavullia church tower, ready to celebrate Valentine’s victory.

“He was having a big battle with Gibernau, but he seemed to have it all figured out, so on the last lap the fan club started carrying the church tower to one of the gravel run-offs, with the priest on it, ready for Valentino came to celebrate the victory with them. But unfortunately, he lost a bit of the front in the last corner and Gibernau beat him by a wheel.”

“ When the fan club realized what had happened they were like, ‘Abort, abort!’ So they pulled the church tower out of the gravel loophole, with the priest still on it. Poor man, I must have been in my 70s or 80s, I had no idea what was going on. There were a few more like that.”

(Click on this link or scroll through the photos to see the images of the 2003 MotoGP German Grand Prix)

Podium: race winner Sete Gibernau, second place Valentino Rossi and third place Troy Bayliss