Gibernau went winless in his last two seasons.
The incident that caused Rossi to put his 'curse' on Gibernau occurred at Qatar in 2004 when Honda protested against Rossi’s team for laying down rubber with paddock scooters during the night prior to the race. The purpose was to give Rossi better traction of the line on the slick surface. Max Biaggi, then riding for Honda Pons, was also penalized for doing the same. Although Gibernau denies it, Rossi believes that it was Sete´s team that made the protest, and this led to the feud. (Yamaha then launched a counter-protest against Biaggi whose team also did
some cleaning on in the night).
At present Ducati have not made an offer to Sete because the Italian manufacturer is also talking to Nicky Hayden’s management. The American who won the 2006 MotoGP title has finally gotten a chance here to ride the pneumatic valve version of the RC212V and was a convincing second fastest in dry practice yesterday and backed that up today in the wet morning practice taking third best time.
Melandri is currently being considered by Kawasaki as a possible replacement for Anthony West, but West, aware that he is likely to lose his ride, was fourth fastest in the rain today.
