2004 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season

The 2004 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 56th F.I.M. Road racing World Championship season.

Season summary

At the end of 2003, HRC and Valentino Rossi had parted ways, and HRC held Rossi to the letter of their contract which stipulated he could not ride another manufacturer's machine until December 31, 2003.^[1] Rossi's move to Yamaha, therefore, was a gamble on a manufacturer that hadn't had a world champion in 10 years. Rossi won the first round of the season and lay to rest doubts about whether the rider or the motorcycle was more important when he achieved what no rider since Eddie Lawson had done in the history of the premier-class: he won back-to-back championships on different marques, Honda in 2003 and Yamaha in 2004.

Runner-up Sete Gibernau gave Rossi a strong challenge initially, but faded towards the end of the season. The friendship between him and Rossi frayed over the season, and snapped completely at the Qatar round.

At the Italian round, the race ran for 17 laps before rain started, and according to the rules at the time, the race was decided on a second, 6-lap race and the previous 17 laps only counted for grid positions. Conditions dried enough that the riders started the new race in slicks instead of wet-weather tires. In 2005 the rules were changed so that rain would no longer stop a race in MotoGP.

Rookie of the Year was Rubén Xaus.

Grands Prix

Round	Date	Grand Prix	Circuit	125cc winner	250cc winner	MotoGP winner	Report
1	April 18	South African Grand Prix	Phakisa	Andrea Dovizioso	Dani Pedrosa	Valentino Rossi	Report
2	May 2	Spanish Grand Prix	Jerez	Marco Simoncelli	Roberto Rolfo	Sete Gibernau	Report
3	May 16	French Grand Prix	Le Mans	Andrea Dovizioso	Dani Pedrosa	Sete Gibernau	Report
4	June 6	Italian Grand Prix	Mugello	Roberto Locatelli	Sebastián Porto	Valentino Rossi	Report
5	June 13	Catalan Grand Prix	Catalunya	Héctor Barberá	Randy de Puniet	Valentino Rossi	Report
6	June 26	Dutch TT	Assen	Jorge Lorenzo	Sebastián Porto	Valentino Rossi	Report
7	July 4	Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix	Rio de Janeiro	Héctor Barberá	Manuel Poggiali	Makoto Tamada	Report
8	July 18	German Grand Prix	Sachsenring	Roberto Locatelli	Dani Pedrosa	Max Biaggi	Report
9	July 25	British Grand Prix	Donington Park	Andrea Dovizioso	Dani Pedrosa	Valentino Rossi	Report
10	August 22	Czech Republic Grand Prix	Brno	Jorge Lorenzo	Sebastián Porto	Sete Gibernau	Report
11	September 5	Portuguese Grand Prix	Estoril	Héctor Barberá	Toni Elías	Valentino Rossi	Report
12	September 18	Japanese Grand Prix	Motegi	Andrea Dovizioso	Dani Pedrosa	Makoto Tamada	Report
13	October 2	Qatar Grand Prix	Losail	Jorge Lorenzo	Sebastián Porto	Sete Gibernau	Report
14	October 10	Malaysian Grand Prix	Sepang	Casey Stoner	Dani Pedrosa	Valentino Rossi	Report
15	October 17	Australian Grand Prix	Phillip Island	Andrea Dovizioso	Sebastián Porto	Valentino Rossi	Report
16	October 31	Valencian Grand Prix	Valencia	Héctor Barberá	Dani Pedrosa	Valentino Rossi	Report

Standings

Scoring system

Points are awarded to the top fifteen finishers. Rider has to finish the race to earn points.

Riders' standings

• Riders marked with light blue background are eligible for Rookie of the Year awards.
• Rounds marked with light blue background were under wet race conditions.

MotoGP

Pos Rider Bike SAF ESP FRA ITA CAT NED RIO GER GBR CZE POR JPN QAT MAL AUS VAL Pts 1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1 4 4 1 1 1 Ret 4 1 2 1 2 Ret 1 1 1 304 2 Sete Gibernau Honda 3 1 1 2 2 2 Ret Ret 3 1 4 6 1 7 2 4 257 3 Max Biaggi Honda 2 2 3 3 8 4 2 1 12 3 Ret Ret 6 2 7 2 217 4 Alex Barros Honda 4 3 7 6 Ret Ret 5 2 9 Ret 3 4 4 3 5 6 165 5 Colin Edwards Honda 7 7 5 12 5 6 6 5 2 7 9 Ret 2 11 4 8 157 6 Makoto Tamada Honda 8 Ret 9 Ret Ret 12 1 6 14 4 2 1 10 5 8 5 150 7 Carlos Checa Yamaha 10 6 2 Ret 4 9 10 Ret 6 6 5 7 Ret 9 10 14 117 8 Nicky Hayden Honda 5 5 11 Ret Ret 5 3 3 4 Ret Ret 5 4 6 Ret 117 9 Loris Capirossi Ducati 6 12 10 8 10 8 4 Ret 7 5 7 Ret Ret 6 3 9 117 10 Shinya Nakano Kawasaki 12 9 Ret Ret 7 Ret 9 7 15 12 11 3 Ret 8 12 7 83 11 Rubén Xaus Ducati Ret Ret 14 5 6 7 12 11 11 Ret Ret 9 3 13 11 Ret 77 12 Marco Melandri Yamaha 11 Ret 6 9 3 3 13 Ret DNS 9 Ret 5 Ret Ret Ret Ret 75 13 Norifumi Abe Yamaha 9 11 Ret 7 9 11 8 Ret Ret 8 10 Ret 7 12 17 10 74 14 Troy Bayliss Ducati 14 Ret 8 4 Ret Ret Ret Ret 5 Ret 8 Ret Ret 10 9 3 71 15 Alex Hofmann Kawasaki Ret 13 Ret 14 11 13 11 10 19 13 13 10 9 Ret 13 11 51 16 John Hopkins Suzuki 13 15 Ret Ret 14 15 9 8 Ret 6 Ret 8 Ret 15 12 45 17 Neil Hodgson Ducati Ret Ret Ret 11 12 10 16 13 10 11 Ret 8 Ret Ret 18 15 38 18 Kenny Roberts, Jr. Suzuki Ret 8 12 Ret 17 16 7 8 17 10 14 Ret 37 19 Jeremy McWilliams Aprilia 16 Ret 13 16 DNS 15 14 12 16 14 12 12 Ret 15 14 13 26 20 Shane Byrne Aprilia 15 Ret DNS 10 13 Ret 17 14 13 DNS 13 18 21 Nobuatsu Aoki Proton KR 17 14 17 13 15 Ret 18 Ret 18 15 15 14 Ret 17 19 18 10 22 Michel Fabrizio Harris WCM 18 10 16 15 16 Ret 15 20 17 8 Aprilia Ret 23 Yukio Kagayama Suzuki 11 14 7 24 Olivier Jacque Moriwaki 11 Ret 5 25 James Haydon Proton KR 12 Ret 20 4 26 James Ellison Harris WCM Ret 16 13 18 22 19 3 27 Andrew Pitt Moriwaki 17 14 16 2 28 Youichi Ui Harris WCM 15 DNQ 19 21 1 29 Kurtis Roberts Proton KR WD Ret 15 Ret Ret Ret 19 Ret Ret DNS DNS 1 Garry McCoy Aprilia 16 Ret 16 0 Chris Burns Harris WCM DNQ Ret Ret 18 17 20 16 Ret DNS Ret 0 Gregorio Lavilla Suzuki Ret Ret 16 17 0 David de Gea Harris WCM Ret 0 Tohru Ukawa Honda Ret 0 Pos Rider Bike SAF ESP FRA ITA CAT NED RIO GER GBR CZE POR JPN QAT MAL AUS VAL Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Finished, in points Blue Finished, no points Not classified (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate Excluded (EX)

250cc

Pos	Rider	Team	Pts	Wins	Poles	F.Laps
1	Dani Pedrosa	Telefónica movistar Honda	317	7	4	8
2	Sebastián Porto	Repsol Aspar Aprilia	256	5	9	5
3	Randy de Puniet	Safilo Carrera - LCR Aprilia	214	1	2	0
4	Toni Elías	Fortuna Honda	199	1	0	1
5	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	147	0	1	1
6	Hiroshi Aoyama	Telefónica movistar Honda	128	0	0	0
7	Fonsi Nieto	Repsol Aspar Aprilia	124	0	0	0
8	Roberto Rolfo	Fortuna Honda	116	1	0	1
9	Manuel Poggiali	MS Aprilia	95	1	0	0
10	Franco Battaini	Campetella Aprilia	93	0	0	0
11	Anthony West	Freesoul Abruzzo Aprilia	88	0	0	0
12	Álex Debón	Würth Honda BQR	82	0	0	0
13	Chaz Davies	Aprilia Germany	51	0	0	0
14	Sylvain Guintoli	Campetella Aprilia	42	0	0	0
15	Naoki Matsudo	UGT Kurz Yamaha	41	0	0	0
16	Hugo Marchand	Freesoul Abruzzo Aprilia	36	0	0	0
17	Héctor Faubel	Grefusa Aspar Aprilia	31	0	0	0
18	Alex Baldolini	Matteoni Aprilia	30	0	0	0
19	Joan Olivé	Campetella Aprilia	27	0	0	0
20	Jakub Smrž	Molenaar Honda	20	0	0	0
21	Arnaud Vincent	Equipe de France - Scrab GP Aprilia	15	0	0	0
22	Johann Stigefelt	Aprilia Germany	14	0	0	0
23	Dirk Heidolf	Grefusa Aspar Aprilia	13	0	0	0
24	Eric Bataille	Würth Honda BQR	12	0	0	0
25	Yuki Takahashi	Honda	11	0	0	0
26	Shuhei Aoyama	Honda	8	0	0	0
27	David de Gea	Würth Honda BQR	8	0	0	0
28	Grégory Lefort	Equipe de France - Scrab GP Aprilia	7	0	0	0
29	Erwan Nigon	Team UGT Kurz Yamaha / Equipe de France - Scrab GP Aprilia	4	0	0	0
30	Yuzo Fujioka	Honda	4	0	0	0
31	Taro Sekiguchi	NC World Trade Yamaha	4	0	0	0
32	Grégory Leblanc	Equipe de France - Scrab GP Aprilia	3	0	0	0

125cc

Pos	Rider	Team	Pts	Wins	Poles	F.Laps
1	Andrea Dovizioso	Kopron Team Scot Honda	293	5	8	3
2	Héctor Barberá	Seedorf Aprilia	202	4	1	4
3	Roberto Locatelli	Safilo Carrera - LCR Aprilia	192	2	1	1
4	Jorge Lorenzo	Caja Madrid Derbi	179	3	2	2
5	Casey Stoner	Red Bull KTM	145	1	1	1
6	Pablo Nieto	Master Repsol Aprilia	138	0	0	2
7	Álvaro Bautista	Seedorf Racing Aprilia	129	0	0	1
8	Steve Jenkner	Rauch Bravo Aprilia	122	0	1	2
9	Mirko Giansanti	Matteoni Aprilia	105	0	0	0
10	Mika Kallio	Red Bull KTM	86	0	0	0
11	Marco Simoncelli	Rauch Bravo Aprilia	79	1	2	0
12	Gino Borsoi	Globet.com Aprilia	79	0	0	0
13	Simone Corsi	Kopron Team Scot Honda	61	0	0	0
14	Julián Simón	Angaia Honda	60	0	0	0
15	Mattia Pasini	Safilo Carrera - LCR Aprilia	54	0	0	0
16	Fabrizio Lai	Metis Gilera	53	0	0	0
17	Gábor Talmácsi	Semprucci Malaguti	43	0	0	0
18	Mike Di Meglio	Globet.com Aprilia	41	0	0	0
19	Sergio Gadea	Master Repsol Aprilia	29	0	0	0
20	Andrea Ballerini	Sterilgarda / Abruzzo Aprilia	29	0	0	0
21	Lukáš Pešek	Ajo Motorsport Honda	20	0	0	0
22	Youichi Ui	Abruzzo Aprilia	19	0	0	0
23	Gioelle Pellino	Abruzzo Aprilia	16	0	0	0
24	Stefano Perugini	Metis Gilera	14	0	0	0
25	Thomas Lüthi	Elit Grand Prix Honda	14	0	0	0
26	Dario Giuseppetti	Elit Grand Prix Honda	8	0	0	0
27	Tomoyoshi Koyama	Yamaha	7	0	0	0
28	Toshihisa Kuzuhara	Honda	7	0	0	0
29	Imre Tóth	Team Hungary Aprilia	6	0	0	0
30	Robbin Harms	Ajo Motorsport Aprilia	5	0	0	0
31	Jordi Carchano	Matteoni Aprilia	2	0	0	0
32	Ángel Rodríguez	Caja Madrid Derbi	2	0	0	0
33	Vesa Kallio	Team Hungary Aprilia	1	0	0	0

Manufacturers' standings

MotoGP manufacturers standings

Pos	Manufacturer	SAF	ESP	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	RIO	GER	GBR	CZE	POR	JPN	QAT	MAL	AUS	VAL	Pts
1	Honda	2	1	1	2	2	2	1	1	2	1	2	1	1	2	2	2	355
2	Yamaha	1	4	2	1	1	1	8	4	1	2	1	2	7	1	1	1	328
3	Ducati	6	12	8	4	6	7	4	11	5	5	7	8	3	6	3	3	169
4	Kawasaki	12	9	Ret	14	7	13	9	7	15	12	11	3	9	8	12	7	95
5	Suzuki	13	8	12	Ret	17	14	7	8	8	10	6	Ret	8	14	15	12	73
6	Aprilia	15	Ret	13	10	13	15	14	12	13	14	12	12	Ret	15	14	13	39
7	Proton KR	17	14	15	13	15	Ret	18	Ret	18	15	15	14	12	17	19	18	15
8	Harris WCM	18	10	16	15	16	17	20	15	20	17	16	15	13	18	21	19	12
9	Moriwaki				17	14					16		11				Ret	7
Pos	Manufacturer	SAF	ESP	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	RIO	GER	GBR	CZE	POR	JPN	QAT	MAL	AUS	VAL	Pts

250cc manufacturers standings

Pos	Constructor	Pts
1	Honda	354
2	Aprilia	344
3	Yamaha	44

125cc manufacturers standings

Pos	Constructor	Pts
1	Aprilia	329
2	Honda	301
3	KTM	204
4	Derbi	179
5	Gilera	61
6	Malaguti	43
7	Yamaha	7

Participants

MotoGP participants

Team Constructor Motorcycle Tyres No. Rider Rounds Camel Honda Honda Honda RC211V M 3 Max Biaggi All B 6 Makoto Tamada All Repsol Honda Honda Honda RC211V M 4 Alex Barros All 69 Nicky Hayden 1–10, 12–16 Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1 M 7 Carlos Checa All 46 Valentino Rossi All Proton Team KR Proton KR Proton KR5 D 9 Nobuatsu Aoki All 80 Kurtis Roberts 1–10, 16 36 James Haydon 13–15 Team Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki Suzuki GSV-R B 10 Kenny Roberts, Jr. 1–12 21 John Hopkins 1–3, 5–16 32 Gregorio Lavilla 5, 10 15–16 71 Yukio Kagayama 13–14 D'Antin MotoGP Ducati Ducati Desmosedici M 11 Rubén Xaus All 50 Neil Hodgson All Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati Ducati Desmosedici M 12 Troy Bayliss All 65 Loris Capirossi All Telefónica Movistar Honda MotoGP Honda Honda RC211V M 15 Sete Gibernau All 45 Colin Edwards All Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1 M 17 Norifumi Abe All 33 Marco Melandri All Moriwaki Racing Moriwaki Moriwaki MD5 D 19 Olivier Jacque 12, 16 88 Andrew Pitt 4–5, 10 WCM Harris WCM Harris WCM D 35 Chris Burns 2–9, 11, 16 84 Michel Fabrizio 1–6, 8–10 41 Youichi Ui 12–15 52 José David de Gea 7 77 James Ellison 10–11, 13–16 Kawasaki Racing Team Kawasaki Kawasaki ZX-RR B 56 Shinya Nakano All 66 Alex Hofmann All MS Aprilia Racing Aprilia Aprilia RS3 Cube M 67 Shane Byrne 1–10, 12 99 Jeremy McWilliams All 24 Garry McCoy 14–16 84 Michel Fabrizio 11 HRC Honda Honda RC211V M 72 Tohru Ukawa 12

Key Regular Rider Wildcard Rider Replacement Rider

References

• "The Official MotoGP website". http://www.motogp.com/en/Results+Statistics/2004/NAT/500cc/World+Standing. Retrieved 2010-07-07. 

1. ^ Honda refuse Rossi test request. bbc.co.uk. November 17, 2003.

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