Loris Capirossi has won his third race of the season after taking the checkered flag first at the Japanese MotoGP race in Motegi.
The Ducati rider upset the Japanese owners Honda by taking the race easily. It did not get better for Honda though as Valentino Rossi finished second. The highest placed Honda rider was Marco Melandri who finished third, making it an all Italian podium.
There was some good news for the Honda teams, as Honda took the manufacturers championship today. That however was not all that difficult, seeming as how many of the teams are Honda based.
The race started off the same way it finished, with Capirossi on pole, followed by Rossi and Melandri.
The race started badly for championship leader Nikki Hayden - who has just signed a two year deal with the HRC Repsol Honda team. The team has been struggling with a reoccurrence of the Honda clutch and launch system issues over the last few races. This allowed most of the riders around him to come past. Hayden struggled all race to make it back towards the front of the field. However, the bike did not look balanced, and at times he looked very close to highsiding and not finishing at all. He eventually finished in fifth place, but even that was more luck than judgement by the ex American AMA champion.
The first three riders of Capirossi, Rossi, and Melandri broke away from the chasing pack of Sete Gibernau, Shinya Nakano, Kaycey Stoner, and Nikki Hayden.
Kaycey's race ended quite early on. Trying to brake very deep into a turn, his front end washed out and he spilled into the gravel.
Shinya's race ended in much the same way. On the final lap he 
tried to put a late braking move on Sete coming down the back straight. However it seems he left the braking slightly too late, or misjudged what the Ducati rider would do, and just touched the rear Bridgestone of the Ducati with his front and went off into the gravel. This gifted Nikki another place, and another point.
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