At round two of the season in Spain, Gibernau took his first win of the year in a wet-weather race. Having qualified his Gresini Honda in second place behind Rossi on Saturday, Gibernau - along with Biaggi - would pass a quickly fading Rossi, who had a lack of pace on the wet Jerez track. Around the halfway point, Biaggi - who was shadowing Gibernau since the first lap - passed him for the lead, only to run wide and hand the position back to the Spaniard one lap later. After his mistake, Biaggi continued to follow Gibernau as the pair rode away from third place Alex Barros, building up a 27 second lead with eight laps to go.