In the Netherlands, Gibernau missed another potential pole position when his clutch broke on his final qualifying run and he couldn't fully open the throttle on Saturday, gifting pole to Rossi instead by 0.682 seconds. On Sunday, Gibernau and Rossi dominated the top positions after briefly disposing of a well-starting Carlos Checa until lap ten, when Alex Barros Repsol Honda caught the pair and surprised Rossi by overtaking him on the start/finish straight, only to fall a lap later when an apparent mechanical failure locked up his rear wheel on the entry to a high-speed right-hander, handing the battle for the race win back to the Spaniard and the Italian. Gibernau then led right to the last lap, but Rossi was shadowing him ever since and - after being prevented by a clever change of racing line from Gibernau along the back straight - Rossi made his move by going up the inside at the Strubben hairpin. Gibernau tried to stick it around the outside and the two would ride alongside each other to the next turn, where they made contact. Givernau's front wheel hit the rear of Rossi's bike and broke Gibernau's front fender, unsettling Gibernau in the process. All this allowed Rossi to gain some vital space and he was able to cross the line +0.456 seconds ahead of Gibernau. After the race, Rossi commented that he saw that ""Sete is a little angry"".