At the final round in Valencia, Gibernau took his fifth and final pole of the season when Rossi only managed to qualify in fifteenth place after a high-speed incident on Saturday. On Sunday, Gibernau had a poor getaway and was relegated to fourth as the lights went out, before retaking third from Carlos Checa at the following left-hand hairpin. Afterwards, Melandri, Hayden and Gibernau started to move away from fourth-place Biaggi, until Gibernau's engine broke down in a cloud of white smoke and he was forced to retire on lap four. All he could do was park the bike, stare at it with his arms crossed and then crouch with his head in his hands as he wondered, once again, what might have been.