At the inaugural Chinese grand prix, Gibernau took his first pole of the year on Saturday, beating teammate Marco Melandri by +0.163 seconds. On Sunday however, Gibernau knew he was in trouble before the rain-affected race had even begun when he felt his rear tyre vibrating on the warm-up lap. At the start, Gibernau got overtaken by the Factory Suzuki of John Hopkins and teammate Melandri when the vibration kicked in and he was pushed wide. By the end of lap five, he had struggled back to second after Kenny Roberts Jr. had retired and Hopkins had faded. Around the halfway stage, Rossi had increased the gap to Gibernau with about +6.3 seconds, but replacement rider Olivier Jacque was only +0.600 seconds behind him and was closing in fast, setting the fastest laps of the race. Gibernau fought hard to keep him behind, but the tyre problems prevented him from doing so properly and that allowed Jacque to pass Gibernau on lap fourteen. Halfway around the last lap, Melandri took third place from Gibernau, demoting him to fourth at the very end of the race. This meant that Gibernau now slipped to 37 points behind championship leader Valentino Rossi.