Italian Loris Capirossi won the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship in Spain as defending champion and fellow countryman Valentino Rossi could finish only 14th following a first-corner crash.
Rossi was knocked off in the first bend at Jerez and was forced to fight back, after collecting his Camel Yamaha from the gravel trap.
The rear brake lever on Rossi's bike was bent back, making it difficult for him to position his foot on the right foot-peg and use the brake.
Rossi had seen his hopes of opening the season with victory dashed in the opening turn as he was hit from behind by the Fortuna Honda of Spaniard Toni Elias and thrown off his machine.
With Rossi out of the podium picture, second went to young Spaniard Dani Pedrosa on the Repsol Honda who passed American team-mate Nicky Hayden before closing down on leader Capirossi on the Ducati Marlboro bike.
But the Italian waited until the latter stages of the race before pulling away from reigning 250cc world champion Pedrosa, who was making his debut in MotoGP.
Capirossi revealed he had waited for Pedrosa to get close before making a successful bid to seal the race win.
He said: 'I was just waiting for Pedrosa to come and then I took the gap to win. It was a good race, I knew Dani was coming and I just had to wait for the right time to move away.'
