After Alex Crivillé and before Jorge Lorenzo, Sete Gibernau was Spain’s hope to bring home the MotoGP World Championship title and for almost three years he was considered one of the ‘aliens’ even before the term was coined.

Gibernau riding for Gresini’s Telefonica Movistar-Honda team pushed Valentino Rossi hard for the title during the 2003 and 2004 seasons with the rivalry becoming something that would fill newspapers as much as that between Rossi and Max Biaggi. Rossi’s infamous 2004 Qatar curse and his aggressive final lap overtaking manouever during the 2005 Spanish GP would plague the Spanish rider for the rest of his racing career and he would never win a race again.

In 2006 he switched to Ducati only to be plagued by injuries following the horrific crash during the Barcelona GP and at the end of the season decided to retire. In 2009 Gibernau decided to make a comeback with the Onde 2000 Grupo Francisco Hernando satellite team run by Angel Nieto, but broke his collarbone during a practice session at Le Mans and two months later the team folded due to financial difficulties.

Gibernau decided that he had enough of racing and retired definitely and now has posted this fantastic book on his website that contains some magnificent public and private photos and even dedicates several pages to his grandfather and his motorcycle company Bultaco.

The book also has an English version and we recommend you check it out, just click on this link.

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While most MotoGP fans seem to be already writing off Valentino Rossi next season, following his Ducati debut at Valencia, despite the positive words from crew chief Jeremy Burgess who says there’s no need to panic and “anybody who bets against us will want to have plenty of money in their pocket.”

Rossi’s former arch rival, Sete Gibernau, who rode a Ducati in 2006 and part of 2009, is convinced that the Italian will get his head around the Italian beast (Rossi’s entire pit crew is in Bologna this week for meetings and for bike building lessons on the red machine) believes it will be a success story.

The Spanish rider who was a guest at the at the “Insieme” charity dinner held in Milan, was asked what he thought of Rossi’s move to Ducati and could the Italian tame the Desmosedici, “If he decided to switch, it was to get some new motivation, which is fundamental in working hard and always giving a 100%.” said Gibernau. “Of course there was also a lot pressure from the fans, who’ve been wanting him in Ducati for a long time. If he manages to win the title it would be a great event. ”

Continue reading: Sete Gibernau: "Rossi is very good, he can tame the Ducati"

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Last weekend at the Ayrton Senna kart track in Brazil, took place the Bahia Desafio Internacional Supermoto challenge with some retired racing glories taking part like Alex Barros, Sete Gibernau (it’s nice to see that he has something other than Spanish showgirl Laura Barriales on his mind) and a generation of young Brazilian riders including Alex Barros 16-year old son Lucas.

Both heats were won by Rafael Fonseca, Brazil’s own motocross and supermoto champion and unfortunately for Barros, he crashed out on the first turn of the first lap, causing the race to be red flagged. Barros picked a disclocated left collarbone from his fall.

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With an official press release MotoGP team, Grupo Francisco Hernando have announced that they are pulling out of MotoGP without finishing the 2009 season due to economic problems, prefering to concentrate their finances on their core business, development and real estate construction.

Sete Gibernau who returned to racing after a two year retirement and joined the Francisco Hernando team run by Pablo and Gelete Nieto to ride a private Ducati is surprised about the decision:

“We fought to see this project born, it’s a pity now that we achieved our objective and struggling to get results, we have to abandon everything. In this moment I can only thank the team and my personal sponsors, Arai, Spidi, Air Europa and AC Hotel, the fans and all the media who welcomed me back to MotoGP after a two year absence. With your help I was happy to return to racing. I will now have to concentrate on another possibility to finish the championship. It won’t be easy but I’m going to try will all my strength.

Source | lastampa

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An update on Sete Gibernau’s injury:

Gibernau was examined by Doctors Xavier Mir and Nacho Ginebreda at the Clínica Dexeus, with Dr Mir commenting:

“We have undertaken various scans and they confirm just one new fracture on the left collarbone which has nothing to do with previous injuries in this area. The rider also took a slight knock to his spine and another on his right heel but they are not serious injuries.”

It is expected that Gibernau will have surgery on Monday to insert a titanium plate into his left shoulder supporting the collarbone.

With Gibernau out for the Italian GP, speculation has already begun on who will replace the Spanish rider at the Mugello and another Spanish rider’s name has come up and he’s got the same name as those two brothers who run the Grupo Francisco Hernando MotoGP team.

Source | motogp.com

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With less that 20 minutes to go in this morning’s MotoGP free practice at Le Mans, Sete Gibernau of Team Grupo Francisco Hernando highsided and unfortunately fractured his left collarbone in two places.

Gibernau who returned to racing after two years of retirement has always been troubled by collarbone and shoulder injuries. Last December the Spanish rider had a metal plate removed but during training suffered from ligament problems that forced him to miss the Qatar pre-season test.

Gibernau will now fly back to Barcelona and will probably be visited at the famous Dexeus Clinic to see if he will require surgery.

The Clinica Mobile is now reporting that Gibernau will try to take part at his home Catalan Grand Prix on June 14 and will probably miss the next GP at Mugello.

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In yesterday’s pre-race media conference for the Gran Premio bwin.com de España at Jerez de la Frontera, the Spanish Armada of MotoGP riders, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Toni Elias and Sete Gibernau were present along with reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi.

The questions from the press eventually returned to the famous 2005 race and the controversial pass that Rossi did on Gibernau on the last lap. Asked if he would put the same move on teammate Lorenzo under the same circumstances, Rossi was hesitant but eventually answered : “Yes”

“With Sete, that race was unforgettable from the first lap we start to fight, but especially the last lap and a half it all happened. I was able to overtake on the last time and I took a small advantage but I made a small mistake on the back straight. Sete came back on me and we nearly touched at the hairpin before two or three overtakes to the last hairpin so it was not just one braking (manouvre). It was a very hard fight. If with Lorenzo it happens the same, then….. Yes.”

“I want to say that time with Sete, I didn’t enter in the corner to touch him. I entered to try and overtake and win the race, but fortunately Sete doesn’t crash and anyway he finished second. But anyway we are ready for a battle and we wait for the battle and if it’s possible for a race with a rival at the same level like that time with Sete with three or four overtaking in the last lap. It was great. In the last lap - it was great. I think it was our sport. If you look at the races of ten years ago it happened 100 times in one race. I like to run like this. Sometimes you win sometimes you lose.”

According to Italian website gpone Lorenzo had this to say:

Continue reading: Fightin' Words, Rossi: I'd do a Gibernau to Lorenzo

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Sete Gibernau and his Ducati Desmosedici GP9 showed up at Jerez della Frontera IRTA test with an all new livery. Gone is the elegant white-gold-and black color scheme used during winter testing, his bike is now sporting a white- green-red and blue colored livery.

The Grupo Francisco Hernando Onde 2000 Team has now become Nuova Edificacion 2000 and also missing is the the name of their second sponsor, Equatorial Guinea, however the new color scheme is exactly the same as the flag of the former Central African Spanish colony .

There were a lot of rumblings and grumblings in the Spanish press, including several important and influential political newspapers who were questioning this strange and unusual union and many MotoGP fans from around the world found it extremely distasteful that a country run by dictator Teodor Obiang Nguema, who rates 11th in the list of the World’s Worst Dictators was sponsoring a MotoGP bike.

Continue reading: Sete Gibernau's New D16 Livery

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Veteran rider Sete Gibernau, who came out of retirement this year to ride with new satellite team, Francisco Hernandez Onde 2000, has been forced to withdraw from the upcoming Qatar test session, after aggravating an old shoulder injury that will require a period of complete rest.

Gibernau, who was recovering from a recent shoulder operation, visited doctors on Thurday at the Institut Universitari Dexeus in Barcelona where Doctor Ginebreda Marti diagnosed a slight ligament tear in his left shoulder due to the accumulation of physical exertion at the recent MotoGP tests in Malaysia and his demanding training programme

Source | motogp.com

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Last Sunday we showed you the first video of the Italian show Matrix celebrating Valentino Rossi, this week its Rossi’s rivalry with Manuel Gibernau –Bultò, better known to the racing world as Sete “Hollywood” Gibernau.

Some of Gibernau’s best racing was done against Valentino Rossi .

Valentino Rossi described the 2003 season in his career as “the year of Gibernau, it was hard until the end”. Gibernau riding Fausto Gresini’s Movistar Honda finished second in the championship that year with 4 race wins. In 2004 he again finished second always with four wins. With the media hyped Rossi curse on his back, the Spaniard finished his 2005 season 7th overall with no race wins.

Gibernau retired after the 2006 season, that saw him involved in one of MotoGP’s most terrifying accidents, but has decided to return to MotoGP next year and will be riding for the new Onde2000 Ducati team managed by the Nieto brothers.

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Does anyone remember Valentino Rossi ‘s famous “curse” against Sete Gibernau during the 2004 Losail race? The Doctor or maybe I should say witch doctor said that Gibernau would never win another race and after looking at this video that puts together most of Gibernau’s 2005 season, it seems like it really worked.

Sete finished the championship 8th, while team-mate Marco Melandri finished 2nd in the overall 2005 standings, however Gibernau did take both BMW awards that year.

Sete Gibernau has now come out of a two year retirement and will return to MotoGP racing with the new Ducati Onde 2000 team in 2009 and hopefully for him the Rossi curse has worn out by now.

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This great video is from the past but is still great to watch again. It takes us back to the MotoGP battles between Sete Gibernau and Valentino Rossi. The video is a short compilation of some tough fights that we hope to see again in next year’s races as Sete returns. Rossi has given his comments on Sete’s return and we’ll see if the team, including Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner, will be strong enough to give us all thrilling races.

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