Rossi suffered his first DNF of the season when he lost the front of his Fiat Yamaha moments after lunging inside a hard-to-pass
Randy de Puniet for sixth position, on lap five of 30.
More pictures of the former five-times
MotoGP world champion's rare mistake can be seen below.
While a downbeat Rossi made his way back to the pits,
Dani Pedrosa won his first race of the season, ahead of
Loris Capirossi and Nicky Hayden.
