Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/100352
- - - - -- - - Round 4 MOTOGP Jun e 6 , 2004 World Championship Road Race Se The poor conditions in the restart gave everyone new hope. Ruben Xaus (1 1) leads Barros (4 ), Bayliss (12) and Biaggi (3). Xaus and Bayliss had their best finishes of the season in the changing conditions. cutting o ut on one cylinder. He stuttered do wn the finish straight, glancing anxious ly beh ind him, powerl ess to prevent e arlier race leade r Dani Pedrosa from taking second , and then defend ing champion Manuel Poggiali third. It was only by inches that he avoided losing two more places to Fonsi Nieto and Toni Elias. Australian Aprilia privateer Antho ny West was 10th. Earlier. Roberto Locatelli showed his experi ence wit h a supe rb 125cc GP win, his first since 2000 . afte r a breath tak ingly close race full of dram a and dange rous ly close to a number of violent collisions, as a six-stro ng group strove for advantage by fair means or foul. On e of the latt e r was Pablo Nieto, who had bee n carving his rivals up all race long. His last such move to seize the lead on the final lap instead saw him run wide and drop to the back of the group. Andrea Dovizioso looked set for a second success ive win , but a little slip on the last bend dropped him to fourth, with Casey Stoner and Hector Barbera moving through to their rostrum reward. MOTOGP The first 17 laps didn't count for the results. They counted for the riders, the crowd and for rac ing, however. It may just have been the best race any of us have ever seen . Rossi was away fast, only for Biaggi to power past the first time down the straight. Rossi pounced directly into the first corner again. This se t the pattern for the afternoon. 26 Capiross i had a flier of a start and was third after the first lap but was dropping away rapidly, holding up the pursuit. But Tamada had shoved past early on the second lap, as well as an only slightly de layed Melandri, Hayden and Gibe rnau . Checa was just behind the Ducati, and he got past one lap late r, by w hen Barros had passed them both . This did it for Checa, pushing too hard to try to make up ground, and he slipped off on lap four. "It' s dented my morale a bit," he said. Up front, Rossi was battling away, ge nerally if narrowly holding Biaggi at bay. Tamada was squeezing Biaggi from the JUNE 16,2004 ��� CYCLE NEWS other side , and he slammed past on lap four as Kurtis Roberts pitted with a slipping clutch and a leaking fuel tank from the other end of the field. Tamada took the lead for the first time on the straight at the end of lap five, clearly faster than Rossi's Yamaha. Again, Rossi reclaimed the lead at the first corner. Next time around the same thing happened on the straight, and this time Tamada held control into turn one. He led over the line for the next six laps, but this belied what was happening elsewhere. Rossi and Tamada were changing places as many as six times a lap - one diving past, the other 40th Anniversary biting straight back. At the same time, Biaggi was pushing between them there and the re, and Gibernau had closed up. passing Hayden . who crashed out of fifth on lap seven, handing the place back to Melandri, whom he had earlier defeated . The lea ding quartet were now clear of Melandri, who had a slow-starting Barros (he lost time in the first corner) closing steadily and past on lap nine. But allattention was on the leaders, perilous ly close to colliding most of the time, Gibern au and Rossi actually brushing fairings once. As they approached half-distance. it was still anybody's race . Gibernau looked