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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127394
gR0A~ RACE
World Cham~ionshi~_Ro_ad_R_ac_eS_eri_es:_Ro_un_d_ll
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Loris Capirossi won the 125cc British GP, beating teammate Fausto Gresini (7).
between them, and Cardus had no
chance to deliver the late-braking
attack he had been planning.
He was less than a second behind
at the flag, with Bradl dropping
slightly in the confusion of the last laps
to take third another second or so
adrift, riding a bit cautiously after two
crashes in practice. But for the backmarkers, Cadalora may not have had
such an easy last comer.
"It was very hard," he said later. "I
nearly crashed twice."
Cardus was bitter: "All the backmarkers we caught seemed to be
Italian," he said. "They cooperated
with Luca. Or maybe it was bad luck."
Shimizu got past Zeelenberg soon
after half distance, and they trailed in
unmolested in fourth and fifth .
Wimmer took sixth, the Lucky
Strike Suzuki's best finish of the year,
after a long battle with Paolo Casoli's
TZ-M Yamaha. Wimmer had given
him best after his new Dunlop started
sliding, then the Italian nearly crashed,
and Wimmer got past again to secure
the position.
Cadalora extended his title lead to
189 points (167 net) , over Bradl on 173
(156), Cardus 157 (137) and Zeelenberg
134 (125).
24
125ccGP
A Capirossi benefit, with the 18year-old defending champion getting
the jump from pole position and
pulling away. He was helped somewhat in the process by Eaio Gianola,
who charged through to second place
on the penultimate hairpin at the end
of lap one, then crashed on the next
one. This slowed the pursuit enough
for Capirossi's Honda to start working
on a gap that he gradually built to
close to 15 seconds at the end - an
almost unprecedented lead in the
closest class.
Noburo Ueda was making his own
waves further down the field. After a
disastrous start, he plunged into the
middle of the pack into the chicane
and fell, taking Dirk Raudies and
Jorge Martinez with him. All three
remounted, but Raudies pulled into
the pits, his race over. For the other
two , this was the start of a storming
recovery from the back of the field .
Up front, meantime, Emilio Cuppini, the injured Fausto Gresini and
Ralf Waldmann were battling for
'second. The first to go was Waldmann,
who dived inside Gresini at the last
hairpin, only to sp in out unhurt. A
few laps' later, Cuppini also crashed
his Aprilia.
Peter Oettl (Rotax) was part of the
group, and after a few almost suicidal
bids by the fast but erratic Bruno
Casanova th e ba ttle for second
devolved on Gresini and Oettl, with
th e Italian manfull y res isting th e
pressure until the German was forced
to accept th ird pl ace in the closing
stages.
Gabrielle Debbia was able to secure
fourth after an ultimately lonely ride ,
but there was a huge gang battling
back and forth behind them, again
often led by Casanova, with Sakata,
Petrucciani and young Spaniard Sanchez also in the thick of it.
But the real excitement was the
charge from behind by Ueda, with
Martinez in his tracks, the pair of them
carving through the typically huge
'groups of riders.
There was no doubt that Ueda was
on the make, and only Martinez was
able to stay with him once he got to
the front of the pack disputing fifth .
They finished two -tenths apart, with
Casanova almost two seconds adrift,
ahead of Sakata, Petrucciani and
Sanchez.
Unusually , there were only 20
finishers - while Capirossi extended
his lead to 171 points ahead of Gresini's 153, Waldmann 120, and Ueda
96.
SidecarGP
The race finished in exact qualifying
order: Biland ahead of Webster ahead
of Streuer. There'd been some shuffling along the way, but not an awful
lot.
Biland led from the first lap, and .
controlled the race as he wanted.
Behind him, Streuer was ahead of
Abbott, who got past on lap two only
to retire shortly afterwards with a
broken chain.
Then the Dutchman dropped to
fourth as both Webster and Guedel
powered past, but the latter crew were
also soon to succumb to mechanical
problems.
Webster was less than three seconds
behind Biland at the end, but he had
never been closer, and acknowledged
a straight defeat; Streuer dropped
gradually away in a lonely ride , to
finish almost half-a-minute behind
but still safe in third.
Michel was a troubled fourth, then
Kumano took fifth , six seconds ahead
of Kumagaya.
It 'was not a great day for sidecar
racing, but a good one for Biland, who
said all along that h is poor start to
the season was only temporary.
Ditto for Streuer, who said: "Things
are going better now I have a good
passenger I can rely on. " (Peter Brown,
who joined him in Assen).
It closed up the cham pionship a
little more, with Webster still leading
on 134 points, Biland right there on
128, and Streuer ahead of Michel by
93 points to 92.
CN
Results
125cc QUALIFYING: l. Loris Capirossi
(1:42.928); 2. Erio Gianola (1:43.377); 3. Bruno
Casanova (1:43.399); 4. Ralf Waldman n (1:43.820);
5. C. G iro (1:43.823); 6. Noburo Ueda (1:43.90 1): 7.
Fausto Gresini (1:44.1444); 8. E. Cuppini (1:44.147);
9. K. Sakata (1:44.176); 10. Alessandro Gramigni
(1:44. 18 1); I\. Gabriele Debbia (1:44.234); 12. Jorge
Maninez (1:44.241); 13. Dirk Raudies (1:44.244): 14.
O . Petruccian (1:44.285); 15. Peter Oedl (1:44.610);
Rolf Biland and Kurt Waltisperg easily won the Sidecar GP at Donington Park.
16. Mauro Vitali (1:44.713); 17. K. Takada (1:44.728);
18. Alex Bronec ( 1:44.837); 19. Ari Molenaar
(1:44.884); 20. Steven Patrickson (1:44.903); 21. N.
Wakai (1:44.938); 22. Johnny Wicksrroem (1:45.064);
23. A. Sanchez (1:45.1641; 24. Stefan Kurfiss
(1:45.185); 25. Juhan Mua lea (1:45.204); 26. Ian
McConnachie (I :45.242); 27. Heinz Leuthi (1:45.382);
28. Luis Alvaro (1:45.432); 29. Peter Galvin
(1:45.509); 30. Ari Stadler (1:45.612): 31. K. Wada
(1:45.640); 32. J. Van Dongen (1:45.677); 33. S. Foti
(1:45.846); 34. H. Unemcto (1:46.220); 35. Robin
Appleyard (1:46.286); 36. Manuel Hernandez
(1:46.515).
250cc QUAUFYlNG: Loris Reggiani (1:36.356);
2. Carlos Cardus (I :36.614); 3. Luca Cadalora
(1:36.823); 4. Helmut Bradl (1:36.907); 5. PierFrancesco Chili (1:36.909); 6. Jochen Schmid
(1:37.142); 7. Masahiro Shimizu (1:37.372); 8. Paolo
Casnli ( 1:37.471); 9. Wilco Z