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through the group to tag on with the.
leaders by the halfway point.
At this stage the cheers turned to
moans as Bradl appeared off the back of
the group, down in ninth. Engrossed in
a fierce battle with Harada, he found the
door slammed in his face at the first chicane, and ran straight through, dropping right back as he did so.
Then came a fine comeback ride. "I
was out of the slipstream, but the leaders were getting in each other's way at
the second chicane, so I was able to
catch up again." He picked his way
through to second place by the end of
lap 15, but "I was so busy I didn't have
time to look at my pit board, and I
didn't know it was the last lap."
Capirossi and Romboni knew all
right, and the former planned his move
just right, following Romboni through
the last chicane to sweep past and lead
into the stadium. Then came his costly
error. He was too late on the brakes into
the Sachskurve loop, and ran wide.
Romboni didn't need more than a few
inches, and dived through on the inside.
"Once Loris got by I knew it would
be difficult," said Rambo later. "But I
didn't give up and stayed close so when
he ran wide I was ready." It was an
exemplary piece of racing.
Capirossi was very glum on the rostrum, having had his first 250 win
snatched away by just nine-hundredths
of a second. "I braked too late, the front
tire slid, and I had to change my line,"
he said ruefully.
Bradl was stem as ever, promising
that if he'd known it was the end he was
ready to attack. Th", top three were
again on Dunlops.
Reggiani might easily have been in
this battle, but also tried too hard on the
first corner of the last lap. "{ ran wide
and lost their slipstream. It also allowed
Biaggi to come past."
Thus Biaggi took fourth, 2.3 seconds
behind the leaders after losing touch
with a sliding front tire. Reggiani and
Harada were right on his tail. Then
came Chili and Ruggia, followed closely
by Cardus in ninth.
D' Antin won the secondary battle for
10th, with Puig and Kocinski finishing
within the same haU-second.
Jochen Schmid's Yamaha was a distant 13th, comfortably ahead of a close
Aprilia group led by Jean-Michel Bayle
to claim two points for a second time,
ahead of Juan Borja, Frederic Protat, Ari
Stadler and Bernd Kassner.
Nobuatsu Aoki had non-started, after
running into ignition trouble on the
warm-up; Wilco Zeelenberg pitted with
engine trouble after three laps. Eskil
Suter ran into Patrick vdGoorbergh, and
his bike jammed onto the rear of the
Dutchman's Aprilia, forcing him
straight on through the chicane and out
of the race. A little later, Volker Bahr
(HB Honda) skittled Jurgen vd
Goorbergh.
Romboni's second win brings him
tantalizingly closer to Harada, who has
115 points to the Italian's 93. Biaggi has
71, with Capirossi up to equal fourth
with Bradl on 68, and Kocinski (62)
dropping to sixth.
125cc Grand Prix
There were two heroes of this race.
One was Dirk Raudies, who started
from pole position and claimed a third
dominant win of the season. But he did
not immediately take the lead as before.
This time he found himself in a fierce
battle with the two FCC Technical
Sports Japanese riders, Kazuto Sakata
and Takeshi Tsujimura.
It was only after they obliged by
bumping into one another on the fifth
lap that the little German was able to
make his break, and move away to win
b almost nine seconds.
ROSSER
EIS V0
SCHLAN
1993
•
(From left to right> Second place finisher Kevin Schwantz, winner Daryl Beattie and third place finisher Shinichi Itoh.
The Japanese contretemps made for
the second hero. Sakata stayed on
board, but dropped right back to 19th
place, seemingly way out of touch.
But Sakata's blood was up, and he set
a new lap record, running even faster
than Raudies, as for the remainder of
the race he vaulted through the usual
tight packs to achieve the impossible.
He was up in second on the 13th lap,
and fighting once again for the position
with Tsujimura. His teammate had one
more trick to play, almost taking both of
them down on the final comer, before
finishing in third, just a tenth behind.
Three seconds covered from second
to eighth, the remnants of the original
batch chasing Raudies. Akira Saito was
fourth, Ralf Waldmann a strong fifth,
then Ezio Gianola, Bruno Casanova and
Peter Oett!, all of whom had been at
each other's throats all race long.
Sakata retains the titl~ lead, with 125
points to 116 for Raudies, 96 for
Tsujimura, and 59 for Waldmann.
Sidecar Grand Prix
The Guedel brothers led the first lap,
but pole starter Biland took the lead
next time round, with Steve Webster following him past the Swiss brothers.
From then on Biland and Waltisperg
had what the canny veteran described
as "an easy life" as he drew away to win
by an eventual 24 seconds.
Biland had been second to Webster at
the first sidecar GP. "Since then I have
bench-tested my engine every day" (he
now uses Honda cylinders with power
valves) "and found another 500 rpm."
He was also running with an Fl carstyle aerodynamic under tray. "The
downforce helped very much in the stadium section," he said.
Webster hung on to second, battling
with the GUedels, until he slowed with
five laps to go, and pitted one lap later.
His rear Avon had a slow puncture.
The Guedels were slowed by too-soft
tires, as well as a lack of fitness - passenger Charlie had been injured in a preseason test crash, and this was his first real
race since. Meanwhile, a hard-riding
Steve Abbott and new passenger Julian
Tailford charged through from ninth to
join battle with them, soon followed by
Derek Brindley/Hutchinson.
Abbott made a stunning recovery
from one spin to secure second by half-asecond, with Brindley a similar distance
behind, just missing the rostrum.
Of
Results
12Sa: QUALIFYlNG: 1. Dirk Raudies (2:16.885); 2.
Kazuto SaJcaIa (2:17.926); 3. Kinya Wada (2:18.308); 4.
Manfred Baumann (2:18.588); S. Stefan Kurfiss
(2:18.610); 6. Talceshi Tsujimura (2:18.726); 7. Peter