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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127675
o nt then the rea r and sliding off urt . "I don't really know why it hapned ," he said later. "It was nothing to with my ha nd (which was injured in practice crash in Germany)." This left only Criville in a position to tack, and he did so, catching and passg Schwantz q ui te easily on the 19th p as the American took his hand off e bars and shook it to try and restore rculation. Schwa ntz stuck on his back hee l, but sai d later: "I tried ways to ss him before the finish, but I couldn't tdrag him or outbrake him. He was di ng really fast, and I dorr't think I uld have got him ." In th e end, Criville d id it h im self, iding off on the same comer as Kocins" fiv e corners from the flag. "I was termine d to beat Sch wantz, to come ird and help Doo han and Hon d a in e championship," he said. ."But I made mistake: ' There' d been a lot of action behind in e of the better 500 races of the year. ile Itoh was ridi ng stead ily, and likeise Beattie, in the group that also conine d the Cag ivas, Barros was up and wn. Tryin g to ou tbrake Cri ville on the t lap, he'd run wid e and d ropped to th, putting his head down to catch the orks-bike group again within a couple laps. This ha d wo rked hi s tires too rd, and though he tried again to pass riville, he ha d to accept d ef ea t and arted dropping back. Meanwhile, Puig as coming hard from behind in the osing laps, his tires obviously better an those of his rivals. He came from th on lap 16 past Barros and Beattie, en made a superhuman effort 10 catch d pa ss Itoh on the last lap. Thus he ai m ed fourth, with Itoh les s than a ยท nih behind in fifth, followed by Beattie d Barros. Behind came Bernard Garcia after a rong if lonely ra ce as to p priva teer, ith Niall Mackenz ie another 13 seconds wn, nursing his injured arm and ridg alone throughout. Juan Lopez-Mella as 10th, with Jean [eandat triumphing er a good battle with Cristiano Miglioti, Bern d Haengelli, Sean Emmett and remy McWilliams, with the latter two opping out of touch at the finish . Thus cWilliams took the last point. The re were 21 finishers; retirements eluded Briton Jo hn Reynolds, who d crashed in morning warm-up, and ppointingly - the V-twin Aprilia 400 Loris Reggiani, which seized again ter less than two laps . Doohan's points lead is now a n pressive 51 , with 186 points to wantz's 135. Barro s and Puig share ird wi th 90 each, while Kocinski is fth with 87 and Crivil le sixth with 83. 250cc GRAND PRIX Romboni burst out of the trap pured by Capirossi, and the pair stretched ay to lead the first lap with Ha rada ading the pursuit. That was until they t to th e pit straight, when Biaggi's prilia simply motored past the Japan- rider's Yamaha and the Italian startto work on closing in on the leaders. The black Aprilia was in second on p three, and ahead of Romboni to lead lap fo u r, a lready m a king g ro u nd nd over fist while Wald ma nn joined a fierce three-way fight with Romboni d Cap iro ssi. Hara da see me d to lose ound behind, bu then caug ht up again nding a clear message that the World hampion was back. By lap six , Biaggi was almost two cond s clear and apparently in comlete control; likewise aft er lap seven, hen Romboni pulled into the pits expectedly. "1 felt ill before the race and worse (Left) Michael Doohan's victory was hi s sixth of the elght-raee-old _ series . He now leads defending champ Kevin Schwa ntz by 51 points, 186-135. (Below) Alex Crlville (8) heads a pack consisting of John Koc inski (11), Luca C8dalora (5), Daryl Beattle (3) and Doug Chandler (10). Crlv llle , Kocinski and Chandler failed to make It to the finIsh. after it sta rted," he said later. "I felt sick and I couldn't see p rope rly. I thought it was better to get som e medical attention rather than risk blacking out and crashing." In th e pit he coll apsed, and was stre tchered awa y to recover in the Clini ca Mobile. With Biaggi charging away, the p ursuit was ge tting s tretched. Then it all cha nged on the 10th lap as Biaggi slid to earth on one of the track's many downhill comers, leaping straight 10 his feet, then kicking up a plume of stones from the gravel-trap in his frustration. "I hit a bu mp, the forks bottomed and bounced back, and suddenly the front slid away. I don't know why - the tires were perfect," explained Biaggi later. Now all the pressure was on Waldmann, who had a gap of 2.5 seconds over Capirossi and Harada. He d id we ll to preserve it as Harada slipped ahead of the Italian on lap 12 and was able to concentrate on the man ahead, gradually drawin g away from the third-placed Honda. But Waldmann was on top of the situation, and preserved a gap of two seconds to the finish. "To win my first 250 race over the fast Italians in their own GP is grea t," he said . "As good as my first-ever GP win . We used a long firs t gear so I knew I wo uld be slow from the start. But when I saw how much Capirossi was sliding early on, while my tires were still good, I felt I had a cha nce. My bike was perfect today, but I must also thank (Doriano) Romboni. He has tes ted a lot here, a nd he gave me a lot of good advice about gear settings." Harada couldn't catch the Honda, but was deligh ted noneth eless with his first good finish of the yea r. "My bike needs more power, an d my hand isn't perfect, but things are coming right, andI'm sure now I will soon start to win races again," Capi rossi was glad to finish well, admitting that he had a lot of tire problems . "When I saw Max (Biaggi) crash, I k new I must be sure to get some points," he said. "It was im possible to hope for better than third:' Un usually for the class, there wasn't an excess of action down the field. Biaggi's Chesterfield teammate [ean-Phillipe Ruggia was four th, chased all race long by wild card Marcinello Lucchi. He said later: "At last we ha ve foun d some good top speed: ' The next group was d isputing sixth in th e d ice o f th e r ace, w i th Luis d'Antin, Tadayuki Okada, Jean-Michel Bay le and Wilco Zeelenberg (all o n Honda NSRs except for Bayle's Ap rilia) fin ishing in that order. It was a go od battle, go ing back a nd forth, and had good results for d 'Antin, but was disap- pointing for the Japanese rider, who was dee p into the same understeer problems that so troubled Biaggi w hen he also rode the Kanemoto Honda last year. Bayle complained of a lack of acceleration, while Zeelenberg had used up his energy and his tires catching up from a mediocre start, so had nothing left for the final sprint. Carles Checa fin ally escaped from Adrien Bosshard to claim 10th, so me 18 seconds back; then came Andy Preinin g, Alessand ro Gramigni and Patri ck van der Goorberg in a tight pack. Three seconds back was another pair, with Bernd Kassner taking the last po int less than a ten th ahead of Jurgen van der Goorberg, who had done well to catch up after be in g ba tte d across the gravel at the first tum, rejoinin g in last place. Biaggi hung on to his title lead, with 128 p o in ts to O ka d a 's 125 , while Capirossi closed u p agai n with 118. Romboni is ne xt wi th 93, then Ruggia and Waldmann bo th with 91. 125cc GRAND PRIX A race of great excitement an d wildly cha ngin g fortun es closed the da y. Dirk Raudies and his HB Honda led the first tw o laps from the usual brawl, chased for the first one by su rprise pole qualifier Locatelli. Soon seniority established itself, and disputing the lead w ith Raudies were Sakata ' s works Aprilia, the similar machine o f Peter O ettl and Ueda 's Honda. Locatelli hung on impressively for several laps before dropping back to the larger group close behind, from whence came Tsujimura's Honda to join the front-runners. Sakata soon started to make a breakaway, an d by lap 11 had stretched his lead to an im p ressive five seconds. Then he had a little slip, but recove red, only to find himself head ing across the grass at very high speed on the inside of the seco nd p ar t of the S-b en d . He rejoined in fifth, bu t was seve rely criticized by both Raudies and Oett! afterwards for careless riding. "I was doing more than 160km / h (100 mph), and I missed hi m by 10 centimeters (4 inches), n said Oettl. Now Ved a was in front and pulling away slightly; then Raudies took his tum at some off-track work on the 13th lap, d ropp ing from third to an out-oftou ch fifth after rough-ridin g across the gravel. "I'd had three slides already, but I didn't take the warning," he said. Sa ka ta w as rid in g br ill iantly, and pick ed his w ay th ro ugh th e grou p to reclaim seco nd from Tsu jimura on lap 15. O ne la p later he had ca ught and passed Ued a: then ens ued a b rilliant battle, the pa ir inches apart and swapping back and forth. Ueda was na rrowly ah ead w ith less than .half-a-lap to the flag when Sakata had his second lucky esca pe. A slid e flicked him half out of the seat, but he managed to stay wheels down. But it was enough to give Ueda h is second win of the season by 3.4 seconds. Tsu jimu ra was third, another five seconds down, p ipping Oettl by less than a tenth. Raudies was a lone fifth. Sakata's points lead shrunk slightly while Ueda moved into second, 154-102. 11