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Round 5= German Grand Prix 00 an own, eattie u By Michael Scott Photos by Gold & Goose NURBURG, GERMANY, MAY 21 wo weeks ago, Grand Prix fans won de red why defe ndi ng World C ham pion Michael Doohan thr ew away certain victory in an un for ced crash at Jerez. At the Nurburgring on Sunday, they were left wondering again . . For a second successive race, pole q ua lifier Dooha n crashed th e Repsol Honda ou t of th e lead for a no-p oin ts score, leaving a second win of the seaso n to Lucky Strike Suzuki rider Daryl Beattie, who now holds a 29-point lead over Doohan in the World Championsh ip. At least this time Doohan was under pressure from the calm and collected 24year -old Beattie, who had led fro m th e s ta rt, and fo ugh t b ack aft er Doohan caug ht up and got by. Beattie's red-andwhite Suzuk i was in ches behind a s Dooh an's Honda slip ped, stumbled and fell on the nin th of 27 lap s of the twisting circuit alongside the classic old track in the Eifel mountains. Doohan had crashed in p rac tice as well, breaking a finger and racing in a specia lly -made glove. This time he was unhurt, and thr ew his arms in the air in a gesture of frustration and despair before sto mping off back to the pits. From then on, Nurburgring first-timer Beattie was unchallenged, taking his second win of the season by almos t 10 seconds. Second i n an exci tin g all-action race we n t to Luca Cadalora's Marl boro Yama ha , with the Italian waiting un til th e last bends to pounce on Sh inichi Itch's Repsol Hon da to lead across the line by less than a tent h. Repsol Hond a's Alex Criville claimed fourth, a similar distance ah ead of surprise Jerez winner Alberto Puig and the Fortuna Hond a; and while a probl emstricken provisional fas t qualifier Loris T Cap irossi and the Marlboro Ho nda faded to a lonely sixth, Kanemot o Honda ' s Ale x Barros and Norifu mi Abe on the Marlboro Yamaha wer e locked in a sustained st ruggle for seventh, na rrowly won by the Brazilian. After cold condi tions in practice led to almost 50 crashes, the return to the Eifel mo un tains for the first tim e since 1990 saw the sun come out and temperatures rise a little, and mo re than 50,000 fans made the trip back to the historic heart of German racing. They saw Italian d efen di ng World Champion Max Biaggi sweep to a second dominant w in of th e se aso n on the Ch esterfield Aprilia, starting from pole and leadin g from the first comer to the last. At the finish, Rainey Marlboro Yama ha's title lead er Te ts uya Ha ra da had closed a Hl-seccnd gap to less tha n two , seco nds as Biaggi foug h t slide s with a ru ine d rea r tire. Seco nd p lace re tai ned Harada 's shrinking title lead. Rainey nearly scored a rostru m do u. bl e, only tw o weeks after the fo r mer triple cham pion's first race win as a team owne r. In a stro ng ride that confirmed his arriva l among the fast men, Kenriy Roberts Jr. was beaten for third by just a quarte r of a second by 1994 title runnerup Tada yuki Okada on the HRC Hon da , after a ra ce- lo ng four-man ba ttle. Elf Tech-3's [ea n-Philippe Ruggia was haIfa-second adrift, wit h Chest erfield Ap ril- _ ia's Jean-Michel Bayle a close sixth . German h ero Ralf Waldmann had been with the leaders in the early stages, but crashed out un hu rt on the HB Ho nda on the fourth of 22 laps: Blu mex Rh ea s Honda ' s Harachuki Aoki won a breathtaking 125cc GP, bid ing his time in the thick of wha t was at one stage a 10-bike ba ttle to move past late lead er No boru Veda and claim his fourth win in five races. Rising Spaniard Emili o Aizamora (Scot Racin g Ho nda) Daryl Beattie (4) leads Alberto Puig (5), Luca Cadalora (2), Loris Capirossi (65) and World Champion Michael Doohan (1) ear ly In the German 500cc Grand Prix. Beattie went on to win his second GP of the season with Doohan crashing for the second stra ight race. followed the two Japanese rivals home a close third, with the first non-Honda , Stefano Perugini's Nastro Azurro Aprilia in fourth. Title defend er Kazuto Sakata and the Kron a Ap rilia h ad been with the lead ers when he fell. He remounted, only to crash again on the last lap. Swiss rider Yves Briguet won a hardfought Thund er bikes race, his seco nd v ict ory in t w o rounds o n th e Hon d a CBR600F-3. In a race hel d on Saturda y, Briton Darr en Dixon wo n the Sidecar GP after a close battle with Steve Abbott. Both wer e riding Windle ou tfits , giving th e first non-LCR race w ins since 1982. All five outfits powered by the new Swiss-Au to V-fou r engines broke d own, incl u di ng early leader Paul Guedel and front-ru nner Rolf Biland . 500cc GRAND PRIX Bea ttie led fro m th e s tart, w ith Doohan in the pack, fifth at the end of the first lap, while Puig led the pursuit. The defend ing Worl d Cha mpio n quickly picked off the lesser riders, passing Cadalora and Pu ig in two consecutive bends, and was in second and closing by the second lap. At the end of the fourth , he was on Beattie, and outbra ked him into the first comer. But he d idn 't pull away, and when he had a slip and near-crash on the seventh lap, Beatt ie was read y and wa iting to take the lead again. Doohan repass ed him into the hairpin the next time around, and was still narrowlv a he ad when he had his sec on d cras h of the weekend, on the run down the hill. It looked as though he'd lost the rear wheel, but he told his pit crew that it had been the front that went first, and that he w as myst ified after having taken tha t bend at the same speed and on the same line withou t any problems all weekend. Th en h e withdrew behind th e locked d o or of h is m otorh ome to lick his wo unds, and it was left to Beattie to find an explana tion. "There was a little bump there, and it looked as though Mick hit it," Beatti e explained. "It just broke the tire loose for a moment, and he was off." From then on the Lucky ma n had little to do exce pt maintain his lap times and kee p on d rawing away to take an uncha llenged sec on d race win . "I 'd planned - steady start , but this morning a we found an even better suspension setup that meant I cou ld go hard straight awa y, even with a hard -compou nd rear ti re, " the yo u ng Au ss ie sa id . "When Mick went, he mad e it easier for me. I just tried to stay smoo th. It's great to get a decent lead on points, but with 10 races left it' s wa y too soo n to start thinking about the championship." Behind him, Ca dalora , rid in g for a second successive race on "prod uction" Michelin slicks, had run straight through th e unpopula r tig ht new chicane. This allowed Itoh to catch up and start applying the pressure, after working through s tro ngly from a seventh-place s ta r t. Whe n he at tacked on lap 18, Cad alora didn't resist. "I'd tried to keep a gap, but he could go faster than me." Instead Cad alora waited in his wheeltracks, makin g one dummy attack wit h three laps left at the last chicane. Then he fooled Itoh by makin g his move one corner earlie r on the last lap. "He caught me by su rp rise ," ad mitted Itoh lat er, who was b ar ely a ten th of a second behind across the line. Puig had gradually lost groun d, while Capirossi and Cri ville had caught up, ridi ng along wi th Itoh. The n Capirossi was forced to abando n the chase after a near crash, blaming brak e probl ems . This left the tw o Spaniards in close company, with Criville moving pa st Puig on lap 18, and hanging on to fourth to the finish, under considerable pressure. Behind the lone Capirossi, Barros had been with the battlers early on, but faded in seven th, only to come under attack fro m Abe's slo w-s tarti ng M arlboro Yama ha . He just fend ed th e Japan ese rider off across the line. "I tried to pass him many times, bu t his bike was just too fast," said the Jap anese ride r, who used one of the new rear Dunlops with a front Michelin for the race. Aprilia's Loris Reggiani was a distan t ninth, blaming carburetion problems for an inability to match his practice form that almost netted him a first front-row start for th e ligh tweigh t 400cc V-twin. Juan Borja was 10th, top privateer again, well clear of Christiano Migliorati. Adrian Bosshard wo n a close battle wit h laurent Naveau's simila r ROC Yama ha for 12th, with Neil Hodgson and Jean Jeandat takin g the final poin ts. There were 21 finishers; not among them early retiree Scott Gray. Dooh an clocked the best lap, a record on the revised track, on lap three while he closed on Beattie.