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/127786
Round 5: Italian Grand Prix By Henny Ray Abrams I Photos by Gold & Goose MUGELLO, ITALY MAY26 , ike the 500cc class itself, Repsol Honda's Mick Doohan continue d his resu rgence w ith a crafty win on a partially sunny day at the Italian Grand Prix hel d in the Tuscan mountains just ou tside of Floren ce. Th ou gh tea m mate Alex Cri vill e w as nev er far behin d, the two-time World Champion was able to control th e p ace an d take over the lead wh en the n eed arose. His best lap was hi s last and it gave him enou gh to stay ahe ad of Criville, thou gh by a decepti ve 0.726 seconds at the end. " To d ay 's ra ce was a good ra ce, " Dooh an said a fte r win n in g fo r the fourth year in a row here. "I pred icted it would be close and it was. Even though Alex (Crivill e) d id not qu alify on the front row I knew he'd be stro ng and he put up a good race." Criville had h ou nd e d D oohan throughout and had led the race as late as th e 14th of 23 laps. Then Doohan made hi s m ov e and Criville had n o answe r. Kan em oto Honda's Lu ca Cada lora finished a popular thi rd wit h the crow d of 55,000, the 33-year-old Italian battling early w ith fellow countryman Lo ris L 6 Capi rossi, of t he M arlboro Yamaha Rain ey team, before Cap irossi crashed out on th e 11th lap ju st a fte r pass ing Cad alora for th ird . Th at left Cad alora pretty m u ch a lon e for a while be fore Lucky Strike Su zuki' s Dar yl Beattie , wh o'd started cau tio us ly, mad e a lat e run at him . Beattie, wh o w as recovering from the flu, came within less tha n half a second at the flag and Cada lora knew he was there. "He was very close on th e last lap and I tried hard, very hard to keep the pod ium because it w as very importan t here for me to be on the rostrum," said Cadal ora, who s t ruggle d with se tup problems all weekend . "Basically, we need to find some thing that we still do n ot h ave enou gh of to m a ke m e fast enoug h to try to win races." After going back and forth between the Showa and Ohlins forks, Cad alora se tt led on th e Ohlins for th e ra ce a fte r tryin g the Sho w as, with a new rear linkage an d shock, in the morning wannup. " My p robl em was th a t I lost t oo muc h at the sta rt," Beattie sa id. I w as using a tire that I wasn 't really familiar w ith an d I w as n ' t total ly confiden t. Although I got away okay, it was a few laps before I felt happy enough to push ahead. By then the front-runners were a little b it too far ahead and, althoug h I caught up wit h the group, the re wa sn' t anythin g left to tr y an d cu t through them ." Fo llow ing Beattie ca me Marlboro Yama ha Roberts' Jean -Michel Bayle in his best 500cc finish ever after switching to h is spare bike following the sighting lap. It was not only his best 500cc finish , bu t it matched his career-best GP finishes, fifths in consecu tive 250cc GPs in Fran ce and Eng land aboard the Chesterfield Ap rilia in 1994. . Bayle was followed by a trio of Hondas battling ove r sixth. That race went to the V-fou r of Honda Pileri' s Alex Barros ove r the Rep sol Honda V-twins of Tad ayu ki Ok ad a and Shinichi Itoh, the trio covered by h alf a secon d at the line. Ninth place went to the IP Aprilia Vtwin of Doriano Romboni wh en the Italian p assed the fadin g Kenny Roberts Jr. on th e fin al lap . Roberts Jr. had run as high as fifth pla ce until his rear tire went awa y with sixth lap s to go and he nearly came off. "On e momen t 1 w as d oing 54s n o pr ob lem, the next I was ha ving to do high 55s," Roberts Jr. said of the adjustments he ha d to make for his fading tire. "We don't know what cau sed the problem yet, w hether it was a tire or a chassis thing." In w inni ng his third race of the year, and 29th of his career, Doohan completed the .23-lap, 74.79-mile race in a new race record of 44 minutes, 4.252 seconds at an average speed of 102.057 mph. He improved h is championsh ip points le ad to 25 points, 96-71, over Cadalora. Barros is thi rd at 58. Not s t art in g the race was Lucky Strike Suzu k i' s Scott Russell (se e Briefly...). Citing problems with his stillinjur ed left foot, as well as "problems at h ome," Russ ell sho w ed u p too late to ra ce and wa s re p la ce d b y Brit Terry Rymer. Rymer, who'd seized tw ice in practice, as well as crashing once, again h ad mechanical problems in th e ra ce and didn't finish. For th e fourth ti me t his year, Chest erfield Ap rili a's Max Biaggi won the 250cc race and he did it with apparent ease. From the first comer on he was in control, firing off a new lap record on the third lap and easin g out to a 6.914second win. It was the th ird tim e he' d