Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Round 6: FrenchG Prix rand Abe attacked w ith vigor on lap 21, pa ssing Okad a on the stra igh t then diving insi de Russell at the last comer as the American ran wide . The Suzuki was in trouble - "I'd been pu sh ing the front all th e w ay, and th e tire started to go really b a d ," said Ru sse ll. As h e was d ecid ing that discretion was the better part of va lor, d ropping to th e back of th e gro up, Puig p ushed h is way p ast and was soon attacking Oka da. The Japanese rider also knew his race would not last much longer. "Russell was throwing up a lot of gravel, and a stone went through my radiator. The bike was just getting hotter and 'hotter, and I knew it wouldn't last much longer," he said . It failed on the 25th lap, by which time Romboni was also closing up fast , almost the fas test man on the track as he also enjoyed the V-twin tire advantage. But he also lasted on ly one lap longer, before he had a cha nce to try to pass Russell. "Everythin g w as going so well and I was rea dy to move forward some m or e," Romboni sai d. "Then the bike just stopped." This ju st left th e V-fou r tri o, with Puig now ahead of Abe, survivin g one huge slid e as he went for broke. "I was tired," said Puig, "bu t when I saw there wa s a chance of third place I pushed on extra hard." He crossed the line two-tenths ahead of Abe, with Russell just barely behind the Japanese rider, and almost collapsed with e xhaustion afterward. The Spaniard's left leg is skeletal below the knee, and his valiant effort earned him heartfelt applause ev en from his rivals as he limped to the rostrum. Cadalora considered himself lucky to get sixth after engine trouble all weekend. " We th ought our tests at Im ola would help us get the bike better, but instead it's gone the othe r w ay," he said. He wa s 11 seco nds adri ft of Russell. Barros wa s another 18 seconds back, having escaped from.the privateer battl e wh ich wa s won by Frenchman Fred Protat's ROC, with Briton James Ha ydon a career-bes t 10th, four seconds behind at the finish. They were the last riders on the sam e lap as the leaders. The rest came trailin g in: Lucio Pedercini, Jeremy M cWilli am s, Eugen e McManus, wild card Ferracci, Jean Deleta n g, and .To sh i Arakaki, a ll in th e points by default. Doohan now leads Cad alora 121-81, with Criville next at 73, Barros 67, Abe 58. 250c. GRAND PRIX c 16 Biaggi played the gam e a little d ifferen tly this time. He too had chan ged h is tire choice minutes before the start, and he wanted a little time to get the feel of together in a huge slipstream ing pack, changing back and forth all the time. As the race wo re on the pac k split into two, with private Ap rilia rider Boscoscu ro leading Eskil Suter's Aprilia, Locatelli, Ch ris tia no Migliora ti's H on d a and d ' Antin across the line. By th en, the y h ad caugh t right u p to th e dueling Japanese riders, so th at fourth to 10th w as covered by three seconds. The next group was headed across the line by Regis Laconi. He had been with the one in front , but fell on the last comer, hastily rem ounting to save 11th place. Front-row qualifier Jean-Phil ippe Ruggia, racing virtually in his own back yard, was out of luck, retiring after eight laps after his Elf-Cheste rfield team failed to fix a puzzling engine problem th at ha d surfaced righ t at the end of morning warmup. Biaggi's title lead is now more than 50 poin ts. He has 145 to Harad a' s 91, with Waldmann at 76, d'Antin 59 and Jacqu e 56. (Above left) Scott Russe ll leads Tadayukl Okad a and Carlos Checa. Russe ll went on to finish fi ft h, while Okada 's race ended with a damaged radiator and Checa cras hed out . (Above right) Stefano Perug ini leads the 125cc pack. Perug ini prevailed in what was at times a ninerider battle for the lead. (Right) Ralf Waldmann (left), Max Biag gi (middle) and Tetsuya Harada celebrate on the 250cc pod ium . Harada is some 54 points behind championship lead er Biaggi. the harder compound . Thus it was that he trailed local hero Jacqu e' s Hond a closel y for th e first fo ur laps, as the crowd we n t wild. "H e w as going fast," said Biag gi la te r. " But I could see h e w a s r e all y u sin g h is re ar tire like crazy. I followed him like a fox, and when I w as ready I overtoo k him ." The deci sive m o ve cam e on the fifth lap at the end of the straight, and .fro m th en on fans were treated to a sp ectacle that is becoming a ch in gly familia r - th e bl a ck Aprili a drawing inexorably ahead , perhap s a little slower than usual, but jus t as certainly, so that the gap wa s an t,lnbridgable five seconds by lap 17. The only hiccup came six laps from the end, with a big front -wh eel slide. "I wa s lu cky to sa ve it . After that I was more care ful," Biaggi said . Perhaps that was w hy he completed most of the last lap o n hi s re ar wh ee l to w in b y a reduced margin of 6.8 seconds. He also took the lap record , on the 14th lap. The action was all beh in d hi m. The d isp irited Har ada h ad s ta rted we ll, third on the first lap, and held the position for the next five. But he w as losing gro und all the time, and the pair of HB Hondas wer e closing u p from behind; Waldmann in front, Fu chs catching up with him rap idly . Waldmann w as th e first to pass, at the end of the straight on lap eight; then th e su rp ris ing Fuchs - a w orks-b ik e rookie in only his thi rd Grand Prix year - did the same and closed rapidly up on h is teammat e on la p 12. Meanw hile, th ey were both catching Ja cque, w ho was now forced to slow slightly wit h his back end sl idi ng. Th ey were together 125cc GRAND PRIX when Fuchs ran wide in the penultimate turn, g iv in g him the chance to dive ins id e Waldmann at th e next in a fin e move. He tried the same thing on Jacque a lap later , but ran onto th e dirt on the exit, letting the Frenchman b y once more. It was the signal for the start of an exce llen t battle that w ent on until th e 21st lap, the tw o changing places several m or e tim es. Jacque would alw ays get st raight back in front, as Waldmann d ropped back slightly, getting peppered by stones that he feared would damage his radiator. It cou ld n' t last forever, es pecia lly s ince Fu chs' s brak es were star ti ng to give tro uble, He didn't let that put him off his chance of a first rostrum finish, an d at the en d of the fron t straight he p aid th e price. So too d id Jacque. As they braked from top spee d to first gear, Fuchs sim p ly faile d to slow down fast enough, punching the Frenchma n's bike dead-cente r fro m behind, and send in g them both flyin g. Waldm ann w as in dee d lucky to get second; likewise Harad a thir d . Some wa back, Tohru Vkawa finally prevailed er Aok i by jus t one- tenth. The p rivateers, as well as the works bikes of Roberto Loca telli an d practi ce injury victim Luis d 'Antin were locked The first race of the d ay was typ ically breathtaking. with six d ifferent lead ers, culled from a gro u p of at one stage more than a dozen bikes. Perugini did most of the leading, but o the rs to take a turn included fast s t a rt e r Dirk Raudi es, Masako Tokudome, Emilio Alzamora, Noboru Veda and the app aren tly fearless Rossi, using all the track and more, as well as his elbows and at times even his knees. Tokudome's time up front didn't last, and he was. soon dropping back with en gin e trouble that led to retirement. Jorge Martinez crashed out of the group after seven laps; Peter Oettl did likewise 10 laps later, lucky to escape inju ry or indeed a multiple crash as he tumbled a lon g in th e middle o f the pack. The next of the lead ers to go w as Rossi, as he finall y overreach ed himself with thre e lap s left. All the whil e, title leader Harachuki Aoki was closin g ste adily from a bad start, so he had tagged on the back with some six lap s remaining. . lly the finis h, the gro up had stretched slightly, an d there w ere just five close enough for .th e mad scramble through the final comers to the flag. Perugini claim ed the win, his second of the se as on, by a lm os t four-t enths fro m M ana ko, Alz a mora, Ve da a nd Yamaha -mo un ted Yoshiako Kat oh , all five swerving an d jostling on the final run to the line. Raudies w as two second ad rif t for six th, just fend ing off Aoki; Ka zu to Sakata was a close sevent h, wi th Aus-

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