Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE World Championship Road Race series Round 10: Austrian Grand Prix By Michael Scott I Photos by Gold & Goose ~ 0\ rl ZELTWEG, AUSTRIA, AUG. 4 lex Criville finally broke Michael Doohan's spell over him in the Austrian Grand Prix. At race after race, the junior Repsol Honda rider has found all sorts of different ways to be. beaten by the defending World Champion. On Sunday, at last, he turned the tables. In a thrilling afternoon, with close battles all the way down to 10th place and beyond, the Spaniard christened the brand-new AI-Ring circuit with a breathtaking last-lap attack that had Doohan close to crashing as he fought to regain the lead he had held for much of the race. Conditions at the new track, opened only a week ago after a total remodeling on the site of the old Osterreichring, were cool and overcast but dry - a great relief after a series of cloudbursts the day before had flooded the track and paddock with mud, causing the second day of practice to be abandoned and threatening the event with cancellation. As it was, a fair crowd of 32,000 made the trip to the spectacular venue in the chocolate-box Alpine foothills, to be rewarded with one of the best SOOcc races of a good year. But the shortage of practice left Doohan to take a gamble on front tire choice, with a softer-compound front that he had not been able to test. It did not payoff, and as he fought for grip Criville took advantage to cross the line half-a-second ahead. "I had the move planned out, but I knew I would have to wait until the end of the race," said Criville - a statement more usually made by Doohan in a season where he has successfuJly bamboozled the Spaniard in a series of close battles. Doohan shouldered the blame for the error. "He's been pushing me all year, and today it was his turn to win," he said. "We all choose our own tires, and I made the wrong choice. Congratulations to Alex." He also had a gearshift problem, with the bike dropping to first as he went into one of the track's slow turns. "That's why I went sideways, and by the time I recovered I'd lost too much ground to fight back." Doohan still leads comfortably overall on points. Marlboro Yamaha rider Norifumi Abe was third, only four seconds behind, for his second successive rostrum finish as he picks up the race pace; and Kanemoto Honda's Luca Cadalora fourth, dropping right away at the finish. Then came a marvelous battle for fifth, with at one stage six works bikes swapping places inches apart. The position went to Pileri Honda's Alex Barros, by a tenth of a second from Scott Russell's Lucky Strike Suzuki, after a strong recovery ride. Russell had led into the first corner only to run wide and drop to last place, to scythe through the field once more. Carlos Checa was seventh on the Fortuna Honda, with Loris Capirossi moving through to eighth in the closing stages, displacing fellow Marlboro Yamaha rider Jean-Michel Bayle;Elf 500 rider Juan Borja, and Repsol-Honda Vtwin rider Tadayuki Okada, who had qualified on the front row of the grid. There were upset results in aJl classes, with not one defending champion (all of whom lead on points) winning a race. • Earlier, series leader Max Biaggi and the Chesterfield Aprilia had taken the heat out of the 250cc race, colliding with pole starter Olivier Jacque and his Chesterfield Elf Honda on only the second comer, and taking them both out of the race. This left HB Honda's Ralf Waldmann to a virtually unopposed win, with recovered injury victim Luis d' An tin second and Waldmann's teammate Jurgen Fuchs third. It was a processional race with a minimum of overtaking. Forner champion Tetsuya Harada and his Marlboro Yamaha continued their disastrous year with another no-score, pulling in after four laps complaining of carburetion problems. Waldmann's third win moves him within 28 points of Biaggi with five rounds left - and one more non-finish from the Italian could put him under serious pressure in his chase for his third title. Earlier, Cepsa Honda's 16-year-old Ivan Goi became the youngest-ever GP winner, inheriting the l2Scc race lead from Masaki Tokudome's Ditter Plastic Aprilia after the Japanese rider ran into electrical trouble. Former champion Dirk Raudies and the HB Honda was second, the other Italian teenager Valenlino Rossi third, his first rostrum finish. Tokudome was fourth, closing the points gap on defending champion Harachuki Aoki, who was never higher than 17th before retiring, stricken with illness. Scotsman Ian McPherson won the Thunderbike Trophy race, with Frenchman William Costes second and Spaniard Pere Riba third in a close allHonda rostrum. Jeffrey de Vries was sixth; Wilco Zeelenberg retired with electrical problems. On Saturday, a narrow victory in a wet sidecar race went to the Swiss brothers Paul and Charley Guedel, with points leader Darren Dixon second and Rolf Biland dropping away in third. The bad weather and slick, brandnew surface caused some concerns for safety, but in fact there were the lowest nUmber of crashes all season - only nine throughout practice and the races, and no injuries. 500Cc GRAND PRIX Russell took a flier of a start, swerving left and right to leap from the second row to lead into the first comer. It didn't last. "I had a touch too much speed, and when the rear went sideways under brakes I thought it would be better to run out than crash." He dropped to last place, to embark on a cavalier ride through -the field. This left Criville up front, ahead of Abe, Cadalora and Doohan, the field packed up tight for several laps as Doohan moved through to second on lap three and to the lead on lap four. He had Criville on his tail and Cadalora right behind, but the ltalian' was soon to run into tire problems and succumbed to Abe on lap 10, losing touch gradually thereafter until he dropped right back in the closing laps. "The front was moving around so I couldn't go into the corners fast enough/' he said later. Abe never did get back on terms with the Hondas, though he was close for the rest of the race. So it was that the dueling pair laid on a familiar spectacle, with a certain appearance of inevitability. So often we have seen Doohan control the pace from the front that when he started to run a l·ittle wide some five laps from the end it didn't seem to mean too much. But Criville had other plans, and remained well in touch. "I could see things weren't perfect for him, but in the past I have gone to the front and started to make mistakes, and I didn't want that again. I decided to wait until the last lap, and I had the place picked out where I would try and pass," he said. In fact, he made his first move on the penultimate lap, only to be firmly put back to second at the next bend. He'd run in too fast. Doohan had pulled out more than hali-a-second by the time Alex Crlville finally won his first 500cc Grand Prix of the season, beating World Champion Michael Doohan In a straight fight In the Austrian Grand Prix. they crossed the line, and again it seemed he had things under control. ot so, however. Criville attacked again at the same place, and passed so close that Doohan's bike almost flicked him out of the saddle. "He didn't hit me. My front was a bit light, and it was just the wind off his bike that caused it," said Doohan. . Two corners later came Doohan's gearshift problem, hitting first instead of second, and giving Criville a couple of vital feet. The World Champion wasn't for giving up, however, and dived inside CrivilIe into the penultimate corner. There were inches in it. "Our bikes didn't touch, but we banged elbows," said Criville. Doohan went ahead, but only for a few yards, because he was going just too fast. He drifted out wide, CrivilIe moved cleanly ahead again on the inside, and the race was won. Abe had dosed up marginally with five laps to go, but could do no more as the two leaders repeatedly broke the lap record, best time finally going to CriviIle. Cadalora was 19 seconds back, and slowing so much now that he only narrowly saved fourth from Barros and

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