Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

decided then to wait until the final lap," said Criville later. His attack came at the bottom of the hill, diving inside impressively with front and rear wheels in a full drift. He was ahead only for a few yards, with Doohan moving back inside and ahead as he ran wide. It seemed to be all over, and probably would have been, but for the Spaniard's psychological boost of his Austrian win. He braked later than Doohan for the final bends, and somehow got a better drive to edge alongside and ahead over the line. It was a sensational result, and it brought him a new lap record. Russell had been obviously running wide for much of the race, with the familiar problem of chasing front-wheel grip, and he was losing touch gradually. Behind, the racers chasing Barros were haVing a thrilling time trying to get past him, only to be foiled by his very late braking. Okada had been trying for ages, but the real action was coming from Roberts, riding extremely well to pick ljis way past Shinichi Itoh (who got back ahead several times), Bayle and Okada. It took him two laps to find his way past Barros, at which point he was two seconds adrift of Russell, with eight laps to go. Soon Roberts was the fastest man on the track as he chipped away to close to within half-a-second on lap 17, but Russell responded to close up marginally on the Hondas and save his second rostrum of the season.. "My real problem was front-end chatter," said Roberts. "But it was there from the start, and I had to learn to ride the bike like that." Loris Capirossi also had been moving through in the closing stages, finishing barely two 'Seconds behind the American; Bayle recovered somewhat to take sixth, less than a tenth ahead of Okada. Carlos Checa also had moved through from a slow start to take eighth - the first eight bikes were covered by 10 seconds. Barros was ninth, narrowly ahead of Itoh; some way back, Norifumi Abe was 11th. He'd narrowly escaped crashing after being blocked so forcibly by Barros on the second 'lap that he had to take to the gravel, rejoining dead last. The detuned Alberto Puig was close behind, fending off a disappointed Terry Rymer's Lucky Strike Suzuki for the.complete race distance. Jeremy McWilliams was again top privateer in 14th, with Marcelino Lucchi's Aprilia taking the final point. There were 23 finishers, with James Haydon blowing up on the first lap. He and Cadalora were the only retirements; there were no crashes. Doohan's title lead shrunk to a still impressive 52 points, with 231 points to Criville's 179. Cadalora has 126, then comes a close battle: Barros 118, Abe 115 and Russell 112. 250cc GRAND PRIX Yet again, with no real challenge to Biaggi, the 250cc race was rather an anticlimax. With the Italian now fully recovered from his Assen injuries, and the horsepower of the Aprilia a huge asset here, nobody could touch him. Jacque had a good try, seizing the lead on the first lap. Then he ran wide into the first tum and missed a gear on the way out of it. It was all Biaggi needed. "I chose sticky tires to get an early advantage, and it worked," he said later. His advantage was 1.5 seconds on lap two, almost double that the next lap, and it kept on stretching from then on. It was a masterful performance. (Cepsa Honda); but he had Martinez snapping at his heels, and he moved firmly to second on lap nine and into the lead one lap later. The veteran was on a charge, and he immediately started to stretch away. But Rossi went with him, and by two-thirds distance the pair had clear air between them and the rest. Rossi bided his time, then took the .lead again with three laps to go, resisting manfully every attack from Martinez, to claim his first GP victory by a quar;ter of a second. The big brawl was for third place, with five riders swapping back and forth, and "ghost rider" Aoki poised ·in among the pack to make his usual charge to the front. This time, however, .it was not to be. The Honda in front was ridden by Tomomi Manako, with former champion Kazuto Sakata's Krona Aprilia next, then Alzamora, Aoki's Rheos Honda, and Peter OettYs Marlboro Aprilia. Lucio CecchinelJo's humpback Honda was a lone eighth, with Austrian GP winner Ivan Goi (Cepsa Honda) leading the next battle home from Dirk Raudie's (HB Honda), Garry McCoy (Alia ApriJia), Yoshiako Katoh (Kurz Yamaha) and the luckless Tokudome and Perugini. Tokudome's tire troubles were a· lucky break for Aoki, who' was able to stretch his title lead, 164-136. Manako is (Above) The race boiled down to Alex Crlville (4) vs. Michael Doohan (1). When all was said and done, Crlville beat Doohan by Just '0.002 of a second. (Right) Alex Barros (7) tries to hold off the advances of JeanMichel Bayle (12), Tadayukl Okada (6) and Kenny Roberts Jr. (10). Some fierce infighting delayed the pursuit, with Jean-Philippe Ruggia also getting ahead of Jacque briefly, then Waldmann a lap later. It was only on lap five that the Frenchman finally regained second for good, and also started to pull away. "It was really disappointing to make that mistake," Jacque said. "My lap times later were close to Biaggi's, and perhaps I could have raced with him." There was a good battle behind him, with Waldmann getting the best of it most of the time, but under strong pressure from Tohru Ukawa. Fuchs came up to 'join on from behind; Ruggia lost touch in the closing stages. Ukawa tried everything on the last lap, bufWaldmann was able to lead him across the line by two-tenths. "It was hard work," he said later. "I obviously chose the wrong rear tire, because it was sliding really badly for the whole race." There was a good fight also for seventh, behind Ruggia, won at the end by Eskil Suter (Mohag Aprilia) from Luis d' Antin (MX Onda Honda), Tetsuya Harada (Marlboro Yamaha), Roberto Locatelli (Nastro Azzurro Aprilia) and Nobuatsu Aoki (Rheas Honda), the pack covered by just over a second across the line. Christiano Migliorati (Axo Honda) led an equally close group of privateers over the line for 12th, trailed by Olivier Petrucciani (Mohag Aprilia) and Sete Gibemau (AXO Honda). Jamie Robinson (Docshop Honda), Osamu Miyazaki (Edo Aprilia) and Gianluigi Scalvini (Pileri Honda) all crashed out, without serious injury. There were 22 finishers. Biaggi's title lead opened up again, on 224 points to Waldmann on 187. Fuchs has 123, Jacque 112 and d'Antin 108. 125CC GRAND PRIX The usual fearsome pack for the first laps saw Stefano Perugini (Nastro Azzurro Aprilia) and Masaki Tokudome (Ditter Plastic Aprilia) lead, but the real battle began on the fifth lap when Rossi took the lead for the first time. With Tokudome slipping away, the pursuit was led by. Emilio Alzamora up to third on 125; Perugini's 121 drops him to fourth, with Alzamora fifth at 105. SIDECAR GRAND PRIX The scheduled start coincided with a downpour of biblical proportions, and was delayed to allow the three-wheelers some wet practice time. The flood eased eventually, but of the fast men only Biland stuck with full wet tires, and he took full advantage as the track remained damp throughout, winning easily by a massive margin of 45 seconds. . The focus was on pole qualifier Darren Dixon and third-row starters the Guedel brothers, with Dixon in a position to clinch his second consecutive title. That was resolved on the third lap, when the Guedels spun out of fourth place to rejoin in eighth. In the process, Dixon went past them, and had merely to stay ahead. Former champion Steve Webster was second. His only interruption came from Klaus Klaffenboek, who held the posi-

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