ROAD RACE
6: French Grand Prix
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROAD RACE SERIES
Waldmann (9B/I); 3. T_tsuya Ha,ada (BI/1); 4. Olivi..jacque (61/1); 5. Tohru Ukawa (52); 6. Haruchilk.,m (69); 5. jo'g_ Mac';n_z (57); 6. Garry McCoy (54);
7. Masaki Tokudome (47); 8. Masao Azuma (41); 9.
Frederic Petit (40); 10. Yoshiyaki Katah (35); 11. Youichi
Ui (28); 12. (TIE) Mirko Giansanti/CianJuigi Scalvini
(26); 14. Roberto Locatelli (23); 15. Ivan Goi (17); 16.
Hideyuki Nakajo (16); 17. Lucio Cecchinello (15); 18.
Peter OeUI (10); 19. (TIE) Kazuhiro Takao/Dirk Raudies
Tim~
(B).
.
2SO« WORLD C'SHlP POINT STANDINGS (Aflee 6
of 15 rounds): 1. Ma.x Biaggi (111/2 wins); 2. RaU
Nothing's
chang_ed
B
20
m.ing his groin to hurt "important body parts." Already in pain
after a similar episode in Italy and a practice crash in Austria, he
_
USiness as usual for the front row: the same four guys as
at four out of six races this year, all riding Hondas, and
with the order marginally reshuffled.
This time, for the third consecutive race, Michael Doohan was
on pole after displacing day one's fast man Alex Criville. Both
went faster on the second day - Doohan slightly more so than
his teammate. The nature of the track imposes special demands,
with rear tires taking a beating under the blaSts of heavy acceleration, and the left-hand side of the tire a definite worry.
'11's not SO much that it doesn't get hot, but that it takes two
or three laps to get working. Then, toward the end of the race,
because it hasn't been used much, it kind of goes off:' explained
Doohan, who'd concentrated on tires for most of practice, and
ran 14 laps straight on Saturday afternoon on race tires. That's
when he set his best time, and, though he fitted new tires as
usual at the end, in case he needed to up the pace to stay on top,
it wasn't necessary.
The same question vexed Criville, who ended up less than a
tenth slower, but sliding a great deal as he tried to make up the
deficit. He was far closer to an accident than Doohan, and said
later: "I'm happy to be second" - a remark which may be taken
to mean rather more than he intended.
Nobuatsu Aoki was third, still showing well in his first 500cc
season. He too had been hunting for grip, but improved his situation on the second day after going the wrong way with suspension on day one.
Then came battered hero Tadayuki Okada, who had another
massive highsider close to the end of the session, landing bade
on the bike, but breaking the fairing, hurting'his wrist and slam-
did not expect to be a factor in fighting for the lead. He fell
heavily again in race-morning warmup.
The fastest V-fours were clocking more than 189 mph at the
end of the truncated but still fairly substantial Mistral straight:
The best V-twin Hondas were 6 or more mph slower. But they
made up a lot on the very slow corners linking the straights, so
that two of them led row two: Takuma Aoki's works bike from
Alex BaJTOS' privateer machine; then came Carlos Checa's Vfour Honda, all the times still dose, and less than seven tenths
down on pole.
This meant that Luca CadaJora's eighth-fastest Yamaha, best
non-Honda, was not too desperately fast off the pace. "I was
looking for a tow down the straight, but nobody wanted to help
me, so I had to do it alone:' he said with a grin.
Doriano Romboni's V-twin, leading row three, was also less
than a second off Doohan's time, and he had been higher. 'But
he was one of a number of crash vietjms in the final session, losing his chance to improve.
Alberto Puig was next, then Anthony Gobert, continuing to
impress, slashing 1.5 seconds off his time from the first day to
the second.
'1 tried a different style - braking a bit earlier but ca.nying
more speed into the corner and getting on the gas early. It
seemed to work," Gobert said.
Norifumi Abe was next, hardly much happier after switching to a 1996-model Yamaha. Then came Kenny Roberts Jr.,
leading row four for his best qua1ifying position this year. Juan
Borja was next, at the Elf's home test circuit; then a detuned
Daryl Beattie, chasing front-wheel grip, but not anxious to stick
his neck out while so far off the pace. Jean-Michel Bayle completed the row, another who was far from happy after two
crashes on the first day, and an engine blow-up on the second as if being the top French hope wasn't enough pressure already.
Sete Gibemau crashed in the final session. A small fire
burned under his bike for some time as marshals ran back and
forth looking for a fire- extinguisher. That the whole bike failed
to ignite may be taken as a symbol of his weekend so far.
There were 25 qualifiers - Troy Corser struggling again to
end up 21st, among the privateers.
Qualifying for the 2505 came alive in the closing minutes.
Olivier Jacque had led earlier, and Ralf Waldmann, then Loris
Capirossi. Now came Max Biaggi, like an avenging angel, having fmally gotten a handle on his front-end chatter problems
after two days of battling.
His pole seemed secure as marshals readied the checkered
flag. But Jacque wasn't finished, and his finaJ effort in the dying
mODlents lifted him clear of the opposi!ion by almost two
tenths, a fair margin under the c:irrumstances.
"Everything felt perfect, and the lap was easy," he glowed
afterward. "1 did it for my French fans."
Biaggi swaRowed the defeat.
"I don't mind," the Italian said. "Anywhere from first to
fourth is okay. The important thing is that we improved the
chatter:' he said. Asked to elucidate on exactly where and how
the chatter was a problem, he dec1jned. "Let's just say chatter."
Capirossi was more forthcoming. "This is not a perfect track
for the Aprilia:' he said, having outqualified teammate Tetsuya
Harada by well over half a second. "The rotary valve is very
bad on slow comers. We have been working hard on gearing so
that it is at higher revs so it does not snatch, but still has some
revs left for acceleration."
The bike was marginally faster than the Hondas, he admitted, but thought the race would be difficult nonetheless.
Finally came Waldmann, who withdrew his threats of the
previous Sunday to use "more body" in his fight against Jacque.
"That's forgotten now:' he said. "Looking at the TV, I see I also
made a mistake in leaving him too much room:'
Tohru Ukawa led the second row, just three tenths down.
Then came Harada, the impressively perennial top privateer (or
at least semi-privateer) Takeshi Tsujimura, with Stefano Perugini completing the row.
