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/127848
su Aoki moves in to third with 100, 11 ahead of Reps o l Honda's Tadayuki Okada. MoviStar Honda Pons' Carlos Checa is the fifth Honda in a row, standing at 113 poin ts w ith seven races remaining . After taking the lead for good on the 11th of 23 laps, Marlboro Tea m Kanemoto Honda's Max Biaggi held off the determined charges of a pack of three other Hond a riders to sco re a very popular 250cc Gra nd Prix wi n in fron t of the partisan Italian crowd. Ridi ng his n u m be r- tw o bike, the three-time defend ing World Champion had led as early as the six th la p, dispatc hing poi nts lead er Ral f Wald ma nn a nd the Marlboro H ond a to second , before falli ng back a pl a ce fo r a la p behind Bene llo n Honda's Tohru Ukawa. Biaggi led acro ss the stripe endi ng the 11th lap ana, though Uka wa would get in front o f him on th e ba ck s tra ig h t, Biaggi led the rest of the way wh en the pack crossed the stripe - though never by much. It wasn't until there we re two laps to go that he had a margin of more than a second, whic h he would expand slightly befo re his victory wh eeli e secu red his winning ma rgin of .656 of a second . With Biaggi in front the fight was for second with Chesterfield Elf Tec h 3's Olivier Jacque fronting Benelton Honda's Ukawa for the final nine laps. Both w ere riding a t a disadvantage: Ja cque with an engine vibration that killed both his drive and top speed, and Ukawa with a finger broken from a practice cra sh. Though the Japanese rider kept the heat on to the flag, Jacque was able to hold on by .160 of a second to finish his first race after two non-finishes. Waldmann was fourth, after ha ving led the first five laps and then dropping back as far as fifth , with ApriIia's Tetsuya Harada taking adva ntage of the probl ems of teammate Loris Capirossi to tak e fifth , thou gh he had his own travails. A slowing engine late in the race dropped him out o f contenti on . Capirossi had passed the faltering Harada on the 21st lap, but dropped out on the final lap when his engi ne broke. The win moves Biaggi back in fro nt of Wald ma nn after eight of 15 rounds in the 250cc World Cha mpionship. Wit h seven races remaining, Biaggi lead s Waldmann 136-131. Aprilia's Tet suya Harad a is third with 117. Nast ro Azzurro Ap ril ia's Valenti no Rossi continued. his ass au lt on the 125cc title w ith a clear-cut, an d also popular, vic tory over Tomo mi Manako in wha t wa s esse ntially a two -man race. Afte r Team UGT 3OO0's Mana ko took a flyer at the start, opening a two-second gap in the ea rly go ing, the 18-yea r-old Italian stalked him, passing the Japanese rider at the start of the sixth of 21 laps. Manako stayed close, the gap about a seco nd and a half for much of th e race, then Rossi began lowering the track record o n successive laps at the two-thirds point and gained a comfortable cushion to earn his fifth win in seven tries. "1 would like to ded ica te my victory to the guy who wrote the slogan on the banner that said: 'It would be beller to be one day like Rossi than a life like Biaggi.:" Rossi said after crossing the line stand ing u p on the p egs with his fists on his hips, Su perman-style. In th ird place, nea rly 22 seconds ba ck, was UGT 3000's Kaz u to Sakata, the Japa nese rider a few seconds in front of Marlboro Team Alfa Bieffe' s Garry McCoy, wh o led a string of four rid ers to th e stripe , fifth be ing Tea m Pileri Honda's Noboru Ued a, who continues to trail Rossi in the title fight. (Above) Tadayukl Okada (7) has a look over his shoulder to lind Luca Cadalara (3) on his tail. (Right) Doohan (center) celebrates yet another win - this CA PI TI ® ELFU TURO time with the amazing Aaki brothers. The w in enla rges Rossi's gap over Ueda in the championship to 47 points, 170-123, with seven races to go. 250cc GRA ND PRIX Marlboro Honda's Wald mann jetted away fro m the fro nt row and in to the lead, th e purs uing pa ck taking a .few laps to sort itse lf out and make a chal lenge. Chesterfield Elf Tech 3's Olivie r Jacq ue, the Frenchman who started on the pole, was among the leaders, but a near crash on the second lap dropped him to fifth. "1 had a big front-end slide at Acque Minerali (a fast double-right! and nearly crashed," Jacque sa id. "1 just saved it and ran onto the grass. After that I had to push really hard to close the gap on Biaggi and I also had to think hard about Ukawa, who was with me all the way." Not long after that, he'd discover an engi ne vibration which robbed him of acceleration and top speed. On the fourth lap, there were four Ho ndas in front: Waldmann, Marlboro Team Kan emoto Honda's Max Biaggi, Ben etl on H on d a' s To hru Ukawa, a nd Jacq ue. Behi nd th em came the factory Aprilias of Capirossi, of nearby Riolo Term e, and Harad a. Biag gi mad e his move ea rly on the sixth lap with Waldma nn takin g it back, then Biaggi by aga in in the Cu rva Rivazza, a double-left near the end of the lap . He held the spot for four la ps; then Ukawa, who'd go ne from third to second on the nin th lap , too k the lead for the only time in the race on the 10th. It didn't last long. Biaggi d rafted by do wn the arcing front straight, outbraking Ukawa (with his broken right index finger) into Tamburello, a left-right-left combination . Ukawa said he lost some concentration when braking and accelerating, adding that, "It was no t ea sy to pass Max during the race, bu t it wo uld have been poss ible." By now the leaders had a few seconds on fifth place with Harada in front from the fifth la p on and soon to dose o n th e sw a r m of Honda s. When h e tu rn ed the fast lap of the race, on the 15th circuit, he was up on Waldmann and into third two laps later. Waldmann realized earl y on it was a s tr u g g le and t h ere wasn' t much he could do to hold Harada back. "My tires sta rted to sli de a rou nd after a couple of laps because we never managed to find a good chassis setup here," Wa ld ma nn sa id. "My firs t gear was wrong too, an d that was losing me ti me out of the slo wes t ch ic ane a ll thro ugh the race. We h ad so me bad problems tod ay a n d so me big sl ides. The suspension was simply workin g the tires too hard." Biaggi continued to lead , though not by much , u n til th e fina l few laps. It wasn't until the end of the 20th lap, wit h th ree to go, th at he breached the one secon d mar k, and Jacque nearly took it back o n the nex t la p . Then Bia gg i in creased it ye t again before slo wing down on the final lap to celebrate. "That was a toug h race and tha t was a grea t race: ' said Biaggi after winning his second GP in Italy this year. "I think I have ma de u p for last year's cras h. The Honda seems to work a lillie bit be tter than the ApriIia here but, even so , we had to wo rk very hard , bot h out on the track and in the pits ." As Biaggi inched away, Jacque continued to have his h ands full with Ukawa. The Benellon Honda rider said the broken finger was enough to make th e difference b etween seco nd and third. "In the last lap I tried very hard to pass Jacque but he closed all the doors:' Ukawa said after finishing a mere .16 of a second back. Jacque used similar lan guage to describe the finish. "1 knew he was right the re on the last lap, so I kept the door firmly shut:' Jacque said . CJ'\ Waldmann was nearly six seconds in ,..... a rrea rs of the lead trio at the en d , but better tha n 20 in front of the fifth-placed Harada. Harada was running in fourth pl ace, ha p py wi th th e ha ndling of his Aprilia, when the engine began to slow, dropping him back to an eventual fifth, "The bik e we nt faster o n eac h lap b:: 9