Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

tumbling off the track. The final Giansanti victim was UGT 3000's Kazuto Sakata, who wheelied as he sideswiped Giansanti's Honda and finished fourth. That left the run to the flag to Manako, who bea t 15-yein-old Marco Melandri by half a bike length (officially .044 of a second), with Team Polini Inoxmacel's Gianluigi Scalvini a shadow third, just .201 of a second behind. "I planned a last-lap move and wanted to arrive in the last corner in third position in order to be able to take advantage of the slipstream as well on my way to the checkered flag:' Manako said. "But when Giansanti crashed, Veda had to avoid his bike with a hard braking maneuver. Sakata ran over . Giansanti's front wheel, and all of sudden it was me with a clear track ahead." "At the beginning of the season, I never thought I could finish on the podium this year:' Melandri said. In winning his first Grand Prix since 1996, Manako completed the 20-1ap, 65.18-mile race in 40 minutes, 53.607 sec- onds - nearJy 13 seconds slower than last year's race. His average speed was 95.641 mph. With the win, Manako takes over the championship lead from Sakata, 81-73, after four of 15 rounds. Ueda is a distant third with 45. (Above) Alex Barros (9), Max Biaggi (6), Mick Doohan (1) and Alex Criville (4) lead the way on the opening lap of the SOOcc Italian GP. (Right) Max Biaggi was mobbed by the partisan Italian fans after he finished second behind Doohan. 250cc GRAND PRIX The first part of the 250cc race only lasted six laps, with Rossi putting his hand up on the seventh to stop the race because of rain. Up until then he and the rest 6f the Aprilia riders were comfortably in command as the entire front row grabbed the first four places, though not in the same order as they'd qualified. Lucchi had gotten the jump on the field and led until the third lap, when Rossi went by in tunt one. From then on the two were never far apart, with Capirossi coming up to join them on the fifth lap and sticking with them until Rossi stopped it on the seventh. At that point, Rossi had a .159-ofca-second lead over Lucchi, with Capirossi another .637 of a second behind. The fourth Aprilia was ridden by Harada, who had stalled on the line because of clutch problems and had also been rammed from behind. When he finally got gOing, he was well back. Once up to speed, he was a terror, passing riders in bunches until he was up to fourth ending the sixth lap. With scoring reverting to the end of the lap, Harada was more than eight seconds behind, a gap he'd have to make up to land a place on th~ podium. Harada took a flyer on the restart, soon to be joined by Lucchi. Rossi's start wasn't brilliant, though he was up to third on the second lap of the restart, but behind Lucchi on cumulative time. To ensure victory, he'd basically have to Doohan's record, Doohan's p-'-ol-'--e finish in front of both Lucchi and Capirossi, the latter having separated himself from the pack on the third lap of the res tart. After nine of 21 laps Lucchi had a three-second lead on Rossi, with Capirossi third, another two seconds back and a little more than two in front of Harada. After them came a pack of four, all bunched together on aggregate time, followed by the rest of the 22-rider field. The halfway point in the 21-lap race was marked with Lucchi stretching his advantage - 4.088 seconds over Rossi, with Capirossi less than a second back, and Harada another 2.5 seconds arrears. The pack behind was now led by Benetton Honda's Tohru Ukawa and _ The intimacy that Mick Ooohan has with the Mugello cir- to the class and to racing in general, and the trouble he was hav- Dooh~n's fastest intenuecliate," Kocinski said. "On the final part cuit can be Seen in his succesS here. The foux-time 500cc ing getting the Marlboro Kanernoto Honda set up properly was of the circuit J lost almost one second. It was a shame, because 1 World Chmnpion has won the last five races at Mugello and taxing the patience of the team. . would have probably been second. Tomorrow's race is difficult has been on pole in five of the last six years. He added to that Publicly, he put on a brave face, accentuating the positive in to forecast, the same as the previous rounds. We are a group of count today, Jowering his own qualifying record for his sec- his having improved his time and position. riders that can be togeth.er up front. The race pace may be slowond pole of the year and the 52nd of his career. More impres"Today was better than yesterday, first, because 1 now know er and the one that makes the right tire decision and keeps his sively, six of the 27 laps.he turned in· on the 3.26-miJe Tuscan th.e track better on a 500, and second, because we worked out energy until the end can be the wmner." . track were good enough for the pole, the best of which - a ,some of our problems," the Roman said. "We scheduled various Rainey Yamaho's Abe was the first of the non-Hondas, up to 1:53.282 - was the best of the 25-rider field by nearly half a tests and evaluations today and the bike is better, though we third late in the session, but unable to hold the spot as the times second. still have a little chatter. We will try another setting for the dropped with time running out. An experiment in the setup "That session was basically the same as what we've been morning warmup, and if that doesn't work maybe we'll try 'didn't work, SO the Iapanese rider was using the same settings working toward all weekend," said the Repsol rider, who led a something different for the race. Otherwise, I'lJ just have to cope as the previous day that hacLnetted him seven.th. . it. We're also haVing some trouble finding a compronlise string a six Honda rid~rs at the front of the grid. "We found a Switching to his spare bike turned out to be the trick for good setuP this morniru; and we didn't change that too much oe een stability and maneuverability. For sure it will be diffi- Suzuki's Aoki. On his best bike the engine was faster, but the for the afternoon session. But J came up against quite a lot of cult to beat Doohan tomorrow; he's very, very strong here. But handlitlg on his spare more than compensated, so that's how he . traffic toward the end of the session when 1 started trying to go of course, I'll try." went. It wos only good enough for eighth fastest after a session Team MoviStar Honda Pons' Corlos Checa was fourth for my fast laps. So really I'm actually surprised to have done where he never did more than three laps at speed, until the end, the time that I did at the end of the session. Hopefully, the con- fastest, but just barely. He needed a late-session burst on a qual- when he cli.d five, his best among them. SheD Advance Racing's Garry McCoy was the first of the ditions will stay similar for the race tomorrow so that we can ifymg tire to get into the 53s and bis times otherwise weren't Honda V-twins, the Australian a surprising third halfway into continue to be consi"tent." nearly as consistent. the session, but he was unable to improve on the time and slow"Being on the front row is always satisfactory, but I feel even Even though he's mastered the track, Doohan feels that it's a one-line circuit. happier with the job we've achieved in setting up the bike," the ly slid down the tables. "[ still have to be fairly inch-pe.rfect," he said. "The real Spaniard said. "This has always been a difficult race track for The middle of the third row was taken up by the Red Bull pro1:llems come when I'm mixing it in traffic, because I've not me. If nothing strange happens, it's true that the race will be Yamahas of Regis Laconi and Simon Crafar, only about a tenth decided in the final laps and maybe on the last straight, playing separatitlg them in what they felt was a giant leap forward. The got the confidence to wash off speed at maximum lean." As usual, the order at the top of the time charts changed i,tl with slipstreammg, which is frequent here." . team had tested at the Spanish circuit in jaroma the previous the final mUlutes, with Honda Gresin~s Alex Barros moving l1P The second row was more diverse, the Hondas of Alex Criv- week and came away with information that was put to good use to take se~ond, by far his best qualifying effort of the past two jlle and Iohn Kocinski in front of the Yamaha of Team Rainey's here. years. Norick Abe and the Suzuki of Nobu Aoki. Suzuki's Yukio Kagayama, who is filling in for the injured "I'm obviously very happy with my position on the grid, but For his part, eriville, like the others, comp'lained of front-end Katsuaki Fujiwara for the foreseeable future, was 12th. I'nl still a little concerned obout the race because I have no idea chatter, a problem exacerbated by the hard braking m downhill On the fourth row was Kenny Roberts Jr., in front of the Honda V-twins of Repsol's Sete Gibemau and, Shell Advance's what the pace will be and if I'll be able to maintain fast laps turns. . times very consistently:' said the Brazilian, whose rtalian tearn "The chatter problem we've been struggling with is still' Iuan Borja, and Kyoji Nanba, still ridmg the Rainey Yamaha in considers this its home GP. "The trock isn't as good as it was in there," the Repsol Honda rider said. "We've tried a lot of things place of the mjured Jean-Michel Bayle. 1997. It's very bumpy out there, which makes it very diffi.cult to on the suspension, changing springs and so on, but it ha.sn't Roberts Ir. was using new Lotus Engineering bodywork and fu::td the right settings. The bike is very fast and we're now get- made much of a difference. It certainly hasn't made things bet- it helped, but not enough. "The time should be better here," Roberts Ir. said. "We're ting the hang of the settings that work." ter." World Championship leader Max Biaggi was third fastest, Kocinski was next, saying he would have been on the front struggling. Ralf (Waldmann) is realJy strugglmg. [ just Want to get through the race. If we get in the top JO here, it'll begood for maintaining his record of being on the front row for all fou.r of row had he not hit a backmarker OJ) what was his best lap. his SOOcc races. There was some pressure on Biagg; here, his "['m disappointed, because I was improving my lap time us. A top JOin France, then we get to the tracks that suit our success in the early season bringing conSiderably more interest and on the-final lap J was just about one-tenth slower than bike better."

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