Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

but he could give it a very hard time through the comers. "Until now, we haven't had the setup right," Gibernau said." ow I really could use the corner speed for the first time aU season." Again they stayed in the same order; again it was no procession - especiaUy since Cadalora was forever running into the first corner at the end of the pit straight too {ast. If it was a chaUenge for the lead, it was consistenUy ineffective. "In many parts of the track I was faster than Checa, but I was running wide there because I hadn't set my brake lever right," Cadalora said. "1 couldn't pull it right in, but the race was so intense I couldn't adjust it." He edged alongside Checa several times on the pit straight. Then, on lap 22, he attack~ into the first corner - only to run so wide that he almost let Aoki through in to second. The next time around he did it again, and this time he actually did lead briefly, and actually did let Aoki through. But it was a poisoned chalice for the Japanese rider. Three corners later he had a huge slide and almost crashed, dropping back again to third. His back tire was ruined, and now he started to drop back, with both Gibernau and Abe filing past, the latter finding that with the slow pace his soft tires were no longer such a problem. Abe passed Gibernau just before Cadalora slowed to retire - having gone from fifth to second in the space of two laps. Abe was less than a second behind Checa, and now he started to charge, with four laps left. He closed right up as they a pproached the finish - but Checa had controlled the race for the past 29 laps and wasn't about to give up now. "It was a strange race," Checa said later. "The pace was slow, but that didn't matter. When I realized I couldn't go any faster, I concentrated on stopping anyone from outbraking me. I dedicate this victory to the wonderful Spanish supporters." Abe was two-tenths behind at the finish; the remarkable Gibernau was another 1.6 seconds down on the V-twin for his first rostrum finish; Aoki was 5.2 seconds behind the leader. Then came Criville, finally getting ahead of Biaggi with just two laps to go after his off-track excursion on lap 14. "Today the pressure and the will to win just got the better of me:' Criville said. "If I hadn't tried to rush past Checa, I could have been fighting with him to the finish." Biaggi was less than half a second behind, but it was a relatively lackluster performance after a weekend during which he had been chasing his bike settings back and forU, right·up until the race start. "We changed the front forks and the rear-shock etting after the morning warmup, so it took me half the race to get used to the bike:' Biaggi said. Regis Laconi had caught him, but he never did get past, finishing less than two-tenths bellind. Crafar was next after riding through the field and setting lap times rnatching those of the leaders. But his chance was gone, and he was still more Ulan 20 seconds behind at the end. Then came Barros, never fully recovering from his lapone excursion after sending Kocinski off (he apologized after the race); then came Ralf Waldmann's Modenas - another to run'into the dirt and rejoin the race. Garry McCoy was next, heading a trio of V-twins, with Briton Scott Smart 17th, and Matt Wait 13th after racing for almost 20 laps with no third gear. Then came EskU Suter's MuZ, with wild card Fernando Cristobal taking the last point. There was only one other finisher, with Borja having retired with engine ,trouble with 15 laps remaining. The championship was restructured: Criville still leads with 103 points, Biaggi moves to second on 98, and Checa to third with 95. Only then comes Doohan on 90, with Abe moving past Aoki, 5147. 250Cc GRAND PRIX All the fast men finished the first lap, but in other ways the 250s gave a preview of the odd sort of race that the 500s would produce. It was not even half as exciting, however. Harada led Rossi away, with the flying Jeremy McWilliams pushin-g through to third on the first tour, heading Tohru Ukawa:, Olivier Jacque and Capirossi. It all went pear-shaped the second time around turn one, when Capirossi ran into Jacque after leaving his braking too late. Jacque was down and out and Capirossi went rocketing off into the dirt, rejoining down in 15th place. By now, Rossi had taken the lead, but this too was short-lived. He slipped and fell at the top of the hill on lap three, and though he remounted, his race was run. This left Harada in control, and a very determined Ukawa chasing him hard. He stayed on his countryman's back wheel for the first 10 laps or so, then started to drop away. '1 used some of the new engine parts today, and the bike worked well - but I till need more power:' Ukawa said. "Then it started to get hot, and the power tailed off." Harada had little to say about his race. He led from start to finish and was eight seconds clear at the flag. "It's my 28th birthday today:' he said. "Happy birthday to me." All the excitement was in the next group, where McWilliams on the production Honda was valiantly holding off Haruchika Aoki's works bike, JoseLuis Cardoso's Yamaha and Jurgen Fuchs's Docshop Aprilia. Meanwhile, Capirossi was surging through the field, catching up with this group on lap 13. They proved ra ther harder to pass than the others, but he picked his way (Above) Checa (8) leads fellow Spaniard Alex Criville (4), Norick Abe (5) and the rest. Criville ran off the track and' finished fifth, while Abe ended the race second. (Below) Fourth-place finisher Nobuatsu Aoki (3) took the Suzuki to its best finish in a long time. Here he leads Max Biaggi (6) and Juan Borja (14).

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