ROAD RACE
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROAD RACE SERIES
Round 7: Dutch Grand Prix
Marco Melandri (13) passes Kazuta Sakata
(4) in the final chicane on the last lap to
lake his first 125cc GP win. Melandri, only
15 yea rs old, became the youngest ever
GP winner.
Biaggi moved back to the top of the
cha m pio nship tab le, wi th Doohan ominou sly d ose - 118-115. Criville has 113,
Checa 106, with Su zuki rid er Aoki the
best of the non-Hondas, in fifth on 56
poin ts.
250cc GRAND PRIX
It was, as is usual th is year, a foregone conclusion that the Aprilias would
do mina te. This is wha t ha ppe ned - but
in radically reduced numbers.
It was Ho ndas awa y first from ·the
line, fast-starter Jacqu e in fron t from Stefano Perugini, with Jerem y McWilliams's
p riva te Hond a in third. But the Ulsterman had ve ry ob viou sly jumped the
sta rt, coming th rou gh fro m the fourth
row, a nd th ou gh he im p res s ive ly ran
with the leaders for three laps, he "'vas
called in for a stop-and -go penalty and
lost his ill-gained chance of completing
his humiliation of the works bikes.
The NSRs ' run o n lv lasted un til
halfway along the back ~traight, where
th e Aprilia s o f Capirossi and Ro ssi
surged past with a ridicu lous speed
advantage. Harad a had got away slowly, but he was up to fifth at the end of
lap one and was in thi rd and up with
his te
