Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left ) Mlck Doohan still trails Bla ggi In the 500cc World Championship, but the gap Is only four points with four races remaini ng. (Below) Kenny Roberts Jr., on the new Modenas, leads Nobuatsu Aok l. V-fou rs grou ped u p fron t. Barros was a lso we ll -placed, b ut h e h ad a b ig momen t a t the first chicane after gett ing sq ueezed between Abe and Okada. He saved it, bu t he put Ao ki al most off into the dirt, and at th e back of the p ack. Doohan p assed Ba y le on la p th r ee, wi th Criville foll owin g hi m through one lap la ter. Then th e Austra lian lined u p Biaggi a n d d iv ed in sid e und e r brakes in to th e Variante Alto - the chicane at the top of th e hi ll nea r the end of the la p. l3ia g g i fou ght b a c k, but Doohan would n' t give an inch a nd em barked on his stea dy bu t inexora b le move to p ull away. It w ould n ot be he who wou ld ge t ra ttled th is tim e. Ins tea d it was Bia g gi who hopped over th e curbs of one of th e chica nes on th e next lap, almost ge tting th rown out grew to two se cond s o n ly ju st before half-d ist ance. Then he had a co u p le of slides and decided to accep t second . "I tried, but th en 1 made a ca u p le of mistakes," he sai d . Do ohan didn 't let up, k eepin g h is head down and the ga s op en wide. "The front tire was pushing for th e first few la ps, probably because of the fuel load ," Doohan ex plained la te r. "I pulled 1.5 seconds on Alex one lap, and w h en he ca me b a ck a t m e o ne lap , 1 pus hed on again. After th a t, it was pre tty uneventful." After th e r a ce , he was cool a n d re laxed , while Criville was visi bly physicallyexhausted . of th e sad d le a n d g iving Criv ille a n inkling th at his cha nce wou ld co me soon . O ne lap la te r it did , u nder bra ki ng for the Acque Mi nerali ch icane, a nd h e was able to se t off in p u rsuit of Doohan, s till less th a n a second away . Bia g gi h ad o ne m o r e s u r p rise, five lap s la te r , r u n ning to o fas t int o the final 90-d egree ch ica ne. He p icked th e bike up to run s traig h t across th e second part, bucking over th e gravel trap. C riv ille ch as ed Doohan hard, trying to hold a gradually str e tching gap which Bad weather and Bayl e _ I t was a case of practi e interruptus, af ter foul weather caused minor c flooding on the second day. It was sunny in the afternoon, but with we t patches under the tr ees a nd an occasional strea m across the track, there was no chance of anybody improving times, let alone seriously testing any machine changes. This left jean-Michel Bayle on pole position for the second time in his ca reer , a rema rkable ach ieve men t as it was only his second race back from his long absen ce due to concussion. "Of course, I did have some testing on the bike - but you can see the Yamaha is a very good machine," he said. Of course, nobody could say whether he'd still have been fastest if there'd been another day for the others to get things together. , The sa me was tru e of Alex Barros, in his best pe rform ance in years, seco nd by four-tenths of a seco nd - though the Brazilian was fastest in the Satu rday afternoon half-wet session, while Bayle was 16th. His time was all part of a pa ttern, said Barros. "I expected to be fast immediately back on the V-four this year, but it took a long time for me and the team to understand the bike," Barros said. "Now I can be fast and consistent." Mick Doohan was third, having spent the first day "trying a few different th ings, as usual." The main ar ea of wo rk was the front suspension, a fter his rath er ba ffling Brno crash. "I wasn't going faster than anyone else there; I'd already done two corners on the right-hand side of the tire, and it went away when I'd already had the throttle open for a second," he explained. "Usually, if you lose the front, it happens on the way into the corner." Doohan seemed remarkably relaxed, given his championship position . "I reckon the press ure's on the othe r guys," he sa id. "I've missed three finishes - 75 possible points - and I'm still a dose third overall. The only thing J haven't done recently is lose the World Champions hip, and I always knew that would happen soo ner or later. The other guys have to wo rry about winning it, which is a bit hard er." Max Biaggi rounde d out the fron t row, within almost a tenth of Dooban's time. and playing the "I'm just a beginner" card for all it was worth. "This is not a favori te track of mine, but the bike settings were good from the start, and we haven't mad e many changes like we usually do," he said. "Tha t' s lucky, because th e Satu rday practice was just a waste of time." Norick Abe led the second -row on his Rainey Yamaha, ,"lying,"Nor- mally I'd be happy with fifth, but with my teammate on pole, it's disa ppointing." Alex Criville, alongside, had more to worry about, with the World Championship at stake. He'd been plague throughout by a persistent d misfire on his favorite bike that seriously interfered with his ability to work on suspension settings. Even after they changed the motor, it continued. _ "The only thing we didn't change was the ignition coils," he said, whic h was rat her a surprising omission. Regis Laconi was a long side, the times sp reading out now so he was more than a secon d off pole, though only a handful of hun d redths ahead of John Kocinski, running somewhat stronger at his second race back, though he was another to complain that the wet practice meant he was way short of getting the bike dialed in. Tadayuki Okada led row three from the Mk2 Modenas of Kenny Roberts Jr. "The new bike's stronger at the top than the old one, but it has less power at the bottom," he said . "Irs going good, but it's a whole differen t package, and we need more time with it ." Nobuatsu Aoki's Suzuki was alongside, the rider who came second here last year still in search of a firm front-end feeling that will allow him to ride more agg ressively. Carlos Checa came next; he was still recuperating, so he was happy enough. The 250s practice last, and their wet-weather problems were slightly different from the SODs. Friday's timed session allowed only a hand ful of laps before it started dr izzling, and most riders were able to improve their times on Saturday at the end of the session, whe n most of the damp patches had dr ied out. There was one very significant victim of the treacherous conditions . Title leader Testuya Harada posted fastest time on Friday - fast enough to keep him on pole. But on Saturday afternoon, early in the session, he switched on too much power across a slightly wet section and slipped off. It was all fairly straigh tforward until he got his legs mixed up with the bike. The end results were a very awkw ard fall and" broken left fibula (the smaller bone in the lower leg), which made it seem unlikely he would be able to race. " Not so, as it was the home track of magic Dr. Claudio Costa, and the next morn ing Ha rada was out in warmup and set fastest time. The ot her news regarded an improveme nt to the Hondas, with yet another set of parts that put them right up among the Aprilias. "It's still not fast, but it's better," said Olivier Jacque, who put his bike a season-best second, thoug h by almost half a second. He was a simi lar margin ahead of Loris Ca p irossi's Ap rilia , wit h yet a no the r Honda up front: Tohru Ukawa's Benetton bike. , The japanese rider achieved that with a determined last lap, and this pushed Valentino Rossi to the second row. Decked out all-Italian, he had his leathers, helmet, fairing and hair all do ne in the red, white and green of Italy - and probably his underpa nts, too. He was more than a second dow n on pole, and half a second ahead of Stefano Perugini's Honda . Takes hi Tsujimura's Yamaha was alongsi de, and only then came Lucchi, riding the 1999 pro totype for a second race. "It's very sensitive and difficult to set," Lucchi said. There w as plen ty o f ac tio n b ehind the le adin g tr io . As Ba yl e dropped away i n fourth, Barro s and se co n d Ra in ey Yamaha r id er Abe w ere ca tching up from behind. They w er e g lu ed togeth er at half-distanc e wh en the Japanes e rider suddenly left th e grou p a fte r hi s ow n run into the gra ve l tra p . He rejoin ed out of touch, while Barros nipp ed pa ssed the tirin g Ba yl e and . sta rte d to close th e g a p o n Bia ggi. H e w as right w ith him a nd a ttacking w ith less than five la ps left. But he s tar ted to ge t a little ragged, w hile th e Italian had settle d so he w as ab le to u p th e p a ce b lamin g a fu ll fuel load for his ea rlier. indiscretions . By th e finish, Biaggi had closed up again to withi n tw o seconds of Criville, with Barros a similar d istan ce behind . " I tri ed my best, as usual," sa id Biaggi. "Third is better than nothing." Bav le was an other 10 seconds down but siill com fortab ly clear of the disappointed Abe. Then ca me another group w ho'd b een bat tling for much of the race. Checa h a d 'led fo r most of the distance after getting past Okad a's Repsol Honda, the Japanese rider fading, comp laining o f a la ck o f fit ness after h is injury problems . Gi b ernau h ad s ta r ted fast but when Checa passed him , h e s tayed on b ehind . M eanwhile, a s Robe rt s wen t backward through the g roup , Aoki h ad ca ug h t u p from behind . Fo r th e sec o nd half o f th e ra ce , the fou r went back and fort h, Checa dropp ing to th e back of th e group on la p 22 and th en losin g touch. "I ha d som e a bd o m ina l pain, and 1 was very tired ," he sa id . T h is le ft Gibernau in front as they neared the fini sh , wi th Aoki beh in d, only to lose the place again to Okada as they passed a b a c kma r k e r. Oka da 00 0\ 0\ ,...... ~ ,...... ... OJ on E OJ ..... 0... OJ [J) 31

• Cover