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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127962
(Left) Biaggi leads Barros , Doohan and Tadayuki Okada (2) early in the GP. (Above) Doohan ended up winning the Grand Prix, beating Okada (2) and Abe (5) to the flag. Repsol Honda V-twin-mounted Sete Gibemau was a d istant fourth, two seconds ahead of Simon C ra far's Red Bull' Yamaha and fo r mer winner Carl os Chec a and his MoviStar Honda. Barros rejoined to tak e seventh, moving p a st Red Bull Yam ah a 's Re g is Laconi, while [ehn Kocinski was a farawa y ninth, climbing through th e field after he was put off onto the g rass in the first-turn crash . . Earli er, Valentino Rossi took his third 2S0cc GP win of the season in yet an other Aprilia rout. Title lea d er Tetsu y a H arad a , rid in g with a n injured foot, exte nd ed hi s points lead with seco nd , while his ch ief rlval. Loris Capirossi, wa s a di sconsol a te third aft er an upand -d own race in w hich his engi ne cut ou t th ree tim es - the first time w hen he was in the lead . VGT Honda's Tomomi Manako won an epi c 12 Scc GP from Matt eoni Honda 's Mirk o Gian santi and th e Mac Honda of Japan' s Masao Azuma, w ith title leader Kazuto-Sakata and his V GT Aprilia ni nth a n d his te en a ge r iv al Mar co Melan dri eigh th in the thick of a I S-strong pa ck - a ll of w hom scored • po in ts, and all of w ho m crossed the line withi n 1.9 seco nds. Returning inju ry victim obo ru' Ve da, returnin g fro m a n injury-i nduced layoff and one of man y to lead, was sixth . SOOcc GRAND PRIX Doo han w as fas t away but Barros to ok th e lead , w ith Bia g gi and A be behind at the end of the first lap. Then cam e Okada, Cra far and th e rest, with the three first-corner victims already ou t of the running. Biaggi and Barros drew ah ead slig htly, locked in comba t, whil e Abe delayed the next tw o Hondas. By lap 10 the ga p wa s 2.6 seconds, but by now Dooh an led The stop-and-go controvers T he incident started when Suzuki rider Katsuaki Fujiwara, starting from the fourth row, shot through the field to end up among the leaders as' they braked for the slow first corner. When John Kocinski braked just ahead . Yhe GP beginner decided it W.15 too early and pulled inside him. But he was going way too fast and hit JeanMichel Bayle, who in turn looped into Alex Criville's Repsol Honda, and all three went down in a whirl of dust and motorcycles. Only B ayle didn 't g et up, badly winded. though Fujiwara gas hed his arm and his foot. Criville remounted, but only to pull into the pits. Fujiwara managed to walk away, and was then put into an ambu- lance. The' crowd, incensed that he had knocked their hero Criville out, promptlypelted the vehicle with whatever missilt"; they could find as it passed. Bayle was lying prone in the gravel as the two leaders came past again, with Bia!;gi diving under Barroson the way in and then running wide on the exit. He said later that he hadn't noticed the yellow flags, beca use all the marshals we re wea ring yellow shirts. B€1ITOS' claims were mo re plausible. "H e Tan out to the w hite line after passing me," the Brazili an said. "I had the choice of braking in the corner and crashing or moving back inside him. In any case, at that point we had left the flags 50 meters 065 feet} behind." As the race went on, race d irector Roberto Nosetto, consul ting w ith FIM man Claude Danis and lin A's Paul Butler, viewed video tapes from various angles to be abso lu tely sure an offense had bee n com mitted. That is why the decision took 26minutes. "We obviously hoped there.was no offense," Butler said. "We didn't want to have to take action - but rules are rules, and the race director is obliged to enforce them." the group, with Okada following on lap 12 a nd Ab e d ropping ba ck , bl am ing a slidi ng rear tire. Doohan h ad closed to within less than a seco nd on lap 16, and a fine fight to the finis h see med to be in the offing . Instead, the fa rc e of the fla gs s ta r ted, a n d th ou gh Barros did lead for two more laps, an d then Doohan, and th en Biaggi again, it was all in a sta te of so me confusion. Doo ha n o nly reali zed w h a t wa s goi ng on w he n his p it gave him the Pl sig nal. "When Max passed me, I pushed for a bit," Doohan said later. "I kn ew he must be fumin g inside his helm et, and I thought he might mak e a mistake. But there was no way I was goi ng to ra ce him. I had, every thing to lose and noth ing to gain." Thus he finished second on the race trac k for his sixth win of th e season. Okada, close behind , wa s fig hting w hee lspin and wa s happy just to sta y in tou ch with Do ohari fo r h is first good race since hi s in jury a t Mu gello n in e ra ces a go. Abe d idn 't even rea lize he was bound for the rostrum, th ink ing he was fifth, not third. TI,e punishment is at the discretion of the race director, Nosetto. He was criticized for apply ing a stop-and-go, considering that neither rider gained an unfair adva n tage and that it might have bee n a sim ple mis- take. Most people thought a fine.would have been more appropriate in the interes ts of the sport, if nothin g else. Nosetto defended his de cision vigorously, on the grounds of safety. "I take yellow flags very seriously:' he said. "They are the only protection available to injured riders and the people assisting them by the track. I could have chosen another penalty, but I think a sporting penalty like the stop-and-go is more appropriate than a financial penalty, which makes little difference to a rich team and a lot to a poor team." Biaggi was called in first, since he was the first offender. He disobeyed the instruction - as he did last yea r at Assert - and was au tomati- cally disqualified as a result. Thus he allegedly committed two offenses. Barros was then called to finish seventh. in and he obeyed, losin g a po ten tial race win After the race, both teams protested, complaining vigorously also about the length of time taken for the decision. As an automatic process, this protest was overruled, which then gives both teams the right to appeal. within five days. This they will do. Biaggi's second off ense is a d ifferent mat ter. It is the second time he has ignored a race d irector's instruct ions. The first time, at Assen , he was fined 10,000 Swiss francs. The punishment this time was 5000Swiss francs, ap pa rently (and rather confusingly) the maximum for the offense. After the rejection of the protests, Barros' team showed the trackside closed-circuit video footage to the press. A poll showed that Biag was gi clearly considered guilty - although, since he was approaching the corner at more than 185 mph and the flags were only 55 yards from the corner, he might legitimately claim he was already committed to the overtaking move when he saw them. Barros, on the other hand, appeared to be a completely innocent victim. He had little option but to repass Biaggi after the latter ran wi de on the exit. The real losers are is the 1998 World Championship and the sport of GP racing. But in the end, the riders have to obey the rules. Gib ernau had a stro ng race, pulling past a number of V-fours to take seventh o n lap five . Then he closed on Crafar, fad ing with tire trouble, to claim fifth. "It's a good res ult a t a track that sh ouldn' t su it the V-twin ," he sa id . Crafa r, running wide in the corn ers, so on found his hands full with Checa, with Nobu Aoki's Su zuki and Lacon i's Yamaha very close behind. Th e first pair went back and forth, wit h Cra far o nly finding the wherewithal to pull tw o seconds clear at the end . Behind them , A o k i h ad run int o se r io us tire troubl e , lettin g La coni through and th en in th e clos ing laps fallin g e v e n fu rth er b a ck , behind Kocinski arid th e Mod en as o f Kennv Rob erts Jr. After the race, he fou nd that hi s Mi ch e lin w a s s h red d ing o n o ne sid e . M an full y , h e b lam ed h is o w n wrong tire choice. Ralf Waldmann was a distant 12th on th e s eco n d Mod ena s, a fte r dropp in g right to the back with Kocinski afte r th e firs t- tu m crash . Jurgen van d en C oorbergh was th e first priva te V-twin rid er by fou r se co nds , with Matt Wait and Scott Sma rt dicing to the flag for the last po ints behind him. Aus tralia n subs titu te Craig Co n nell ha d been with the pair but broke d own w ith seve n laps rem aining . . Asi de from the three first-corner victim s, MuZ's Eskil Suter and Juan Borja both crashed ou t. T h e re s u lt mad e a clos e cha m p io nship no lon ger close, w ith Dooh an 's clos est rivals both faili ng to score . He now leads by 21 points, 210 to Biaggi' s 189 and Crivill e's 182. Checa ha s 131, Barros 109, and Abe 104. 2S0cc GRAND PRIX Th e Hondas took off ahea d for a brief moment of glory, w ith To hru Uka wa leading St efano Perug ini and Olivier Jacqu e all the way arou nd o n the opening la p . Capiross i was close behin d , w it h Harada o n his back wheel. The n the Italian almost collided \\;'th Perugini in the firs t comer and ran wi de, lettin g his Japa nese rival th rough . Harad a led by the tim e th e next lap was over, and he was opening up a ga p over Ukawa as Ca pirossi moved back again into a challenging position. Capirossi wa s th rou gh to seco nd o n lap four, but then he ag ain ran wid e at the first corner , dropping right back to eighth. It loo ked as though he was making mistakes, but afterward he claimed otherwise. " M y e n g ine kep t s t o p p ing , a n d I never knew if it would start. up again," he said, heartbroken a t losing his cha nce to ca tc h up to Harada in th e championship. Mea nwhile, slow starter Rossi, 13th on lap o ne, was picking his way carefu lly thr ou gh the field. "I was riding smoothly, only overtak- 7