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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127962
ROAD RACE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROAD RACE SERIES ing in sa fe p laces:' I thi nk I ha ve 'gained so me m aturity ," he sa id lat er . In this way, he m oved s tea dily fo rward to seven th on lap three , and right p a st th e H ond a s to thi rd on la p fo ur. Th en Ca pirossi obligi ngly m oved ou t of hi s way, a nd th ere w as o nly th e in jury vic tim, Harad a , now less th an tw o seco nds clea r. T his was easv m e at fo r h im . H e ca ught up a lmost 'at once, m oved ahead o n lap seven, a nd carried o n to th e flag for h is third win of the y ea r. En o u gh sa id . Harada br a vely followed on behind, to fini sh a lmost four sec onds down. He had no t taken painkiller injections, he sa id later. It was a resu lt to be proud of. Capirossi had a real problem on hi s han d s, how ever. After his lap-five drop , he was again ou t of touch , in eig ht h, and h is e ngine was n ot performing. a t it s best. H e still ma naged to charge thro u gh the Hondas into th ird on la p 17, but way beh ind his team m ates . Crushed, he c r u is e d s lo w ly o v e r the line and Uturned to freew heel back to his p it. Th e Hondas were - as u sual - having th e ir o w n r a ce . Jacque was s ta l k i n g U kawa a n d got ahead on the seven th lap, dra wing slow ly but steadily a hea d. Th e Japanese r id er w a s e qu a lly a lo ne behind him un til Ca p iro ss i bl ew by. The o t her tw o wor ks H ond a s had dro pped back in to a fie r ce ly fighting gro u p , led by Je re my McWillia ms 's priva teer QUB Honda, and inclu ding the sim ila r bike of Roberto Rolfo a nd Franco Ba tt aini' s Yama ha. Rolfo got ahead of McW illia m s briefly on lap 16, a nd again on lap 19 as th ey crossed th e line . Th e Italian moved across, thinking he was clea r, bu t McWilliams w as p artia lly alongsid e. Th e bike s tou ched, and freakishly Rolfe's sea t jammed McWilliams' front brake on at close to top speed . The Ulsterman's bike promptly looped violently, an d he was th rown onto his back a nd slid d o wn the track fo r some 100 ya rds, a mazingly unhu rt. At th e fini s h , t h e works Ho n das fou gh t b a ck , w it h Perugi ni lea di ng Ao ki, Rolfo a nd Battaini by inches. Ano ther seven seconds ba ck, Ta kes h i Ts u ji mu r a just n ip p e d Ja y Vi n cen t's Padgetts Honda over the line, wi th Luca Boscoscu ro right behind . Thus Harada extended his lea d again Homeboy Criville on pole T he dose of practice was the usual scramble, with pole position cha nging hands twice, and the other positions very d ose. There was just one difference: Mick Doohan was n't a contender for top honors this time. Pole eventually went to home boy Alex Crivil le: it was his first this season, and was narrow ly won by just over a tenth from Max Biaggi. The Catalan rider did back up his fast lap with a second at almost the same speed, achieved alone withou t any slipstream, so his confidence afterward was justifiable. _ "We have the bike set up good, and I am comfortable," Criville said. "But the race will be difficult. The crucial thing will be tire choice. That will decide who is still able to push hard in the last laps, and that will decide who wins the race. It could be an exciting last lap." Biaggi held pole at the start of the session, was deposed by Criville halfway through, moved back on top again, and then was nipped at the finish. He too was confident, since this is a track where he has tested extensively and he at least has some da ta to fall back on. "Funny thing - we have moved away from the settings we had, " Biaggi said, "but it still helps. I thought I would have pole, but we got the timing wrong at the end, and I could not use the rear tire I wanted ." He avoided looking at his front-row companions as he added, "I like this track; I have won here for the last four years" - a typical Biaggi remark designed to irritat e and demoralize. Showa forks, which he had abandoned at the previous race, with deceptively prom ising results. Taday u ki Okad a was a longside, two-t enths do wn . Then came another surprise at this fast track with its long straight - Kenny Roberts Jr. on the three-cylinder Modenas. He had taken a tow from Criville down the straight, he admitted. "It'll be tough to keep up in the race," said Roberts. Only then came the first Yamaha - Jean-Michel Bayle's , a second down on pole, with the Frenchman complaining about trouble finding the right balance. Teammate Norick Abe was just behind, leading row three from Gibernau's V-twin Honda; then came the MoviS tar pair of v-fours - John Kocinski this time narrowly ahead of 1996 winner Carlos Checa, and both puzzled by their poor performa nce. There were no surprises in the Aprilia Cup that now represen ts 250cc GP racing. The Italian bikes domi nated again, with the pole battle being between Loris Capirossi and Valentino Rossi. The latter le after d the first day; Capirossi edged ahead by just over a tenth on the second hardl y decisive. Capirossi was in fine form. Times were indeed very close, with the next man less than a hun- "I am in perfect condition in body and mind," he said. "My motorcycle is perfect. I am going to ride to win the race, and to win the World Championship." With a 12-point deficit and rival Tetsuya Harada injured, he had a window of opportunity. "My only problem is m), starts," he said . He would again use the troublesome but potentially highly useful electronic clutch, designed to provide just the right amount of slip to keep the revs at peak power , though he had dumped it at the last race. Rossi was also in fine form. blaming last-lap traffic for preventin g him from regaining pole position, and sounding a note of warning. "It's one of my favorite tracks," he said, "but it is a lot like Brno, where I crashed on the first lap because my front tire was too cold. It will be easy to make the same mistake here." Thir d went to factory tester Marcellino Lucchi, ridin g a "stock" works bike rather than the prototype he's ridden so far, and ano ther seven-tenths adrift. He pro mised that if he was sandw iched between Capirossi and Harada, he'd drop back so they could fight it out. Close behind, spoiling the Aprilia front-row party, came top Honda rider Tohru Ukawa, who admitted it had been very hard work. "The speed dow n the straight is a lot less than the Aprilias," he said (almost 7 mph accurding to official speed-trap figures). "And the handling is not perfect." . Harad a led row two, almost a second off pole, but he was having a lot of trouble with the ankle fracture from Imola. dredth down. And this was a su rprise - for it was Nobuatsu Aoki's Suzuk i, a machine which has not qualified better than eighth all season and which seemed, to be droppin g even further off the pace as the year wore on. The key, said the rider, was changing back to the B-type "It's very har d to turn left- han de rs . But I don't thin k I wi ll take painkilling injections, because that means 1do n' t have feeling for gearchanges, and that's why I crashed in the last race." Alex Barros was third in ano ther strong perfonnance. "It's the way everything has come togethe r later in the year," he expl ained. "Not the rider, the bike, the tires , the suspension... jus t everything fitting together. He was a factor agai n after mo re than a year of being out of the run- ning. He spoke also of the difficult tire choice. "Everyth ing will depen d on that," he said. Doohan was a dose fourth, blaming traffic for foiling his bid at the finish. But he admitted he had other problems - though he did not elaborate, beyond admitti ng to having had "an engine problem" on the first day that saw him run suddenly off the track into the gravel and abandon the bike at the run to go back to the pits for his spare. The failure was a broken piston ring, and he blew another engine during the two da ys, while Criville also had a failure. "I had some problems, so we' ve been playing catch-up all weekend," said Doohan. "But I'm not so worried. It'll be a dose race, and I'll try to w in it, but if I can' t, I'll take the next-best thing." 8 "It is mo re stiff and- more painful now than it was then ," he said . (Above left ) Max Biaggi had nothing to smile about after being black-flagged fr om t he GP for ignoring h is stop-and-go penalty. (Above) Valentino Rossi and his new f riend - a ch icken - celebrate the Itali an' s th ird 250cc GP w in of the season. over Capirossi, 200-184. Ross i h a s 151, Ukawa 121, Aoki 104 a nd Pe rugini 92. 125cc GRAND PRIX Until about half-d is tance th ere w ere ju st eight riders in the le a d in g pack· fairly normal for the class; th er e was another pack of eight just over a sec ond behind , a n d before too mu ch longer they'd all closed up. Already pretty despera te , the race became a l m ost completely mad, with daring outbra king attempts foiled b y o ther riders being e ve n more daring still. Emilio Al z amora was particularly bold in th is regard, th rilling his home crowd more than once b y seizing the lead a t th e end of th e straight. Sadly, a small slip sa w h im run wi de toward th e end , a n d that was e noug h to consign him to a n eve n tual 14th. Azuma led th e closing laps over th e line, b ut at th e finish an inspired last lap by Manako, with Gian sa nti pushing hard, put Azuma into third . Melandri, back in eigh th , said af terward tha t he was havi ng vision problems and hadn' t realized it was the last lap. Mana ko beca m e a factor in the title again, m ovin g through to second on 172 to Sa ka ta 's 205 . M el andri h as 166 a n d Cecchi nello (a nother race le a d e r ) h a s 1 ~. (~ Catalunya Circuit Montmelo, Spain Results: September 20,1998 (Round 12 of 15) 125cc QUALIFYING: 1. Roberto Loca telli (1 :52.641); 2. To mo mi Man ak o (1 ;53 .2 18) ; 3 . Ma sao Azuma (1:53.222); 4 . Knz u ta Sakata (1:53.709 ); 5. Yoichi Vi 0 :53.823); 6. Mirko Gia nsa nri 0 :54.100); 7. Yoshicki