Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

(Left) Carlos Cheea (4) tries to hold off Sete Gibernau (15)in their battle for what would eventually be fourth place. (Above) Alex Criville celebrates his second successive GP victory of the season. fierce ba ttle for second, won in a lastcomers scramble by Frenchman Arnaud Vincent from Emilio Alzamora, Masao Azuma, oboru Veda and Marco Melandri. 8 500cc GRAND PRIX Biaggi seized the lead in the first corner, leaving the slipstream believers to watch his red seat pull away with serious intent as they sorted themselves out through the first tight corners. Meanwhile, three V-twin riders at the back Michael Rutter, Jose Cardoso a';d Marcus Ober - had collided in a heap at the back of the muddle into turn one. Roberts was on Biaggi's tail. Then carne Kocinski and Harada's remarkable Aprilia, with Criville only fifth. Roberts was closing on Biaggi when the latter crashed, and pulling away from Kocinski, with Criville getting into third on lap three with a second to make up on the American. "They were setting a fast pace:' Criville said. "I thought it would be a long race, so I decided to try to make up time slowly rather than risk everything in the early laps." . He passed Kocinski on the back straight on the seventh lap, with Roberts now leading by just over three seconds, and the gap actually stretched to more than four by lap nine. Then Criville started chipping away at it, steadily gaining a tenth or two every lap until it was less than two seconds on lap 17. Then he started to close up quickly, and a dull race became exciting. His first attack came on the 20th lap, into the fast double rights, but Roberts immediately repassed him. The next time around, Criville powered past on the Mistral Straight, and now it was Roberts' turn to chase. He held on valiantly, waiting for a mistake or a lastlap opportunity. But he was having to push too hard, he 'later admitted, to make up for a top-speed deficit of three or more mph, and as he rounded the tight right-hander at the end of lap 24, he pushed.too hard. The front slid, the .bike went down and then suddenly gri pped again, tossing the American high in the air. Criville was now miles ahead of Kocinski, who in turn was comfortably clear of Abe. But trouble was corning from behind for tl1e Japanese rider, who had earlier passed both Harada's twin pnd Okada's V-four Honda. Okada's tire then started chunking and he dropped away to an eventual ninth. But Harada was speeding up again, and at the same time Checa was leading a four-bike group that he had eventually managed to get aI1ead of after a dreadful start. As he forged aI1ead, Gibernau came with him, while Regis Laconi and Juan Borja lost touch, engaged in their own battle. The other three were together with 10 laps to go and closed steadily on Abe, with Harada leading the attack to overtake him on lap 26. Checa and Gibemau followed soon after. Harada just man- aged to hold them off, but Gibernau used his Honda's agility to bamboozle Checa in the last comers. '1 was surprised by the flag," Gibernau said later. "I thought there was one more lap, and I was planning a move on Harada as well." Abe hung on tO'sixth, while Borja waited until the last lap before putting a successful pass on Laconi to steal seventh. Okada was another five seconds back in ninth, with Alex Barros and his MoviStar Honda 10th after a lackluster Biaggi's first on a Yamaha M ax Biaggi's first pole position on a Yamaha was hard-fought, and narrowly won, in an all-action final session that was already lively when Yukio Kagayama crashed his Suzuki on the exit from the final corner and the session was red-flagged with 11 minutes remaining. Biaggi was already leading by that point, having taken over from John Kocinski, who had taken over from Kenny Roberts Jr., who had taken over from Alex Criville. For the Italian, it was a significant moment, signifying something of a breakthrough as he works to adaplthe Yamaha to his style, and vice versa. "The Yamaha was not so good last year, so we don't have good base settings to use," Biaggi said. "We have to tart again at each track - but talking with my pit crew last night, we were able to find some ideas that worked better. It's not perfect, but every rider has some weak points at every track." His was certainly not speed, the Yamaha flying down the Mistral straight just a shade short of 200 mph (at 197.9 mph, to be precise). Thus the performance of second-placed Roberts on the Suzuki was even more in1pressive. At best, he'd run 187.55 mph earlier; then his motor sucked up some dirt in the dosing stages, losing him rpm and some 10 mph. And it was then that he set his best lap, only.OI? of a second slower than Biaggi. He did it with an impressive feat of daring. '1 figured that the fast corner at the end of the straight wasn't taken much slower, though you usually brake into it," Roberts said. "So r didn't brake· just knocked it back to fourth and pitched it in, figuring ird scrub 9ff enough speed." The tactic worked: Even though section times showed he'd lost almost three-tenths over that part of the track, he made it all up elsewhere. "It proves how strong the bike is - the chaSSIS and the tires - that I could do that," he said. Kocinski ended up third, but far froJ.Tl happy. Quite apart from the unsponsored tearn's precarious financial situation, he was not satisfied with the machine setup. "We're working really hard, but we could do with some upgraded parts from HRC," Kocinski said. "But we're just a private team, and if they gave us stuff, we'd be beating their factory bikes." Carlos Checa was fourth, having been second to Biaggi at one point; but spoiling his Chances of staying there by sliding off in the dosing stages. All the same, it was a big improvement compared with his dismal showing at the last race. afternoon. He was still more than 30 seconds aI1ead of Simon Crafar, with the Kiwi still unable to corne to terms with his new Michelin tires. Sebastien Gimbert was 10 seconds back, best of the Vtwins, with Haruchika Aoki three seconds behind him. Ober remounted to put his Dee Cee Honda 14th, one lap adrift and the last finisher. It was a bad afternoon for the MuZ pair, in with their best chance yet. Luca Cadalora was seventh on lap three and attacking Okada when he survived a huge near-high-sider. '1t is because we have been able to make the bike more comfortable for my style here, and when J am comfortable I can ride harder," he said. The whole front row was covered by just three-hundredths of a second, with the first 12 within one second of pole. Last year's and last week's winner, Alex Criville, was left to lead row two, his session spoiled in the early stages by electrical problems for one of his bikes, and his bid to get up front at the end spoiled when he ran up against a slower rider. He was certainly in touch, given the lap times. Likewise for the other second-row men, promising an exciting funnel into the first corner. There were some surprising inhabitants of that rank. Luca Cadalora put the ever-improving MuZ next, half a second off pole and praising the development. "Irs fast and the throttle response is much better - except for the first opening of the throttle," he said. Even more surprising at a track with a long straight was Tetsuya Harada's V-twin Aprilia in seventh. The lightweight had even been fastest on the first day of practice - the first time a V-twin had managed this feat since Tadayuki Okada in the Honda V-twin's debut in 1996 in Malaysia - though he admitted it was after getting a good tow down the Mistral from Criville. "This isn't a V-twin track, so it feel good to be faster than a lot'bf vfours," he said. The last man on row h\ro was Tadayuki Okada; the first on row Uu:ee was Jurgen \'an den Goorbergh on the second Mu2, in pite of suffering badly from the flu. Norick Abe was next, followed by JeanMichel Bayle on the Modenas after surviving a heavy crash in the morning. Alex Barros completed the rank, complaining of problems in the important double rights. Tohru Ukawa, Ralf Waldmann and Loris Capirossi headed the list in the first three 250cc practices, but by the finish Valentino Rossi had sorted some problems he was having getting the power on in the slower corners and moved to the top by just over a tenth. "The Aprilia is fast, and thars the main advantage here," he said. '1 was able to do a lot of laps at neax pole spt.'ed, so I think I can be consistent." Second was the remarkable privateer Franco Batlaini, the revelation of the season·on a '98-spec Aprilia. "Compared with the factory bike, r suffer a little in acceleration," he said. "Thars not such a problem here." Capirossi was third, praising the upgraded performance of the Honda, now with new engine parts that put it close to the Aprilia on speed; and points leader Ukawa was alongside him, with a similar story. 'The bike is corning much better this year compared with last, and even race by Tace'/' he said. This pushed Shinya Nakano off the front row for the first time all year, the Yamaha man hali a second slower than Rossi and suffering speedwise on the Mistral.

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