Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128009
va n d en Goo rbergh was a lo n g w ay back in 11th af ter losin g his advantage in a poor restart; John Kocinski was a lacklu st er 14th ou t of 16 finis hers after a dreadful weekend. Antena 3 Yama ha's Norick Abe an d Marlboro Yam ah a' s Carl os Ch eca both cras hed o u t - it w a s Checa' s second crash of the weeke nd, and his 23rd of the yea r. In a n exci ting 250cc GP, Valen tino Rossi claimed his sixth win of the season in typical s ty le, prevailing over longtime race lead er Ralf Wald ma nn wi th a well-ju dged fina l la p wher e he co u ld u se the extr a speed of his fu ll facto ry Aprili a o ve r the German's o ff-wo rks machine. Shell Ad van ce Ho nd a's Tohru Ukawa was third, with factory Yamaha ro oki e Shinya Nakan o prod uci ng yet another exce lle nt rid e to cla im fou rth, ou t of tou ch with the lead ers but co mfortably clear of his Chesterfield Yam aha teammat e Oli vier Jacque, w ho was ba ck af te r mi s s in g m ost of t he yea r throu gh in jury . Th e w in ex te n ded Rossi' s n ewl y ga ine d title lead to 27 points over Ukawa . Benetton Honda ' s Marco Me landri confirmed his status as the comi ng-man of bike racing wit h a superlative wi n in the 125ee race, overcoming a full one-second lap- time advantage from pole starter Roberto Locatelli. Locatelli led u ntil the final lap , shadowed by the teenager, then fell with only a few corners rema in in g after Melandri had pou nced and already started to pull away. Noboru Ued a tri umphed by inches in a fearsome ba ttle for seco nd, over te am m a te Lucio Cecchine llo and the Inoxmace l Ap rilia of Gia n luigi Sca lv in i. Masao Azu ma, detu ned after a frightening cras h with a d eer in p ractice, d ropped to 12th, na rro wl y reta ining hi s p oin ts lea d fro m sixth-placed Emilio Alza rnora, SOOcc GRAND PRIX Van den Goorbergh had started with th e le a d e rs a t the fi rst a tt em p t, but Roberts mad e the running on the first lap, picking up a place at almos t every corner until he stole first from Biaggi before the lap was half finished. It meant nothing, as the red flags came ou t promptly befo re the end of the second lap. Th e next tim e Biaggi was ready for Rob er ts and hung on to the lead , with the Su zuki second, Criville thi rd and Abe close beh ind. The s huffling started on lap five, a s Roberts ra n wide out of turn one, letting Criville th rou gh to sta rt hounding Biaggi . He pa ssed him for the first time on lap seven, only to be pushed firmly back agai n tw o laps later. By now Okada and Harada had both passed Abe, soo n to crash ou t, and were closing up. Meanwhile, obua tsu Aoki had foun d his way by Barros to close on the group, still toge ther like a 12Scc GP. Roberts conceded third to Okada just after half-distance, as he was obliged to ha ng back to keep his lap times d own. One mor e cha nge came on lap 15, when Crivil le passed Biaggi again under bra kin g fo r turn on e, and looke d like h e might br eak away as he opened the ga p to more than a second in just tw o laps. A m or e d et ermined rider mi ght have mad e it stick, bu t the othe rs all closed up again for the last -lap show down. Har ada was stead fas t thro ughou t in fifth, resistin g the pressure from Aoki all the way while both eyed the lead ers only a little way ahea d. Aoki di d at tack at the last corne r, but it failed , and the V-twin had agai n sho wn its valu e at a fast track. The next good dice ca me fro m the trio beh ind Barros! with McCoy, always When Jam ie Whith am crashed the fact ory Mod enas, the bike cau ght fire and the race had to be stopped. Whitham suffered a broken Pelv is . exciting to watch , put ting one over his teammate Laconi and Gibe rna u. "It we n t we ll - th ou gh I n earl y' binned it at the finis h," he said. Van den Goorbergh blamed a lac k of concentration for his b ad seco nd s ta r t, a n d so me dir t s ucked in to th e engine for fa iling to reco ver fro m it. He s till o u ts hone erra tic MuZ teammat e Luca Cad al or a, w ho did not ev en mak e the restart af ter failing to ge t th e bik e s e tt le d t o h is sa tis fac tio n all we ekend . "When the bike does not feel right, I ca n no t ra ce ," h e ex p lai ne d , rather unnecessarilv. Some w ay back Bor ja fina lly managed to get away from the persistent Vtwin rider Haruchika Aoki after both of them had overtaken Kocinski. "It ' s no s u rp rise," sai d th e disapp ointed American . "T he ca us e of ou r problems hasn't cha nged . I jus t can 't get this bike to turn, and I'm not confid ent . '" '" '" ~ - ~ CD E CD C. CD en 9