Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Road Race Marlboro Yamaha's Max Biaggi fad ing in seventh, just holding off John Kocinski's Kan em oto Honda. Criville spen t most of .the race sha dowing Roberts, bu t had passed him one la p before he fell, a lso fo r th e second tim e of the weeke nd. Criville rem ounted, but w ith five la ps lef t his bik e was too bad ly damaged to continue. " I lost po ints to Roberts and Okada tod ay, but there are onlv four races left, and I sti ll have the ad va ntage," he said. This was the first 500cc rac e witho u t a sing le Honda on th e podi um since the U.S. GP of 1993, won bv Kocinski on a Cagiva, and the first race sin ce Malaysia in 1996 th at th er e was not at least one Rep sol Ho nda on th e podium. Rain-master Tohru Ukawa, on a Shell Advance Honda, sto rmed to a con vincing win in the earlier 250cc race, run in pouring rain . lt was another result that ad ded interest 10 the 'ti tle bat tle, with point s lead er Valentino Rossi' s Aprilia way down in a distant eighth after a collisio n on the first la p with Chesterfi eld Yamaha rider O livier Jacque. FGF Aprilia's Franco Battaini came through for a close seco n d, with ElfAXO H ond a ' s Loris Ca pirossi third and pole qu alifier Shinya akano's Ch est erfield Yamaha a clo se fourth . Optimum Aprilia rid er Jerem y McWilliams w as in the battl e for third but crashe d ou t w ith five laps to go, o ne of m an y to pay the penalty of treacherous tarm ac that started strea min g wet a nd was m er el y d amp by th e finish, punishi ng the full -we t tires. Inoxmacel Aprilia's Gia nluigi Scalvini could count himself d oubly lu cky to w in a crash-s trewn 125cc race. H e was in the lead ing qu artet when title riva ls Masao Azuma - lead in g a t th e ti m e and second-place Mar co Melandri (bo th o n Bene tton Playlife H ondas) touch ed the sa me w hite line and fell in'close formati on . Th en Scalvini esca ped d isast er on th e last la p w hen Bernard Absm eier fell und er hi s w he els . Scalvini ran off o n to th e wet g rass , but m ana ged to re gain t he soa k ing tarmac w i t ho u t fallin g h imself. Second -placed Em il io Alzarnora, of Via Digi tal, cha llenged for a whil e, but obeyed pit signals to back off for a safe finis h to increase his points lead; Nob oru Ueda's Givi H onda wa s almost 30 seco n ds b eh ind . O u t o f 30 starte rs, ten rid er s crashe d, in clud in g su rprise fro nt-ro w qua lifier Pablo N ieto and his Derbi teammat e Youi ch i Ui. 500cc GRAND PRIX Th ere was mayh em o n th e g rid before th e wa r m -up la p, as riders a nd team managers sca n ned the sky and th e ir rival s' bikes to chec k on tire choice. By the en d of it , all we re o n in termediate tires fro nt an d rear, except for the two Red Bull riders Laconi and McCoy, and Okada and Kocins ki. The field kicked u p a clou d of spray as they surged tow ard th e firs t corner, ~ O ka da in th e lead - bu t by the second :::liii corner Laco ni had forced his way pa st . III Rid in g with d evil-may-car e confide nce, !!Ii he started at once to w ork on his lead , IIIii pulling ou t a second over Ok ad a by the III end of lap six, and con tinu ing to stret ch awa y s tead ily so the ga p was more than • ten seco nds aft er 22 laps. "Som e parts of ~ the track w ere still quite wet, and I had Q to be very careful there to av oid having • '. a hig h -si d e," he exp la ined la ter . " Bu t = m en ~ gf ~ E .l!! go en 24 there were other parts, especially the fas ter corners, where I could make up tim e easily. " In th e end, he made hi s first win look easy, tho ugh the problem s faced by others proved o therwise. Criville got aw ay third, Roberts wa s sixth ; with Biaggi and Abe sandwiched between th em and Checa behind . All we re rid ing cautious ly, however , and as The victory was Regis Laconi's firstever in Grand Prix racing and he was natura lly pleased abou t it. Roberts (left) and McCoy (right) look on. Robert s ex p la in ed, " It took ten laps befo re the tires go t so me heat in th em and you could up the pac e a bit. " By that tim e he w as narrowly ahead of Criv ille, Abe and Ch eca, and McCoy had co me swee p ing p ast a ll o f th em, leaping from eig hth on lap one to third by lap five, so me fou r seconds beh in d ( the leaders. He wa sn 't finished yet, an d pulled clear of the pursuit as he closed up on the fadin g Okada, catching him just after half-distance and forcing his w a y pa st af ter a couple of b rave a tte m p ts . The Ja p a nese rid e r s tayed close beh ind. Roberts sta rted pu shing hard er no w, Pole Battle a Cliffhan er H istory was made in th e 500cc class, with the closest-ever qualifying times recorded in tha t division. The front row was covered by just less than two-tenths, and the first 15 qualified within nine-tenths of a second . Actual positions were therefore something of a lottery, but vita lly important at a circu it w here overtaking wou ld be difficult because of the tight layou t, and made even harder because it was so sli ppery off the racing line . The win ner, for the first time in his caree r, was feisty Frenchma n Regis Lacon;' as a fitting reward for being th e mos t spectacu lar rider on the track, full sideways und er bo th braking and acce lera tio n: "It is sl ippery, which is good an d ba d for me. I rea lly enjoy the sliding, but o n the firs t day it was too slippe ry so you couldn't slide smoothly. On the seco nd day there is a little more grip, and it is grea t." He also admitted tha t he had been following Criville on his fast la p . "Thanks to him," he grinned ecstatically . The Red Bull rid er led so mething of a revival for Yarnahas, strug gling as the season wears on, with Max Biagg] moving through on the second da y to place second, 0.16 seconds slower, but full y two seconds qui cker than his own tim e of the day before. He'd achieved the confidence required with yet another chassis swi tch - away from the new chassis he has used since Brno and back to one"of se veral earlier versions. "Th e difference is I can go round the comers now, and I could not before," he explained disarmingly. Cri ville was a close third, but stru ggling somewhat - falling on the first da y, and running off again on the second. "I don't like this track very much, I am so rry to say." he sa id . 'There are too many slow corne rs, and I don't feel comfortable, I have a lot of pressure, with so many fans who want me to "in, and I must also think of the cha mpionship . Also, 1 don't think the tires will last very well for 30 laps." Teammate Tadayuka Okada also m oved up in fhe closing stages, another to take a couple of excurs ions in to the gravel. "We only fou nd a good setting at the end," he said. The second row saw th ree more Yarnahas, Checa the fas tes t in fifth, after yet another crash (his 26th) on Satu rday morning. "My las t la p would have been rea lly fast, bu t I hit some slower traffic," he sai d. Norick Abe was alongside , havi ng led the firs t day of practice, promp tin g cynica l com men ts about "con tract tim e." Kocin s ki' s H ond a was sevent h, the enigma tic rider. once aga in fas t in practice, but prom ising nothing for the race, since he is still awaiting the chassis modifications he ha s wanted all yea r. "It doesn't reall y suit m e being a private rider," he co.m merited wryly. McCoy was alongside, still looking wi ld in his sixth race on the Yamaha, but enjo ying himself. Th e Aust ralian is by far the and broke the quartet, Criville ma tching his every mo ve as the y started to close a five-second ga p . Bit by bit they edged closer. Then on the 24th lap Roberts ra n , wide into one of th e tight corners and Criville se ized hi s cha nce. But it w as only for just over a lap, and it was his turn to run too fast into a corner. He smallest rider on the grid, and his low weigh t is no hindrance to acceleration . " Bu t 1 s-ometimes feel the lack of weight on the rear wheel, when I'm trying to get drive out of the corners," he said. "Maybe I should take a passenger." A highly disgruntled Kenny Roberts Jr . led the third row, less than four-tenths off the pole, but far from happy. "I can do a good lap time, but we can't get the bike to do wha t we want. 1 can't do that sort of tim e all race long," he explained. Barros was alongside, then second Suzuki rider Aoki, one of only a few riders who had not attended earlier tests here. "I'm learn-, ing the track, so 1 am a lit tle behind," he said, after slashing his lap time by more than two seconds from the first to the second day. Borja was alongside, feelin g the tension. He is sponsored by the city of Valencia, and his p ictu re was on all of the promotional mat eri al for the race . Van den Goorbe rg h's MuZ led row four fro m Giberna ui ano the r Honda rid er w ho found the gravel trap ra th er too easily, th ou gh when he fell off it was on ly a t low speed. Harad a was alo ngsi de, searchi ng for chassis per form an ce and failing to find it, tho ug h h e d id say th at new engine settings ha d , im proved his wheelie problems. Then came Mark Willis on the BSL Modenas , ge tting going at last after a dire season of non -starts and teet hing problems . "I'm feeling like a rider aga in," he sa id happily, after leading the lists at one point on the first day. . Hale was 17th, and the second factory Modenas, ridden by Spaniard David de Cea. 18th. There were 22 qualifiers. . Yamahas excelled also in the 250cc class, after a royal battle for pole in the closing stages. It went to Nakano, eyes typically shining as he told how enjoyable it was to co m e to a track where he had the same amount of experience as the others: " I like the track, too, because it is very technical. And the Yamaha likes it. The chassis is always good on difficult comers." His teammate Jacque had a different explanation . " It ' s because the engine is not very powerful," he said mischievously. "Anyway," he added, "it " ill rain tomorr ow . My uncle told me." Funnily enough, he was rig ht. Jacq ue was third, w it h Capirossi slotting in between after struggling ea rlier on wi th chassis se ttings. Rossi com pleted the fron t row, saying: "As usual the Aprilia is d ifficult on the slow co rner because of the quick throttle resp ons e - but the re are o ther pa rts of the track w here I can ma ke it up aga in. I found so me traffic, or else I could have bee n fas ter." Three-tenths cov ered the front row, and Ukawa was right up cl os e , leadin g th e seco n d r ow from W aldmann a nd M cWill iams . Th en ca m e Boscoscuro, th e tim es s tar ting to stre tch, with Battaini leading ro w three from Port o and Rolfe , who had claimed prov isional pole on th e first d ay. Anthony West was 15th, with 31 qu a lifiers. Arnaud Vincent took his second pol e of the year in th e 125c clas s, from Melandri, Nieto and Azurna. Pablo Ni eto is Ang ei Nieto's second so n in GP racing, and it was by far Nieto's best qualifying on the Derbi , at the Spanish firm 's test track. " It is a big pressure for me," he said.

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