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suffering from fuel starvation. Rolfo was coming from behind, and Matsudo managed to break free while Rolfo and Melandri traded blows, Rolfo eventually leading him over the line by a second. Battaini was a distant seventh, with Jeremy McWilliams another 12 seconds behind in eighth, almost caught at the finish by the Yamahas of Seb Porto and wild card Taro Sekiguchi. Fonsi Nieto (Apr) was next, after jAbove) Marco Melanclrl (5) leads Katoh (74) and Tetsuya Haracla (31) Into the chicane early In the 250cc race. Katoh quickly passed Melandrl • who was racing with a dislocated shoulder and cleared out. Haracla finished second, almost 20 seconds behind Katoh. (Leftj Masao Azuma rode his Honda to victory In the 125cc race, giving Honda their 498th win. Two races later, the company that owns the circuit could celebrate not only winning all three classes on the day, but also getting its 500th GP victory. coming through with Rolfo only to lose touch again. Alex Hoffman (Apr) just shaded wild card Hiroshi Aoyama (Hon) for 12th; and off-color Klaus Noehles was 14th on his factory Aprilia, with the French newcomer taking the last point. Poensgen was one lap behind at the end. Katoh's teammate Emilio Alzamora, on the only other factory Honda, crashed out on the second lap; Alex Debon also fell off his works Aprilia. De Gea also crashed out of the points. was conspicuously slower on the back straight. "I wanted to attack into the chicane, but the gap was too big. When we get to Europe, we will have some more speed," he said. Simone Sanna rode a brilliant last lap, coming from the back of the group to steal third from Borsoi, with Poggiali and Cecchinello right up behind. The best of the rest of Steve Jenkner (Apr), who fended off Honda rider Mirko Giansanti over the line for seventh. Another second behind came Frenchman Arnaud Vincent (Hon), just ahead of Pablo Nieto (Der) and brother Angel Nieto Junior (Hon). Stefano Perugini had been moving toward the leaders when he crashed out of his first race on the muchimproved Italjet with 13 laps to go. Teammate Gianluigi Scalvini scored points for a rather lackluster 13th. eN 12Scc GRAND PRIX A race with many leaders saw Gino Borsoi in front for the first three laps, the first time the Aprilia rider has ever led a GP. He stayed with the leading group as seven riders broke free up front, swapping back and forth in time-honored fashion. Cecchinello was the next to lead, but Ueda was coming through from an average start, and took to the front for the first time on lap six. Poggiali was also on the charge, and he led from laps 10 to 13. Then Ueda took over again for a spell, then Ui. .. it was that sort of a race. Amazingly, all except Ueda made the finish· he highsided out spectacularly with four laps to go. Then it was all down to last-lap tactics and courage. Azuma was the one with the most, saying afterward: "Honda needed this win for their total - and if 1hadn't have taken it they might have killed me." He was less than a tenth ahead of Ui over the line, but the Derbi rider cue I • Suzuka Circut Suzuka, Japan Resuhs: April 8,ZOOl 250<:c QOALFYING: 1. Daljlro Katoh (2:07.414); 2. Marco Melandri (2:08.546); 3. Roberto Locatelli (2:08.633); 4. Alex Debon (2:09.295): 5. Jeremy McWilliams (2:09.363); 6. FrtlncO Blitteini (2:09.450); 7. Naoki Matsudo (2:09.598); 8. Tetsuya Harada (2:09.683): 9. Roberto Rolfo (2:09.741): 10. Rllndy De Puniel (2:10.013); 11. Sebastian Porto (2:10.046); 12. Fonsi Nieto (2:10.251): 13. Klaus Nohles (2:10.261): 14. Hiroshi Aoyama (2:10.264); 15. Taro Sekiguchi (2:10.473); 16. Shinichi Nllkelomi (2:10.477); 17. Lucli Boscoscuro (2:10.497); 18. Alex Hofmann (2:10.528): 19. Emilio Alzomora (2:10.594): 20. David De Gea (2:10.598); 21. Shahrol Yuzy (2:10.678): 22. Julien Allemand (2:10.732): 23. Jeronimo Vidal (2:11.775): 24. David Checa (2:11.787); 25. Sylvain Guintoli (2:11.816); 26. Choujun Kameya (2:11.884): 27. Lorenzo Lanzi (2:11.887): 28. Tekkyu Kayoh (2:12.344): 29. Diego Guigovaz (2: 12.952); 30. Riccardo Chiarello (2:14.376): 31. Katja Poensgen (2'15.82J): 32. Stuart Edwards (2:15.957). 500cc QUALFYINQ: 1. Loris Capirossi (2:04.777); 2. Shiny a Nakano (2:05.588); 3. Max Blaggi (2:05.703); 4. Garry McCoy (2:05.833): 5. n e _:IS • APRIL 18. 2001 11