Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

We st Honda - a 1999 mod el c ompared wi th Rossi 's 200 1 b ike. This in sp it e of the fa ct that Rossi brok e the lap rec or d four times on fou r consec utive lap s in th e closi ng stages, and th en once more on th e la st lap . "I k ne w Loris wou ld be m y riva l, and I had t o break th e record t o be sure I co uld stay ahead , beca use I had seen in p rac t i c e how fast he could go," said Ro ssi, who leaves for the st art of the Euro p ean season in two weeks at Jerez with a ma ssive 2 2 point lead in the championshi p ta ble. Cl ass rookie Tohru Uka wa and his Repso l Hon da was third , prevailing in a to ug h three-way battle o ver fe ll ow roo k ie Shiny a N akan o on the Gau l oise s Yam ah a a n d m id-ra c e leader Noric k Abe o n the A ntena 3 Yama ha. Some w a y b a c k , Rep so l Ho n da ' s A lex Crlv ille led de fend ing World Cham p io n Ke nny Rob erts Jr. and Ma rlboro Yamaha 's Max B i ag g i ov er the li ne. Roberts and th e T el efoni c a Movi St ar Suz uki h ad started br illi an tl y from the secon d row and led th e fi rst half of the rac e, but on ce th e o th ers started p as sing him h is lack of rel ati ve acce leration meant he dropped back fo r the rest of the rac e. Last year's w inner Garry McCoy had been w ith the lead ers and chal leng ing hard when h e c r a sh ed ou t with 1 1 laps rema in ing, after getting off li ne t o pass the fad ing Roberts. Red Bull Yamaha te am m at e No riyuki Ha g a had a lrea d y highsi ded out o f the race at that stage. A good cro wd of 3 2, 0 0 0 enj o y ed perfect sunny co nditions at th e threeRoberts (11 faded and ended up losing a battle with Alex Crivil h' (2 81 for sixth place. year-o ld circuit, ou ts id e th e go ld -m ining town of Welkom , some two hou rs southwest of J ohannesburg . Earl ier , th ey watched a 250c c GP that started o ff a s yet a no ther depressing runaway w in for T elefon i c a Mo v iS t a r H on da r ide r D a ij i r o Katoh. T hen the ra c e c am e alive as he started t o slow w ith fro nt -t ire tro ub le , an d se cond -pla c ed Ma rco Me landri and his MS April ia st arted to close a ga p t hat, at m i d- r ac e , h ad been almost five seconds. Backmark ers played a crucial ro le i n sa v in g K atoh ' s bac o n , wit h M elandr i caught f o r two c o rners b ehind Al ex Ba rros' younger and much slo w er b rother Ce sare . Ev en so , he closed ri g ht up on the last lap , bre a ki ng the rec ord fo r a second time. He cros sed the line less th an a tenth of a second adrift. Two more MS A pri lias wer e ne xt , with T etsuya Harad a third after lo sing touch with Melan dri whose en g ine nipped up, an d Roberto Locatelli w as a cl ose fou rt h . Fonsi Nieto wa s fifth a f te r a str o n g r i de , h i s b e s t - e v e r res u lt, at th e head of a close g ro up c o m p r is i n g J er em y McW ill i a ms , In the end, the race came down to a battle between italians Ross i (461 and Loris Capirvssl (651, with Rossi getting the nod at the finish by just over half a second. It was Rossi's second straight 500cc GP win to start the season. Sebasti an Po rt o , Roberto Ro lf o and Na ok i Matsudo. The f ir st race of the d a y was a clear runaway w in for Derb i' s You ich i U i, with M anu el Pog gia li seco nd on t he i den t ica l Gi le ra . T SR H on da 's N o bo r u U ed a won a b ig battl e f o r th ird on the final lap. 500cc GRANO PRIX Roberts made a superb st art from the second row to le ad into the first c o rn e r n o t wi t h o ut p u sh ing Capi rossi wi de, to Ross i's ben efit and, by the end of th e first lap , Ro ssi was in the lead. But he was not yet ha pp y with the feel of his bike , and Robert s got back ahea d on the ne xt lap. Ridi ng both hard and with prec ision , th e cha mpion stayed in front for the next 12 laps. Clearl y hi s com plaints about a relative lack of acceleratio n are well founded , because the rest of the fast guy s piled up beh ind h im , with McCoy m ov ing ba ckward and forwa rd in th e group in a rather excit abl e fashio n - but not even sec ond -pl ac ed Rossi was ab le to find a wa y past. Th en, on lap 12 , Abe sta rt ed his im pressive run, taking second off Rossi , and the next l a p diving inside Roberts on the co rn er leading on to th e back stra ight . Ro berts expla i n s that h i s p o or spee d out of the corners m ean s th at he ca nno t get int o a po siti o n to pas s othe r rid ers, hence the need to kee p him sel f ha r d t o p ass w hen he is in fr ont. Su re enoug h , onc e Abe was by , cu e I e n e _ os • MAY 2 .200 1 7

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