Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Daijiro Katoh (7 41, like Rossi In the SOOcc cla ss, has yet t o lose a 250cc ra ce thus far this season. Here he leads second-place finisher Tetsuya Harada (311 and the rest of the chasing pack. the distant Dry Sac k ha irpin on th e fourth lap , h e was c lo s e enough to d ive in s id e in a hard move . Katoh tr ied to dose h im down , but Harada had th e line, and gave the younger man an ins cru table wav e as the y accelerated away . He led for just two laps, then Katoh pulled the s ame m o ve to rega in the front , wasting no time on waves or g e s ture s and putting h is head down to up the pace right away. Still Harada stayed with h im , an impressive effort. But it was doomed to failure . "I had to work m y tires so hard to chase him that they started sliding ," he expla ined, and by lap 14 the gap wa s a full second and still grow ing . As Harada slowed , Katoh kept right o n go ing , breaking the record on the 18th lap and finishing almost 12 sec onds dear of his lon e rival. Lu c c h i, r iding a new prototype Aprilia , had been dos e behind in th e e a r ly stage s, bu t wh en he saw Me landri coming up fro m beh ind after 10 la ps , "I m ad e it easy fo r him to p a s s, b ec au s e h e is c h a s in g th e ch am pionship." He follo wed a lo n g b eh ind , but Mela nd ri had no cha nce to catch up , a nd finished fumi ng even th ough he achieved a rostrum third place. "We a re m ile s behi nd. We need something from Aprilia if we have any hope of catching Katoh," he said. Nieto had started well , only to be outpowered on the straight. Fourth on lap one , he was sixth next time around, with not only Melandri but also Alzamora, on a visibly faster Honda , ahead of him . Then Alzamora, inspired at home , even got past Melandri for a coup le of laps, before the Italian p us he d past and we nt off to catc h Lucch i. Nie to pu s h ed a nd p ushed be h ind Alzamora , and finall y got pas t o n the 12 th lap. By now they 'd been joi ned by Matsudo's Ya maha a nd Locate lli's Aprilia , the' la s t -n a m e d hanging on only for a few laps before dropping out of to uch . A little wa y ba ck , Jeremy McWilliams had been hold ing fellow Aprilia rider F ra nc o Battaini at bay wh ile battling h is own chatter prob- lems , while Roberto Rolfo, on another Apr il ia , had been pic king h is way through from 14 th on the first lap . By hal f distanc e , he had passed Batta ini a nd was on McWilliams , ta k ing thre e la ps to get p ast and move awa y up front. His next ta rg et was the fa di ng Locatelli, who wa s an easy victim on lap 18 , and now the top p rivateer set off after Nieto, Matsudo and Alzamora a little way ahead . He wa s les s than two seconds beh ind when Ma tsudo s lid off at the Dry Sack hairpin , but Rolfo was jus t not able to catch Alzamo ra , who was sixth behind Nieto , and less than a second ahead of Rolfo . Locatelli was eighth , and Battaini stole ninth from McW illiams a t the last comer. Some way back , Alex Hofmann headed Matsuda fo r 11th - the Japan - e se ride r had ha stil y re m o unte d. Then c a m e Al ex Debo n , ju s t ho ld ing off slow starter Kla us Noehles on a factory Aprilia. Italian rookie Lo renzo Lanz i was a lone 15th , ta king the fina l point. Ka tja Po en sg e n cla im e d an o th e r finis h , a la p a d rift but in 23 rd pla ce , with an other fou r riders beh ind he r. Ka toh now le a d s Harada , 75 -56 , with Melandri th ird with 46. Locatelli has 37 , with Ro lfo an d Nieto on 28 and 27 points, respectively. 1 2 5 c c GRAND PRIX Junior rider Antonio El ias made another brillia nt start to lead into the fir st tu rn, with Pe ru g in i putting th e blu e Italjet up fro nt ha lfway around at Dry Sack, By the end , however, Ui's Derb i wa s in fr ont , and started to move away im m e diate ly. It d idn 't last, however, with Azuma c lo s in g u p ag ain after four laps , bring ing Pog gia li, Pe ru gini and Borsoi with him . The lea ding five were soon almost fiv e s econds clea r of the rest , and trading blows in an entertaining fashion, By half d istance, Borsoi was fad ing , but anyone of the remaining fou r might have won the ra c e . Azuma , who s e t a new record o n lap fou r, took the lead for th e firs t time on lap seven; then two laps later J erez was in a typically q uirky mood , the surfac e grip cha nging unpredictably with temperature and humidity and who knows what other whim, so that times were quicker in Saturday moming free training than fi nal qualifying that afternoon, even though temperatures were higher, which makes most other tracks more tire-friendly. For a third time in succession. the man who made the most of the quirks was the untouchable Valentino Rossi, taking a hat trick of poles by a dep ressingly impressive margin of almost four tent hs. There were crumbs of comfort for his rivals, however - that he was even closer to the edge than usua l, admitting that he'd almos t cras hed three times in the last session alone. One of those was in full view of the pit wall - running wide out of the hairpin. onto the painted curb, but keeping the throttle pinned so he ran off that onto the grass and a savage flick that he saved only narrowly. "Unfortunately the curb wasn't wide enough," he grinned later. "I'm very lucky. "The track conditions change not only day to day but hour to hour," he continued. "I took many risks. and also many other riders out there. " Given this uncertainty, tire choice would be crucial, he added. "I was much more confident at the last race. Tires will decide the result here. and we still need to make our choice." Loris Capirossi was his closest rival for a seco nd successive race, after an eve ning sp ent scanning tele metry in search of front-end grip. "We found a solution," he said happily, before echoing Ross i's tire com ments. The rest were packed up close behind Capirossi, seco nd to 12th within one brawling second . Norick Abe was third, his fi rst time on the front row since 1999, reflecting something of a change in a rider who hitherto has not been a good qualifier. "It all went well for me, and I have found a good tire," Abe said. "The track change didn't affect me. Perhaps I have a Spanish god on my side. But my problem today was the wind," The front row was completed by Shinya Nakano, the rookie on the front row for every one of his 500cc GPs so far, and looking as ever neat, well-controlled. and fast. "I like this track very much, though I have not had a good result here. It's good to be on the front row... but lap times are so close," he sa id. Po ggiali was in fro nt; the n Ui again , then Poggiali for a lo ng s pe ll as the race a p pro ached the last four la ps . No w Ui s eem ed to be ma k ing h is m ove , p u s h in g the yo u ng e r ride r for the le a d in a c onvincin g fa shi o n . In fa ct he was s t rug g ling with a s liding front ti re, a nd on la p 20 he los t the ba ttle , fa lling o ff the low s id e at the cor n er le ad ing on to t h e b a c k stra ight. This le ft jus t Poggi ali and Azu m a , a n d t h e J a p anese ride r m ad e h is atta ck o n t h e final h a ir pi n o n th e penultima te la p . It looked as thou gh he m ight have gone too soon , leav ing himself open to a s im ila r move but in fa ct h is judgment wa s perfect. "I knew where I was faster than Poggiali , and I thought I could pull awa y ," he sa id late r. Poggial i was chas ing h im hard when he fell at the same place as Ui, this time go ing over the h ighside as h e ga ve it to o much power. In m a n y ways , however, the ride o f the race came from Luc io Cecc hinello. On the front row , he 'd been left struggling on the line , finis h in g the first la p 16 th . He kept on pushing . p ick ing up place after place and getting to the fro nt of the pursuit pack in sixth place by la p seven , more than five seconds off the b a c k of the fron t pa ck . He caught and passed the slow ing Bo rso i aft er n ine more la p s of effo rt , and then even s t a rted to close o n the leaders. He cras hed in moming warm-up - a rare event - but bounced straight back . Indeed yes. Max Biaggi was less than three hundredths slower, after spending both days looking for stability and debati ng the choice between 17-inch and 16.5-inch tires - a question most had resolved in favor of the latter. Tohru Ukawa was alongside , looking as though he was trying hard all the way, especially when he pushed too far in the final ses sion and had a heavy, looping highside in a fast comer. "I damaged my bike and banged my ankle that I hurt at Suzuka but luckily nothing is broken," he said. after jumping back on his spa re and going even faster. Alex Barros was alongside, working his way up the order, and saying: "There might be more riders fighting for the podium than you expect," Then came Kenny Roberts Jr., again in an equable mood in spite of his problems. "We've gone further with the set-up that see med to work in South Africa, and it means I'm not havinq to use the tire so hard on the comer exits," he said. "We may have sacrificed ultimate lap time, but it will be better over race distance... if I can get a good start again I ca n race those guys," he said. Jurgen van den Goorbergh led row three on the Proton, his best yet. It came hard, after a slow start to practice at a track where he had been right among the V-fours in pre-season tests . "We've made some chassis and sus pension changes, and the bike is faster today, not the rider. I did a good lap with the sa me effort - and it could have been better if my front tire hadn't been used up," he said. Noriyuki Haga was alongside, then Garry McCoy, both Red Bull riders failing to find the combination. Likewise, Alex Criville in 12th. They were not the only ones. Carlos Checa 's failure was the most spectacular - a huge highside a little way before the comer where Doohan's career ended. He had crashed in the moming as well, and - already battered from a crash while training three weeks before was a doubtful starter. He was qualified 13th , with a troubled Sete Gibemau alongside, his complaints about a lack of engine development from Suzuki growing more plaintive. J os e Luis Ca rdoso's V-four Yam ah a was 14t h. the n ca me teenager Leon Haslam , increasingly imp ressive and the first V-twln , ahead of V-four-mounted Shell Advance Honda teammate Chris Walker, who cras hed on Friday and was complaining of a lack of confidence in the front end. cue I e n e _ s • MAV 16,2001 25

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