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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128108
W orld Championship R o ad R a c e Series Rou nd 5: Italian Grend P r ix By H EN NY R AY A BRAMS P HOT OS BY G O LD £, G OO SE MUGEll.O, ITALY, JUNE 3 he Ita lian Grand Prix a t Mugello resembled noth ing so much as Ke vin Costn er ' s e p ic disaste r flic k "Waterwo rld ." It was fa r too wet, far to o confusing, an d far too long, a nd if you stuck around until th e end , there wa s more re lie f th a n joy , with onl y th e West Honda Pon s crew enjoying a happy end ing . For the first tim e eve r, S ito Pons ' 500cc tea m swe pt the to p two places o n the po d iu m wit h Brazilian Ale x Ba rros besting Italian tea mmate Loris Capirossi in a ra in-inte rrupted , crash and dr ama -fill ed ra c e before a high ly partisan crowd of 61 ,858 at th e Aut odrom o Mug ello in t he T us c a n h ills no rth of Florence. The race was run in two parts, and th e le ade r across th e line at th e end T 6 JUNE 13, 2001 • eye I e of the second portion wa s no t Ba rros , th e winne r of the ra c e o n aggre g ate tim e , but he was n 't far b e hi n d . He c a me second on the track , b ut first overall, a heal thy 8 .359 seconds in front of his teammate Capiros s i. Th e It a lia n ha d h is hands full , th o u gh he probably d idn' t kn ow it. On the combin ed ti m e s o f the two races, Capiross i was second by . 150 of a second, with Marlboro Yamaha 's Max Bia ggi th ird, a last-lap gift fro m cha m pio ns hip leader Vale ntino Ross i who c rashe d out of thi rd a few turns from th e end . Re psol YPF Honda's Alex Criville took fourth , about hal f a second behind Biagg i. Be h ind C rivllle cam e s o m e seasona l bests . Arie Mol e na ar Racing's Haru chika Aoki, who c rossed th e line first in the se con d leg , took a surpris ing fifth on the Hon d a V-t win , fourseconds ahead of Se te Gibernau , the Span ia rd ' s sixth h is be st yet for the n IE! vv s T el efon ic a MoviStar S u zu k i. Then came a string of Japanese riders , all se pa rated by comforta ble margins Repsol YPF Honda's Tohru Ukaw a in fro nt of Gau loises Yamaha Tech 3 's Sh iny a Na kano, Antena 3 Yamaha D'Antin's Norick Abe , who crashe d in the second leg a nd rem ou nted to fin is h n inth , and Red B ull Ya maha WCM's Noriyuki Ha ga . The final three finis hers in th e field of 21 were Abe 's teammat e Jose Luis Cardoso , Proto n Team KR's Jurg en van d en Goorbergh , a froz en 12th , and Mark Willis , who scored th e first po ints for th e Pu lse GP team . Ross i's cr a sh an d Biagg i's podium put some life int o what had been a mor ibund c ha m pio ns h ip. Afte r five of 16 races, Biaggi has clo sed to within 2 1 points of his fe llow Italian, 9 1-70 , with Ca piross i third at 6 5 . Ro s s i was n't th e o nly n o t ab le c ra sher. Tele fonica Mov iStar Suzu ki's Kenny Roberts J r. contin ued his ho rrible season with a c rash less tha n three laps from the end. Roberts had jus t moved int o th ird on aggregate time when visibility pro blems caused him to crash. "Whe n [Norick ] Abe came by me , I had a problem with m y viso r fog g ing and it was ve ry d iffic ult to se e a ny th ing ," Rob erts said . "I was try ing to be ca utious , the n at the end I found I was getting closer and I started pushing . I saw I was and sta rte d to ca tch [Alex] Barros. I couldn't see mu ch on the front s t ra ight , and basicall y I made a m istake at the end of the st raightawa y... Jay Vinc ent, Chris Wa lker, Johan Stigefel t and Anthon y West also cra shed , with onl y 13 fini s he rs at the end. In th e 250cc Gra nd Prix, MS Apr ilia Racing ' s Tetsuy a Harada prospe red where h is teammates a nd the charnpi-