Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128108
an d t i r e sel ect ion mad e the differ - caught on to the v ag aries of wet weather ra cing . " T he im port a nt th in g is that I didn 't m a k e a ny mi st ak e s and l e a rned a ence . Te l efon ic a Mov iSta r H ond a 's D aijiro Ka toh , w in ner of the first four GP ' s , cho se w ro ng . an d w as never a lot ." Nakano said . Ab e was ne xt , ni nth o n t he t rack a nd n inth over a ll after c ras hi ng out of t he lead on the t rac k on the 12th la p . " W h en I crashed , I w as bra k in g in the same p oint as th e prev ious la ps, b ut by that ti me it wa s raining muc h more and I sho u ld h av e hit the brakes factor, t hough he worked h is wa y up to 10th th rough attr ition at th e en d . April ia s were away at the st a rt and they ' d b e th ere for the fi nish , fi v e in a row , wi th a few more fi n di ng t hei r w ay into g ravel t raps . MS A prilia 's ve n era ble Lu cchi , the Aprilia test rider, led off th e st art fro m before . It has b een m y mistake , bu t I wa n ted t o w i n a nd I kne w I c o u ld h ave done so ." Aprilia 's McWilliams and MS A p rilia 's Ha rada . Harada was up to sec ond o n th e second lap , then into t he lead fo r T enth wen t to Noriyu ki Haga who chalked u p h is fi rs t wet race o n a 500 to a learning experience . "G ive n t he d iffi cult condit ions and o u r lac k of ex pe rience, we di d n't do the third , and b ac k to se cond fo r the fou rt h. On th e fifth lap , Lu c chi made a mistake and lost th e front end in a down hill r ig ht wh il e in th e le ad . It was h is third cra sh of the week end , the too badly, and I was happy to make it to the f inish lin e, " Haga sa id. Italian hav ing broken bones in his left foot in one of t w o practice crashe s o n 250cc GRAN D PRIX (Above) Bia ggi's third place, co m bine d w ith hi s w in In the last ro und in Fra nce , has m oved th e Yamaha rider int o second in the points ch a se , only 2 1 po ints behind Ros si, w ho crashed with three laps to go in Italy. goi ng . M y viso r was c omplete ly m ist ed up. " Saturda y. " He seemed too nervous and eager The 2 50cc race began o n a wet tra ck a n d e nded o n a d r yi ng t ra c k . to try a n d win, but, in ,! ny ca se, t o Next ca me U k a wa , exhausted fro m t he t ens ion b e twe e n races an d the c o ld, wet ra in . " A bo ut 12 laps fr om th e end I st art- m ent fo r the outdated NSR500V, t he ed to t remb le so much that I cou ld n't m a c h in e w it h t h e perfe ct l a ck o f p ower curve fo r t he horrid c onditions . k eep th e p ac e of th e race an y m o re ," G ibernau came n ext on the Suzu k i and it was ver y d i f f i cult t o br ak e , in his first race in t he rain o n t he b ike . Th e S p an i a r d was c a uti o us a t th e he sa id . " E very th ing wa s com p lic at ed, accelerate , and change gea rs ." Nakano, l i k e his fell ow co u ntry- start before m ovin g forw ard . m an U kaw a , had l itt l e w e t ex peri- " B y then I h ad ta k en a lot of w ater in my he lmet , a n d fo r the last f i ve Though th e st art w asn't good, it wa s la ps I could bare ly see where I w as b etter t ha n he th ought , a nd he soon ence, w h i c h showed o n the start. Ale x Barros won hi s first 500cc GP of the season, best ing his te ammate Loris Capi rossi. The pa ir gave the Sito Po nsowned West Ho nda t eam its f irst-e ver one two sweep of the podium. What to do about tires? Th at was the dilemma facing the front-runners on the front row of the 500cc grid. The questio n was whether to use a 16.5 or l7-inch rear wheel. There were pluses and mi nuses either way and the riders tested both . reserv ing their decision unt il one fina l go in Sunday moming's warm -up. Nastro Azzurro Honda's Valentino Rossi was, not surprisingly, on the pole, his best lap not a record. and j ust enough to hold off a furious late-session charge by Kenny Roberts Jr. Playing to a vociferous and supportive hom e crowd. Rossi was fast on Friday, and again on Saturday, and was cl early the man to beat. To do it would m ean m aki ng his ti res last the race distance and he wasn't sure that could be done. " This pole tim e was set with a l7- inch rear whee l , also (Kenny] Roberts , (Loris) Capi rossi, and [MaxI Biagg i used a 17-inch wheel: Rossi said after his 1:52.554, a tenth off the record set by Tetsuya Harada on the V-twtn Aprilia in 1999, "but for the race I will use a 16.5· inch rear. Roberts will use a 17-inch. He will have an advantag e in the opening laps of the race, but I should have more reliable tires in the second part." Roberts didn't deny Rossi's assertion . "This is the fastest a Suzuki has ever got around here by three -quarters of a second: he began, "so from that standpoint, for us, it's great. The 17s have helped our situation a little bit because I don't have to spend so much time on my side, when the engine situation is more critical. The 16.5 tire at this track tak es too long to try to make the bike tum. As a consequence of that you have to use small throttle open ings much more , which relates to one of our engine weakn esses." Roberts went on to say that , last year, he could make a break at the start, but this year the others have imp roved their packages. "They made everything better and now we're struggling ," he said. West Honda Pons' Loris Capirossi said he'd try both wheel sizes in the moming warmup, but thought that the l7-inch would be betterfor the race. "Today I try also a 16.5 and I try maybe 10 laps and the lap time is not too bad, but to go the distance , the 17 is bett er," Capirossi, last year's winn er here. said. Next to Capirossi came the third Italian on the front row , Marlboro Yamaha 's Max Biag· gi , the last rider in the 52s at 1:52 .842. just more than a tenth behind Capiross i. It had been a tough weekend for Biaggi, the Roman tuc king the front end and crashing twice on Frid ay, ending up only eight h fastest. His times were two seconds off the pace he'd set here during testing just a few weeks earlier and the team was at a loss to explain it. It all tumed around on Saturday when he was able to equal his testing times. "Th e setti ngs we chose are a compromise between last year's set-up and this year's, and in the end it worked: he said. As for his tire choice , Biaggi said they'd tried both . "The 16.5 obviously work ed well at Le Mans (where he won two weeks ago], but th is is a very different track and I find the bik e jumps aro und less in the comers with the 17. But of course the 16.5 does have advantages. It' s a difficult choice and we'll make the decision after tomorrow mom ing's warm -up." A pair of A lexes on Hondas led off row two wit h West Honda Pons Alex Barros in front of Repsol YPF Honda's Alex Criville, Barros was on pole here last year, but couldn't find the same traction this time around . "I had enough grip, but it was impossible to open in the right place: he said. Criville was 0.121 seconds back, but over two seconds faster than he'd gone on Friday. "My team turn ed the set-up of the bike around com pletely, and it's easy to see that it worked out," the Spaniard said. Seventh place belonged to Dutchman Jurgen van den Goorbergh, who put the Proton KR in its best grid placing ever. Uke Criv ille, he significantly bettered his Friday lap tim e. dropping almost 2.5 seconds through im proved chassis setti ngs. "The most im porta nt thing was that we had both bikes working, where yester day I had only one I could use," he said. The final spot on the second row went to Marlboro Yamaha's Carlos Checa, another rider making dramatic im provements. The Spenierd put his problems to nervou sness on Friday , replaced by confi dence on Saturd ay. "I could've been even quicker. but the rear I ran at the end had so mu ch grip that it was making the front push, so I couldn 't use the tire's full potential." c ue I e n e _ S • JUN E 1 3 , 200 1 9