Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

and the top eight were still covered by two seconds. There was a larger gap to the next Norlyukl Haga (41) continues to struggle on the Red Bull Yamaha • he finished in 11th. Jurgen van den Goorbergh struggled in the race with frontend chatter from his Proton KR3, after a spectacular qualifying session saw him start from the fourth position on the front row. group, led most of the time by a desperate Poggiali, who had the save of his life in the early laps when the front wheel let go in a big way, but he managed to steer out of trouble. His race didn't last too much longer, however - on lap 12 he crashed out, losing the title lead in the process. Up front, the action was furious, and getting more so. Cecchinello took over the front on lap ten, then Elias again for laps 13 and 14. Then Ui once again used the speed of his Derbi to go ahead and trigger a massive reshuffle, Elias finishing that lap in fifth, narrowly ahead of Sabbatani. By now the battling Czechs had lost He blamed a too-hard rear tire, and similar bike, Frenchman Sylvain remounted in last for most of the rest Guintoli, and Lorenzo Lanzi, who took of the race "to test a rear shock- the last point. American youngster Jason di Salvo was 26th out of 28 finishers. absorber setting." Fonsi Nieto had started in fourth place, and held it throughout the race - an impressively steadfast ride, especially since at the end he was The championship is technically still open, but hardly riveting, with six-times race winner Katoh on 197, under pressure from a closing Rober- Harada closing marginally on 162, to Rolfo. Rolfo had prevailed over a Melandri on 149, then Rolfo (115) scrapping group, led earlier by slow and Nieto (89). starter Emilio Alzamora, and then by Scrab Aprilia privateer Randy de Puniet. He was sixth, Alzamora sev- 125cc RACE Elias led from the start, Ui in pur- ian Porto and Naoki Matsudo close suit, and seemed to have the race under control as he secured a small lead. But the others were all ganging behind, Alex Debon catching up only up behind, and by lap seven they'd to drop off the back again at the end. closed right up again, swapping back and forth and using the full width of enth, with Yamaha-mounted Sebast- MS Aprilia's Klaus Noehles led the next big but dwindling gang, from slow starter Roberto Locatelli on a (Below) A month ago in Gennany, it was an all Yamaha podium, but a month later after the long summer break, It was all Honda at the top. Rossi (center) Is Joined by fonner 500cc Wortd Champion Alex Crlville petti in his best outing of the year, and Loris Caplrossl (right), who holds down third in the points standings. the widest track in racing to run into the corners sometimes side by side. Sanna had moved to second, but it was Ui who first took over the lead on lap eight, and one lap later Cecchinello was second, and then Sanna, with Elias fourth ahead of Sabbatani, Jenkner and a group of local heroes Jaroslav Hules, Hungarian Gabor Talmacsi and Jakob Smrz, all three having the ride of their lives, You didn't have to have tested at Bmo in the preceding weeks to set a good qualifying time - but it certainly seemed to help Max Biaggi, who took the chance on the first day to become the first rider ever to go below the 2:01 barrier at Bmo. By the end of the second day, three others had joined him, and he was one of only two riders not to have improved his time in the baking heat No matter. It was still fast enough for pole, at a smooth, sweeping circuit that suits the Roman rider's smooth, sweeping style - Max has won six times here in the last seven years, missing out once on the 250. but winning both of his 500 races here. "The bike is working so well, but I couldn't believe the time when I went over the line. It was almost a perfect lap. I say almost because perhaps somebody will go faster tomorrow." He needn't have worried about that, but his concern came when he nearly crashed on Saturday afternoon when some oil got onto the footrest. He lost time in the pits while the bike was checked over - one reason why he himself failed to improve. Rossi had started off slowly, but shot up in the closing stages from seventh to a close second. "We have changed our way of working, and made a lot of changes to the bike. We concentrated on getting some fast laps because it is important to be on the front row here. I am having trouble with sliding with race tires, but we will work on that tonight and in morning warm-up. Considering Max has tested here, we haven't done too badly to be less than two tenths slower." The first eight riders were within a second of pole by the end, with Capirossi's Honda third. He too spoke of a change in working practices - running many laps with low fuel and worn tires. "We have been losing time at the end of races, so I wanted to concentrate on the bike in that condition to finish more strongly." The last man on the front row was Jurgen van den Goorbergh, in his and the Proton's best performance so far this year. The bike was fitted with the Big Bang engine that was so disappointing in Germany (he was 14th), but the summer break had been used to recover the lost power and speed, while retaining the better throttle response and vibration characteristics. The Dutch rider has been on pole here before, in 1999 on the MuZ, but this was different, he said. "i didn't do just one fast lap - even with race tires and an almost full fuel load I could do consistent 2:01 laps." His problem, as ever, was a slight but distinct lack of top speed compared with the V4s - especially acute here where the lap ends in a steep uphill straight before the final chicane. "I can lap with anyone, but they can pass me up the hill, so I will always be at the back of the group over the line," he said. "I only hope it is a small group, then perhaps I can finish on the rostrum." This pushed McCoy off the front row - the first rider at more than 2:01. But he was going strong and riding with all his old sideways style and flair, clearly fully recovered after his long layoff after breaking his wrist "I'd like to have been on the front row, but in the last session I had some chatter problems. I put it down to tires, but now I think it was a suspension change we made in the moming." Roberts was alongside, the other rider not to improve. Using the old Screamer engine and a new chassis, he had been third on the first day, sticking with his preferred 17·inch tire. Then he tried the latest 16.5 at Michelin's urging. "It's probably only confused the issue - but tires are not my problem." he said, adding: "We've been testing a lot of things recently to try to be competitive and win GPs again - so really I can't say I put 100-percent effort into qualifying today - more into getting the bike set up for the race." Checa was next, moving up in the closing stages, then Criville, happy with new parts from Honda that had improved acceleration. Barros led row three from Gibernau, who leapt up the order with a fierce final session; then Abe and Jacque, with Ukawa leading row four from Cardoso, Haga and Nakano who missed the first timed session after breaking his hand in the morning, but came back the next day to run six laps just to qualify. "It was very painful - I am not sure if I can race," he said. West was 19th, just fractionally slower than Aoki in the V-twin battie; Sean Geronimo eventually scraped in on the Paton, so that all 23 entrants qualified. cue I e n e _ 'IS • SEPTEMBER 5. 2001 29

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