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World Championship Road Race Series Round 1 1: Portuguese Grand Prix Nobbie Ueda (TSR Honda) crashed out unhurt. Elias's heroic last lap was enough to keep him seven points ahead of Poggiali in the championship chase. BOOcc GRAND PRIX Biaggi got the jump, van den Goorbergh's orange Proton in hot pursuit, Gibernau pushing up alongside, as they streamed into the first corner, a first-gear crawler. As Ukawa shot down the outside and onto the gravel, all hell broke loose just ahead, with bikes flying all over the place. Several landed up on the dirt but still wheels down, including the luckless Gibernau - who was unable to rejoin because his rear-brake caliper, his footpeg and gear lever were broken. Abe and Barros were down and out, Abe's bike burning gently for a couple of minutes. Criville was also out on the dirt, while Ukawa remounted only to fall off again at the next corner, his brakes damaged in the first crash. This barely seemed to deplete the field, however, as Capirossi and Rossi both piled past van den Goorbergh on the second lap to take up the pursuit. One lap later, Rossi was in front, with Capirossi also passing Biaggi next time around - and the trio of Italian stallions immediately started pulling away from the pack, now led by McCoy. For the first third of the race, they stuck close together, just six or seven tenths between them. After 10 laps, it became clear that Biaggi was struggling - he later blamed a lack of straight-line speed - and soon he had slipped away out of contact, in a safe third. This left the two Honda riders battling it out, and whatever Rossi did, Capirossi seemed able to match. Almost, anyway. The gap was hovering. around a second when they came up to lap Clarke, who inadvertently split the pair. Though Capirossi blamed the youngster, it was without rancor, and in truth, though Capirossi did seem to have been slowed, the gap between the two leaders was hardly affected. There were still nine laps left, and Rossi was by now inching away, to lead by almost 2.5 seconds as they started the last lap. He let that shrink slightly over the line, safe for his seventh win of the year. "I just tried very hard to be consistent," said Rossi. "And it worked, in spite of Capirossi also being very consistent. " Biaggi had settled for third, and after 21 laps he was going strong, still less than six seconds behind Rossi and a similar distance ahead of the lone McCoy's Yamaha. Then, as he pitched it into the slow first turn for the 22nd time, the front wheel gently tucked under and he was down, just as in Brno. "It was another 'strange crash," he said. "Just like Brno, I wasn't doing anything different, but the front let go midturn." He quickly scrambled back on board and got back on track in the gang, some 10 seconds behind McCoy. lAbove) Blaggl gets help for the second _ k In a row after crashing during the 1'lIC8. He re_ntecI to flnlsh flfth, keeping his title hopes alive. ILeft) Ronl and C8p1ronl show the trophy girl how to party Italian style. This group had been having a furious race, but by now Checa had moved slightly ahead, with Haga having an unusually good race, also having pulled a little way clear of Roberts, Jacque and van den Goorbergh. Biaggi caught the Japanese rider directly - but could he get past him? Not if Haga had anything to do with it, and he twice dived straight back past the red bike after Biaggi had nosed ahead under braking. Biaggi seemed to be biding his time when Haga also crashed. "When we manage to get a good setup on the bike, I can race it - and that's what happened today," Haga explained. "But if Max had managed to pass me, perhaps I wouldn't have crashed." He lost his visor in the fall, which p@.vented hLn.! fLom restartill9. _ 10 SEPTEMBER 19, 2001 • cue •• n • ..., s