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World Championship Road Race Series Final Round: Rio Grand Prix on the track, Checa ahead on como' bined times, and climbing rapidly to displace Barros on the eighth time round, lap 12 on aggregate. Next time round Checa dived underneath Biaggi and straight away started to harry Rossi, overtaking him cleanly on lap 15. He even looked as though he might push away ahead, but in fact Rossi was able to stay close enough to keep him in touch. Checa led, but the gap was seldom more than four tenths, and often less. At the finish, Rossi showed his class. All race long, he'd been fighting front-end slides. "I nearly crashed very often: he said later. But, in spite of his unsuitable tire, he closed right up on Checa on the last lap, and when Checa was slowed on the last corner' by West, he even pulled alongside, his front wheel inches behind Checa's over the line. Enough to give him the win by a 10th of a second. There was all sorts of action behind the leading trio, though hard to follow given the aggregate times. In the last corner, for instance, the two West riders Barros and Capirossi collided, letting Abe through over the line. Add the times together, however, and he was behind them in sixth. Criville was seventh, seven seconds adrift, with Cardoso's Antena 3 Yamaha another 30 seconds away in eighth, Shiny a Nakano was ninth, even though he was on aggregate almost two-and-a-half minutes behind the leader, on a track with a lap time of 1:50-odd. This put him ahead of McCoy in 10th, because he had been lapped in the second race, whereas Nakano had not. McCoy may have felt cheated, but he had the best quote_ "The second race was a lottery and we bought the wrong ticket: he said. Haslam was a career-best 11 th_ Like all the V -twin riders he was on full wet tires, but made the most of them, overtaking West, who had all but destroyed his rear early in the race. "It was like dirt-tracking, and I could hang the back out as long as I liked every corner. I was having fun, but then the tire started to vibrate and I was worried it might fly apart, so I had to back off," said the Australian, who finished 13th, with Gibernau ahead by a lap and on aggregate in 12th. Haruchika Aoki was 14th, 10 seconds down, with Brendan Clarke taking the final point, another seven seconds away. Roberts was another 15 seconds behind, after cruising round for 12 NOVEMBER 14, 2001 ' cue almost the full race, looking over his shoulder to stay out of the way. He'd pitted after the first lap of the restart, and actually started to climb onto his spare, fitted with slicks, before officials pointed out that this was against the rules. He got back on his wet-shod machine, and went off for a quiet afternoon ride. Only Barry Veneman was behind him at the end. As well as crashers Jacque and Ukawa, Jurgen van den Goorbergh did not finish. He'd been fastest in morning warm-up, but his Proton seized on the second lap of the first leg, and all his efforts to overcome the concussion sustained in Malaysia were wasted. Thus Rossi closed the year with a score of 325 points. Biaggi ended with 219, Capirossi 210, Barros 182, with Nakano fifth on 155, also win· ning the Rookie of the Year title. Checa and Abe have 137 points apiece, with Criville moving up to eighth, one point ahead of Gibernau. Ukawa finished 10th, ahead of Roberts. 250cc GRAND PRIX The rain and the single strip of dry meant it was a real one-line track, but the long straight meant there was a lot more overtaking than usual. Most riders had cut slicks, with a couple on intermediates; and a light drizzle midrace meant that nobody really had ideal tires. Katoh took off in the lead from Nieto and a pack of black Aprilias, and Nieto dived past on the second lap to lead for the next two as well. Then Melandri had a lap up front, and then Harada five more, before Melandri took over once again on the 11th. By half distance, the first five were still within the space of three quarters of a second - Melandri, Harada, Locatelli, McWilliams and Harada, with Nieto another seven 10ths behind after running wide and almost crashing in the damp. By lap 15, they were starting to stretch a little, with Locatelli now in front, and McWilliams dropping back slightly, battling rear-wheel slides on a bike set somewhere between wet and dry. Nieto was trying hard to get by, but the Ulsterman kept shutting the door firmly in his face. Locatelli made a good try at breaking away, but Katoh soon closed up again, Melandri in hi tracks, then on lap 20 the Japanese Honda rider firmly dived inside the Aprilia at the last corner, and led from there to the end. Melandri followed him past, but was never quite close enough to attack, though he did Checa beat Rossi to the flag, but not by enough to take th e overa II VIctOry. . .... ne'ftls claim fastest lap last time round as he tried his hardest. With Nieto fourth and McWilliams a frustrated fifth, there was an eightsecond gap to Harada, who had faded from the party, blaming bad vibration from his rear tire. Alzamora was another three seconds away, after a fraught race on full slicks' then there was a 12-second gap t~ Roberto Rolfo in eighth. Ninth-placed Matsudo had been with him for the first half of the race, but the Petronas Yamaha rider faded after half distance, managing to stay three seconds clear of Franco Battaini in 10th. The survivors of a big group took the last points - Guintoli, Lanzi, de Puniet, Chiarello and de Gea, who was two tenths ahead of Debon, with Hofmann close behind. Stuart Edwards was 19th. Katoh finished up with 322 points, and his 11 th win also gave Honda the manufacturers' championship, giving them a full house in all three classes. Harada has 273 points, Melandri 194, Rolfo 177 and Nieto 167, with McWilliams manag· ing to hang on to sixth from Alzamora. Alex Debon was Rookie of the Year. Caplrossl (65) and Barros (4) came together in the final corner, allowing Abe to beat them to the flag, but on aggregate time (combining the two portions of the race), both the Honda West riders beat the Yamaha pilot. 125cc GRAND PRIX Ui took off in the lead, Ballerini pushing hard, then Cecchinello and Poggiali. In the dire conditions, they did not stay close for very long, as Ui starting to open up a gap on the third lap, by when Perugini had cut through the front group to glue himself onto his tail. It was now that Cecchinello crashed out right in front of Poggiali, who missed the sliding bike by only a couple of feet. Two laps later, Perugini did the same thing just behind Ui, leaving the Derbi alone, but with a shrinking lead, as Sanna came through from 13th on lap one on his cut slicks. Before half distance he was within 1.6 seconds, then the gap eked out a little, only for the Italian to close up again on the last laps. On the 20th, he moved inside Ui to lead the start of the final lap. Ui passed him back at the first corner, but Sanna was clearly faster through the now mainly dry corners.