Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Championship Road Racing Series Round 3: Spanish Grano Prix But the twisting 2.75-mile circuit didn't necessarily favor the four- By MICHAEL SCOTT PHOTOS BY GOLD & GOOSE JEREZ, SPAIN, MAY 5 everal things reigned on the plain )in Spain. Two of them were confusion and acrimony, after a last-lap track invasion by police (the organizers were fined 15,000 Swiss Francs), and a salvo of protests and appeals after the racing was over. Another was Valentino Rossi and his V5 Honda RCV. After a thrilling race, watched by 127,000 passionate Spanish fans in bright sunshine at the Andalucian circuit of Jerez, the defending World Champion tightened his grip on the new MotoGP season with his second victory. Rossi had survived a second-lap collision with Kenny Roberts Jr., when the Telefonica MoviStar Suzuki rider messed up his braking for the first turn and almost knocked the Repsol Honda right off the track. Rossi then caught and passed early leader, his teammate Tohru Ukawa, and finally drew away to win by only just over a second. 24 MAY 15, 2002' .. Y .. I e strokes, and Rossi had to work hard for the victory. His race time was a tial acceleration. It went on to the flag, with less than four tenths in it over the line after the Japanese rider had succeeded in closing the door massive 24 seconds less than his win into the final hairpin. last year, with the top six finishers also beating his 2001 race time, and Barros was fifth, with Norick Abe (Antena 3 Yamaha) sixth, and Nobu- Rossi also took almost a second off atsu Aoki (Proton KR3) seventh. his previous lap record. Even so, five of the top seven fin- Roberts dropped back to eighth, well ahead of Suzuki teammate Sete ishers were on two-strokes. The best of them was ridden by the remarkable Gibernau, who in turn had outdistanced Tetsuya Harada, whose Pramac Honda was on Dunlop tires, 250cc Champion Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda NSR), in only his third race in the premier class. He had moved through from fifth on lap two, passing not only the similar West-sponsored two-stroke Hondas of Loris Capirossi and first-lap leader Alex Barros, but also Ukawa's four-stroke. compared with both Suzukis on their new Michelins - after dropping Duniops after two races. "I made the perfect start and led into the first corner," Rossi said. "One Ukawa did manage to hang on to third ... but only just, after a fierce battle in the last two laps with an attacking Capirossi. They changed places several times, Capirossi gaining hand over fist in the corners and under brakes,.Ukawa claiming it all lap later, I was hit from behind. It felt like a car. .. Roberts must have made a very big mistake, and I was very, very lucky not to crash. After that, it was like starting again. At the beginning, the bike was hard to ride, because it was heavy, but it was possible to get through the front group and catch Ukawa. He had a good back on the two short straights - the four-stroke leaping forward under ini- rhythm, but I thought I could go three or four tenths faster, and when I n e _ s passed him I could pull away. But the tire was spinning a lot at the end, and it was a hard race." Kato also complained of trouble with grip at the finish. "It was impossible to catch Rossi in that condition, but I feel I rode well and I am very proud of this achievement," said Kato. Ukawa had similar problems. "It was avery, very hard race - at the end, the tire was finished, and many times I almost crashed," he said. "It was very hard to maintain concentration - and I am happy to make the podium." The race was doubly disastrous for the Marlboro Yamaha four-strokes, with Max Biaggi excluded and Carlos Checa breaking down while lying sixth on the last lap. Biaggi was adjudged to have jumped the start and was called in for a stop-and-go penalty in the early laps. But he was fighting Rossi for fourth and claimed later that he didn't see the signal. After three laps, he was blackflagged, and excluded from the race the second time it has happened to him, both times in Spain.

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