World Championship Road Racing Series
Round 4: French Grand Prix
By MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOS BY GOLD AND GOOSE
LE MANS, FRANCE, MAY 19
alentino Rossi is either the lucki\!I est rider in history, or the cleverest. Perhaps both. Consider the way
the defending World Champion won
his third GP of the year in France - a
race shortened by rain.
Valentino took the lead on precisely the first lap on which the race
could be stopped without requiring a
restart, then stopped the race by raising his hand two laps later, the earliest opportunity that would make his
lead valid.
Coincidence? Or sheer genius?
"I was lucky to be in the right
place at the right time," he said later,
but his timing was so impeccable as
to seem beyond mere chance.
He took the lead from Repsol
Honda teammate Tohru Ukawa at
precisely three-quarters distance, lap
21 of an expected 28, the new minimum distance - even his crew chief
Jeremy Burgess thought the old
two-thirds rule prevailed, and that lap
19 was the break point, and had in
any case put up no pit signals to his
star rider.
Then he held up his hand soon
after starting lap 23. Results are
always taken two laps earlier. There-
fore he had won the race. Either
brilliantly, or because the gods have
decreed that he can do no wrong.
The Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans is
not one of the great circuits. The
weather in western France at this
time of year is not the greatest weather. On Sunday, however, they combined to produce some great racing.
On balance, Rossi's first and
Ukawa's second were not surprising,
considering the form of the season so
far. The French GP, round four of the
28
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MAy 29, 2002·
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new MotoGP Championship, didn't
serve up any surprises in that Rossi
won it, the Repsol Honda rider's third
win in four races; nor that teammate
Tohru Ukawa was second.
The revelation came from Marlboro Yamaha, suddenly on-pace
after struggling all season, with Max
Biaggi third, and the top three
covered by six 10ths of second.
"Today was like reaching the shore
after a long swim in the open sea,"
Biaggi said.
Rossi continued his winning ways at
Le Mans, although this time it
required a little bit of luck. He had Just
taken the lead a couple of laps before
the red flags were shown due to rain
and was determined the winner.
There might have been two Yamahas fighting for it too, had Carlos
Checa not fallen off earlier. The red
bikes were not only setting fast lap
times, but also the best top speeds of
the weekend, after highly fruitful tests
at Mugello had made crucial
improvements to the slipper-clutch
