Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

ian heroes Marco Melandri, Roberto Locatelli and Franco Battaini. On the second-to-Iast lap Battaini almost took all of them down, running off into the dirt to leave Melandri to win; Fonsi Nieto retained his points lead with a canny ride to a close third, passing Telefonica MoviStar Repsol teammate Toni Elias on the last lap, with Randy de Puniet hanging on to fifth, and Battaini rejoining in sixth. Defending champion Manuel Poggiali made it a full house of Italian winners, using the speed of his Gilera to win a heart-in-the-mouth 125cc race, up to 16 riders packed together up to three-quarters distance and the issue in doubt until the finish. Youichi Ui managed to draft into second across the line on his identical Derbi, displacing earlier leader Aprilia's Pablo Nieto, who had his hands full fending, off a sim!lar attack from Daniel Pedrosa's Honda. The top 11 were still within 2.4 seconds at the finish. Ronl dominated the Mugello race In front of his adoring fans, passing Biaggl with ease In the latter stages. He went on to finish 2.5 seconds ahead of his italian rival. then Biaggi's Yamaha in the race, after taking a tow down the 0.7 -mile Mugello straight. It was also the 139th win for an Italian rider in the premier class, putting the nation in second place, one ahead of Britain, with 150 for American riders. Biaggi was happy in spite of the defeat, he said. "I did my best today, and we weren't so far from winning. I'd like to thank Yamaha for recovering so well after the first few races. The new chassis works a little better than the last one, and now we can start making improvements." But he added: "When I was in the lead and Rossi was behind me, I felt he was just waiting: Ukawa was third after going to and fro with Checa, but clearly faster in a straight line. "It was a tough race. We made some changes after warm-up, but they were not in the right direction. Luckily, I had a speed advantage over the Yamaha: Checa's motor had in fact been set for safety, after mechanical niggles all weekend, including a blow-up in morning warm-up. "The problems lost us valuable time preparing for the race," he said. "I tried to find a way back past Ukawa on the final lap, but I just couldn't do it: he said. The pair were 11-seconds behind the leaders. Only four more seconds back came the first of the twostrokes, last year's winner Alex Barros coming through from a poor start to catch and pass West Honda teammate Loris Capirossi, who was five seconds adrift at the end. It was a record-breaking race for the Brazilian - his 140th-consecutive start in the 500cc (and now MotoGP) class. The last race he didn't start was in 1992 in Donington Park. (Biaggi has actually started 141, but some were in the 250cc class.) Then came Norick Abe's Antena 3 Yamaha, having escaped from a battling trio - Regis Laconi's MS Aprilia four-stroke fending off Gauloises Yamaha's Olivier Jacque, and Pramac Honda's Tetsuya Harada, the trio covered by less than half-asecond. Gauloises Yamaha's Shinya Nakano was 10th, after recovering from a trip through the gravel on the first lap, pulling through from last. Then came American rookie John Hopkins, a long way ahead of Red Bull Yamaha teammate Jean-Michel Bayle, troubled by pain in his left arm; and Kanemoto Honda's Jurgen van den Goorbergh, almost a lap adrift after a cautious afternoon on hard-compound Bridgestone tires. "We knew the tire would last the distance, but I could only ride at a certain pace. After five or six laps, it started to move around. In the position I was in, it was not worth taking unnecessary risks to jeopardize the information we would get from running the tire full race distance," he explained. The race was disastrous for the Telefonica MoviStar Suzuki team. Kenny Roberts Jr. started well and had been sixth on the first lap. Then he ran into problems. "Once it got hot, I lost the throttle connection to the back tire. I was a sitting duck on the corner exits. My lap times aren't an indication of how hard I was trying, but crashing was." He fell on the ninth lap, locking the front. "I had to push that hard to make up for the problems with the rear: he said. Teammate Sete Gibernau made an even better start, charging through from 18th on the grid to ninth on lap one. On lap two, he was caught again by rear-wheel sliding from the slipper-clutch problems, and ran across the grass. He rejoined at the back, but eventually retired. "The clutch is so inconsistent under brakes, and it makes the chatter worse. I had so many problems I decided it was better to stop before crashing: he said. It was his 100th GP start. It was at least as bad for the Proton riders. Nobu Aoki was once again riding a blinder, and was lying seventh on lap 10 after overtaking Roberts the lap before, when the motor seized. "I had so little warning, I could do nothing," he said, lucky to escape injury in the crash. Teammate Jeremy McWilliams also seized, managing to declutch without crashing, and blaming lubrication starvation because his harder tire choice meant he wasn't able to use full throttle. Daijiro Kato also crashed out, losing the front after getting away slowly with a massive wheelie, with 14 laps to go. He'd picked his way through from 18th to 11 th, but a second successive crash made some observers worry that his brilliant start to his first MotoGP season had run out of steam. Pere Riba, back from injUry, also crashed out early on, leaving just 14 finishers. The 250 race was another Aprilia triumph, taking the first six places, with a race-long battle between Ital- Despite the fact that the Mugello organizers made improvements to the track's fences to help control the fans, they stili Invaded the track at the conclusion of the MotoGP race Isee Brtefly..•I. cue' e MataGP Rossi had gambled on a slightly softer rear tire than all but the Suzukis, which still use 2001 rears, though they had the latest 2002 front for the first time at this race. He took off in the lead, with Checa and Biaggi on his heels, then Ukawa and Capirossi, with Roberts coming through behind at the end of the first lap. Checa was down on speed, however, as Biaggi proved by sweeping past on the second time down the straight. His teammate Checa fought back to regain second, but on the next lap Biaggi did the same thing again, and this time it was for keeps. And within a couple more laps, he and arch-rival Rossi were getting a little clear air, while Checa was coming under pressure from Ukawa. Capirossi simply couldn't stand the pace, his own choice of a soft rear going sour after four laps, and was dropping back behind the first four; Roberts was also running into problems and also dropping back, soon to come under pressure from Barros. He had succumbed to the Brazilian and also to Nobuatsu Aoki's Proton when he fell on lap nine. The focus was on the two up front, and, on lap seven, Biaggi used the draft to get past Rossi down the main straight. The Honda man didn't try to resist. Was he running into tire trouble, or just playing a waiting game? Obviously the latter, because he hung comfortably on behind the red bike before slicing past in the middle of the downhill ess-bend halfway around, where the main army of his yellow-clad fans rose as one man in appreciation. That was on lap 13, and by the end of it he had half-a-second in-hand. Max held the gap for one more lap, and then the Honda man started drawing away at four or five 10ths a lap until he had three n e _ s • JUNE 12, 2002 21

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