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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128158
World Championship Road Racing Series Round 5: Italian Grand Prix seconds in hand. The race was won. Ukawa and Checa were playing similar games a little ways behind, but the balance was not so clearly tipped in the Honda's favor. It was (Above) Alex Barros (4) chases Sete Gibemau (10). Glbemau retired with clutch problems and Barros ended up the best of the two-strokes in f"lfth place. (Right) Teenaged rookie John Hopkins (21) kept his perfect points-paying record intact for the season, finishing ahead of temporary teammate JeanMichel Bayle (partially hidden) In 12th and just behind Shinya Nakano (56). clearly faster down the straight, which is where Ukawa took him for the first time on lap six, but Checa kept pushing, and by lap 15 had gotten back in front firmly enough to finish the straight in the same position. He stayed there until the second-to-Iast lap, but didn't have the power and but there were still three left - Laconi catching up from a bad start to trade blows with Harada and Abe. Abe had Ukawa got back in front, fending off fierce attacks to cross the line just over a 10th ahead of the luckless Spaniard. Barros closed relentlessly on his teammate Capirossi, passing him soon after half distance, and pulling steadily ahead. If he hadn't been held escaped at the end, with Nakano catching up to trade blows. Hopkins had a busy afternoon, stuck behind teammate Bayle for the first eight laps, only getting past as Nakano caught both of them and then slipped by, the Frenchman fading after that. The rookie went with up in the early laps by Roberts, he said, he could have challenged the four-strokes. "The time I lost was the gap between me and them," he said. The loss of Roberts and then Aoki had broken up a big mid-field gang, Nakano, and both passed the slowing McWilliams. At the end, he was just four seconds behind the more experienced Japanese rider. Van den Goorbergh had been in front of them, but slowed radically as the race wore on, finishing two seconds behind Bayle. Rossi's 17th win in the class, the 43rd in his career, boosted his championship position still further, now in triple figures at 120 to Ukawa's 77. Capirossi has 55, Abe 53, and Biaggi moved past Checa, 43 to 40. 2S0cc Spiderman Melandri took off in the lead, with Elias and Locatelli with him, and Battaini and Porto chasing. By lap three, Elias had dropped back slightly behind Battaini, and Porto was under pressure from de Puniet. The three Italians had control as the race wore on, with Locatelli taking the lead now and then, Battaini poised behind. By half-distance, Elias had closed again with de Puniet on his back wheel until he made a flawed outbraking attempt into the first corner, lucky to stay on the tarmac and to lose only a couple of 10ths. Porto had lost touch; a little ways back, Nieto had gotten past the faststarting Yuzy, and, for the middle part of the race, nothing much happened. Then De Puniet and Elias swapped places a couple of times, while Nieto Loris Capirossi (65) qualified on the front row, ahead of his teammate Barros (4). but chose too soft of a tire for the race and had to settle for sixth. 22 JUNE 12. 2002' cue I • n e _ s (who often complains of difficulty with a full fuel load) started to close up dramatically. On lap 20, as Battaini committed his indiscretion before the first drop off the hill, narrowly escaping a major disaster, Nieto was the fastest man on the track, starting the last lap inches behind de Puniet. Nieto nailed de Puniet into the first corner, and then dived inside teammate Elias at the same comer where Battaini had gone off to claim an excellent rostrum third. Winner Melandri had led without too much difficulty for the last five laps, with Locatelli crossing the line a quarter of a second behind him and Nieto another half-second back. Elias managed to hold off de Puniet; Battaini was a lonely sixth, with Porto's Yamaha three seconds behind, and Rolfo the best Honda, another six seconds down in a bad year for the factory machine. There's been some to-and-fro for the points, with Yamaha's Yuzy and Aprilia's David Checa scrapping to and fro, the Malaysian rider finally taking ninth. Three seconds away, Emilio Alzamora on the second factory Honda had been battling with Haruchika Aoki's semi-private Honda and Alex Debon's Aprilia. Debon ran off on the last lap, and Alzamora got the benefit, taking 11 th, three seconds clear of Aoki. A short way behind. Aprilia's Vincent Philippe had