Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128160
World Championship Road Race Series Round 6: Valentino Rossi continues to think new wars to celebrate victories. After winning his ftfth race of the 0' - . . . the italian went .,desaddle the leaders close for at least the first few laps of the race. In blazing 85-plus-degree heat, and with 90,000 fans basking round the circuit, Rossi's other problem came from tires, which he seems to use harder than his teammate Ukawa. He was dealing with lurid slides all weekend, right up until the last lap. "It was a really hard race for the bike, the tires - and for me," said Rossi. "We changed so many settings over the weekend to find the best race setup, so I have to really thank my team." Ukawa was less than a second behind at the end; but Cbeca had fallen back by eight seconds. "I was able to lead for a long time, and get back ahead of Ukawa when he passed me," Checa said, "but when Rossi went ahead I couldn't keep the pace. It was too risky. I didn't have enough traction, especiallyon throttle. We must focus on that to improve." Biaggi was fourth almost throughout, and another three seconds behind, never quite challenging anybody after haVing to switch to his spare bike after problems in morning warm up. "It didn't feel so good in chassis or engine, so we effectively lost all the hard work we'd done in practice and qualifying," he said. on hi. Honda V-ftve. BY MICHAEL SCOTT PHOT.OS BY GOLD & GOOSE II\ONTII\ELO, SPAIN, JUNE 16 ore of the same in Spain - only ~ different. And in many ways better. The last nine of 25 laps of the 2.93-mile Montmelo circuit may have been a reproduction of the increasingly familiar Honda one-two, Valentino Rossi heading Repsol teammate Tohru Ukawa. But Rossi really had to work for his fifth race win in the six-race-old season, and for a long while it looked as though he might not make it at all. He did it by less than a second, and at a race time a full 37 seconds faster than his record-breaking winning time last year. His tormenters were not only teammate Ukawa, who has proved once in South Africa that circumstances can sometimes swing the balance his way, but also the everimproving Yamahas. Max Biaggi had put his Marlboro-backed Ml on pole position for the first time in the fourstroke's life, but it was teammate Carlos Checa who took off in a strong early lead, holding on impressively until half-distance, then fighting back when Ukawa displaced him. By the end, the Yamahas had dropped slightly off the pace - but the mes- M 18 JUNE 26, 2002· DUD I • sage is clear. They are catching Honda fast. time, and with power slightly After the early laps, though, the increased, Sete Gibernau put the race for fifth had been at a different A significant improvement from Telefonica MoviStar machine on the level. Roberts had led, then teammate Suzuki was also promising. On the front row of the grid for the first time, Gibernau took over for two laps, only 2002 S4 Michelin tires for the first n e _ is and he and Kenny Roberts Jr. chased to fall off at the end of the straight