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They weren't all this close for the duration, but most of them were. Ukawa (11) leads Biaggl(3), Barros (4), Jacque (hidden), Shinya Nakano (56) and the rest of the MotoGP pack in Germany. The Barros/Jacque tangle was not the only such incident in a dramatic race, with only 13 finishers from 20 starters. Earlier, Telefonica MoviStar Suzuki riders Yukio Kagayama (tak· ing the place of the absent Kenny Roberts Jr.) and Sete Gibernau and Fortuna Honda rider Daijiro Kato collided in the last corner. They crashed in a heap of bodies and bits, but miraculously nobody was seriously hurt. Afterward, Gibernau blamed Kagayama's over-aggressive riding and cornering lines, but other interpretations were possible, since Kagayama had lapped faster than his teammate, and was ahead, and it was Gibernau who ran into Kato from behind to trigger the pile-up. But Kagayama's wild riding was criticized also by Australian rider Garry McCoy, after some drama on the first lap. Pot, kettle, black? Even without so many key players, the race was still a thriller, close as paint to the finish, with Biaggi and the Marlboro Yamaha seven tenths behind Rossi at the finish, and early leader Ukawa less than half-a-second behind him - another lucky day, since he was nursing painful injuries from his Donington practice crash. Luckless Carlos Checa and the second Marlboro Yamaha were as fast as anybody, but down in fourth, another second behind, and less than half a second ahead of second Gauloises Yamaha rider Shinya Nakano, who had overtaken Antena 3 Yamaha's Norick Abe on the last lap. A little way back, after losing touch with the leading group in the closing stages, Jeremy McWilliams claimed his first top-10 finish of the year, with teammate Nobuatsu Aoki three seconds behind for a double Proton top- 1O. Aoki had overtaken Red Bull Yamaha's McCoy on the last lap. Alex Hofmann, again riding the absent Loris Capirossi's West Honda, was 10th, fending off wild-card Akira Ryo and his Suzuki over the line; Kanemoto Honda's Jurgen van den Goorbergh and Antena 3 Yamaha's Jose Luis Cardoso were the only other finishers, a long way adrift at the finish. MS Aprilia's Regis Laconi also failed to finish, blaming sliding tires for an eventual crash out of 14th place with five laps left; Pramac Honda's Tetsuya Harada retired to the pits. Earlier, MS Aprilia's Marco Melandri crashed out of the lead of the 250cc race as a violent rainsquall hit the track - but with results taken back two laps, still won his fifth race in succession. For most of the distance, he had shadowed fast starter Roberto Rolfo and the Fortuna Honda, passing him into the first corner on the 11 th of 29 laps and resisting fierce pressure and one brief pass to lead over the line for the next five laps, only four of which counted. "We had agreed on a signal, and when the team realized rain was coming they said: 'Push!' That's when I opened up and passed Rolfo, who was riding very well. I hit my head and my stomach when I crashed. This was probably the most painful but also the finest victory," he said. His points lead over Fonsi Nieto, fourth today, is now up to 25 points a one· race margin. Rolfo was bitterly disappointed, robbed of his planned counter-attack by the weather. "I was following him, looking for the best place to pass him on the last lap. And then there was no last lap," he said. Argentine rider Sebastian Porto and the Petronas Yamaha made up for his disappointment at Donington, where he seized while leading, with third, his first podium in his 100th 250cc race (he has also raced once in the 125cc class). Pole starter Fonsi Nieto (Telefonica MoviStar Repsol Honda) was six seconds away and all alone after a mediocre start, with Roberto Locatelli (Tu Aprilia) fifth and Nieto's teammate Toni Elias heading the next trio for sixth. French Aprilia rider Arnaud Vincent claimed a second win in succession and a third of the year in a thrilling 125cc race with a breathtaking finish. He had led from the start until the second-last corner, when his long-time shadow Alex de Angelis (Aprilia) slipped inside for a first win. Vincent was having nothing of it, passing him straight back into the next corner to win by just over a tenth of a second. The battle for the last rostrum spot was no less exciting. Defending champion Manuel Poggiali and the Gilera had been left on the line, but he picked his way through from 15th to join the battle for third by half-distance. At the end of the 27 laps, there were three of them in it, and Poggiali led into the last two turns. Over the line, however, local hero Steve Jenkner (Aprilia) drafted alongside and kept it open even as the feared San Marino rider veered across, almost hitting Jenkner and putting him almost on the grass. He won the spot by one thousandth of a second, with Pablo Nieto (Aprilia) inches behind. MataGP The weather was clear again and the track hot when the lights went green, with Biaggi bursting into the lead on the first corner, only to start dropping back immediately as he adjusted to his last-minute geometry changes. Before they were halfway around, Ukawa was in front and charging, and by the end of it Barros was second, then Jacque and Nakano also ahead of Biaggi. McWilliams was next, with Rossi two places behind him, Abe between the pair. Biaggi lost another two places on the next lap, and then he had Rossi breathing down his neck, and starting to work on moving forward. On lap four, he passed Biaggi at the bottom of the hill and surged past McWilliams on the straight. The whole field was still packed up ultra- Valentino Rossi (46) came through from a poor start to eventually lead the race. He made a rare mistake, however, allowing both Jacque (19) and Barros past. Barros later crashed out, taking Jacque with him. cue' • n e _ S • JULv31,2002 17