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/128174
World Championship Road Race Series Round 1 2: Grand Prix orRio tracking down long-time leader Arnaud Vincent and his close companion Manuel Poggiali as the weather changed from damp to really wet and his Bridgestone tires started to work better. Vincent and Poggiali had been battling all race long, and went on to the flag, the Frenchman narrowly defeating the defending champion to extend his points lead to 27, with four races remaining. Hungarian Gabor Talmacsi had a career-best fourth after leading the first lap. Dani Pedrosa dealt his title hopes a heavy blow, crashing out early on the tricky half-wet surface; Lucio Cecchinello also fell from his Aprilia, remounting to take 10th. him. Kato fell; the others rejoined, with Gibernau pulling through to eighth at the finish. Kanemoto Honda's Jurgen van den Goorbergh was a season-best ninth, battling front-wheel slides; with front-row starter Garry McCoy and his Red Bull Yamaha again running into race problems to finish 10, beating Cardoso, Aoki, Pramac Honda's Tetsuya Harada, and his own teammate John Hopkins, who had fallen and remounted. MS Aprilia's Regis Laconi crashed out of 10th with two laps left. Gauloises Yamaha's Shinya Nakano also fell. Earlier, a wet-dry-wet 250cc race brought a massive start-to-finish win for Argentinean Sebastian Porto, the Petronas Yamaha rider's first victory after 105 GP starts, and the first for an Argentine rider since Jorge Kissling and Benedicto Caldalero won the star-free Argentine GPs in 1961 and 1962. Fortuna Honda's Roberto Rolfo survived tricky mixed conditions to claim second, fighting off a persistent Franco Battaini, with points leader Marco Melandri settling for a cautious fourth after his title rival, Fonsi Nieto, crashed his Telefonica MoviStar Honda on the 15th of 22 laps, after moving through from 12th place to start catching his rival. Nieto's teammate Toni Elias was fifth, and Casey Stoner ended up sixth on the Safilo Oxydo Aprilia after another strong ride. It was the first Yamaha win since wild card Miyazaki won the opening round in Japan, with Aprilia winning every race in between. Battaini's third today was enough to secure the Italian factory the manufacturer's title. Masau Azuma came through from behind to win his 10th 125cc GP, and his first in 18 months, the Honda rider 12 OCTOBER 2, 2002' .. U .. I !Above) Jurgen van den Goobergh (17) had his best result of the season, rtdlng his Honda NSR500 to ninth. He was passed by Lorts Capirossi (65), the italian ending up fifth In the wet rac:e. !Above) Front-row qualifier Jeremy Mc:Wllliams (99) looked set for a strong finish until he c:rashed the Proton. (Below) Olivier Jac:que (19) trieds to hold off Nortc:k Abe (6) in their earty-raee battle. Abe ended up sixth, with Jac:que seventh. _ n __ s MataGP Checa was left on the line, lucky not to get hit from behind as he found himself in neutral, grabbed first gear, then spun half sideways with the wheelspin. The next shambles was a few hundred yards further on, when Gibemau found that his bike refused to downshift, and he went piling into Aoki as the Japanese rider tipped the Proton in. "His handlebar hit my right elbow it was pretty painful. But the real problem was that I went over the gravel trap, and it took me such a long time to get back to the track that I was last, miles behind," said Aoki later. Kato fell in the same incident, with Cardoso also running across the grass. Up front, Roberts had got a flier from the fourth row of the grid and was second behind Rossi by the time they reached the third corner. "I was in the right place at the right time: he said later. At the end of lap one, it was Rossi, Roberts, Biaggi, McWilliams, Ukawa, van den Goorbergh, Barros and the rest; and as they ran into the first lefthander for the start of lap two, Roberts dived underneath Rossi to take the lead. Ukawa passed McWilliams to chase along, but fell off himself soon afterward, his race over as he was unable to restart the V-five Honda. By lap four, Barros was fourth ahead of McWilliams, soon to crash out himself. One lap later, the three four-strokes had already started to pull out a significant lead, thirdplaced Biaggi losing a little ground as Rossi pushed almost alongside Roberts for the first of many times at the end of the straight, where his Honda had a 12-mph speed advantage. Every time he did so, however, Roberts would close the door firmly. This went on until half-distance, Biaggi closing up somewhat in response to a remarkable threat from behind. It was his teammate Checa, who had been setting one fastest lap