Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

just half-a-second behind as they started the last lap - but Barros had speed in hand, running his best lap of the race to claim a convincing firsttime four-stroke win. Capirossi and Ukawa were spaced out behind, then likewise Checa, who had finally overtaken Roberts on lap eight, but pulled ahead only slowly, with no chance of catching up. Roberts carried on circulating steadily, with a secure three-second gap ahead of Abe, who had his hands full with Jacque. The Frenchman reversed the order on the last lap. "It's a good way to say goodbye to the two-stroke," he said. McWilliams had been ahead of Aoki, but slowed slightly when he feared a seize because the engine "felt like it was running lean." That cleared, but then his gearshift stiffened up, and Aoki took the chance to nip past, staying a second or so ahead to the finish. Hopkins and Harada had been a little ways back from the start, with Yanagawa's Kawasaki behind, running ahead of wild card Yoshikawa's Ml Yamaha. That lasted until lap six, by when Laconi had barged through from last on the first lap to think about attacking the green machine. Then the Kawasaki gave a puff of smoke, and shortly afterward locked the rear wheel as Yanagawa tipped it into a corner. He was thrown violently over the highside to land heavily on his back. Those behind him were sprayed with oil - one being van den Goorbergh, who had just removed his last tear-off visor. "I couldn't see a thing, and I missed my braking point - luckily not by very much," he said later. For most of the rest of the race, Hopkins held 11 tho pulling a train of frustrated riders unable to find their way past. On lap 19, his rear tire losing grip, he succumbed to Laconi, with Yoshikawa following past soon afterward. Now van den Goorbergh was picking up the pace, closing on Hopkins and Harada, then passing both of them with three laps to go, and quickly closing up on Yoshikawa. He got ahead of him on the final lap, only for the Yamaha to prevail at the finish with its extra power. Almost 10 seconds back came Nakano and McCoy, each with their problems. Nakano had never gotten the setting right, and was happy to park the two-stroke for the last time. McCoy was two seconds behind him, and said later: "I started well, but my motor choked when I changed to second and I went to the back." Another victim of the Kawasaki oil-spray, he also ran into tire trouble. "It worked well on Saturday, but in the race I just didn't have any mid-comer grip," he said. There was some shuffling for the remaining championship positions, with Ukawa moving back into second ahead of Biaggi. Rossi has 290 points, Ukawa 169 and Biaggi 164. Barros (143) drew further ahead of Checa (127), with Abe next on 117. 250cc GRAND PRIX For some reason, this dull circuit yielded the most exciting 250cc race of a dull season - all action up front from start to finish. Sadly, front-row starter Randy de Puniet played no part in it. A breakdown before the warm-up lap meant he started from the back of the grid, and he ran off the track on the second lap while trying to make up ground, retiring soon afterward in a state of high dudgeon. Melandri got the jump into the first corner, with rival Nieto chasing hard, Alzamora third and Porto fourth, ahead of Battaini and Elias. It took a couple of laps to get sorted out, and on the sixth Nieto was clearly losing ground, a second adrift of Melandri, with Elias leaning on him hard, and Takahashi pushing Alzamora close behind, then a growing gap to Battaini, Porto and Rolfo. Elias overtook his teammate for second on lap eight, Nieto later complaining of a lack of power that spoiled his chances. Melandri's lead now up to two seconds; Takahashi followed Elias past Nieto a couple of corners later, and the two of them quickly closed up on the leader. By half-distance, they were inches apart, Nieto and Alzamora dropping away behind. The Honda was clearly slower than the Aprilias, but quicker through the turns, and Takahashi c1ived inside Elias with apparent ease in the right-hander before the back For the first time all year, practice didn't end in a mad scramble, and a frantic exchange of pole position. The main contenders were all out of the picture, for one reason or another, and II first-ever pole in the class went to Daijiro Kato, on the strength of his fast time from the day before, a full 1.5 seconds inside the lap record. After setting that, in impressively wild and tail-sliding style, he commented: "My team says I am sliding too much, but it seems to be faster that way." But he did it once too often in the fmal session, crashing while tipping it in to the last corner before the second underpass, the back already sliding as the front lost grip and tucked under. He wasn't hurt, but he had to switch to his spare machine, which wasn't set the same, and wasn't to his liking. Max Biaggi was second, only a tenth of a second slower, but his usual closing-minutes bid was also foiled with engine trouble with his number-one bike. He had fmally switched to the latest chassis after further modifications put it to his liking, only for that bike to have electrical problems at the end of the final session. His second bike. with the old chassis, also lacked the settings he needed. "I couldn't push and I'm a bit sad I couldn't improve my Friday time, but at least it happened today and not tomorrow," he said. Every other rider had improved on the second of two warm, dry days, with Loris Capirossi putting in superhuman efforts to slot his two-stroke NSR into third, just seven thousandths down on Biaggi. Buming with resentment that the West Honda four-stroke had been given to his teammate Alex Barros instead of him, he had a point to prove, but said: "It's possible for a two-stroke to be competitive in practice, but not in a race." Carlos Checa moved up to take the last front-row position in the final session - it is his first race with both bikes fitted with the latest chassis, and he pronounced himself "pretty satisfied" with progress. "I know I can run up front," he said. Barros was the one he displaced, making a brilliant four-stroke debut and consistently fast on the four-stroke Honda. "I've had a few tire problems, but Michelin wamed me of that. I'm confident I can run up front," he said. Sixth-fastest was none other than new champion Valentino Rossi, on the second row for only the second time this year (the other time was at the Sachsenring). Was it just that he was in relaxed mode after winning the title? He said not. He'd arrived with a bout of food poisoning that left him "down on power," and spent practice searching without success for settings that would stop the bike sliding under braking. "For tomorrow, we need to pull a rabbit from a hat," he said. "But we have a lot of data and much experience. We need to put more weight on the rear, and we will be busy in morning wann~up." Teammate Tohru Ukawa was alongside, also struggling. "The whole package doesn't feel right," he said. Kenny Roberts Jr. was the last man on the second row, continuing to make progress with a second version of the new slipper clutch. "We're able to get the bike to do things it couldn't do before, but not all of them are good," he said. "We're still working on the right setting. But it's progress. This is another race when we'll do the best we can with what we've got, but the important thing is that we're looking at the long temn, and the outlook is bright." Row three was led by Olivier Jacque, picking up the pace again and slotting in ahead of Jeremy McWilliams in the closing minutes to be second-fastest two-stroke. McWilliams was battling with the collarbone fracture from Rio, but said: "It's more awkward and uncomfortable than painful, and after three or four laps the adrenalin takes over. What I can't ride around is that we get swallowed up on all the straights." Sete Gibernau was alongside, making a massive 1.7-second improvement from the first to the second day after switching right back to his Bmo settings - including the old sprag-type slipper clutch. "I'm better with the bike as I understand it, but it's not good," he commented. Regis Laconi rounded out the row, with a new Japanese-made rear Dunlop that he counted as a bit improvement. "I can tum in more positively," he said. Nobuatsu Aoki led row four from Norick Abe, Garry McCoy - who complained that his fast lap was spoiled when another rider cut in front of him - and teammate John Hopkins. Shinya Nakano, unhappily struggling at home, led row five from Akira YMagawa on the new Kawasaki, the green bike impressive enough in its debut, but clearly having trouble both entering the corners, with the rear sliding badly, and exiting them, with the too-sudden response of the new fuel-injection system. Yamaha wild card Yoshikawa, rid.ing the Ml four-stroke, was alongside, then Jurgen van den Goorbergh and Tetsuya Harada, with crasher Pere Riba last, another].2 seconds slower, and a full four seconds off pole. straight on lap 15, holding the inside Elias was biding his time. Three laps later, he dived back inside the red Honda, hanging on with elbows out and full aggression. Three laps later, Takahashi ran wide in the last chicane, and dropped away from the battle for victory. Elias was close to Melandri, but c1idn't seem to be ready to challenge. Then he closed right up as they started a thrilling final lap. His first attack came at the corner before the first underpass, diving underneath only to run wide on the exit, so Melandri came out in front again. He did it again haifa-lap later, with the same result. "I thought I would have to settle for second," he said. But he didn't give up, and was inches behind as they ran through the second underpass. He pulled alongside in the first part of the final leftright, then saw just enough room to move inside for the last corner. The race was won. line into the next turn to keep the position, and directly setting about Melandri. In an exciting conclusion to the 250Cc Grand PrIx, Toni Elias (24) passed Marco Melandrl (3) on the I. .t lap to steal the victory _ay from the championship leacIer. cue I e n e _ S • OCTOBER 16, 2002 13

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