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/128177
World Championship Road Race Series Round 14: Malaysian Grand Prix Nieto still needed a little more help for his fourth win of the year. Teammate Toni Elias, a winner in Japan, closed down Nieto's early lead, and before half-distance was in a position to challenge - until his pit hung out the board: "ELIAS P2 OK." He dutifully trailed in second, with a frustrated Roberto Rolfo close, but never close enough, in third on the factory Fortuna Honda. "I have to say very, very thank you to Toni, because he gave me the race," said Nieto afterward, acknowledging an obvious gift. "In the last lap, it was possible to pass Fonsi - but I respected the orders," said a glum-looking Elias afterward, denied a second successive win in his first 250cc season. The closest title battle saw the closest of races, as French Aprilia rider Arnaud Vincent avenged his mechanical failure last week in Japan with victory in a breathtaking race, in which Aprilia-mounted Lucio Cecchinello played the joker in a fivestrong leading group including the main title contenders. Honda-mounted Dani Pedrosa was a close second, overcoming the pain of a heavy qualifying crash, with Cecchinello right behind in third. But the race was nearly disastrous for defending champ Manuel Poggiali and his Gilera. Fourth in the run into the final hairpin, he lost the front wheel under brakes and slid off at a tangent, scrambling back on board to finish ninth. Then an extraordinary turn of events saved his bacon. The checkered flag had been mistakenly been shown to some back-markers on their penultimate lap, and the results were revised to positions one lap earlier. This meant that Cecchinello was second, Pedrosa third, and Poggiali fourth. Even so, Vincent nonetheless extended his lead over the San Mari- Checa 171 battled with Kenny Roberts Jr. 1101 throughout the race. Checa ended up seventh, and Roberts eighth. 12 OCTOBER 23.2002' cue I e n e _ s no rider to 20 points with two rounds remaining, while Pedrosa closed to within 13 of Poggiali. Recently crowned World Champion Rossi has been struggling with clutch problems for the last couple of races· both of which he lost. MotoGP It was Barros out of the box, with Biaggi chasing, then Kato and Ukawa by the end of the first lap, with Rossi ahead of Checa. McWilliams was 18th after bogging on the line with clutch problems. Rossi had already starting his battle with a bike that wouldn't stop without sliding, passing Ukawa into the last hairpin only to run wide and lose the place again. At the start of the lap three, he tried again into the first corner, only to run wide again and drop behind not only Ukawa, but also Checa as a result, taking another lap before he managed to pass the Yamaha successfully at the same place. Barros and Biaggi were serene up front, but the consequence of having a lot of Hondas was plain to see behind them as they tripped over one another. The bikes are so similar in performance that passing is only possible under brakes, and that didn't always work out. On lap four, Kato made a slip that let Ukawa past, and one lap later, Rossi was ahead of his teammate. But he was holding the others up with his increasingly desperate antics, and the gap to the leaders was almost two seconds as they started the seventh tour. By now, Kato was out of touch, but Ukawa was shadowing his teammate, and gradually they closed up to just over a second at half-distance. Now it was Barros' turn to go one slide too far, and Biaggi was on his back wheel at once, and past at the start of the 12th lap, in a move that Barros all but repulsed halfway through the corner. This slowed the pair enough so that the two Repsol Hondas closed the gap, and at the end of the 13th the first four were covered by less than a second.