Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Next time around, the leaders were almost three abreast into the hairpin, and this was when Rossi ran wide to take Barros out of contention and let Ukawa through. A gift to Biaggi, who built up a gap of better than two seconds over the next four laps, while Rossi's every attempt to get past Ukawa was repulsed. "He overtook in some strange places," commented Rossi later. He finally managed a pass that would stick in the middle of the esses on lap 19, and now, his bike behaving better, he got his head down and closed the gap, halving a two-second lead on the 20th lap. But it wasn't enough. Who knows what would have happened if the race had been one lap longer? Fact is, it wasn't, and Biaggi did enough to claim the win. Barros had passed Ukawa two laps from the end; Kato was all alone in fifth. From lap five, Checa had been alone in sixth. "We never got the settings right all weekend, and I just couldn't go into the corners confidently," he said later. Behind him, Capirossi had dropped back rapidly from seventh on lap one. Nakano took over the position, with Roberts right on his back wheel, but unable to get by. "No matter what I tried, I couldn't get by. What I made up into the corners, I'd lose again under braking and on the straights," Roberts said. "That's the level of our bike right now." Nakano was learning fast, however. "After half-distance I started to work out how to get more out of the bike," he said. He quickly closed up a two-second gap on Checa, shadowed him for a couple more laps, and then dived underneath on the 14th lap, pulling gradually away to the finish. This gave Roberts somebody else to follow without being able to pass, though Capirossi kept the pressure on a second or so behind until the closing stages. The next gang piled up behind Ryo, who said later that his Suzuki was the best it had been all year after a big step forward in setup. "I still have some clutch problems, Bye Bye Blaggi. Thanks for the wins. See ya later. but it was almost a happy bike," he said later. By half-distance, Abe managed to get past in spite of the speed deficit of his two-stroke, but he couldn't shake Ryo off. The Protons had been hard behind him, McWilliams pulling through from the back to pass teammate Nobuatsu Aoki after only four laps, then both of them stuck in the gang, with van den Goorbergh inches behind. They were still all together in a pack on lap 18, when Aoki suffered a seizure in the heat mid-corner. He didn't fall, but van den Goorbergh behind him was slowed and lost touch. Gibernau had an up-and-down day, with a software problem in his replacement engine making corner entries a nightmare as the engine braking-reduction program kept the throttles too far open under braking. On the third lap, he'd run onto the grass briefly as a result, dropping from 12th to 21st. He picked off the slower two-strokes to reach 15th again three laps later, but could go no further, promoted to 14th by Aoki's retirement. "I still believe in the project, but it's really frustrating," he said. The people he had passed were battling their own problems - mainly sliding Dunlop tires. McCoy led the group throughout and finally got one point for 15th. "That was my hardest race ever for just one point," he said. "I had no side grip at all." Their problems were to the benefit of Cardoso on the second Antena 3 Yamaha, who finally got 16th ahead of the slithering Laconi and Hopkins. Pitt's Kawasaki was never in touch, but he circulated steadily to claim a first finish in 19th. Jacque's first four-stroke ride ended early with a highsider out of 10th on lap four. "I was too enthusiastic in a fast corner. But at least I am not hurt, and it was fun passing the two-strokes down the straight," he said. Harada pitted to retire after II laps, the only other non-finisher. The fight is now for second overall, As usual, practice was hot and muggy, though rain fell only once, during the first timed 250cc session. The pace was hot enough to put the first nine inside last year's pole, set by Loris Capirossi, with this year's pole a full second quicker, The first 17 riders were within the lap record. But oddly times were significantly slower than those set during pre-season tests here. Only the Suzukis went qUicker, having arrived with a bike fresh out of the workshop for first serious tests. The Yamahas couldn't match their times, and Valentino Rossi in particular was a full 1.5 seconds slower, saying: "We don't have the braking stability now that we had then." Pole went down to the usual last-minute battle, with Max Biaggi coming through at the finish to displace Daijiro Katoh, only to give Alex Barros an unwitting tow round one lap later so that the Brazilian, in his second V-five Honda race, claimed his first pole of the series by half a hundredth. "I didn't expect that, after starting from scratch on the four-stroke, while the other teams had previous references," he said. A second win was within sight, he said, with tire life the key. "I'll be thinking about saving grip for the last laps," he said. Biaggi demanded a pizza from Barros as a reward (Barros responded: "A pizza. Caviare. Anything you like. "), and gave his usual spiel about working on settings and leaving his big effort to the end. "The bike can never be perfect, but we have it fairly close. No more to do tomorrow," he said. Kato was alongside, and counted himself lucky enough, after suffering whiplash falling on the first day after losing the front following a particularly lurid tail-sliding comer entry, as at Montegi. "I woke up this morning with my neck locked, but the doctors helped me to move a little," he said. Still angry at being passed over by Honda for the four-stroke, Loris Capirossi was trying conspicuously hard throughout, culminating in a heart-in-the-mouth run at the end that lifted him orno the last spot on the front row. "The two-strokes are competitive for most of the lap, but on the last two straights you lose half-a-second right there," he said. This banished a steady Carlos Checa to lead row two, after spending most of practice working toward race endurance. "I have a few more things to try tomorrow, but I believe we are already good," he said. "We've improved the balance a lot." Tohru Ukawa was alongside, after leading on day one, just over six tenths off pole and happy enough not to have had a repeat of the clutch trouble that hit the factory Hondas at Motegi. Star of day two, Jeremy McWilliams was blazing on both days on the Proton, and ended up seventh. "We're losing more than a second on the two straights, and I'm less than seven tenths off pole," he said. "That says it all." He was three seconds faster than Van den Goorbergh's qualifying time last year, on substantially the same bike. Only then came a rather disgruntled Valentino Rossi, who shared the blame with the team after they'd fitted the wrong tire for the end-of-session surge. "I'm not happy with the way we are working," said the new champion after his worst qualifying position of the year, and only his third time off the front row. He denied that he had slacked off after taking the title. "We still have some problems with the clutch, and I'm fighting also with the brake. We changed the fork off-set, but it made no difference, and I have to brake much earlier than at the tests at the beginning of the year." Row three was led by Garry McCoy, going well and pronouncing himself happy, though this did not run deep. The Dunlop tires were just not working well enough for anything more than five laps, he admitted privately. Van den Goorbergh was alongside, in his best qualifying ofthe year; then Norick Abe and Kenny Roberts Jr., who narrowly avoided the same front-end tumble at tum six that both the other Suzuki riders had. "You can anticipate these things and I saved it with my knee," he said. "But we'r,: still having the same problems, and I can't over-ride the bike to go faster, or go to the limits of the tires. If I try to ride the hell out of it, I just go slower." Nobuatsu Aoki led row three, searching for front grip from his Bridgestones. "It was the same at Barcelona where it was very hot, but we fixed it by fitting a narrower rim. We donet have that rim here," the second Proton rider said. Tetsuya Harada was alongside, then Sete Gibemau. battling to catch up after falling twice on the first day. Shinya Nakano completed the first row, still getting used to the M 1 four-stroke he and Gauloises teammate Olivier Jacque were riding for the first time. Jacque led row five from Suzuki wild card Akira Ryo (who also crashed twice on Friday), then John Hopkins, who slipped off on Saturday, with Regis Laconi alongside. It was the ApriJia four-stroke's worst qualifying on the year, down to grip-less Dunlops, he said. "When I open the throttle leant over, the bike starts skating," he said. "Unfortunately grip isn't something you can just invent." Jose Luis Cardoso was out again on the second Antena 3 Yamaha, lying 21st; then came Andrew Pitt, in his first GP and the Kawasaki's second. He was 4.6 seconds off pole, but had cut a full four seconds off his first-session time, and was still comfortably within qualifying time of 107 percent. with the untouchable Rossi on 310. Biaggi took the over second, with 189 points to Ukawa's 182. Barros has crossing the line 14th. He cruised one more lap, then pitted. Nieto had 1.3 seconds after one lap, and 3.2 a lap later, as Rolfo got ahead of Elias for a couple of laps. 159, Checa 136 and Abe 123. 250cc GRAND PRIX That position was reversed again on lap four, and now Nieto's big margin began to shrink rapidly as Elias charged away from the Honda and closed on his teammate. The challenge was never to come. He started lap 10 less than three tenths behind, but with the signal that Elias led into the first corner, but Nieto flew past a couple of bends later and started to work on building up an impressive lead, with Melandri lying third. Then the Italian slowed at the start of the final straight, waving his leg to warn the pack behind and cue I e n e _ S • OCTOBER 23, 2002 13

• Cover