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/128220
Capirossi (65) leads Sete Gibemau (15), Max Biaggi (partially hidden) and Alex Barros (4) early in the race. Capirossi, he also had the best of the rest between him and the red bike. From then on he gave a bravura performance that showed once and for all the true depth of his well of sheer talent. Breaking the lap record twice, he scythed past the Yamahas of Shinya Nakano and Carlos Checa and the Hondas of Sete Gibernau and Max Biaggi almost as if they were on 250s. With one lap to go he was up to second and just 2.7 seconds behind Capirossi. Thankfully, for history and for Ducati, not even Rossi could make that gap up. "I don't know whether to be angry for my mistake or pleased with the second half of the race," he said. Inhibited by the heat in the early part of the race, he had led anyway at a conservative pace, until he ran slightly wide to let Capirossi through. The big mistake came a lap later. "I arrived at turn four too fast, and I opened my eyes to see the Ducati's exhaust pipes right in front. If I had hit him, I would have crashed, and maybe he also. I had to do a bit of motocrossing. After that I had nothing to lose, so I tried at 120 percent. It did some good passing, and it was fun." The rest were still close at the end, with Telefonica MoviStar Honda's Gibernau holding Fortuna Yamaha's Checa off for third, and d'Antin Yamaha's Nakano narrowly failing to pass the Spaniard. Only Camel Honda's Biaggi was absent - he had passed Gibernau to chase after Rossi on the second-to- last lap, only to fall off. "All weekend the bike has been unstable under braking," he said. He jumped back on and finished 14th. Camel Honda's Tohru Ukawa was a distant sixth, while Pramac Honda's Makoto Tamada closed to within two seconds, heading Gauloises Yamaha's Alex Barros. Both had passed Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden after he overcame a poor qualifying performance with a good midfield race. The high-level rookie was just four seconds ahead of Troy Bayliss on the second Ducati, the Australian failing to match Capirossi in qualifying. He'd moved through to eighth by lap 16, but as Rossi ran off, he did the same some way behind, saving the crash to re-join in 12th, moving to 10th at the finish. Catalunya brought a first race finish for the new V-five four-stroke Proton, with Nobu Aoki 16th, 16 seconds behind Suzuki's John Hopkins, who claimed the last point. But it brought disaster to the other Proton KR, when Jeremy McWilliams (in his 150th GP) was skittled in a dramatic first-lap three-bike pileup - the second time this year he has been an innocent victim, after being brought down in a startline collision in South Africa. This time, his assailant was Andrew Pitt on the Kawasaki, and both of them cannoned into Kawasaki wild card rider Akira Yanagawa, who was knocked unconscious and suffered suspected broken ribs. Pitt took responsibility for the green-on-green incident, saying: "I got in too hot" and was subject to a heated character reference from McWilliams. "If I'd have qualified higher, it wouldn't have happened, but you tend to get the more dangerous riders at the back of the grid. I asked Pitt if he thought he was going to win the race on the first lap from the back of the grid. This shouldn't happen at this level." Gauloises Yamaha's Olivier JaC2que also crashed out after dropping right back from a front-row start. Alice Aprilia's Colin Edwards also had a promising afternoon spoiled. After a poor start, he was the fastest man on the track on the second lap, as he moved up to 12th. His troubles started almost at once, the Aprilia dying as he went into turn one. It restarted, and he tried again, now well down, only for it to happen again ... something in the bike's complex fly-by-wire engine management system going out to lunch. "We have a million dollars worth of stuff on this thing, and a 50-cent bit of wire let us down," he said later. The 250s laid on an excellent race, which is not always to be relied on, and to a large extent it was because MS Aprilia's Manuel Poggiali pulled out after 12 of 23 laps, just as it seemed certain he was going to take control from Randy de Puniet and his Safilo Oxydo Aprilia. Repsol Telefonica MovieStar Aprilia's Fonsi Nieto closed up again to dispute the lead with the Frenchman, relentlessly chased by an on-form Anthony West and his Abruzzo Aprilia. De Puniet, who had started from pole, won out after a lackluster last lap from Nieto, who was crestfallen after the race. "My team made a mistake, and I didn't know it was the last lap. I was sure I could win, but I was leaving my attack to the end," he said. West was just 2.6 seconds behind after looking as though he may join the party, claiming his first-ever GP rostrum and the first in the class by an Australian rider since Graeme McGregor in 1982. "The bike wasn't perfect, but I could ride around the problems. I'd been getting confused with setup, so we took it back to what we had at the first race, and I felt confident again. Mainly I was lacking acceleration under the corners, so I had to work really hard in braking. I rode the wheels off the thing," he said. West had held Nieto's teammate Toni Elias at bay after the Spaniard had charged through from last, after stalling on the line. His pursuit was relentless, and he was less than two seconds back at the end, with Naoki Matsudo fifth. Roberto Rolfo and his Valentino Rossi Ifront) made a rare mistake with nine laps to go, running off the track and essentially handing the race to Capirossi (back), but his ride back up through the field to take second reminded the rest of the riders in the class who the boss is in MotoGP. cue I e n e _ S • JUNE 25. 2003 17