Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Balmy sunshine and fast lap times marked two days of practice with unusually few crashes - the tricky Craner Curves and other sections of a complex circuit proving more benign than usual in the warmth. The British circuit favors riding skill and machine balance over horsepower, but the results were much the same as usual. Valentino Rossi was always fast and was on top of the lists for much of the finai session. Until triple-winner Sete Gibernau put in a fast one with about 10 minutes to go. Valentino Rossi tried to get back, but a cracked front wheel rim left him with a flat tire instead. By then, there'd been another change anyway - a real flier right at the end by Max Biaggi, claiming pole by better than a tenth, on a front row covered by less than two tenths, and all of them inside 1:31 - Jast year's pole was 1:32.5-odd. Biaggi's first pole of the year came in the absence of team engineer Antonio Cobas (ill at home) and after he had a new chassis from HRC. "Obviously, it works very well, though me and the team are still getting to grips with it," said Biaggi. "I'm still having some trouble on the faster parts of the track." Sete Gibernau was happy, having made a small breakthrough in finding dry settings for his full factory RCV. "We've struggled to find that since we got the bikes in May, but I think we have it now," he said. Third went to a delighted Marco Melandri, the class rookie's best yet - bettering his fourth from the French GP. The 250cc World Champion was surprised, since he had been slowed by another rider at the start of his fastest lap. "The bike is the best it's ever been," he glowed. "And this is physically the best I've felt since my accident in Suzuka." The final place went to Rossi, who was undismayed. "The flat tire spoiled my try to get back on pole, but the front row is okay," he said. "We have worked well and found a good setup," he said. Carlos Checa led row two, less than a 10th away, as his own form continues to improve slowly. He was close and more importantly consistent enough to feel threatening: "All the riders have been very close, and tomorrow's race will be good. But very difficult," he said. The Ducatis were alongside, bumped off the front row, and Troy Bayliss faster than Loris Capirossi for the first time since Suzuka - and in spite of two crashes on the first day, the second of which tore muscles in his arm. Track familiarity helped him. "It's a compromise here, because there are some real fast turns and some real slow ones," Bayliss said. "The gearing is so low that it wheelies a lot. You have to lean over the front and use the rear brake ... we do that a lot now." He was less than three tenths down on pole, and Capirossi three hundredths slower than he was, battling somewhat with the hairpins. Oliver Jacque was alongside; Colin Edwards led the third row from Tohru Ukawa, Shinya Nakano and Alex Barros; Nicky Hayden was going well to lead the fourth from Noriyuki Haga, John Hopkins and Makado Tamada, with Yukio Kagayama, replacing Kenny Roberts Jr. again, leading the fifth. The Proton riders were stricken with crankshaft problems, and both switched to the two-stroke in the last session - only for Nobuatsu Aoki's to seize and throw him off. Both set their best times on the old triples, with McWilliams 19th, splitting the Kawasaki, and Aoki 22nd. Loris Caplroaf (85) to Iou"'" t"'- his DIIoatI teammate Troy Bayliss three seconds The Kawasakis finished one lap behind after fighting through after losing a lot of ground in the early laps. "Maybe I've gone soft," Bayliss down and out of the points again, Garry McCoy 16th, ahead of teammate Andrew Pitt. Earlier, Telefonica MoviStar joked later. Another 10 seconds behind came Fortuna Yamaha's Carlos Checa, nar- win of the season, coming through from third to displace MS Aprilia's Honda's Fonsi Nieto claimed his first rowly fending off Alice Aprilia's Nori Haga. Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden was another four seconds adrift, after a good weekend for the rookie AMA Manuel Poggiali, who was disputing the lead with Nieto's teammate Toni Superbike Champion, spOiled in the closing laps when his rear brake failed. Alice Aprilia's Colin Edwards was 10th, behind d' Antin Yamaha's Abruzzo Aprilia's Anthony West, fresh from victory in Assen. Almost off at the first turn, he battled his way back through the top 10 and finally outfought the formidable Elias to take Shinya Nakano, after he had come through from behind. The race had been split up in the early stages when front-row qualifier Marco Melandri crashed his Fortuna third, his third rostrum finish in three races. Hector Barbera, at the tender age of 16, became the third-youngest- Yamaha at the chicane after four laps. He was lying a strong fourth, and his bike flipped back over the track on the exit, narrowly missing bike battle, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and Stefano Perugini. The both Capirossi and Hayden. This slowed them and allowed the front three to escape. Gauloises Yamaha's Olivier Jacque also crashed out of the race; teammate Alex Barros hadn't even made the start after breaking a bone in his hand in a morning warm-up crash. He had just come out of the pits when Suzuki rider Yukio Kagayama (substituting again for Kenny Roberts Jr.) arrived with a braking problem, and they collided, and both crashed in the first corner. There was home-race disappointment for Proton Team KR. Continuing problems with the new four-stroke meant that both riders switched back to the two-stroke for the race. Nobu Aoki struggled to 15th on a bike with Elias. But the star of the afternoon was ever GP winner when he emerged the victor of an almost race-long five- big loser was points leader Dani Pedrosa, who was knocked flying in the second-to-Iast corner by Perugini. Aprilia's Lucio Cecchinello had earlier crashed out of the lead in a race of many spills, remounting to finish tenth. Four riders, including Luthi, crashed out in the first lap alone. MOTOGP Rossi was a little slow off the line as Biaggi led away, from Gibernau, Capirossi, Melandri and Bayliss. Near the back, Edwards had a touch from another rider that precipitated a heavier collision with Ukawa, putting the Honda man out of the race and precipitating the situation that robbed Rossi of victory. The defending champion was soon hardly any setup time; Jeremy McWilliams retired after running into picking up places, up to fifth at the end of lap one and third at the end of gear-shifting problems. lap two, his fastest and a new lap eye I e n e _ S • JULY 23,2003 27

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