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/128229
nose in before de Puniet dove back under for the final time. Then Elias took second from Poggiali, who was soon to come out of the seat trying to catch up, as the leaders were suddenly spread out. At the flag de Puniet had the win by .527 of a second over Elias, with Pogialli .4 of a second back in third. Then came Fortuna Honda's Roberto Rolfo, all alone. with Telefon- • ica MoviStar Junior Team's Sebastien Porto just edging Team Repsol Telefonica MoviStar's Fonsi Nieto. Poggiali maintained his championship lead at 145, with Nieto second at 136 and Rolfo closing to within a point. De Puniet stands fourth with 130. Carlos Checa, his best finish of the year, with Camel Pramac Pons' Max Biaggi fifth after falling back from fourth on the 13th lap with severe handling problems. "Hopefully, this is just the start of a confidence in setup that will last me for the rest of the season, and I'll be looking to be on the podium next time," Checa said. Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden was sixth, 2.314 seconds behind Biaggi but only 11.043 seconds behind the winner - his closest yet. It would have been better had front traction issues not slowed him in the final few laps. "Overall the weekend itself was pretty positive," Hayden said. "All weekend I've been right up toward the front. In the race today I was definitely hoping for a bit more because I felt good. Even though it's not my best finish, the gap to the leaders was by far the closest I've ever been. I could see them for the whole race." Next was Tohru Ukawa, on the second Camel Pramac Honda, followed by Makoto Tamada, whose bad start forced him to overuse his rear tire. Alice ApriHa's CoHn Edwards was 12th, losing out on the fight for 10th to Fortuna Yamaha's Marco Melandri, with Gauloises Yamaha's Olivier Jacque making the pass for 11 th just five laps from the end. "The first 15 laps the bike was good - it was awesome," Edwards said. "It would still chatter, but it wouldn't unload; it would stay loaded, so the bars never actually came up, but it would still turn. Once the fuel load got to a point, it was up down, up down, up down, and then it wouldn't turn. And you would have to wait, wait, wait. Then I was just hanging out. It was a helpless feeling. You can't do anything about it." The Suzukis had a dismal day, Kenny Roberts Jr. in the points early before dropping back to the very back, mixed in among the Kawasakis. His teammate John Hopkins ended up 17th with Roberts 20th - and last. "It wasn't that good, obviously," Hopkins said. "Me and Kenny [Roberts] rode together. Once we figured out that the front was pushing and we didn't really have the rear grip that we'd hoped for, we just carried on with Kenny and started clicking away laps and tried to stay with other people, but it didn't seem to work out." Roberts ran into an engine management problem on about the third lap that "made it really erratic through and out of the corners." Neither of the Proton five-cylinders finished. Nobu Aoki went out on lap 11 with fuel delivery problems; Jeremy McWilliams followed suit a lap later with a loss of grip caused by oil on the rear tire. Rossi increased his championship lead over Gibernau to 34 points, 212178, with Biaggi third at 141. Four lead changes on the final lap of the 250cc Grand Prix ended with Randy de Puniet taking his second win of the year. The race had been a three-way battle from the fifth lap on, de Safilo Oxydo-LCR Aprilia's de Puniet leading MS Aprilia's Manuel Poggiali and Team Repsol Telefonica MoviStar's Toni Elias. Poggiali took the lead on the ninth lap, then Elias was in front, with Poggiali taking it back on lap 12 of 20. Lead changes came with each lap from 18 on, as Poggiali gave way to Elias, with de Puniet taking to the front on lap 19. On the final lap, Elias moved by de Puniet then ran wide, giving way to de Puniet with Poggiali sticking his A pair of spectacular two-rider crashes dramatically whittled the ·1 25cc field down at the front, leaving Telefonica MoviStar Junior Team's Dani Pedrosa and Abruzzo Racing Team's Stefano Perugini to slug it out to the end. First out were Steve Jenkner and Lucio Cecchinello, with Hans Luthi out next after unavoidably hitting the highsiding Pablo Nieto. Pedrosa increased his gap on Perugini by nearly half a second between the 15th and 16th laps then to nearly a second with two laps to go. Hitting the last-lap sign, Pedrosa added a second to secure the win, eventually by 3.981 seconds. "Since three races that I couldn't go on the podium, and now I won," Pedrosa said. "I'm very happy. I've been a little lucky because [Lucio) Cecchinello and [Steve] Jenkner crash because they were in front." Perugini won the previous race in Germany and was now taking a big picture view. "For me is a good race, I think because the last race I win," Perugini said. "Now I think more of the championship. It is important to finish the race, I think." With six races to go, Pedrosa leads Perugini, 162- J 37. cartoe CIIeca (7) ......... best fin.... of tile _ I e tIftIt, -lIPOt better then IPCkJ' Hayden (n.. Although It _ ' I Ha,den's best finish of the ~ . It _ the cI-.t ..... tInIshed to tile wIIiner, tile young "'-tcIm just over 11 •• c............ Rosel. ............ J