Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

retire d, his Proton suffer ing fuel pu mp prob lem s; and Olivier J ac q ue pu ll ed in suffering badly from ankle inju ries sustained in fin al qu ali fy in g. MS A prilia 's Manuel Pogg ia li too k a ste p c los er t o the c h a m p i o n shi p w he n he wo n t he 2 5 0 rac e after a dram at ic last -lap crash by hi s closest adve rsary, Ton i Eli as on his Telefoni ca M o viSt a r A pri l i a . T h e p ai r h a d been inc hes ap art all ra ce lo ng , sha ring th e lead , with Pogg iali in fro nt as they st arted th e last lap . Elias m ad e a ta cti ca l erro r, retak in g the lead befor e th e bac k straight, allowing Pogg iali to attack aga in at the end of it. Th e San Marino ride r moved insi de; Eli as tried to ho ld him off st aying wide . He was still i n fron t when h i s front whee l slipped away, and he crashed . Th is g ifted se c ond t o F o r t u n a Honda's Rob y Ro lfo , vic to rio us in an eq ua lly c lose bac k - an d -fo rth battl e w it h Rand y d e Pun iet o n h is Safi l o Oxyd o A p rili a , w it h Sy lvai n Guinto li a distant fou rt h. A ntho ny West survived a first -lap coll ision that dro p ped him o ut of th e top 20 . He p icked hi s way back , finally claiming an impressive eig hth . Pogg ia li 's win al so secu red the 2 50 constructors' titl e for Aprilia. Majorca n ] 6-year-o ld J o rge Lorenzo t o ok an im p ressive fi r st GP w in , and Derbi's first fo r tw o years , in an ultra fi erc e ] 25 battl e of the t eenag er s. Lorenzo was f o urth in a gang of n ine as they started the last lap , rode around th e outs id e of Honda 's Dani Pedrosa and Aprilia 's Cas e y Stoner i n on e co rn e r, then hun ted down Alex de A ngelis to cross the li ne a quarter of a second ahead . St on er w as sec o n d after le ading severa l laps, in sp ite of pa in from a bro ken wrist, o perated o n after t he Czec h GP, with de A ng elis third and Pedrosa fourth, hand il y stretching h is poi nts lea d. Manuel Poggiali (pic ture d) battled Toni Elias until Elias crashed out with three la ps remaining. MOTOGP Th e race w as fast but rath er proc es sio nal , at least up front. Capirossi got into t h e f irst corner fi r s t bu t w as almo st i m me d ia te ly o ve r ta ken b y G ibernau, and by th e end of th e first lap Ross i wa s up t o second, Ca piross i t h i r d, th e n B i a g g i , H a yd en an d Ba yl iss. Tam ada was seve nth, and he was the man o n th e m o v e a s the pa ck stayed close , pa st Ba y li ss o n lap four and Hayd en t hr ee lap s lat er. His next t arg et was B iagg i, until th e Ita lian got by Capiro ssi o n la p seven ; and th e Ja pa nese rider foll owed suit the ne xt tim e a ro u nd . It seem ed thi s wo u ld proba bly be as far as he wou ld go, but his Bridgesto nes work well in the heat , and he had other ide as. Biagg i fe ll victim at half distanc e, and T am ada put a gap on him alm ost at o nce, the It ali an lat er com p lai n ing th at hi s to o-a brupt engine dest ro yed his tires. Tamada had enj o y ed the experien ce . " I h ad a g ood st art fo r o nce , and I pushed very hard wh en the tires w er e fresh. Passin g C apiro ss i and Bi aggi made me sm ile un der m y hel m et ," he said . By now th ere had been a change up fro nt. T iri n g of acting as G ib ernau ' s shadow , Rossi sl ipped ins ide h im quite eas ily at t h e es s-be nd b e f or e th e st rai g h t a n d th en j ust pu lled aw ay . Th at wa s o n lap nin e; tw o laps later he ha d a lead o f m o re th an t w o seco n d s, a nd m o re t h an t h ree sec ond s by lap 15 . He fi na lly won b y more th an t hree se c onds , co m pletely in a cl ass of his own at a d ifficu lt and ofte n treach erou s track . " Yo u need t o be very ge nt le wi th th e throttl e because of the bumps and the low grip , so it' s eas y to get to o much whe elspin ," Rossi said . The order of the to p five rema in ed the same for th e last hal f of th e race, wi t h a n o n - fo r m H a y d e n p a s s i n g Cap irossi o n l ap 13. Bu t it wa s not co m plet ely p rocessi onal: Th e Amer ican cham p io n was going stro ng and ea ger to aven ge h im self o n B i agg i , wh o m akes a habit of b ru sh ing p ast h im at high speed as Ni cky le a rn s new tra cks on the first days of pra c ti ce. He pu sh ed the Ita lian very hard until th e cl o sing stages. "I got ri ght up to his back tir e, but I picked up a li ttle vibration five laps from the end , and thin gs d idn 't feel eye I e rig ht at all ," Hayd en said . "I guess I' m a little disappoi nted . I' ve had a fi ft h befo re, an d I re ally d i dn ' t th ink a pod ium today was unrealistic ." He was j us t two seco nd s adrift at th e fi n ish an d fou r seco nds cl ear o f Capirossi 's Ducati. An other tw o sec onds behin d, Uk awa eme rged th e win n er o f a lo ng b attl e with Naka no 's Yamaha. T he latter had been ahead , c has in g B ayl iss, bu t Ukawa pegg ed him back , passed him on la p 15 and Ba yliss o ne lap later , Nak ano following him by with tw o laps to go. By now , Ch eca had picked up some spee d and neON S • O CTOBER 1 , 2003 25

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