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/128234
W o rl d Championship Road Racing Series Hayden equa led hi s best perfonnanc:e of the year at the Ne lson Piquet Circuit w ith a fifth place. w ith K iy o na ri. " We ' re rea l ly s t r ug g li n g a t th e m o m ent . I had to pu sh pretty ha rd j ust to do 1:5 3 laps, with t he ri sk o f falling down p retty h ig h ," Ro berts sai d. Ro ssi' s record w as a 1:50.43 . Pitt dropped ba ck by 13 seconds by th e end , afte r a too-soft fron t tire choic e lasted o nly fiv e lap s. D av id de Gea was last , o ne lap down , on th e WCM. R o s s i ' s t h i rd w i n i n a ro w, h i s sixth of t he season , g ives him a 5 1 p o in t lea d o ver Gib e rn a u, 2 62 t o 211 . H e ha s a c us hio n of two races , wi t h o n ly fo u r re m a inin g. B iaggi has 17 4 , Capirossi 123 and Bayli ss 1 12. 25 0CC GRANO PRIX T h e H ondas o f Porto and Ro lfo got aw ay first, w it h Rol fo leading by t h e end o f th e lap, Elias third , th en N ieto , d e Puni e t , Gu i ntoli a nd Ma tsuda 's Yamaha b ehind the Aprilia gang . Th ey all sw a p ped a rou n d o n l a p two , wi t h Po rt o snatch ing the l e a d ba ck then Poggia li taking o v er d o w n the stra ight , El ias following hi m , and Ro lfo b ac k ahead o f Po rt o by the en d of the lap . Then t he fr o n t p a ck w a s c o nfi de nce, cl os ing up o n the tri o and passing B ay li ss w ith two lap s to go . M elan d r i h a d b e e n c lose t o h i s team m ate for m u c h of th e ra c e b u t drop p e d aw ay i n t he clos i ng la ps , suffe ri ng gri p p rob le m s t o fi n i sh t en The second quali fyi ng wit h new Michelin qualifying tires ended in the usual scram ble for the front row.. . but with the luc k y riders claimi ng advantages measured in big num bers rather than the usual tenth s. Rossi's pole tim e was a full 1.5 seconds faster than Biaggi 's pole last year. Th e first bid came from Capirossi, with eight m inu tes to go ... when he cl aim ed an am azing half -sec ond adv antage. It wa s a remarkable performance on a bike that had never been to the track before, and seemed certai n to be enough. Unt il Rossi put on his qua lifiers. The nois y thr ee-pipe Hond a went even faster , and he ended up with his sixth pole of the year, by another three tenths. The tires didn't work out for everybody, however. One loser was Sete Gibernau, who was on a flier of his own right at the end when he crashed. He still remained third; another was Blaggi, fastest on the fi rst day . who was fourth. Th e front row was co vered by an unusually large margin... eight -tenths of a second. One reason for the spread was tha t the first day of practice had been dam p in the morning and coo l in the afternoon. Day two was sunny and warm , rewrit ing the rules of adhesion and tir e choice on the bum py and sli pp ery circuit and leaving everybody one day behind their normal schedule. "Today I planned to use two qualifying tires, but we had so mu ch work to do that there was only time to use one. There are still mo re th ings to test tomorrow m orning. but pole is always good, so I'm happy," said Rossi. Capirossi was natur ally deligh ted that yet again the Ducati had shown its overa ll strength at anothe r first-time circuit. "We are always up front now, regardless of the racetrack. That shows how great the bike is," Capirossi said. He had been able to run a race simulation to check tire choice. "My target is simp le - to run with the leaders. then see what we have ieft at the end of the race." Gibernau was third and lucky to escape unhurt from a tum bling crash on his qualifying-tir e charge. "I've found a good rhythm, and the settings are pretty good . But I'm losing too m uch time on the straight. I need a hand from Honda." Gibernau said. Biaggi, alongside on the grid and at the post -practice press conference, had a quick response. "I need two hands from Honda," he said. He needed also not to have crashed his better bike on the m orning of the second day, forci ng him to switc h to his spare and losing valuable setup tim e. · We haven't been able to improve the sett ings... and when I put on a qualifying tire. I made a couple of m istak es," Biaggi added. He didn't im prove his time from the first session. Bayliss, a track first-timer, m issed the front row by less than two tenths with his own late charge. "We made reall y good improveme nts every session , and after this afternoon I have some high expectatio ns for the race," he said. He was sti ll..wave ring between one bike fit ted with the latest large-diam eter Ohlins fork and the other stock ma chine. Nak ano was alongside on the best Yamaha, then Hayden, anoth er half-second down after following Rossi for his run on qualifi ers. This was in spit e of having to run back to the pit aft er hi s bik e se c o n ds behind B ay li ss a nd a sim ila r d i s t a n c e a hea d o f a d e ep l y disa p p oi nt ed B arro s, wh o a lso com plai ned of terminal g rip p robl ems. Then anot he r b ig g ap to Ed ward s, wh o se fir st prob le m c a me whe n h e w a s sa n d wiched b etween B ar ro s an d M c C o y in th e fir st corn er. " I was ab le t o stay up , b u t I lo st too m uch time ," E d w a r d s sai d. H e m ad e u p grou n d impressive ly in th e ea r ly la ps, b ut h i s se c o nd pro b le m was c hatter so bad t hat h e fe lt fu ll y sh a k en up afte r t he rac e . w ith "even m y vertebrae hurting ." H e stil l m an a g ed a three-second gap on tea mma te H ag a , also ha u nted b y c h att er, and fu ll y in volved in t he latter ha lf o f th e race with Kiyonari 's H o n d a . th e rookie ge tting ahead o nly t o lose 14 th ag a in on th e last lap. McWi ll ia ms h ad b ee n involved in t his battl e , t o o , o n a Prot on t h at i s kn o cking o n t he d o o r of t he p oints . Pow er dropped off slig htl y toward the f in ish , and t h e c h an c e of a fi rst p o in t wen t w it h it. "W e sti ll h a v e a l o t o f c h a n g e s n eed ed - from t he han d leb ar po sit ion t o th e rear w heel spindle , and t hey' ll t a k e ti me . Su z uk i a nd Kawa saki asid e , w e 're n o t really in the hunt y et ," McWilliams said . Bu t t he bike h a d b e at en b o th of t h em , in o n ly its sixth rac e . Ro b ert s was six secon ds b eh in d at the fin ish , h a v in g fi n a ll y s h a k e n o ff Pi tt ' s Kawa saki , b ut h e wasn 't ab le to st ick 26 O CTO BER 1 . 2 0 0 3 ' cue ' B n e vv s sud de n ly reduc ed by two . N ieto h ad been h an g ing b ehind Po rt o , t h inkin g abo ut getting by to c ha se th e le ade rs, w h en su d de n ly h is e ngi ne stopped . One co rner lat er, Porto sli d o ut and crashed . So m e w ay beh ind , B atta in i also c rashed o ut. Thi s th inned t hi ngs o ut consi d er a b ly , a n d b y l ap si x th e r a c e h ad ta ken m ore o r less it s fi nal form , w ith t hree p airs of rid ers m il es ahea d o f the rest , each engaged in a private battle. The o ne t h a t m attered m o st w as for the lead , be tween Eli as a nd Po g gia l i , a n d t h e y exc ha nged pos ition s ti me and agai n, Poggia li ge tting m ost of the lead in g and co mpla ining afte rwa rd that E li a s h ad agai n bee n to o aggressive, an d they ha d c o llided du ring o ne pass j ust afte r half d ist ance. It would o n ly b e d ecid ed o n the last lap , a nd so it w as , w ith Elias ' tac t ic al erro r followed by a h ead strong c ras h . H e ran back to t h e bi ke to rem o unt and c ro ss th e lin e 18 t h , fair ing fla pping. D e Pu n iet and Rolfo we re having a si mi la r battle some 10 seconds ad r ift. Rolfo had t he bette r tactics , sta rting t h e last l ap b eh ind th e F renchma n , stopp ed out on the track. "I got a drink of water and cooled off, then my other bike wasn't set up so different, and went pretty quick straight away," Hayden said. Ukawa cl osed off the second row , cutti ng his lap time without im provi ng his positio n on day two. "The bike was sliding a lot in the afternoon when it was hotter. We need to find a solution," Uka wa said. Tam ada led the third row, runn ing strongly throughout and less than a tenth ahead of the perennially troubled Checa, 1.8 seconds off pole and getting ready for his 120th GP start. Barros was next . disappointed that his chances were spoiled by a m ysteriously j um ping chain on his bett er bik e, forcing a switch to his spare, with different setti ngs. "I would have been faster on the other bike . I'm going to have my work cut out for my home race, " Barros said. Edwar ds was next, complaining of "chatt er, chat ter, chatt er. I can' t ride it the way I want," he said. McCoy led row four in the Kawasaki' s best-ever qualify ing perfor mance . He was at a loss to explain the imp rovement. "I'm not riding any harder," he said, adding that he could have been better still but for a near highsider on his best lap, then running out of ti me for a second attempt. Team boss Harald Eckl explained th at it was the natur e of the track , with fast , wid e corners. "It suits our bike m uch better than Estoril." Eck l said. "We kno w the weak point of our chassis is slow come rs, but here at Rio the high-speed comers are better , and the long straight shows our motor is competit ive." Jacque was alongside after losing the whole of the last session: He cras hed on his seco nd lap at the last corner, switched to his spare and crashed that in the same plac e... from where there was no access to recover the bikes. "I was a spectator for the whole hour," he com plained. Kiyonari was alongside, after a m assive 2.4 ·second improvement on the second day on his qualifying tires. Then came Melandri, fuming at the fact that he simply couldn't find any grip, no matt er what he did. Aoki led row five in his best four-strok e performance, also finding a huge j ump of 2.1 seconds overnight. He was already happy with the latest chassis settin gs, whic h allo wed him to use a rear Bridgestone that had been im possible before. On day two rema pped ignition and frequent small doses of chilled fuel solved a serious power drop -off when the engine got hot. Hopkins was alongside but fell heavily in the last session, flick ed off while try ing a harder rear tire and then chased off the track by his bike. Nothing was broke n, but he was com prehensively battered and had sprained his thumb badly, so he was out of the race. His 18th place went to teamm ate Roberts, struggling to stay consistent and calm on a bike that is conspicuously faili ng to im prove. Haga was alongside, crashing unh urt in the final session; th en McWill iams , whose own chances of improving had been scotched when his better bike lost a gear, dam aging the casings, and his second bike suffered an oi l leak. "A lot of drama for very little," McWill iam s said. Pitt was 22nd, dismay ed at failing to match McCoy' s imp rovement and ahead of only the two WCM machines, de Gea ahead of Bums.