Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

second position in hi s home GP, tak ing a promin ent rol e in an exce llent battle f or second , a nd then fi n a ll y moving to th ir d un d er braking fo r th e corn er before th e se c ond bridg e . In the process , he and He had saved a slide with h is knee with two laps to go , and he w on by almost four seconds . Ross i admitted th e situation had been bad when G ib ernau wa s second After taking the le ad from Gibem au on lap three, Biaggi ran away from the battle for second positi on, taking th e win almost four seconds ahead of Ro ssi. Gibernau touched twice , and the Span iard was and he w as n inth . " A fter that , I rode well , made the , , ;?":. sent off the track . Then Tamada was disqualified . fast est l a p, and it wa s p oss ib l e to catch the second group , and overtake everyone : expla in ed Rossi , who goes to Malays ia with a 50 -po int advan- A nd then Suzuki 's John Ho p k in s was a lso disqu a li fi ed , for c a u sin g a four - tage over Gibernau. Hayden was happ y w ith third , though he w ould h ave preferred to b ike pile- u p at the first corner. Sin ce he had been e l i m i n a t e d f rom this race , a long with Fortuna Yam aha 's win it fair and square . "T hat w as a wild race, for sure: he sai d . " I wa s rid ing rea l hard - fel t like Ca rl o s Checa and Marlboro Du cat i' s Troy Bayl iss - Ali ce Aprilia 's Co li n Ed w a rd s mad e it ba ck onto the track a squirre l a few ti mes. I was all over the plac e. I need to smoot h th ings out a little b it. I'm st il l l earning every we ek." G ibernau finish ed fifth, pro moted to fourt h by Ta mada' s disq ualificatio n - h e had to be disqualified from next weekend 's Ma la ysian Gra nd Prix . T his un p rec ed ented flu rr y of official severity took the gloss off the da y and tr ig g er ed arg um ents, co m p la ints and ap peals t ha t we nt o n l a t e i n t o th e after " a h orribl e w eek end ." H e was suffering from a fev er , and sa id afterwa rd : "M y eyes we re w e ep in g s o night. B ut r a c e director Paul But ler expla in ed th e seve ri ty o f th eir rea ction. "We want to g iv e a m essage to t he much , I could hard ly see wh er e I was r id ers that th es e things are fast , g o ing . W h e n Val ent in o [Ross i] got ah ead of m e , I co ul d us e h is back whee l as a gui de. " His v i ew of th e in c id ent with T amada w as cl ea r. " I didn ' t com p lai n or protest, and I d on 't w a nt reven ge o n Makoto . He 's a heavy and d ang erous. We ha ve sp o ken to both rid ers, a nd t he re was a n ele ment of ' it' s a fa ir c o p' in the ir rea ction ," Butler sa id. The we ath er h a d b een fine a l l weekend , and a 55 ,OOO-strong c ro wd was treated to an excit ing MotoGP B ia gg i was lea d i ng, and Ro ssi wa s nic e gu y a n d I am su re he is sorry . But I c ould have c rashe d and ended up in h osp ita l , and th en he would be a lot sorrier. I d idn 't complain , b ut at the same t im e it's too dangerous to close b eh i n d in seco nd , wa it in g to do what he did. H e wasn't even pounce. Th en c a m e Ro ssi ' s erro r at square wi th me when he to uc h ed the first t im e , on my backsi de, t h at race . It had started badl y w ith Hopkins 's first- corn er in d i sc re t io n , but then it developed al ong familiar lines. the st art o f la p seven. T oo fast into turn o n e, h e h ad to p ick up and ru n n inth. Bi a gg i w a s safe , w h i le Ro s s i " T he b ike was good, and I could ri de as I liked ," sai d B iag g i . " W it ho ut c u t a co u p le of tenths f ro m m y lap Ro ssi' s m ist ak e, th e rac e would have times, bu t it's ha rd t o say w i thout push e d m e ove r to th e wh i t e l in e . T h en he t ou ch e d m e agai n and locked m y f ron t b rake . I' m su re h e didn ' t m e an to do it, but t he re's no pi cked h is w ay throug h ag ain . b een tou gh e r. It's i mpossi b le to say be in g in tha t sit ua tion ." exc use. We h a v e a sa fety corn rnis- i n to th e g rave l , rej o in in g a d i st a nt how it wou ld end . I think I could have The reintroducti on of Michelin qualifying tires had changed the way practi ce goes. There's still the flurry of fast laps at the end, but they are so much faster than the regular laps that the first person to fit them generally goes to pole, only to be displaced by the usual suspects. This time it was the increasingly impressive Nicky Hayden, with 12 minutes to go. An d he ended up fift h. All in front of him were also on Hondas - the first time they have take n the top five grid positions since 1998 at Paul Ricard. But the most impressive of all was Makoto Tamada, on Bridgestones that they insisted weren't one-lap special ti res at all, but regular soft -com pou nd, cold-wea ther race tires. Thus the Pramac Honda rider had two consecutiv e goes and put his name at the top of the list as the chec kered flag fell . Sadly for Tamada, Max Biaggi was at that point engaged on his own flier, and it was not only imma culate but a tenth of a second faster, for the Italian's third pole of the year. And he was very confid ent, after the latest electronic reselling from HRC had transformed his factory -spec engine. "This is the first time since I received the new material [at Bmo] that I have felt com fortable with the bike. Riding became a joy again: said Biaggi, who was a full 1.3 seconds faster than Daijiro Kato's pole last year. Tamada remained second , and typi cally upbeat: "We were inches, j ust inches from the top spot. I'll be starting out with the leaders, well aware of the rhythm I can maintain. To win at Motegi, you need consistency and to be aggressive. We'll see what the others can do." Valentino Rossi had his tim e at the top of the list but ended up third , almost threequarters of a second slower than Tamada . "We have som e sm all things to fix for tomorrow, but we managed to get a good high rhythm: Rossi said. "I went for a fast time at the end of the session, but used up all my tires [they get two quali fiers apiece] before the end of the session. Usually it' s the other way around - we run out of time ." Sete Gibema u was the last man on the front row, and struggling - not with the track or the bike but an inconvenient fever. "A tough day - I feel pretty bad: he said. "It was pretty difficult to hold my concentration . I hope I will be fit enough to fight tomorrow." Hayden led row two his best qualifying so far. "Fifth and close to the front row is good: said Hayden, who was running the power-up , noisy triple exhausts for the first time . "It feels a little stronger, and it'll be good to hear my bike over the other noisy ones." > cue I e n e "" s O CTOB ER 15, 2003 1 3

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