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Worl d Cha m p ionshi p R o a d R a c e S e r ie s R o und 14 : M ala y s ian Grand P r ix !1®&3@ ®(J u[}u@ []j]@@UD[jfJ@g !l @U@(JCiJ[jfJ® [fJ@!Jf!!]rt1D _ _ _ :.---_UDD o , r Ii' if In the 1 2 5cc class , Da n iel Pedrosa w o n the race and s ecured h is first Wo rld Championshi p title , he's only 18 ye a rs ol d. lion at M otegi, wit h no voice to be found in suppo rt of Race Direc- B R IE F LY••• Valentino Rossi is expected to decide in fav or o f Yamaha. according to many GP insiders. aft er winning his third titl e in four years wi th Honda. The deal is believed to be for a record -breakinq nine million euro s ($ 10.5 million), with Rossi also offered half the space on the fairing to sell on his own acco unt by a factory de spe rat e to lure the mo st succ ess ful rider curre ntly racing . This would reshuffle the pack , with all the other riders and teams able to decide once this questio n is settl ed. Alex Barros is the favorite to take his place at Repsol Honda alongside Nicky Hayden . the clos est the Spanish sponso rs can get to a Spaniard. Hepsol-YPF also has stro ng interests in South America that wo uld be helped by having the Brazilian on strength. Colin Ed w a rds is tipped to join Sete Gibemau in the Telefonica MoviStar team. and w ith Noriyuki Haga expected to lose hiS ride. the short list for the two Aprilia places reads Gany McCoy, Shinya Nakano. Jeremy Mc'Mll iams. Troy Corser and Olivier Jacque, in more or less that order. Reuben Xaus, meanwhile. is expected to be Neil Hodgson's teammate in a second Ducati team, to be run by Luis d'Antin. Ma laysia was sti ll buzzing wit h the Valent ino will-he/won't-he sto ry . And there was no sign that Honda. Yamaha and most of the ot her ride rs wo uld be put out o f thei r misery . " I've sig ned nothing. " Rossi said on Thursday. " HRC made a con tract for us to sig n at M o tegi last wee k. but I didn 't like it. M y manager is co ming here to night w ith a new co ntract to give to HRC . " But by Sunday mom ing there had still been no word, with Yamaha standing by w it h its own contrac t term s reportedly already agreed upon, should Ro ssi fail to agree on terms w ith HRC . This diproved press report s in Spain and Italy that Rossi had already Signed w ith Yamaha. Both Ro ssi and Yamaha insisted this was not the case. But the situation was clearly fluid. and the final decision must now be imminen t. HR C has had its pa t ien c e st re tc he d fo r some months now. and there is surely a breakin g point. At the same time. the loss of Rossi wou ld give Honda a chance to prove that it is t he bike and no t the rider that has domin at ed the first tw o M ot oGP seasons. One clue as to Ro ssi' s thinking may be divined f ro m th e co n ten ts of t h e websi te o f h is o ff icial fan cl ub : www .ro ssif umi.it. This ca rr ied mate ria l very ho stile to Honda, especially co ncerning its off -trac k publicity dema nds. Early monsoon wea ther c leared in time fo r race wee ke nd in Malaysia. but for oc casiona l showers , and the usual blaZing heat and sky-biq h humid ity pre vailed . Some riders inc luding Sete Gibemau and 125 vete ran Youchi Ui . adop ted a Suzuka 8-Hou r technique. with a flask of wa ter In the hump in their leathers and a drinking tube ove r the shoulder. This wou ld doubtless be a better way of keepi ng it cool for M otoGP riders than mounti ng it on the fairing. with the massive heat given off by the engines . Be diffe rent if they wanted a nice cup of tea. > Proton rider Nobu Aoki fitt ed heat-shielding material inside his leathers to prot ect his shins fro m the " exhausting' heat give n off by the V -fiv e. " It wor ked okay at Rio and Motegi, but here it is not so good . But without it. maybe your leg wo uld melt. " he said. Discontent was rumbling over last week 's double d isqualifi ca- 18 O CTO BER 22 . 2003 ' cue • e n e tion's decision to disqualify M akot o Tamada from a third place. won in a hard outbraking move on Sete Gibemau on the last lap. and to disqualify John Hopkins from M alaysia for causing a first -comer rnultiple accid ent. It appears Race Direct ion has opened a can o f wo rms, and there w ill be com plaints every time there is a similar incident. W hich is almos t daily. in racing. Valentino Rossi spoke for most of the riders when he said: ' I think it was not right. It was the last lap and the last braking area. Tamada was a little close to Gibernau, but Sete also moved towards the center of the track." In private. Rossi has been referring to Gibemau as " Hollywood: for his perceived dramatic exaggeration of events. Max Biaggi said: ..Disqualification was too big a penalty . Maybe they could have applied a time penalty." Jeremy McWilliams was also very unimpressed and was putting together a group of riders for a meeting w ith Race Direction to seek clarification of what riders might and might not be allow ed to do in the future without risking penalties. ' It's outrageous. To ban someone from the podium in his home race after a . normal racing incident is disgusting, and then to ban (John] Hopkins adds insult to injury. Clo se racing is why people love this sport . Then on Saturday in Malaysia there was an ironic replay, when Ca rlo s Checa (the angriest of Hopkins' victims) knocked off Fortuna Yamaha teammat e M arco M elandri. ''I' m waiting to see what punis hme nt they' ll apply . or perhaps yo u're allowe d to kno ck your own teammate off with no penalty . ' said M cWill iams. wh o had watc hed the incide nt fro m close behind. It was the same in the case of Hopkins. all riders questioned agreed that dis quahficatio n had been an excessively harsh penalty for a simple racing mistake. The Anglo·A merican Suzuki rider left M alaysia before the race to go to Australia to prepare for the last of the trio of back to-bac k flyaway races . " l've had a lot of suppo rt from the othe r riders ," he said. Particularly from the 125cc class , where Pedro sa said that contac t is frequent. and lf disqualification were to ensue every time, there wou ld barely be five finishers per race. " Perugini wou ld have been exec uted by now ," he quipped to TV co mmentator J ulian Ryder. The decision by the four-men Race Direction co mmittee wa s arrive d at after lengthy argument and debate. and although decisions had to be presented as unanimous . the re had been considerable disagree ment. according to race direct or Paul Butl er. His fellow mem bers are Franco U ncin i. a for mer 500cc W o rld Ch ampion. Claude D ani s and medi cal director C laudi o Macchiagodena. This was not part of a crac kdow n poli cy. said Butler, although per haps the parameters wou ld be narrow er in the futur e. "These were dec isions that were taken, and they we re unpopular. But there you are, " he said. A sked what was the difference betwe en Hopkins knoc king off Checa et al. in Japan, and Checa knocking off M elandri at Sepang. he respon ded : "There's a clear difference between somebody lo sing contro l in a co me r, or [Andrew! Pitt ' s ftrst -comer c rash [at Catal unya! whe re somebody get s into the comer too hot. and the Hopkins case, when he was out of co ntro l 75 me ter s before t he corner, w ith his fo ot down dirt-track sty le and abso lutely no pos sibility of making the corner. It was not deliberate , but it was out o f order for a professional rider. W e have to judge each incident from video evidence and marshal report s. " The Checa-Me landri incident had not fallen into the category requiring action , " You can argue with the severity of the punishment · I have no problem with that. " he added. Butler admitted that the decision had put a lo t more pressure on Race Direction . The smaller classes were " a differe nt level. " he vv s Stefan o Peru gin i is on e o f the m o st ex pe rie nced rid ers in the 125cc cl ass. A nd o ne of the most feared . A ruthle ss ove rtaking style has seen to that. Th e r esu lt , a ft er two wins and two ot her rostrum fin ish es thi s yea r, m e ant that he w as th e only p erson with any c hance o f st op ping Dan i Ped rosa fr om win ning his fi rst title. It wa s a sle nder chan ce, but .Per ugini _was th e man for th e job. Un til hi s eng ine seized on th e t hird l ap o f the ra ce . _ Hero to zero in on e easy m o v e. Bad luc k , Stefano . said. "If somebody make s a move we co nsider dangerous, it is go ing to be punished. But slips treaming and changing o f line is inherent in 125 and 250 racing. which makes it an even harder call. I don't think it will spoil the spectacle of racing, though I hope riders w ill think tw ice before making a dodgy move. Everybody has seen past riders quot ed on how they were confident ra cing whe el to wheel wit h certain rivals because they tru sted their judgement. W e want all ride rs to have that confidence . ' he concluded. John Hopk ins saw it diffe rently. as was clear from one of his girlfriend D esiree ' s regu lar open letters. C onc erning the Checa, Melandr; contact , she w rot e: " Don't brush this under the rug. W as this a racing incident or endangering another rider? A s for Ca rlo s. sinc e he wa s the o ne hav ing t he bigg est w hinge last week . saying ' 1 could have broken my arm or leg' . what goes aro und co mes around. 1 hope this raises que stions and conflicts. There' d bett er not be any favoritism.' C a r lo s Checa has wo n few friend s over th e past co uple of weeks . Knoc ked o ff by J ohn Hopkins in a first-corner shambles at M o teq i, in co mpany With Troy Bay liss and C olin Edwards (who didn' t fall). Checa was the only one not prepared to laugh it off as a typical if regretta ble racing incident. and who co mplained bitterly aft er the event. This may have been a major facto r in Hopkins' controv ers ial disqualificatio n from the M alaysian GP; but many felt the rol e of innoce nt victim sat uneasily on C heca' s shoulders. since his own record of past errors is not parti cularly short . Thus peop le w ere ready to pounce for any transgression in M alaysia. Carlos ob liged . Tw ice. The first incident came on the first day of practi ce , wh en Checa crashed and ran back to his Fortu na Yamaha, the engine still running, and picked it up to regain the track. M arshals w ere already th ere. and wh ile it is not clear w hether they were trying to help him get moving again or to sto p him. it was plain as co uld be that Checa kic ked out at one of t hem behind the seat. and it appeared he had made contact. This is the equivalent .of a football player punching a referee. and it caused wide sp read outrage . Bu t no penalty . This would appe ar to fall under the same rule that wa s invo ked to punish Tamada and Hopkins , stati ng tha t: " Riders m ust ri de in a res po ns ib le manner w hich do es not ca use danger to o ther co mpe tito rs o r part icipant s. ' This time offic ials dec ided to take a lenient line. Race director But ler said that no o fficial repo rt had been filed by the marshal. and w hen he was interviewed. he said there had been no actual co ntac t. There would be no official action. " It' s not a Race Di rect ion matt er. " However, But ler said he was mov ed to take action personally . "H e will be spoken to very sternly. It was not see mly behavior to be see n on television. It was ill-mannered. but to suggest it caused danger is stretching it a bit. " The seco nd example came during qualifying on Saturday . when Checa ran into the back of teammate M elandri (see above) . Checa had a third cr ash in race -morning warm up. C o lin Ed w a rd s is perforce wa it ing to see wh at Ro ssi does befo re he dec ides w hat he will do next season. The A merican two -tim e World S upe rb ike C hampio n has been t ipp ed as a po tential replacement. should Rossi qu it HRC . A s ked about his future. Edwards quippe d: " I might do the PGA tou r. Or go back to school and finish my gynecology studies. I've always wanted to do that. ' M ore seriously, he con firm ed that he had an option w ith Aprilia but was not sure wh ether he wou ld take it up. It is unde rstood to depe nd on whe ther he finishes in the to p 10 ove r- ;