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/128237
A massive battl e for sec ond was won by F inn M i k a Ka ll i o , t he fi rst podium for him and for the KTM, in the Austrian m ach in e's first season , defeating Derbi's Jorge Lorenzo and Swiss teenager Thomas Luthi. . Aust ralian Casey St on er mad e a st rong bid to lead th is group , sli pping back to eighth after running wid e, setting faste st lap as he forced h is wa y back to fifth befor e crashing out in a v iol ent highsid e cras h , his sec ond of th e weekend. Injuries t o both ha nds made him a doubtful starter for his home race next week end . MOTOGP Che ca to ok a flier to lead Gib ern au into th e first c orn er , and thi s tim e ev ery bo dy mad e it aro un d t he fi rst corn er safe ly . Not so th e second . In the m iddle of th e pack , an overenthusiastic Al ex Barros touched the back of one of the Suzukis and went tu m - 16 O C TO BE R 22 , 2003' cue bling . Luckily nobody hit him, and he remounted at th e back of the fie ld. Gib ernau had a full second lead by the end of the first lap, with Ch eca heading Capi rossi and Rossi , B iaggi and Hayd en next . Ross i st a r t e d t o m o v e forw ard direct ly, up to seco nd past Checa at th e last hairpin, with Gibern au in his sights. Cap irossi had lo st ground , the D u c a t i short of traction but f a st enough to ke ep Biag gi behind him so th e Italian lo st touch with th e leaders. By the ti me he got past th e Ducat i on lap three, he was alm o st three sec ond s adrift, and Rossi was tra velli ng at lap -record pace. He was still beh ind Gibernau , how eve r, and starting to lean on him in familiar fashi on . He pounce d on lap eight but didn 't pull away sig nifica nt ly , the Spaniard k eep ing h im honest from a second or so ad rift. The pair took a whole second off Ie n evvs Chec a on la p six ; meanwhile Biagg i was closi ng on the Yama ha rapidly. On lap seven , Bi aggi was ahead but two second s adrift of Gib ern au. He closed the gap slig htly, but after half distance it started to ope n up aga in, and the first three position s were settled . Ca pi ross i dropp ed away quic kly and by lap six had h is hands full wit h Ha yd en , wh o h ad outpaced Bay liss. A s th ey sc rapped , t hey closed also on Ch eca, then on lap J 3 Hayd en got p ast t he Desm o sed ici o nce an d for all, and Capiro ssi lost t ou ch as th e Honda and th e Yama ha j oi ned battle, swa pp ing places sometim es twice a la p . Ha yd e n p u t a fi n al p a ss o n Checa with two laps to go . Th e n e xt g ang had Shin y a N ak an o , U k awa a n d slow-sta rt i n g Makoto Tamada at cl ose quarters, the last -nam ed losing to uc h before half distance on sliding Bridgestones. Th en th e Japan es e p a ir caught Bayl iss wit h five laps l eft , a nd Ukawa got past him to put a gap on his erst while ri val. Nakano also got by a coup le of laps later, but Ukawa had e sc a pe d for seven th, wit h Nakano eigh t h , th en Ba y li ss and a dist ant T am ad a. Th er e was a fi ne scrap beh ind th em , Marco Melandri struggl ing with Noriyuki Haga 's Aprilia , wh ich wa s fa ster in a strai ght li ne. It wa sn't un til th e cl osing st ages that the Italian wa s abl e t o m ak e sure of 1 1t h . Colin Edwards had been behind th em bu t had various problems - including an o il leak and a rear sus pension link t h at ha d been fi t ted ba c k w ar d. He dropped bac k to fini sh a lo nely and disgruntl ed 13t h. Equa lly di sg ru n t l e was K enny Roberts J r . , in 14th, strick en w ith fam il iar elec tronic p rob lem s tha t m eant th e eng ine kept dying on him. All th e same he managed his fast est lap at the end of the race . Th e reaso n? By then the rem ounted Ba rros had caught u p. Rob erts manag ed to ke ep him at bay by th ree tenths, th e Bra zilian echo ing th e co m mon co m pla int of term in al grip pro blem s. Not t o m ent ion bent handl ebars after his fi rst -lap misadventure. Barros spoiled Andrew Pitt's aft ernoon . Th e Kaw asaki rider had been in the points until the Yamaha arrived from behind and was thr ee seconds behind . A ll the rest had pr ob lems. Jeremy McWilliams had been scrapping hard for poi nt s but revealed afte rwa rd that hi s quickshift had failed on the second lap. " It' s alm ost imposs ible to shift without it with this bik e," he said. "I' m sure I could h av e had a co uple of points otherwise." Nobu Aoki was having a different kind of gearshifting p robl em on the second Proton but caught right up to his teammate at the fin ish . Six second s b ehind came Garr y McCo y . He'd had a storming start, ahead of Pitt and the rest, on ly to drop back with serious sliding prob lems after ha lf distance . Akiro Ryo, riding in place of J ohn Hopk ins, was m or e than 20 seconds beh ind , blaming a too -soft tir e choice after r u n n i ng strongly in th e early laps behind teammate Roberts. eN