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/128325
MOTOGP Round 3 May 16, 2004 I _ Shinya Nakano I I laps later while holding 11th place. Diminutive teenager Telefonica MoviStar Honda 's Dani Pedrosa took a second 2SOcc win in three races by miles, leading from start to finish to defeat French star Safllo Aprilia's Randy de Puniet by seven seconds. The 125cc champion is making an even more impressive class debut than Rossi. De Puniet had to be content with following him; his only threat came from Repsol Aprilia's Sebastian Porto, who closed to within a second before paying the price and sliding off with nine of the 26 laps left . Fortuna Honda's Toni Elias prevailed ove r Ped rosa's teammate Hiros hi Aoyama and Aprilia-mounted Alex de Angelis in a race- long battle for third. Abruzzi Aprilia's Anthony West pulled thro ugh from a third-r ow sta rt for a strong sixth, defeating his Jerez adversary Fon si Nieto on the way. "I pushed to the limit for the first few laps:' West said. "But once the race settled down, I was able to move forward and pass a bunch of guys. I followed Nieto for a couple of laps then made the pass stick, so he never had the chance to get back at me like Jerez." Defending champion M5 Aprilia's Manuel Poggiali had another disastrous weekend, crashing out for a second successive race , this time on the second lap. Je re z winner Fortuna Honda's Robbie Rolfo had already crashed on the same second comer on the first lap. Pole starter Andrea Dovizioso extended the 125cc record to 26 races withou t a back-to-back winner with a convincing last-lap attack on long-time race leader Robe rto Locatelli. The pair had pulled away from a fie rce battl e for third, resolved before the end in favor of Jorge Lorenzo, with Mirko Giansanti narrowly shading Hector Barb e ra's similar bike over the line. KTM's Casey Stoner was ninth , in the thick of the next big gang. MOTOGP After Rossi's prestart drama, they all lined up in the correct order with the ir engines running except Nobu Aoki, starting from Pit Lane after changing to his spare for the warm-up then switching back to the other bike, the slipping clutch fixed before the start. Checa led away fro m Gibernau and Biaggi, but Rossi was up to third by the end of the lap, Edwards, Capirossi and Melandri still close. The first-lap crash of had shuffled Roberts and inth, but Barros ~rrowly missing Rossi (46) made a charge early in the race, but he wasn't able to run the poce of the leaders. Bia99i (3) eventually got back by Rossi for the final podium posItion. 34 MAY 26, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 40th Anniversary By the thir lap, the leading trio had opened up mo re than a seco nd on Biaggi, with Gibernau right on Checa's tail, Rossi almost a secon d off. By lap te n the gap to Rossi had stretched to almost 2.5 seconds, but Biaggi had upped his pace and was closing on his o ld rival, while Melandri was ahead of Edwards. and letting Biaggi escape. Ca pirossi was losing touch behind this pair. with Barros now up to eighth, ahead of the quickening Bayliss, Hayden (soo n to go dirt-tracking) and a pursuing Nakano. Roberts Jr. had quickly dropped behin d this group and was soldiering on alone . Now things started to get exciting. as Checa ran wide into the Garage Vert right-hand U-turn onto the back straight, letting Gibernau thr ough to a lead he was