Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

MOTOGP Round 5 Jun e 13, 2004 World Cha mpionship Road Rac e Ser ies ~ bring up the pace because we have good power on the bike, but Yamaha has done an unbe lievable job," Gibernau said . Melandri moved into third on the fifth lap when Repso l Honda's Alex Barros crashed. Barros had been pushing the fro nt e nd all through pra ct ice , and it was as bad in the race. " In t he en d I have no warni ng - no push. It just le t go," he said . Already Melandri ha d I.B seconds on Biaggi, and it didn't stop growing. He wasn't close to the leaders, but neither was he to fourth place, and he was happy to be on the box. " Be fo re the start today I w as quite confident to get good result, but thinking about the podium was not so far, but I didn't really think about the podium ," he said . Checa ended up fourth afte r passing Biagg; I I laps fro m the e nd . He'd been 10th on the first lap and slowly made his way to t he front, partly on his own and partly through attrition . Melandri was next , bu t too far ahead. "By the time I caught up w ith Marco [Melandri], he was pushing hard, but I couldn't keep the same pace anymore 5e'te Again Telefonica MoviStar Ho nda's Sete Gibernau didn't need to impro ve his Friday time to take the pole position for the Gauloises Grand Prix of Cata lunya. The time he turn ed in first qualifying would have earned him his th ird success ive pole position; the time he turned in final q ualifying lowered the mark and improved on the previous year's time by 1.33 seco nds. There we re 50 ,000 spectators watching Saturd ay qualifying. and the y were deliriou s over Gibernau's success, chanting his name and demanding he come out of the garage at the end of the hour. "It's great to see that we keep growing , and the crowds every time are supporting the riders more, and you don't have to wait until Sunday to have good crowds," he said. "Tod ay we had an unbelievable crowd, and they said tomorrow is going to be even bigger." Gibernau was deceptively fast , his riding smooth and effortless , belying the speed he'd achieved . Not only was he fast, but he was consistently fast, and given the 113-degree trac k temperature. and similar cond itions for the race , that would be the key to success . "It' s going to be a very hard race ," the Spaniard said. "We 're all going to have problems with grip and chatter, but we have to see how everyone can ride around the problems . The problems are going to be there," Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha's Valentino Rossi was second after seeing his pole time shattered by Gibernau. He was in second when the session started and when it ended and improved his time significantly, but not enough . He knew one fast lap wouldn 't be enough, and he agreed with Gibernau that tires would be key. "With MotoGP here always we have a great struggle afte r four or five or six laps," he said. "The tires start to move very much on the edge and spin on acceleration," 20 JUNE 23, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS His strategy: to stay quiet fo r some laps . try to have a little bit more tire than the ot hers at the end to use the power and tract ion of these bikes. Repsoi Honda's NickyHayden wasn't buyi gRoss strategy. n i's "These guys, you can neve r tr ust or believe them ," he said with a smile. "You think maybe race pace is going to be this. Like South Africa, I tho ught 'Yea h, cool, I'm go ing to be all right for the race,' But these guys, they 're like a thief or somethi ng; yo u can not trust them because they'll go and do the complete opposite tomorrow." It was Hayden's second front-row start in a row, and he didn't want to waste it. He'd been on the front row in Mugello but e nded up crashing out while fighting at the front . A few fast laps are n't a problem, he said - 25 in a row were. "Bottom line, I need to back it up tomorrow," he said, adding that heat wou ld be a problem . There were at least five viable rear tire choices, and he wouldn't make up his mind until the morning warm- up. "It's important to try to have as much grip, because if yo u lose a bit of grip on the edge of the tire, there 's so many comers wh ere you're on the edge for a long time," he said. Camel Hond a's Max Biaggi lost a chance to be on the front row when a front chatter problem une xpectedly cropped up. His view of the race was similar to Hayden 's. "It's bound to be a tough race , because with this heat and the long corners here the tire will be put to a hard test, and their grip capabilities could decrease considerably, and very quickly,' he said. Fellow Italian Marco Melandri was next on the Fortuna Gaulolses Tech 3 and more worried about front grip tha n rear. "It's very difficult out there," he said. "T he trac k keeps changing in terms of grip in every session." 40th Anniversary I Briefly... Thursday's normally sedate pre-race press conference was anything but. The give and take involved two contentious issues: Sete Gibe m au's passing of Valentino Rossi under a waving yellow at Mugello and whether po ints should be awarded fo r neutralized races. The waving yellow was displayed when the rear tire on Shinya Nakano 's Fuchs Kawasaki failed at ove r 180 mph on th e Mugello front straight. The Japane se rider was sent tum bling along the track and into a retaining wall, amazingly without serious injury. De bris from the tire and motorcycle littered the track . "For me, he overtake me under the yellow flag, he say for him, no," Rossi said, "so everyone has his point of view. Is very important because is very difficult for everybody. And last year two times I overtake two times without seeing the yellow flagand take the 10 seconds or more. Anyway after this overtaking arrive the rain and a big disaster. What decide about this? At the end, finish line this is okay. We speak for noth ing now because Is gone and is okay," Gibernau's view was th at he didn't pass at the yellow but w hen he saw the green flag. Gibernau prefaced his remarks by saying, "I don't want to talk about that basically," then continued : "Already they saw the tape . Ifyou all see the tape, I am behind Valentino [Rossi]. I put to the right. I see the yellow flags, I come back when I see the green flag, I go the side, and I pass Valentino. Nothing more about that. That's what everyone saw. Of course, the moment I go here to the right, there's a yellow flag. I go back behind Valentino then stay in his track then I pass. " When pressed by a jo urnalist for a more complete explanation, Gibernau held up a bottle of water and asked , "Is this bottle half empty? What do you think? What do you think? It's half full. You have a yellow flag, you have a green flag. You're in the middle, you overtake in the middle. Did you overtake in the yellow or in the green?" In the end, they agreed to disagree - the two riders, not Gibernau and the journa list. As for po ints, there seems to be momentum gaining for awarding partial po ints for a partial race. Gibernau and Rossi, both of whom are on the riders safety committee, said they'd discuss it at their regular Saturday afternoon meeting. Valentino Rossi said that they could risk everything for 20 laps, then rain would make the advantage disappear, and someone cou ld come ou t of nowhere to win th e race . "I think is not very good for us," he said. Gibernau compared the situation in Muge llo to last year 's race in Le Mans. At Mugello, the second part of the race was begun with most of the track dry, but there was rain in tum one, which the riders approached at over 200 mph . "The situation for example that happened in France last year, 2003 , complete dry, stop, complete wet. Mugello we have a complete dry, sto p, then a difficult situation where someone who has absolutely nothing to lose can make something very special. If it's complete wet or complete dry, it's a more normal situatio n where everyone still at the end of the day still can control the situation . But if it's wet and d ry, you can gam ble a little bit more, quite a lot more and you can create more danger if you know you can win that race 100 percent points ." Nicky Hayden said he thought Continued on page 23 I

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