Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

turn one . His vindication of his role as lead Honda rider, in his 200th top-class GP start, was short-lived, and he was lucky to escape injury. Fortuna Yamaha's Marco Melandri was again third , replicating the Catalunya rostrum of two weeks ago. It was a remarkable pe rformance. nine days after an o peration to cure a pump-up proble m in his right arm , and he fought off a persistent Max Biaggi all the way to the nag. Nicky Hayden was fifth, the second Re pso l Honda rider's first finish in three races . He had fought his way through from a slow start, with Colin Edwards and his Telefonica MoviStar Honda on his hee ls almost throughout. The pair had passed fast-starting Ruben Xau s, the d'Antin Ducati rider three secon ds adrift at the finish, but four-te nths ahead of the fact o ry Marlbo ro Ducati o f Loris Capirossi. Capirossi and teammate Troy Bayliss were both riding the new Twin-Pulse Ducat i, and Bayliss had been lying 10th until a gearbox bearing failed with two laps to go. Fortu na Yamaha's Carlos Checa dropped back to ninth. a second adrift of Capirossi, blaming a lack of rear traction after running with the leaders in the opening laps. D'Ant in Ducati's Ne il Hodgson came through to head the next group, more than 20 seconds behind . from Nori ck Abe , with Camel Honda's Makoto Tamada a little way back. Fuchs Kawasaki's Alex Hofm ann came thro ugh to 13th , passing fast starter John Hopkins, the youngste r and his Suzuki battling wit h a sliding rear tire . Another 10 seconds back, Jeremy McWilliams and his factory Aprilia took the final point ; Kenny Roberts Jr. was 16th, his Suzuki's new firing-interval motor suffering a myster ious power loss afte r qualifying sevent h and running se ven th in morning wa rm-up. Shinya Nakano retired his Kawasaki w ith a seized engine with 12 laps left; Shane Byrne pitted soon afterward with handling problems with his Aprilia. The Protons of Aoki and Kurtis Roberts both retired , the forme r with clutch slip and Roberts with a broken crankshaft . Michel Fabrizio, meanwhile , crashed out after four laps. Repso l Aprilia's Sebastian Porto claimed a seco nd 2S0cc GP win of the season, sta rting from po le, disputing the early laps w ith Safilo Aprilia's Randy de Punier, then getting back in front for the last eight of 18 laps to open up a secure margin. Second went to Telefonica MoviStar Honda's Dani Pedrosa after a strong recovery ride - left on the line, he was barely in the top 20 on the first lap. Fortuna Honda 's Toni Elias was third for the third time this year, defeating de Puniet in the closing stages . Australian Anthony West and his Abruzzo Aprilia was a lone sixth, battl ing with and outpacing factory riders Manuel Poggiali, Fonsi Nieto and Roby Rolfo. "I think that was my best day, on a favorite track," said Porto. "I tr ied to go away at the beginning, but it was impossible... so I waited . the n tried again at the end ." In t he 12Scc race, De rb i's Jorge Lorenzo showed maximum dar ing and opportunism to prevail ove r a four-bike last-lap batt le that came close to disaste r, whe n the young Spaniard ran off onto the grass and almost brought all four down as he re-joined. It was not the last co llisionin a fraught last lap, but Lore nzo tough ed it out to finish inches ahead of Roberto Locat elli, Cas e y Ston er and Andre a Dovizioso for his first win of the year. "I didn't ex pect a good result , but in the race I thought everythi ng went all right, but I got a bit dug up on the last lap. I'd have liked bett er than third," said Stoner afterward. MOTOG P The skies were overcast, but the predicted afternoon shower luckily did not materialize , and the pack roared away on a fine, dry track. Carlos Checa led away, but Gibernau slipped past before half a lap was done, and Rossi followed him past. By the second lap Checa was losing ground, imperfect setup robbi ng him of rear grip. "We need to fix this problem before Brazil," he said. Barros was through to third , and the front trio was soon opening up a small but distinct gap. The re was nothing in it. Gibernau was leading consistently, but Rossi was looking comfortable behind him, with Barros right there too. At the end of the ninth lap, Barros got a st ronger ex it from the chicane and swept past Rossi down the fro nt straight. At the e nd of the next lap Rossi passed him back at the chicane, but again Barros had a faste r drive and was again second past the nag. But his run was almost ove r. As they peeled in to the first real corner, his bike suddenly snapped Sideways and tossed him heavily It emerged late r that , he had hooked first gear by mistake. instead of second . Now the re were two. and Rossi still looked poised to attack at any moment. Gibernau ke pt his head down and pushed on, even when his rival had a quick look alongside on lap 15. They start ed the last lap in the same order; Rossi's move came on the second part of the tra ck and was a blinde r. Gibemau tried to res ist, but he The race came down to Gibernau vs . Rossi with Rossi making his first and only pass on the final lap to take the win, his third in a raw. Alex Barros (4) ran with the I_d duo until crash ing alit the race (In the 10th lap. CYCLE NEWS • JUlY 7, 2004 15

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