Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

--------~ MOTOGP to destroy their mora le. "I had no strategy for the race , except to go to the front and pull away, like a ham me r, for lap after lap. My only problem was the higher track temperature , and I probably should have chosen a harder tire." Rossi was one of a handful who went for the soft Michelin. "But the bike was perfect - easy to ride , even wh en it was sliding:' he said. If he hadn't a lready demora lized G ibernau enough, he rubbed salt int o the wounds . Round 14 I October 10, 2004 I~ Mala ysia n Gra nd Pri x "I didn't expect Sete to race like this: ' Rossi said. "I would have liked a fight, but I didn't even see him. For me , he did the best race of his season. It was extraordinary. He gave me a lot of points , and I'm very grateful to him." The leader of the ea rly laps was an onform Alex Barros , but he dropped away toward the finish, still happy to be on the rostrum. Repso l Honda teammate Nicky Hayden was 10 seconds back in fourth , struggling with slides and only two seconds ahead of Tamada, who stormed through from the gang of four who came up to mug Gibernau toward the end, Tamada's Bridgestone tires com inggood at the finish. Cap irossi had passed Gibernau a couple of laps earlier, but he succumbed to Tamada on the last co rner. Gibernau was six-tenths behind Capirossi and only three-tenths ahead of first-time front-row start er Shinya Nakano, the Kawasaki ride r celebrating his 27th birthday on race day. Nakano had Fortuna Yamaha's Carlos Checa right on his back wheel. Gibernau was understandably downcast, after chatter and sliding pro blems that the tea m had failed to solve in practice proved much worse in the race. He 'd clearly do ne his best anyway, and it hadn't been good enough. "I don 't want to start looking for excuses - myself and the team have had a bad weekend in general :' Gibernau said. "We were unab le to so lve the pro blems we had in qualifying, and the situation got worse in t he race . But despite everything, we have to keep working and never lose hope." Marlboro Ducati's Troy Bayliss was 10t h, just over a second ahead of Co lin Edwards and his Telefontca MoviStar Honda. Gauloises Yamaha's Norick Abe, d'Antin Duca tl's Ruben Xaus, Suzuki fill -in rider Yukio Kagayama and Aprilia's Je re my McWilliams rounded out the po ints, with GP comeback man Garry McCoy riding his Aprilia to 16th. Fortuna Yamaha's Marco Melandri crashed o ut. John Hopkins faced bitter d isappointment, after starting strongly on the Suzuki. He was seventh and charging when the e ngine failed on lap two with the frequent problem of a broken valve spr ing. ''I'm rea lly upset: ' he said later. "It was the best I'd felt all weekend." Telefontc a MoviStar Honda's Dan i Pedrosa took a massive and totally dominant victory in an otherwise mainly processional 250cc GP. leading into the first corner and continuing to pull away to win by almost IS seconds. It was not quite enough to secure the reigning 125cc World Champion's first 2S0cc title at his first attempt. Th at will have to wait until Australia, because Sebastian Porto and his A Hot Rossi bike are mainly electronic that make it much less aggressive, so it's easier to ride ." After Qata r, temperatures of 93 degrees at Malaysia seemed mild. As everyone knows, it's not the heat, it's the humidity - that was punishing. but nothing like the blazingfire inside preferred the fro nt row, but I wou ldn't swap that for the progress we've made in terms of race pace ," Gibernau said. Valentino Ro ssi's head . A fter the disaster at Qatar, he was on a mission. And in the kind of form Makota Tamada dropped to fifth, explaining how his lap with two red helmets had come to naught: "Traffic - a lot of traffic. When Iwent out to confirm provisional pole. Icame up behind Gibernau might have displaced him but for the last-minute shower. "ObviouslyI wo uld have only he can muster, ending up almost half-a-second at the head of a batch of times, with the first 14 inside the lap record . The weather played a hand, with part of the track wet for the first half of the first afternoon's session and a sprinkling on another section right at the end of the final session. At the time . a number of riders were on fast laps, wi th both John Hopkins and Sere Gibernau setting red helmets (denoting fastest in section) over the first two sections. Then Gibernau lost a full two seconds on the next section , where it was wet. and H opkins also dropped off the pace . It probably wouldn't have made much difference, because Rossi was also out on qualifiers and ran into the same problems. As ever, it was Rossi's sustained pace on race tires as much as single laps on qualifiers that Nicky Hayden completed the row after a day of demonstrating his sliding prowess , under both braking and power. "It's fun. but it's not fast: ' the Kentuckiansaid. "The turns here are long. and if you try harder you tend to spin more. But I'm more confident than I was yesterday." Max Biaggi led row three, still only six-tenths down on pole in the close times but complain- ing of problems under braking. "I expected better - we can't get [0 the level we had in tests here, but the bike is giving me very different sensations under braking. and I could only go two-tenths faster on qualifying impressed. "We worked a lot on race setup, and we did a great job." he said. confidently. before joking, ''And now we know which grid position to clean for tomorrow." Alex Barros came through to second, after a good couple of days. but was puzzled at grip problems at a track that is usuaily grippy. "W e all seem to have problems - it's not normally an issue at Sepang, but this weekend it's terrible . The race will be tough and hard on tires:' Barros said. It was the remarkable Shinya N akano who ended up fastest Bridgestone r unner, and he was on front row for the first time for Kawasaki. Preparing to ce lebrate his 2 7th bir thday on race day. Nakano was beaming even more than usual. "A great result after stopping while I was third at Qatar." Nakano said. "The changes to the 34 oaOBER 20, 2004 • CYCLE N EW S two slow riders and lost the chance . But we can use harder tires and still be competitive on endurance." tires , which is unusual." he said. Hopkins was alongside after placingfourth on the first day. thwarted by the rain, but said. "We made too many changes today instead of just concentrating on one bike, and I had a bit of an offday. But the Bridgestones will be better at the end of the race. and I'm still aiming for the top five." Carlos Checa was alongside feilow Yamaha rider Marco Melandri leading the next row from Loris Capirossi and Colin Edwards. Alex Hofmann had been among the fastest on the first day but failed to improve on the second - one of only three not to up his pace (the ot hers were Tarnada and Neil Hodgson) - to lead row four from the Ducatis of crasher Troy Bayliss and Ruben Xaus. 40th Anniversary

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