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/128382
World Championship Road Race Series mounted the first attack at the end of the ultrafast straight on lap 10, outbraking both of them to lead for one lap, resisting Rossi's attacks manfully, with Biaggi doing the same thing to Rossi. Biaggi followed Rossi by, and the pair started to stretch away a little over the next five laps, the gap up to 1.5 seconds on lap 16. By now, Capirossi had picked up speed and closed on Melandri. Biaggi attacked on lap I7, in the middle of Casanova-Save iii, the move slowing the leading pair enough for both their pursuers to catch up again, so now there were four battling tooth and nail, with six laps to go. Rossi did have it all under control, however, if narrowly, and then on lap 20, Melandri had a little slip and slackened his pace slightly. In any case, he had his hands full with Capirossi, who dived past time and again at the end of the straight, using his Ducati's speed, only to run wide and let Melandri through again. Up front, Rossi was pushing as hard as he could, and it was all Biaggi could do just to stay with him. They crossed the line in close formation. Capirossi finally made his move on Melandri stick on lap 22, and they stayed also close to the flag. What a race. Not far behind, Hayden had got past Checa on lap seven, the Spaniard still struggling with awkward handling and with a heavy fuel load. At half distance, Hayden had even gained a small breathing space of almost a second - but things were improving for Checa, and he was now the fastest man on the track as he closed up again on the Honda. By lap I3, he was on Hayden's tail and pushing hard. But it was not until lap 19 that he managed to get ahead, and Hayden never did give up the subsequent pursuit. Hopkins had started strongly, chasing Hayden on lap one, but on the third, both Barros and Tamada had gotten ahead of him, and soon after, Edwards did as well. Barros escaped for a lone pursuit of Checa ahead; Edwards and Tamada were together to the finish, the Japanese rider edging past on the last lap. After leading then finishing third in France, Edwards was dismayed by ninth, after recovering well in the early laps from a bad start. "I'm as mystified as anyone, but every refinement to the bike seemed to leave us in the same position," Edwards said. "We made a lot of progress to base setup in France, but we struggled to get it working here. The race was an uphill battle." Hopkins managed to stay ahead of Nakano for the first 10 laps, then suc- cumbed to him, dropping away by five seconds by the flag. Hofmann passed the struggling Bayliss on lap 15 and managed to fend off his last-lap attack. Xaus was another eight seconds down at the flag, gradually outpacing the outof-sorts Roberts, who left the track without comment. Roberts had lost so much time in the closing laps that he was in serious danger of getting nabbed by Shakey Byrne's Proton. The Englishman had finally managed to pass Roberto Rolfo's Ducati in the closing laps and was just over two seconds behind at the finish. "The new chassis we had at Le Mans has transformed the front-end feeling, and the new motor here ran well," Byrne said. "But it needs more power - I'm having to ride the bike a bit like a 250." Battaini was 18th, one lap down on the WCM; David Checa and the second Fortuna Yamaha behind him after pitting on lap one with "a strange feeling from the rear." Rossi now has almost two races in hand in the title chase, 49 points ahead of Melandri, 120-71. Biaggi moved to third on 67, with no-score Gibernau on 53, Barros 52 and Edwards 48. eN