Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Briefly... Suzuki's John Hopkins got the attention of Danis and the rest of race direction in final qualifying. In a hurry to get in and out of pit lane, the Ramona resident exceeded the pitlane speed limit... by 112kph (69.6 mph). "He got the world record for breaking the pit-lane speed limit," Suzuki team boss Paul Denning said. "I heard that he was, yes, too fast," Danis said of Hopkins' transgression, 172 kph (114.235 mph) in 60 kph (37 mph). 'j>, little bit too fast in the pit lane," Danis added. 'J\nd of course we follow the normal procedure, so he has been penalized according to the rules. But we have discussed in the race Even if the others aren't. Many were worried this year. A resurfacing of the 2.93-mile circuit had turned it into a tireeating monster. Throughout practice and qualifying, both Michelin and Bridgestone struggled, the latter more severely. Racetire choice would be the most critical of the year. The first few laps were marked by bumping and grinding: On the third lap, Gibernau rammed Melandri's rear tire. Then the pack settled down, with Rossi briefly out front before Gibernau took over on lap six of 25. The leaders had Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden just behind them until the 10th lap, when he fell back by a second on Rossi. Soon they'd be gone, and Hayden would have his hands full with Melandri and Alex Barros. Rossi used the draft to slip past Gibernau down the front straight on the 23rd lap. By now, the left side of Gibernau's rear tire was shot. "I couldn't flick the bike, and I was losing too much time," Gibernau said. "Instead of going two-tenths faster, I was going two-tenths slower. Then Rossi used that to overtake, and he did very good laps two laps at the end, and we could not match the pace." Melandri moved into third on lap 23, his speed increasing as his fuel load dropped, while Hayden was slowing as his front tire started pushing. His lap times rose precipitously and he fell from third to fifth, behind Alex Barros, when he went into the high 43s and low 44s. "I mean, that wasn't going to cut it," Hayden said. Barros had him by .065 at the line. Repsol Honda's Max Biaggi was sixth on what he said was a different bike from Mugello. "I could never take part in the game, and it makes me very sad," he said. Camel Honda's Troy Bayliss was next, recovering to eighth from 18th on lap one. "I had a start, though, which will rank alongside the worst in my whole career," he lamented. Still, Bayliss was well clear of the fight for ninth, which was decided in favor of Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano, over Fortuna Yamaha's Ruben Xaus. Nakano was the first of the Bridgestone finishers, but just barely. "Over the final 10 laps, it was very difficult for me to control the sliding of the rear tire," he said. Still, Nakano had it better than his Bridgestone comrades. Teammate Alex Hofmann pitted for a rear-tire change on the 13th lap. Suzuki's john Hopkins came in a lap later, but then retired soon after with unspecified problems. Teammate Kenny Roberts took the final point in 15th. The Marlboro Ducatis were I Ith and 12th, with Carlos Checa in front of Loris Capirossi and both riders lamenting reartire woes. "It was as if it was raining," said Capirossi, one week removed from the Mugello podium. Checa's brother David was 13th, filling in for the injured Toni Elias, who rode on Friday before quitting in futility. Robbie Rolfo brought the d'Antin Pramac Ducati home 14th. Then came Roberts. Behind him, Shakey Byrne was fuming. "For sure, that was one of the most boring, horrible races of my career," Byrne said, the problem being a lack of torque and corner speed. Hofmann rejoined the race to finish 17th, in front of both Blata WCMs, james Ellison and Franco Battaini. joining Hopkins on the DNF list was Makoto Tamada. The japanese rider lost the front end on the sixth lap while in sixth. From his dominant pole position, Telefonica MoviStar Honda's Dani Pedrosa nearly stalled at the start but then stormed to the win in the 250cc Grand Prix. It was the first win by a Spaniard in the IO-year history of the Catalunyan Grand Prix. Away ninth, the World Champion patiently moved forward until just before the midpoint of the race, when he took over the lead. By the end of the lap, his lead was I.887 seconds. Then it was clear sailing to the end, his margin of victory being 5.637 seconds. "We had a really tough weekend, espe- direction maybe we are thinking [about] the possibility to change the rules for the future. Really, slow like that is a little bit too slow. The first offense is $100 U.S., and the second and subsequent offenses are $500. I know he "There it is normal you fallon the exit of the corner, but here there is a problem with the curbs that are too short, not long enough. The rider goes a little wide out of the corner, and the curb ends. Dovizioso puts his rear wheel in the green, and the bike slides and he goes 70 meters into tire barrier. After the crash, we meet to talk with Dorna, and tomorrow we put 6S meters of air fence where Dovizioso crash. Also, today we have new air fence in turn I I, where [Ruben] Xaus crashes yesterday." Rossi was asked why the air fence was placed after the crash. '}\s with the crash today, you imagine where the rider will stop after the fall and you protect, but sometimes something happens and the crash is in a place where you don't think can crash, as with Dovizioso, and then you correct." was over the limit in two sections." Denning The newest gauge to c:;:lutter the riders' view said that Hopkins had apologized and that he realized the frustration of his rider. Hopkins had to abort the lap and realized he wasn't going to get another lap and missed it by about five seconds. "It will be a tough record is straight off an auto dashboard. Marlboro Ducati fitted fuel gauges to the Desmosedicis of Loris Capirossi and Carlos Checa at Mugel10. Capirossi used it again in Barcelona; Checa didn't. And it's not a traditional fuel gauge. Instead, it tells the rider how many grams of fuel are used each lap. "The problem is, my to beat, n Denning said. Hopkins' response was that he was going to get his money's worth. He'd been nailed three times for style is so aggressive and I use a lot more sweetening the FIM's coffers. "Suzuki pays it," Hopkins said on Saturday night. gasoline compared to Carlos," Capirossi said. 'j>,nd now we put this system on my screen and I see always, 'Oh, next lap I have to go a Speeding wasn't the only mischief John Hopkins had recently gotten into. He showed up he's more on and off," said project manager Livia Suppa. How many grams of the 22 liters incremental violations at Jerez, each one little slower. '" "Loris uses more fuel, because in Catalunya with a bright red nose, rosy are used per lap varies from track to track, cheeks, a few less eyebrow hairs, and a good tale: "We thought it'd be pretty cool to have a big, lit spectacle on the top of the hill at Mugello that would light up the whole valley," he said of the fireball he created on the hills above Mugello the Sunday night of the Italian GP. Hopkins and his cohorts, one of whom was Shane "Shakey" Byrne, brought along a drum full of waste race fuel - "high, high octane," he said - to the top of the hill, where depending on the length and the conditions. Capirossi knows that his style is wasteful and is trying to alter his throttle control. "For sure, sometime I forget the system," he said. "The system for sure is better for the life of the tire for the whole distance in the race. But anyway, my style is coming tOo 15 to 16 years ago, you know. In one race, is difficult to change. But anyway, I start to understand that." he poured it into a giant circle. "Pretty much Loris Capirossi's Desmosedici was consis- used the whole drum," he noted. "Then we tently the fastest of the weekend, topping the speed charts in the first three sessions on the run up to MotoGP qualifying, with teammate Carlos Checa the fastest in Saturday afternoon's qualifying. Capirossi's top speed of 331.4 kph (205.932 mph) from Friday's second free practice stood up as the best of the weekend. Konica Minolta Honda's Makoto Tamada had the fastest Honda, at 330.3kph (205.428 mph). The best of the Yamahas was Colin Edwards', at 324.9kph (201.893 mph). Suzuki's John Hopkins topped out just a tick slower at 324.8kph. made a massive trail, because I knew how much this was going to go up. There was nothing that could have caught on fire around it anyways. For the most part, it was safe for everyone else, everything else, except me." Byrne was videotaping the event, which got him out of lighting duties. "I said, 'Why don't you light it? We carried it up there.' And it's like, 'Because I'm the videotographer.' Finally, I was like, 'Whatever, you guys are pussy. I'll light it.''' The advice was not to light it but rather to throw in a lit object; Hopkins didn't listen. "I thought I'd be safe enough to light it myself. As soon as it lit, it just - everything came up around me," he said. "On the video, I just come jumping out of the middle with my hair smoking. I didn't think I'd have any eyebrows left." Did he learn his lesson? "I'd do it all over again," he said. Look for it on the next edition of Travis Pastrana's Nitro DVD. Valentino Rossi was asked to put on his safety hat during the front-row press conference. One of four rider safety reps, the World Champion was asked why the wall that fellow countryman Andrea Dovizioso hit during Saturday morning's 2S0cc practice wasn't protected by air fence. "The place where Dovizioso fall, he is unlucky," Rossi said of the crash in which Dovizioso hit the tire barriers. Tire wear, especially in the front, was exac- erbated by the long corners at Catalunya, especially the downhill segments, but mostly by a wintertime resurfacing. Michelin and Bridgestone runners alike noted the lack of longevity and the hope for a solution. "They'll come up with something," Colin Edwards said. "They're only a few hours up the road." Edwards said the team didn't have a lot of data, only what they gathered during the preseason IRTA test, when temperatures were much lower. 'J\ny other track we go to, the sky's the limit, and Michelin have everything for it. At the moment, just the front; I think the rear, we're not bad. But the front, I think we're behind the eight ball a little bit at the moment." Capirossi said that the Ducati team Continued on poge 19 CYCLE NEWS • JUNE 22, 2005 17

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