Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

- MOTOGP the seat, so 1 decided to wait and see what happened in front of me," the Texan said. He gradually dropped back to finish six seconds behind - and only three ahead of Carlos Checa's Marlboro Ducati, which had been closing steadily. But the points were valuable to Edwards, moving him to third overall, just one point behind Melandri. Checa, like Roberts on Bridgestone's excellent wet tires (which gave Olivier Jacque's Kawasaki a surprise second in China), might have been closer had he not started slowly with wheelspin and lost ground in the difficult early stages as he waited for his tires to give a good feeling. He ended up setting the third-fastest lap of the race. "I was trying not to be too aggressive," he explained later. He had outpaced teammate Loris Capirossi in sixth, also coming through from a lowly grid position to close right up but dropping to 10 seconds behind at the end. 20 - - Round 9 July 24, 2005 ~ World Championship Road Race Series Konica Minolta Honda's Makoto Tamada was another 15 seconds behind after succumbing to both Ducatis. Then came Kawasaki's Alex Hofmann, the last rider on the same lap. Fortuna Yamaha's Toni Elias was ninth and d'Antin Ducati's Roberto Rolfo was 10th; Hopkins ended up II th, another lap down. The Anglo-American Suzuki rider had a dramatic tale. He had forged through to take the lead on laps five and six, but it wasn't where he wanted to be. "I had terrible condensation in my helmet, and I only took the lead to see if getting out of the spray would clear it," he said. "I'd rather have sat in the group, but I had to do something." It didn't help, however, nor did lifting his visor. And then his screen started misting, too. He had dropped back to fifth. "I was losing concentration and making mistakes, then I opened the throttle too soon at the Old Hairpin, and it came around," Hopkins said. He careened across the wet grass and crashed, but he managed to pick up his AUGUST 3, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS bike before it stalled and ride back to the pits, where the handlebar was bashed straight and he rejoined, lapping at comparable times to the leaders. Far sadder was Gibernau's tale. "This is just not our year," he said. "I was going comfortably, not pushing it, then I touched the brakes and the bike was down. Usually you get some warning. This time, nothing." Streaming rain made for a difficult 2S0cc GP - and a thriller. The race came within 1.236 seconds of a dream debut win for the new KTM ridden by Anthony West. Instead, the win went to an even more heroic Randy de Puniet, who on his Repsol Aprilia came back from a wild ride across the wet grass to attack again. Casey Stoner had made this a three-way battle, but his Aprilia ran off with two laps to go, and he was lucky to regain the track to save third. West was naturally delighted with his new bike's debut. "I've been waiting a long time for this bike to be ready and getting pretty frus- trated," he said. "But I was obViously waiting for something pretty good. And it can only get better." The KTM had run only one test session before the race, covering just 380 miles in two days at Vallelunga. There were sad stories from runaway early leader Hiroshi Aoyama, the Japanese rider on his Telef6nica MoviStar Honda slipping off with 15 of the 27 laps remaining, and Alex de Angelis, another to fall from a strong early position. Defending Champion Dani Pedrosa and his Telef6nica MoviStar Honda were a safe but distant fourth, retaining his points lead over Stoner; Sebastian Porto was an even more distant fifth. The first race of the day, the I 25cc Gp, was interrupted after just seven laps by a sudden downpour. Alvaro Bautista had (Below) The roce came down to Barros (4) vs. Rossi (46) vs. Roberts (10), but Rossi had the right stuH at the end of the race and brake free.

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