MOTOGP
Round 9
July 24, 2005
~
World Championship Road Race Series
(Yam); 5.
Carl", Checa (Due); 6. Lori, Cap;"",; (Due); 7.
Makoto Tamada (Hon): 8. Alex Hofmann (Kaw); 9. Toni
Elias (Yam): 10: Robeno RoIfo (Due); II. John Hopkins
(5...).
Time.: 52 min., 58.675 sees.
Distance: 29 laps. 72.33 miles
Average speed: 81.92 mph
Marg;n of victory: 3.169 sees.
Fastest lap: Valentino Rossi. lap H. 1:-45.377
MOTOGP WORLD C'SHIP POINTS STANDINGS
(After 9 of 17 rounds): I. Valentino Rossi (21 In wins); 2.
Marco Melandri (107): 3. Colin Edwards (106); -4. Max
81agg; (100); 5. Sete Glbemau (95); 6. I'Jex Ba= (9011
w;n); 7. Nkky Hayden (85/1 w;n); 8. Lon, Cap;r",,1 (65); 9.
Shiny> NaIw>o (55); 10. Carl<>< Checa (5 I); II. Troy Bay!;"
(47); 12. Mako[Q Tamada (36); 13. Ruben x.u. (33); 14.
John fi<>pIOm (32); IS. Kenny Robern Jr. (31).
250 GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING: I. Daniel Pedrosa
(1:31.814); 2.joe", (1:32.BI2); 8. HI""hi Aoyama (1:32.826); 9. Yuki
Takalwhl (1:32.9M); 10. ea.ey Stoner (1:32.992); II.
Roberto Locatelli (1:33.262); 12. Sytvain Guintoli
(1:31.468); 13. Alex Debon (1:31.488); 14. SIrnooe C""I
(1:33.850); IS. Anthony We" (1:33.910); 16. Chaz Davia
(1:33.972); 17. Jakub 5mrz (1:14.1 IB); lB. Steve Jenkner
(1:3-4.306); 19. Alex Baldolini (1:3-4.42-4); 20. Andrea
8allerini (1:34.706); 21. Dirk Heidolf (1:34.913); 22. Mirko
Giansanti (1:31.959); 23. Maron Cardenas (1:35.268); 2-4.
Grego,), Leblanc (1:35.390); 25. Radomil Rou. (1:35.629);
26. Taro Sekiguchi (1:35.976); 27. Arnaud Vincent
(I :36.421); 28. Yves Polzer (I :36. 508); 29. Alvaro Molina
(I :36.561); 30. Andreas Manensson (I :37.257); 31.
Gabriele Ferro (I :38.05-4).
250 GRAND PRIX: I. Randy De Puniet (Apr); 2.
Anthony West (KTM); 3. Casey Stoner (Apr); 4. Daniel
Pedrosa (Hon); S. Sebastian Pono (Apr): 6. Simone Coni
(Apr); 7. Andrea Dovil:ioso (Hon); 8. Jorge lorenzo (Hon);
9. Sytvain Guintoli (Apr); 10. Andrea 8allerini (Apr): II.
Mirko Giasanti (Apr); 12. Robeno Locatelli (Apr): 13. Alex
Baldolini (Apr); 1-4. Gregory LeBlanc (Apr): 15. Radomil
Rous (Hon); 16. Jakub Smrz (Hon): 17. Steve Jenkner (Apr);
(Above) Crashes were the order of
the day. Here, Sete Gibernou
highsides out of the lead.
(Left) Gibernau's teammate Marco
Melandri (33) also went for a wild
ride on the British pavement, and
he took Tray Bayliss (1 2) with him.
(Below) Carlos Checa (7) finished
fifth, one spat better than his
teammate Loris Capirassi (65),
Briefly••.
Continued from poge 21
tion: The cause of the problem was prosaic.
Instead of the electronic glitch suspected, it
turned out to be nothing more than contaminated oil causing the major failures.
"Earlier in the program, we had some problems with pistons failing. We fixed that, but
unfortunately the same oil radiator was
used at Le Mans, and it contaminated the
oil," Trieb said. Swarf from earlier benchtesting failures caused the Le Mans
blowups. The top-end power of the KTM
frequently gives it top-speed figures higher
than the Suzuki5 and Kawasakis, but Byrne
feels a serious lack of grunt out of the turns.
"Today [the first day of practice for the
British GP] we used an engine with different mapping and tuning that had more
midrange at the cost of top-end," Trieb
said. "But it wasn't what the rider wanted.
The problem is good combustion at small
throttle openings. It is endemic to high-performance four-strokes. There are little
things you can do to improve it. But it's
always a tradeoff between midrange and
top-end." Since racing cars tend to use full
throttle for much more of the time, the
need for smooth predictable performance
at small openings is essentially a motorcycle
problem. Variable valve timing is one way of
addressing this, but it does not yet seem to
have been used in MotoGP bikes.
New Suzuki parts, for once, bore fruit,
with a noticeable improvement in cornerexit performance, according to rider John
Hopkins, who placed third on the first day
of practice. After disappointments with earlier power-up parts this season, Hopkins
said: "You can feel the difference out of the
slow comers here. It's not only that it's
smoother coming on the power, but aJso it
feels like it has more grunt." The top-end
parts had improved midrange torque, said
project leader Sahara-San. "Of course,
when you improve torque, you also
improve drivability," he added.
Makoto Tamada was the first in the big
class to fall victim to Donington Park's notorious Craner Curves, where the track
drops away just as riders swing over to the
cool left-hand side of the tire. Tamada had
only completed a handful of laps in the first
free practice when he crashed spectacularly, bruising his hip and biting his tongue.
Although he found talking difficult, he went
out again later the same session.
Marlboro Ducati mechanics had a lucky
escape on Friday, when their car was
involved in a head-on collision on a blind
rise just outside the paddock gates. There
were four of them in the car, but all
escaped injury. The car was destroyed. The
driver of the other car, who was initially
blamed for the crash, suffered leg injuries.
Silly season rumors have started early as
is becoming more usual in the overheated
MotoGP environment. One rumor links
Max Biaggi with a move to Ducati - the
company making no secret of the fact that it
would like to have the Italian star on its
team. Biaggi currently rides the top factory
Honda for the Repsol team. He would
Continued on poge 24
22
AUGUST 3, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS
