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/128397
was dominated by Bridgestone Ducati." d1It we cannot finish bet• aid Caplrossl, who's just lI/lOther year with Ducati. ~ job for all week." iidmItted Bridgestone's domiIceeplng his dwindling tide Blaggi left Japan as the only rider with a mathematical chance of stopping Rossi's tide charge. The Roman has to score 14 more points than Rossi in next week's 13th of 17 World Championship rounds to prevent Rossi from joining Giacomo Agostini and Mick Doohan as the only riders with fove consecutive premier class titles. The MotoGP was wracked by attrition and only intermittently dramatic. Just I I riders finished, while seven crashed. Behind the lead duo, the race was mostly processional. Finishing third was last year's winner, Konica Minolta Honda's Makoto Tamada. Then came Carlos Checa, giving Marlboro Ducati their best two-rider finish ever. Next were the Americans, all in a row and most in various stages of dismay. First among them was Suzuki's John Hopkins, helped by his Bridgestone tires to his best-ever MotoGP finish. "Finally I got the top five finish I've been looking for my whole GP career," the Anglo-American said. Gauloises Yamaha's Colin Edwards was 1.3 seconds adrift after fighting front-end problems. "The front has been very stable this weekend, but in the race I lost it in a few comers, and it affected my confidence," he said. Even so, Edwards moved to third in the points standings, behind Rossi and Biaggi. Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden lost over six seconds when he cut his front tire after running off the track while bat- 28,2005 • CYCLE NEWS tling Alex Barros on the ninth lap. Hayden dropped from ninth to 12th but recovered to finish seventh. "Seemed like I was on the back foot all weekend and things never came good, to be honest," he said. Suzuki's Kenny Roberts Jr. was equally forthright. "That was basically the worst result besides falling down that I could have strung together," he said after finishing eighth. "I think either the temperature change got us or something, but I couldn't be aggressive from the start and was only using half my braking force." The final three MotoGP finishers were Fortuna Yamaha's Toni Elias and Ruben Xaus, with WCM Blata's Franco Battaini a career-best I Itho Attrition was high. Both MoviStar Hondas failed to finish. Along with Melandri's misfortune, an off-pace Sete Gibernau crashed. Both Camel Hondas failed to finish. Alex Barros crashed and Tohru Ukawa, Troy Bayliss's replacement, had a mechanical DNF. Both Kawasakis failed to finish. Alex Hofmann crashed into d'Antin Ducati's Robbie Rolfo, and Shinya Nakano blew up his second engine in two days. And wild card Naoki Matsudo crashed the Moriwaki Honda. Telefonica MoviStar Honda's Hiroshi Aoyama won his first-ever 250cc Grand Prix at his home track, but the win was overshadowed by a final-lap dust-up among his pursuers. Trying to barge through from fourth to second, Fortuna Honda's Jorge Lorenzo lost his front and broadsided Aprilia ltalia Corse's Alex de Angelis, who was then in second. Both went down, and World Champion Dani Pedrosa was given a clear path to second. Carrera Sunglasses-LCR's Casey Stoner inherited third. De Angelis remounted to finish seventh. Race officials determined that Lorenzo had "ridden in an irresponsible manner, causing danger to other riders," and suspended him for one race, next week's Malaysian GP. "I tried to go alone, run away, and at the end I push more time and I saw I was a runaway," Aoyama said. "I am so happy." Pedrosa lost much of practice to an unprecedented three crashes. That left him with a less-than-optimal setup, and it took most of the race to work his way forward. "Yes, it was difficult race for me," Pedrosa said. "We had very, very bad weekend and, well, I'm really tired today." Still, he was able to stretch his World Championship lead over Stoner to 63 points, 226-163. Stoner lamented not making an earlier move to the front. "Unfortunately, as the race went on, the bike became worse, and I couldn't keep the pace of the other guys," he said. "I just wanted to stay up, and obViously it worked for me today." The 125cc race was stopped prematurely by an horrific crash on the front straightaway. Swiss rider Thomas Luthi crashed out of second place in the final corner, with both him and his Elit Grand Prix Honda landing on the track. The following pack had little warning. Master Aspar's Sergio Gadea clipped Luthi's