Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

World Championship Road Racing Series pain from my finger. Now the track is much better, and it was possible to make a very good race. It was a lot of fun." Melandri was beaten, but it was still his best MotoGP finish, closer to the leader than his previous second at Assen, in spite of still carrying 35 stitches in his foot from Motegi. "My bike felt very good, and the C1inica Mobile made a good job with my body - my foot was Valentino Rossi cele· brated his 10th victory of the season, just one race after claiming his seventh World Championship. no trou- ble," Melandri said. "I plan ned to be quiet in the first part of the race, because it was very hot and I wanted to be strong at the end ... but I was fifth after the first lap and I had to spend a lot of energy to get past Colin [Edwards] and Nicky [Hayden]. "I tried to go away when I was in the lead, but Valentino passed me on the straight - his bike was very fast today, and he was braking very hard at the end. I tried again in the last lap, but I made a little mistake. But I didn't want it to be like Assen, when I didn't try to win on the last lap." The speed differential may have been the result of yet more canny pit work from Rossi's crew chief, Jerry Burgess. "I'm not sure that Honda geared for the wind, but it was 20km head on down the straight, and we geared the bike down accordingly," Burgess said. Hayden was pleased with third, after qualifying on the third row of the grid, and placing only eighth again in morning warmup. "I was so slow this morning, I thought I would embarrass my boys - but I got a good start, though my buddy Sete [Gibernau] ran into in the back of me again in the first turn," Hayden said. "I stayed on, and I'm really happy about the way I could knuckle down. At the end, I wasn't quite able to stay with them. There were a few places on the track where I was losing time, and it would take the whole lap to make it up again. I hung it out a bit there, and I wasn't sure I was Three In A Row Loris Capirossi made it three poles in a row for Ducati and Bridgestone at Qatar, seizing pole position with less than 10 minutes left, and then reclaiming it with an even faster lap at the end of the blazing-hot session. His time was an amazing two seconds faster than last year's pole, reflecting a huge improvement of grip as the circuit has improved with even limited use. "We came here with no good feeling, but the track is in much better condition than last year, and today was better than yesterday," said Capirossi, who had not backed up his qualifying-tires time with the same strings oHast race-tire laps as in Motegi and Sepang. "But today's time is, I think, the limit for the track, not limited by bad grip. But tomorrow's race will be physically very hard. A third win will be difficult." Sete Gibernau was alongside him, for his II th front-row start of the season, and less than a tenth of a second slower after nosing ahead at the end. "I think I could have been on pole, but I found some traffic," said Gibernau, though he, too, was not confident. "I've been on the front row a lot oftimes this year and not finished the race." Third was Valentino Rossi, back on the front row for the first time since the British Gp, fIVe races ago. "I'm happy, because since Donington, we never did a great job in practice, though I was always fast in the race," said Rossi, who added that his Michelin tires were "working better than the last two races" and that "the track has improved a lot. There is still a fast line, but it is not as slippery as before off that line. I think overtaking will be possible." Rossi had bad memories to erase. Last year at Qatar, he was dumped to the back of the grid after his crew had laid rubber on his starting position, and then he crashed out of the race, leaving he victory to deadly rival Gibemau. "We have some problems still - especially rear grip; between now and tomorrow, we need to improve," Rossi said, admitting that the motivation was rather hard to find after having achieved his goal of the tide. "It's nice not to have that pressure, and I can look at the race with more serenity, going to make it back - but it was a good race in the end." With pole qualifier Loris Capirossi and the Marlboro Ducati leading the first lap, dropping steadily back down the field, and then running off the track, finishing an eventual 10th, and with Repsol Honda's Max Biaggi retiring with an electrical glitch, the result was a tense battle for second overall in the standings. Biaggi still holds the position by two points from Melandri, with Edwards five behind, 22 OCTOBER 12,2005 • CYCLE NEWS and try to understand the level of the other riders. But there is still the team championship to decide, and the manufacturers' title is important to Yamaha. If it is important to them, then it is important to me, too." Teammate Colin Edwards was next, heading row two, his best qualifying position since second in France at the start of the year. "This weekend, everything just seems to work," Edwards said. "Everything has been clear on how to make the bike better, and we've done just that. I should have won the race here last year, and right now I feel the same - we can win it." Marco Melandri was alongside, and then came last year's pole qualifier, Carlos Checa, on the second Duke, with times close: He was just over half a second off pole. Shinya Nakano led row three from Nicky Hayden, who had been fast on the first day but lost positions in a hunt for front-wheel grip, a common complaint among the lower-placed Honda qualifiers. "It's vague into the comers, and we haven't been able to continue the momentum," Hayden said. Alongside him was another rider who wasn't able to match his first-day positions. Toni Elias had been second fastest on the first day, an indication of growing strength from the class rookie. "I always struggle a bit on qUalifying tires," Elias said, "but I am going well, and I think I can have a good race." Makota Tarnada headed the fourth row from Kenny Roberts Jr., the Suzukis back in a more familiar position at a track where their high corner speed is of little help in offsetting the lack of acceleration. "The character of the circuit is to use a lot of front grip into a comer, then stop the bike and accelerate as hard as you can... and that's one of the weakest areas with our machine," Roberts said. "Hopefully, I can get a good start, and then the top 10 will run each other off the track, and we'll be okay." John Hopkins was alongside, with similar complaints. Max Biaggi was disconsolate, leading row fove from Alex Barros, both seeking that crucial front-wheel bite, with Roberto Rolfo's year-old Ducati completing the row. Ruben Xaus, Shane Byrne (again on Troy Bayliss's vacant Honda) and James Ellison completed row six, with second WCM rider Franco Battaini at the back. Hayden two behind him, and Capirossi another two adrift. Second to sixth is covered by just I I points. Gauloises Yamaha's Colin Edwards had been with the leaders for the first third of the race, but then he gradually lost ground. "I felt we had the pace yesterday, but we were looking for a little more rear grip and used a different tire this morning," the Texan said. "My bike was set up around the tire we used yesterday, and I

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