Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Kallio would've gotten the title by virtue of his five wins to Kallio's four. "It's too early now to believe I am World Champion in this year, so I think I need one night to think about all this then it will be great," Luthi said. MOTOGP Melandri led Hayden and Gibernau into turn one, with Rossi quickly making his way forward. By the first interval he was 10th, and he finished the lap in eighth. The march had begun. The lead three were pulling away when Gibernau slowed dramatically on lap six, his season over, his tenure with Honda over. Gibernau explained that the team had replaced his engine when they detected a small oil leak after the morning warmup. The new engine gave immediate Signals of being defective, and it retired itself before long. "I think it's fair to say that it is difficult to take when you work more, and work harder, but get less reward," he said. That left the race to the two young upstarts. Both in their third year of MotoGP racing, the duo are certainly the future of grand prix racing, declared so by no less than Rossi. Hayden admitted riding tight in the early going, worried about repeating his race crashes of the past two years. "Once I settled down and the tire started to move around a bit, I felt quite good," he said. The gap was never more than eighttenths of a second and mostly much less. "I tried to go alone, but NiCky was following me, he was pushing so hard," Melandri said. ':t>.!>out halfway through the race, I tried to watch behind me, and I saw Nicky so aggressive. Then for one lap I wasn't so fast, but I thought also to make Nicky pass me, but I understand it was so difficult to pass him back in the end of the race." Hayden had an affinity for the final corner, a slow downhill left-hander that was approached by a much faster arcing left. That's where he'd make his attack. As they came to it for the final time, Melandri's rear tire broke sideways. "I knew he was trying to pass me so hard, but in the last corner I try to be faster than normal, but I lose the bike quite a lot," he said. When Melandri got sideways, Hayden abandoned his plan to go up the inside and decided to square him up. "Didn't happen," he said. ''I'm disappointed for that. And I mean no moral vic- tories, because we want to win." Melandri said: "When I passed the checkered flag I was so happy. It's so difficult to explain my emotions." Rossi had moved SWiftly through the field. Eighth for the first two laps, he was seventh on lap three, then fifth and fourth on the next consecutive laps. On the sixth lap, he passed Checa for third. By now, Melandri had a gap of 4.954 seconds on Rossi, and it would grow to nearly seven seconds before Rossi began whittling away at it. As he did, he lost Checa, who was a lonely fourth at the end. Rossi got the gap under three seconds with two laps to go, but he was never close to Hayden. He explained that they'd struggled throughout practice, only finding a setup in Sunday morning's warmup. "So is too late for try to win," he said. "Anyway, is a good recovery. Was quite fun, I push for all the race, but we need to make a better work next time." Biaggi, Barros and Capirossi were battling behind Checa. Mostly it was Biaggi at the front until the 28th of 30 laps, when Barros made the pass. My rhythm was quite good but not as good as the front three," Barros said. "Maybe I could have fought with Checa, but when I got past Max, it was too late." Biaggi's day hadn't started well. He'd fallen in the morning warmup, damaging his thumb and leg, as well as his number-one bike. The team had it ready for the start, but he was at less than full strength. Capirossi was even more hindered, physically, with pain in his chest from his Australian crash. "Riding 30 laps was just as difficult as I'd expected, especially the last five or six laps, when I was very tired," he said. Edwards rode a mostly lonely race to eighth place. "I didn't ride great today," he admitted. "In the middle of the race, I started to push hard and caught up again with the middle of the pack, but by that time I had abused my tires a lot. They were moving around, and so I decided to hold station." Kurtis Roberts had a rough weekend aboard his father's Proton KR, retiring with gearbox woes on lap 16. Briefly... Continued from page '7 at a motorcycle show in 8irmingham - but from the presenter. Kiyonari was caught unaware when told about the upgrade. Valentino Rossi is looking forward to the attack of the young lions in 2006, and he has a definite opinion on which one will stand out. "I think is good to have new rivals and new metrvation from the young guys." Rossi said. ''Also because I already beat a lot of the times the old guys." Specifically, he said: "I think Melandri is the fastest of these three. I think have a big talent to ride the bike. This is the good point. Maybe he needs to improve with the mental strength. Especially in one year, not just in one race." Next was his Critique of Nicky Hayden. "I think the best point of Nicky is the control of the bike when the bike is sliding. Nicky have a different riding style coming from his experience in America, and the control of Nicky and the style to slide is very good. It is a good point. Sometimes his riding style is a bit too dirt for this bike, I think, this is my opinion." Toni Elias is expected to join Melandri on the Gresini team in 2006. "Toni is a good rider. I think the best point of Toni is the battle on the last lap; he's very strong because it's difficult to understand what he thinks, what he will do. Is difficult to control, especially in the last battle. But now Toni need to next year, he needs to demonstrate if he's at the same level as Nicky and Marco, because at this moment, we don't know." One rider he wasn't asked about was Dani Pedrosa. "I think with the new guys, also with Pedrosa, will be more strong. Compared to these riders, I don't think I'm old. I'm older, but the difference is not so great. I think is good also for our sport that young guys are able to ride these bikes at the maximum, because young is always better than old." Max Biaggi was the only person in the paddock who wouldn't acknowledge that his future in MotoGP with Honda was tenuous at best. "I think he say a lot of strange things, and at the end before Yamaha and now Honda is tired," his rival Valentino Rossi said. " I think is normal." Rumors of his behavior and subsequent punishment at the previous race in Turkey were rife during the twoweek break - everything from him lambasting the RC211 V to his being fired before the Valencia race. ':t\t this moment, I have really not much to say," Biaggi said in Valencia. "I know there's a lot of speculation, a lot of words in these two weeks. At the moment, I just follow my calendar, try to do this race at the maximum potential that I can. I really want to answer with a great weekend here." The weekend wasn't great, and at the end of it he was left rideless. His hopes for landing at Sito Pons' Honda team were dashed when Cannel, who wanted him on the team, pulled the plug over Honda's refusal to supply bikes to Biaggi [see "In The Wind"]. Well before this transpired, HRC managing director Satoru Horiike said of Biaggi that he was "not satisfied with his results as a factory rider. Because he didn't win until now. So we are disappointed with this." As for Biaggi's inflammatory comments in the Italian-language press, Horiike said he had no problem with them. "We translated Italian to English and then we read everything, no problem with Max," Horiike said. "Only the interviewer of the TV made a very silly question. Max answered very conrecdy. The interviewer was trying to pull out an answer. Max was smart enough that he didn't answer. So I think it's no problem with Max." But it's clear that Honda does have a problem with Max. Sete Gibemau confirmed his status as the number-one rider who sees the glass as halffull. Despite his worst season as a Honda MotoGP rider, with numerous crashes, Gibernau believes the season hasn't been a writeoff. "We have been on pole in first or second starting on the first or second row of the grid and leading more laps in the race than anyone in the championship, but in the end we haven't had the results," he said, before adding, "We have to work on that side." For the first time in the 57-year history of grand prix racing, Spanish riders were on the pole position for all three races: Sete Gibernau in MotoGp, Dani Pedrosa in 250cc, and Sergio Gadea in I 25cc. Valentino Rossi said that 75 percent of the work the riders safety commission had requested from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca had been done. "We need to check when the track is ready, but I think Laguna make a big, big effort for the track," Rossi said. "This is very good, because all the American guys like Kenny say for sure laguna don't do nothing. But is important for us because it means the safety commission have a good power." No one at Laguna Seca was available to confirm Rossi's claim. Following his 15th-place qualifying effort, which induded a horrific crash, Valentino Rossi said that he didn't believe he had the pace to match the leading Hondas. "We have problems in braking," he said. "In the last two races, we have struggled a lot with the bike. Turkey was a new track, so it was a strange situation, but here I expect to be more competitive. We are struggling a lor. My balance of the bike and the speed into the comer is not so bad, but 1lose in braking. I can't decrease the speed in the space that Gibernau or Melandri can. It's not engine braking. It's the balance of the bike. For tum, we need to put a lot of weight on the front, and in the hard braking, the weight become too much." Brit James Ellison and Spaniard Jose Luis Cardoso appear to be in line for the two seats on the d'Antin Ducati team for 2006. The pair will be riding GP6-Sat machines that are not far off the factory Desmosedicis. And likely on Bridgestone tires. The team used Dunlop this year, but isn't likely to continue with them in 2006. A Bridgestone official would not confirm which teams, other than those already contracted, would be using their tires. Valentino Rossi already has a laundry list of things that need to be done to the 2006 machine. "Now, we are not at the same level I think [as the Honda RC211V], but the difference is not big," he said. "We hope to continue in this way also for next year, but we need to improve also in the engine delivery Continued on page 20 CYCLE NEWS • NOVEMBER 16,2005 19

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