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Nakano's teammate Olivier Jacque was a distant fourth, with new works rider Anthony West defeating Franco Battaini for fifth. Battaini was the best of the Aprilias at a track where the Italian bikes struggled. French rider Arnaud Vincent on the Valencia Airtel Aprilia won the opening race of the year, the 125cc Grand Prix. It was his second-career win. He prevailed over a typically close battle, eventually opening up a small gap over Playlife Honda's Mirko Giansanti and defending champion Emilio Alzamora on the Telefonica MoviStar Honda. SOOcc Grand Prix Roberts led off the line, with Checa leaning on him, and moving firmly inside at the fastest corner on the Kenny Roberts Jr. (2) started well in the 500Cc GP. getting the lump on the field as they left the start line. Roberts would end up finishing sixth after encounteri"g handling problems. fast corner only to run wide and onto the grass - thence onto the banking of the tri-oval, where he fell without injury. One lap later Okada also highsided out of the race and also escaped injury. He'd already had one slide and dropped to the back of the group a couple of laps earlier. Roberts was now in trouble. "I had to work the tires so hard to make up for my lack of acceleration," he said later. With seven laps left, he could resist no longer, and one by one Barros and Criville passed him quite easily. Rossi may have had a part to play in all this, had he not tumbled out after 12 laps, while ahead of Criville. He slid off the low side. "I was going too fast, I guess," he said. But he retained the fastest lap, a second off the record, after an impressive class debut. Biaggi also missed the final fun after a dreary afternoon, pulling out on the same lap as Rossi crashed. He blamed handling problems - later his mechanics were seen peering at the swingarm bearings, leading to suspicions that one had failed. Abe was seventh, almost 10 seconds behind Roberts, with Aoki catching up to within almost two seconds at the finish on the second Telefonica Suzuki. He'd worked through from 16th on the first lap after an engine hiccup off the line, but blamed rear brake problems for having to slacken his pace in a race that until then had been better than his usual form. Then came Red Bull Yamaha's The battle for victory went right to the end of the race with McCoy (24) managing to hold off Spaniard Carlos Checa (7) and Italian Loris Capirossi (65). McCoy had charged through the field after starting on the third row of the grid. track on the second lap. Capirossi was also past the American the next time around at the same place, and the trio held position for a couple of laps, under severe pressure from Okada and pole starter Gibernau, while Abe was losing touch a little behind and slowing Criville in the process. It was only marginal, however, and after five laps the first nine runners (Rossi and Barros at the back of the gang) were covered by just over four seconds. At this point, McCoy was 10th, but a couple of seconds adrift, and not looking particularly threatening. Capirossi took the lead on lap six, and now the first five pulled away, with Criville heading the next group but almost three seconds adrift, with Abe starting to lose ground behind and McCoy closing up gradually. Roberts was clearly having to work the hardest in the group, holding back the Hondas of Okada and Gibernau by willpower rather than engine power. But by now McCoy the only rider to choose a 16.5-inch rear Michelin - had come surging through the pursuit group and was about to engulf the fast men as well. He was third on lap 19, second on lap 22, and first one lap later - and though he came close to disaster with one particularly lurid slide, there was no stopping him. Checa hung on to second, saying later: "I thought I could win - I was waiting my chance to pass Capirossi - but I didn't expect McCoy. He was very fast in the corners, and I didn't have the grip to stay with him." He was less than half-a-second behind at the end; Capirossi was just over a second away and happy with third in his first 500cc race since 1996 (he won his last one, the Australian GP at Eastern Creek). "I took the lead when Checa made a mistake, but perhaps I stayed there too long because I used up my front tire," Capirossi said. Gibernau left the party with eight laps to go, passing Roberts into the cue. e n e _ S • MARCH 29. 2000 9