Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Ch eca ca m e und er th e g ras p of Criville , wh o was sli d ing both whee ls wildl y o u t o f the c orn ers wh en his tires beg an t o g o away , wi t h about four laps to g o . Crivill e g ot b y and got a little ground, but n ot e no ug h , not for the ag g reg ate t ime . When th e flag fell it w as Roberts in front, Che ca second, t h e n Ross i , who was third o n the track in the se co nd leg in front of the Rizla Honda V tw in of Jurgen van der Goorbergh . " We d ec id ed to pu t on a sl ick rear a nd a t th e e nd it had so me movem e n t , " C he ca said . "But the m a in problem was in front . I tried to push and see w h at happ en ed between m e an d Robe rt s a n d if I ca n wi n or n ot tha t r a c e . A t t h e begi nni ng fo r m e was o kay , then I sli de two times fro nt, esp ecia lly o n e I al most c ras h, and then th ey catch m e agai n . I d ecide to fin ish the rac e . I d idn 't take so mu ch Ralf Wald mann t o o k a ll of t he drama o ut o f t his o ne on the se c o n d lap . W aldm ann moved in t o take over a le a d h e wa s loat he t o g iv e up , ju st after champ i onship l e ader Shi n y a Nakan o p itc hed h is ra ce away . " I lost the f ront end brak in g too hard," Naka no sa id. "After th e cr ash it was diffi cu lt t o r id e the bik e , th e fa iring w as lo o se and scraping on th e g round and I was having trouble turnin g in . I wanted to score som e poi nts , so I rode t he best I c o u ld ." Stead il y bu il d in g on h is lead every la p, t he Ap r i l i a - r i d i n g G e rm a n maxxed o ut at 6 .97 1 secon ds t hree laps from the end , b ack ing off to w in com fo rta b ly. " I'm rea lly happy ," t he 3 3 - ye ar -old German sa id . " So m e p eople said Ralf risk aft er th at. M y prio r it y was to fi nish t he rac e and no t ta k e m u ch r isk Wa ldm an n w a s t o o o ld, t hat he was an d see what ha p p en ed r idi n g a little bi t slo we r." it' s my way of thanking A p r ilia for a ll Cri ville wa s closin g o n Ro ss i in th e sec o nd leg, th e c h am pion ta k in g t im e o ut of th e 2 .4-sec o nd c u shio n Ro ssi h ad brou g ht int o t h e r a c e , a n d t he yo u ng It ali an to o k acti on . " A ft er I se e Criv ill e , if I have two second , po int fi ve in front of m e, h e co me s on t h e podi um and I co me very h ard ," Ross i sa id . " It' s a v ery st ra nge sen sati o n bec ause very muc h sli de on th e rea r a nd in t erm edi at e is fin ished , but g o od fe eling . In th e en d I am ve ry n ear t o Carlos a nd A le x and com e o n t h e p odium. " Cr iv ille se ttle d fo r fourth about 1.5 seco n d s ba c k in t h e en d, la m en ting hi s t ire choice as w ell . " In th e sec o n d ra c e , my rear tire sta rt ed t o w ear rea ll y q uickly and th e b i k e started t o slid e a lot , " Criville sa id . " I think w ith a rear slick I c ould ha ve been o n the p odium ." Then c a me Barro s an d C ap irossi, seven second s ba ck w ith fiv e sec onds between th em . Li ke everyo ne else , h e d idn 't think i n term ed iates w er e t he right c hoice . "I t ri ed a su r p r i sin g c ho ice, b ut I w as unl uc k y ," h e sa id . "With th e b ik e eq u ip p ed w ith slic k ti r es , fo r su re I co u ld sc ore a b et t er p ositio n like the fo u rt h o ne, b ut n o m o r e . A ll i n all , th is sixth p lace was good for toda y's race ." T elefo n ic a MoviStar Suzuki 's A oki came home seventh , sliding like the rest, and a lot like Red Bull Yamah a WCM 's Regis Lac on i wh o said , " In retrospect, w e sh ou ld ha ve pu t a slick on the r ea r . As th e tra c k sta rte d t o dry o ut t owa rd s t he e nd I wa s sli d ing ab out a lot." Van der Goorbergh to o k ninth , his best r e s u lt o f the y ea r, o ne bette r than Okada . The Repsol Honda rider c rash ed in the ve ry last c o rn er w hile in fifth . He go t up to cross the line well back , bot 10th o n ag greg ate t im e . Never fa r fro m secon d , 2 5 0 c c G RANO PRIX fini shed . B ut th is resu lt is g reat a n d t he help with machines a nd sponsors t hey have g iven us sin ce la st yea r." F o ur ri de rs c o ntested seco nd unt il j ust b efo re the h alfw a y p o int w hen th e quartet b ec am e a pa ir of du os . Katoh and U ka wa w ere at it for th ird , n o se to t a i l fo r th e du r at i o n , with Oliv ie r J a c qu e a n d A n thony W e st jus t beh in d. U k a w a s pent th e r a c e l o o k in g for a n o pe n i ng th at never c ame . " I h a d to se tt le f o r th ird . " sa id U kawa. " I co u l d n ot d o anything about it." Katoh said he was h appy becau s e he 'd missed on his set-up . " D u r i n g pr act i ce we struggled a lot in o rd er to find a suitable set-up for my NSR, b ut honestl y , we d id not succeed 100% ," K atoh said . From lap 12 to t he end the p ai r mo ve d aw ay fro m the battl e fo r fourth, W es t and Jacque . Th e fig ht was a g o od o ne, W est m ov in g up the in sid e o f J a c qu e o n t h e 14 t h l a p , J acqu e g etting it b a ck a l a p l a te r w i t h W est y imm edi atel y c o u n t erp un c h i ng . O n l ap 17 J a c q u e esta bl is he d h is su periority fo r good , then p ul led a six -seco nd gap o n West in the f in a l n in e laps. " I c h os e to r i d e my spare bi k e afte r wa rm - up [ffJD@rtJrtJD9~ @DD [?@[f!JiJD , In the end it didn't rain, but weather - specifi cally, gusting wind s played a Significant fact or In the m ake-up of the grid for the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez. Marlboro Yamaha 's Max Blaggl took a break from a horrible season to take his first pole In dramatic style, battl ing the wind to keep his provisional pole less than 90 seconds from the end of Saturd ay's session . At the other end of th e front -row, in fourth , Telefon lca MoviStar Suzuk i's Kenny Roberts J r. was 'worried about crashing, something he did during last year's qu alifying. In between came Nastro Azzurro Honda' s Valentino Rossi, the 500 cc rook ie who held the pole until Blag gi snatched It away , and Blaggi' s Spani sh teamma te , Carlos Checa, the king of crashers last year who' s riding a wave of good fortun e which has kept him upright through the first three races. What also help ed decid e the front ro w were the new Mi ch elin qualifying tire s that the front-runners used. Biaggi said he put a soft tire on late In the session to get the pole. More Importantly, he was able to put weight on his feet so he could leverage the motorcycle, som ething he hadn 't been able to do due to a lingering inj ury, "I'm ridi ng with more pow er on the footpeg: before I was j ust wavin g around on the seat: he said. "Now I' m in control of what I'm doing, where before It was a nightm are. So I'm qui te happ y for that. An d, of course. we test last week at Le Mans and I was com pet itive there. So this Is the thing that's Improving so far." Th e Itali an said he was hopin g for rain, but got wind Instead, and it wreaked havoc on his session. "Th e wind was m ore strong that yester day, so it co m pli cates more and it's very easy to lose the way and the direct ion, because someti mes I thin k It' s so strong the wind, but som etimes it' s not: he said. "Finally we did some set -up whic h is. let me say not so happy, bec ause I'm look ing for someth ing between this m ornin g and this afternoon." His best lap was a 1:42.94 1, a new reco rd for the poie position and j ust enough to nudge Rossi's 1:42.992 back to second. . Thi s was one of the tra cks where Rossi had tested during the winter and it paid off . "i find a very good setting this morn ing and a very good front tire, " he said, "and In practice this morning I make a very last lap in 43 and this afternoon I ma ke with the race tire, also a 43 , and then I try wit h the mo re soft tire to make the time for a good lap. I make the pole and, no, second is okay for m e." Rossi had take n ih e pole with about two and half minutes to go In Rail Waldmann celebrates after winning the 250cc Grand PriL It was the German's first victory since he won the Australian GP in 1997. the second session, losing it a minute later. He said part of the prob lem was gettin g used to workin g with his new team after spending his career with A prilia where he won both a 125cc and 250cc GP at Jerez. Checa was a quiet third , less than two-tenths behind Rossi in his best qualifying performance of the season. Briefly on the pole posi tion, he was knock ed back to third 0 .188 seconds off the pole . "We didn 't get the bike right yesterday, but it feels really good now ," Checa said. "I feel really comfortable and that's why I'm fast, and I' m havi ng a lot of fun on the bik e. I thi nk we're in really good shape. I didn't get pole, but that doesn' t matter. I know we'll be able to run the,winning pace tomorrow ." Roberts. Jr. •made it thr ough qualifying unscathed , something he hadn 't been able to do last year. He crashed In one of the fast lefts behind the pits , careening through the gravel trap , but quickly up . Th e memory of that couldn't have been far away when the wind cam e up In final qualifying . "Today It wasn't there, so I wasn't going to beat myself up trying to go fast and fall down, " he said. "Today I had a lot of close calls pushing the fron t In turn one and the last tum here. I don't like that and we've got to fix that." Roberts Jr. was the only rider in the top 11 not to Im prove on Friday 's tim e. In addition to the wind, the probl em was that the team was out of synch . " You k no w, the Suzuki today ...1 think It was disappointing or frustr ati ng because one bik e had good points and the other bik e had good points and we didn't put the two together because the settings are so drastically different," he said. "Yesterday I was using a lot of lean angle in the 'quick com ers to go fast and today with the wind it makes that more difficult. So today In the m iddle of the session I had to switch bikes that I should have been sma rt enough to do before the session, but I didn't do it. One bike had a better gearbox than the oth er one and I liked the bike with the worst gearbox, of course. Today the timing was off and the settings were off . "I' m happy because we mad e 43 's : he continued . " But this place you make a 43 .0 and 43.7 and it makes a huge difference between feeling good and feeling bad. We should put the two bikes togeth er tomorrow for the morning warm -up and we should be fine. I'm not worri ed about it. Ju st to have a bad day and be on the front row, I'd tak e that any day." The second row was all Hondas , split evenly between the Repsol YPF Hondas of Al ex Criville (fifth) and Tady Okada (seventh) with Em erson Honda Pons Loris Capirossl sixth and team mate Alex Barros eighth . "It's a shame that when I was in my fastest lap and I thought I could get pole, a slower rider got in my way and that tim e went out of the window ," said Criville, who's won here the past three years. "Of course, it would be bett er for m e to be starti ng from the front row but all throughout practice my lap times have been very consistent. We've ma naged to lap In the low 1'43s and that Is very encouraging for the race." cue I e n e vv s MAY 10, 2000 15

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