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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128614
rook ie, pole sta rter D a ij iro Katoh on the Axo Hon da, w ho crashed o ut of the lead on lap two , rejoined in la st, and fo rge d t hro ugh t o an am az i n g sixth to retain h is p oint s lead in t he cha mp io ns h ip . E a rlier , You ich i U i h ad g iv en th e Festi na D erb i its seco nd w in o f th e seaso n after a fierce 125cc GP. T he Japanese rider led a h uge b attle for second , a tussle th at was eventually won by Mirko Giansanti on the Benetton Honda from a h ard -charg ing defending champion Emilio Alzamora and his T elefo n ic a MoviStar Honda . SOOcc GRANO PRIX Le Mans is a c ircu it of h ard b ra k in g and h ard ac c e ler atio n - th e A p rilia l a c k s th e l a tt er , a n d J er em y McWillia ms t ried to mak e up for it by us in g t he fo rmer, forgetting the extra weig ht of h is full t ank. He took to th e escape roa d on the firs t la p , but everybody e lse m a d e it t hro u gh all righ t , with Bi agg i ahead of Roberts , Abe a nd Ch ec a. (Op p o si t el Pole-starter Max Biaggi (4 ) le ad s the wa, on the opening lap of the French 500cc Grand Prix at Le Mans. Blaggi is chased b, Ken n , Roberts Jr. (21. Cartos Checa (71 and the rest of the 500cc pack. (Be l o w l When Biaggl crashed on the f o u rth lap, Roberts (21 was able to pull awa, from Checa (71. The championship points leader, however, would later fade to sixth. feeling the effects of a crash from the da, before. Yama ha alone had tested at the revised Le Mans. but even so it took them until the very end of prac tice to prove the value. First Carlos Checa came surging through to lead for the first time , then in the dying seconds Max Biaggi displaced him for his second pole in succession. By then, however, the man who had led hitherto, Kenny Roberts Jr., was out of action . With two laps to go , having earlier set . fastest lap of the session and now running even faster, the Americ an crashed at the chicane at the end of the back straight . It was his first crash of the season - exactly one year after his crucial race crash at the French GP at Paul Ricard last year, which changed the course of the season. Practice had been mu ch messed around by the weather, wet both mornings, which was one reason Biaggi gave for his late arrival up front "I had a problem in the session, and I was lucky to get out at the end with a new tire," he said. "I had to take a few risks - the track seems less grippy now than when we tested." Checa had also been hunting through tires. wai ting for track tem peratures to rise enough so he could use the harder tire he prefers. Wh en he co uld do so, "I was surprised by how easi ly the ti me s came," he said. Th e Spaniard had in five races gone from slig htly amus ing frequent crasher to fully mature racer. Alex Barros pushed through to thi rd ยท once again the top Honda was not one of the factory machi nes, but a last-year's model lease bik e. Le Mans is a scratchers track, of cou rse, and Barros a real scratcher, late on the brakes and hard on the gas again. "Today everything has gone perfectl y," he said. All of which left Roberts fourth , on the front row for a ninth consecuti ve race, but limping heavily and look ing very disgruntled. He blamed the crash on a too- hard rear, but was puzzled not only by its occurrence, but at the speed it had happened. "I had a moment there yesterday , and Nobu [Aoki] had fallen in the same plac e on the same tire a coup le of laps before - so I was being really careful there," he said. Until then he'd been happy, a new car buretio n setting discovered at Jerez had m uch improv ed the bik e's accelera tio n, a sore point for Chec a was soo n u p to t hi rd , w ith . Criville b eh ind h im , but the two ahead opened u p a small g ap . Then c a m e B iagg i' s c r ash, getting out of shape while bra k in g for Museum, the second U -tu rn , fighting to recov er con trol only to go over the highside and out a long time. Ale x Cri ville led row two, and with times reasonably cl ose (he was just over half-a-second off pole) he could at least be pleased tha t he had mat ched his best -yet this year on the troub lesom e new bike , and also im pro ved handsom ely from the first to the second day . He was consoli ng himself wit h opti mis m , " We haven't had much dry time here - with a softer front ti re I could have been faster. I am sure I can win here tomo rrow," was his official statement. But back at team headquarters, technicians were still scratc hing their heads at the difficulties with the new bike , which simply refused to respond to usual remedi es to solve its tricky on -throttle handl ing. Jeremy McWilliams had his Aprilla alongs ide, speaking mo re highly on the second day of the new Michelin tires than on the first. "We're getting a handle on the suspension settings we need for them - but it' s a fast track, and we have a big speed deficit on the straight. " (Biaggi , Garry McCoy and Rossi record ed 173 .6 mph. McWilliams only 168 .6 m ph , the Suzuki of Roberts only 169 .8 m ph.) Norick Ab e was alongsi de, then McCoy , who m ight have expected more at a track where his light weight and fast acceleration serve him well. The Australi an had crashed heavily, however, running off the track during a bout of ty pical sideways braking, and was some what bruised and sore. Loris Capirossi, another to crash, led row three from Valentin o Rossi, Tadayuk i Ok ada and Regis Laconi; Ju rgen van den Goorbergh's well-ridden V-twin Honda headed row four from Nobuatsu Aoki, who crashed twice on Satu rday, Tetsuya Harada and Sete Gibernau. Harada just blam ed the track: "I have never gone well at Le Mans, and I don 't like it," he said. Gibernau hardly knew what to say. "Th e only good thing is that it can only get better," he said. De Gea was 17th, SWitching to the old Modenas for both qualifying sessions after the new bike ran into engine problem s - he hoped to race the new one all the same ; there were 20 qualifiers, veteran part-tim er Ron Haslam was 19th, but out of the race after crashing in the dyi ng m inutes, and newcom er Legrelle was 20th . of t he race. Hi s di sastrou s season j ust got worse , and o nlookers we re bl am ing hi s increasingly tense ne r vous c o nd it io n . Roberts wa s now in front, wi th a lead of better th an a second - a gap tha t more tha n doub led over the next couple of laps as Checa held up the eye ' e pu rsuit. He was already t ro ub led with a sp inn ing rear t ir e . " I t ried to compensa te b y p utt i ng more weight on the rear unde r ac ce l eration an d p ic k in g the b ik e up sooner, but I knew I could n't fight ha rd: he explained later. n eVIl's M AY 24, 2000 19