Irronbul,
Turkcy
ilETICrI
Round
3
April 30.
2OO5
Wonld Championship
MotoGP
S€ri€s
they
had dominated
wet
practice.
Pole starter
Chris
Vermeulen was
one of the best
off, his
Suzuki leading
for the
first lap, and staying
fairly
close, even
after the
fast Hondas came
piling past.
But
it was Sete Gibernau's
Ducati that
took
over the
lead, and
stayed
in front until
laP
l0-
Then
his rear tire started
to
80
badly south,
and he dropped
back rap-
idty.
"lt
was really
bad, sliding
and
vibrating,
but Bridgestone
had
told me
they'd
worked a
lot on safety, and
even
if it did chunk
it wouldn't
explode
-
like happened to
[Shinya]
Nakano two
years
ago
-
so I decided
to stay
out, because that
is what
I was
taught to do."
He
was I lth at the
finish.
John
Hopkins,
who had chosen
a
similarly
hard rear,
ran sffongly
in sec-
t
I
4
,
L
t+r
I
r
\r
I
)
I
r
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
Poh.ilte.
Chris Vermeulen
(7I)
led off
the ilort
of th.
furkish Grqnd
P.ir
with
Hoyden
(69),
Sroner
(271,
Sete
Gibernoir
(I5),
John
Hopkins
(2I)
ond
tha :est ol the MoroGP ffeld.
I
26
MAY
r0,2006
.
CYCLE
NEWS
lap two he
ran off
the track, losing
four
of the
places
he had
regained
by
then.
He finished
that l+
in l4th.
Then he
iust
started
going faster
and
faster, up to
flfth by
lap 14,
pro-
moted
to fourth
when Pedrosa
fell.
His
fastest lap, the
second
fastest of
the race,
was his
last, as he tried
to
catch
Hayden .
"Mine
is the
lirst bike
in histor),that
is better
when the tires
start slidin8,"
he
joked
afterward.
Still battling to
find
the
right base settings
for his
razor-edge
new
Yamaha,
he was to
stay and
test on
Monday.
"we
made
a
change
after warm-uP,
Putting
more
weight on
the
front, then another
change
after the warm-up
lap.
We
learned a lot
today,"
he said.
His slow
start, then
his lap two
error, cost him the
podium,
he said.
"My
last
laps were like a
master-
piece.
After the
race, Toni Elias
behind
me tapped
me
on the shoulder,
and
gave me some applause."
Not everybody
was haPPY, with
a
reversal
of fortune
for
the
Bridgestone
users
in the dry, after
t
/
-,
{
L.
L
I
.L
t
\
il
n
\
Volenlino Rosri
(46) qoolified
poorly,
rqn off the trock
eorly
Ln, birt bounced
bock
ro finish
fourth.
Toni Elior
(24)
$ollowed
Rossi through
lhe
po.k
lo
finish
fifth.
T
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-,
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e
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