Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Finnish KTM rider defeated Sergio Gadea by just over a tenth of a second, with his teammate, points leader Alvaro Bautista, rocketing across the dirt through the chi- cane to drop to third over the line. "After crashing at Catalunya, this was a very important victory, but the points gap is still very big," said Kallio after his sec- ond win of the year. MOTOGP Edwards made a perfect start, leading Hopkins, Nakano, Melandri and Hayden into the ever-tightening first scrolling loops. The luckless Randy de Puniet start- ed from pit lane, having been forced to switch bikes to his spare after trouble on the warmup lap. Because the bike was set up differently, he never really got going. By the end of the lap, Hayden had con- signed the injured Melandri to fourth, where he was holding up Pedrosa, Vermeulen, Makoto Tamada, Carlos Checa, Roberts and Stoner, who had been blocked at the first turn. Rossi was 16th, and third from last. With passing chances strictly limited, Hayden's progress was impressive, pass- ing Nakano on lap three and quickly clos- ing up on Edwards and Hopkins. The three Americans ran in formation until lap eight, by which time Hopkins was running into grip problems. Hayden passed him going into the chicane, and set off to chase Edwards. This was not easy. Edwards's style makes him look smooth and casual, but he was also riding very close to the limit, conspicuously using more of the track than were the other riders, as he also had in practice. For the next couple of laps, he actually opened up the gap a little; then Hayden closed up again. But he never got quite close enough to attack. By now, quite alone up front, the pair speared on toward the finish. It was too close to call, but there seemed to be no chinks in Edwards' armor - until the penul- timate lap, when Hayden got a strong drive out of the hairpin, pulled inside at the end of the back straight, and dived underneath under brakes. Edwards was bamboozled, and though there was no question of an unfair move, and he looked set to follow the Honda through the subsequent right- left combination, he instead picked the bike up and took to the escape road. That looked to be about that. Hayden was 1.006 seconds ahead as they started the last lap. Edwards is made of stern stuff, however, and he steadily closed up again on the Honda. His final attack was superb - faster out of the Meeuwenmeer corner as Hayden ran a little wide, then diving underneath him at the fast right kink before the final long left. He led into the last chicane, and he would have led out of it, too, but for opening the throttle too wide on the Astroturf. "It was my own fault," he said, rather superfluously. Hopkins had lost ground quite quickly after lap eight, and Nakano had closed up a gap of more than a second by the 11th lap and was ready to pounce next time around, easily drawing away. Behind them, there had been much shuffling. Vermeulen got to the head of the pack on lap four, and two laps later he had Stoner and Pedrosa behind him, the hap- less Melandri sandwiched between them. Then came Vermeulen's first big slide, and he was behind all three next time around, with Pedrosa now ahead of Melandri. The two youngsters carried on, quick- ly opening up a second on Melandri. At the same time, Roberts was gaining speed after a mediocre start, and he passed Tamada on lap seven, then Vermeulen one lap later, and Melandri on lap 11. The gap to the youngsters - Pedrosa now ahead - was 1.5 seconds, but he was grad- ually chipping away at it. Circuit van Drenthe Assen, Holland Round 8 June 24, 2006 JULY 5, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 20 World Championship Road Race Series Hopper's Surprise With Sete Gibernau already missing, and both Loris Capirossi and Marco Melandri well below form, the field was depleted further when Valentino Rossi and Toni Elias were both hurt. For the first time in his career, Rossi ended up as last qualifier. None of these was missed much by those still going hard and fast, and the final session was happily dry throughout, making for a close battle at the end. Colin Edwards had held the advantage in the morning and for much of the afternoon, but he was displaced in the closing minutes by a pair taking full advantage of the supersticky Bridgestone qualifying tires - first Shinya Nakano, only to be denied (yet again) at the last minute, this time by John Hopkins. The Anglo-American was thrilled by his first pole position, though he couldn't resist a sideswipe at the emasculated circuit that brought it to him. "It would have been nice to have had it at one of the tracks where my heroes raced - like Colin Edwards, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz," he said. "I had to put my brain aside for that lap, and the qualifying tires were awesome. But our race tires are good, too. Pole's important, because it is going to be a difficult track to pass on." Nakano was just over one-hundredth of a second down, ruefully remembering a similar situation at Le Mans, but also stressing the greater importance of being up front, consider- ing the lack of passing places. "Now I need to make sure I get away cleanly tomorrow," he noted. He was one of very few riders who said he actually liked the tight new first section, laughing at his own heresy. "I like technical circuits," he explained. Edwards was three-tenths slower, and lost his chance to change that on his last qualify- ing tires at the end of the session, when he found that Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa had stopped out on the circuit to do a practice start. In his third race on the new chassis, he had reversed his recently declining fortunes. "We knew where we'd screwed up with the setup, and how we imagined we wanted it," he said. "We set it up that way, started yesterday, and everything seemed to work. Since then, we honestly haven't touched a thing, which normally never happens." Hayden was just three-thousandths slower - enough to put him off the front row, but also to reassure the points leader that his gradually improving form hadn't yet let him down, though he was frustrated that his race-tire pace was more than a second slower than on qualifying tires, especially with circumstances opening up his title chances. His teammate Pedrosa was alongside, a couple of tenths down. Australian Chris Vermeulen completed the second row, happy to be at a track where he had prior knowledge of some parts, and demonstrating some classic, smooth lines out the back. Melandri, riding hurt, led the third row from Carlos Checa, who was continuing to enjoy some improvements in the still-learning Dunlop tires, with Gibernau's replacement, Alex Hofmann, ninth. Kenny Roberts Jr. failed to capitalize on his good speed on race tires, ending up 10th on row four, from Randy de Puniet and Stoner, who was in a similar position: always among the fastest on race tires, but still battling to profit from qualifiers. He'd lost practice time, first from a maladjusted front brake, and then a wrong turn on settings. Makota Tamada, James Ellison and a stiff-and-sore Capirossi made up row five. Jose Luis Cardoso, Silva (replacing Hofmann on the d'Antin Ducati) and multiple World Champion Valentino Rossi completed the back of the grid. (Left) A last-corner mistake by Colin Edwards (5) sent him on his head and handed Nicky Hayden (69) the win. (Right) Hayden also ran wide in the chi- cane, but he was able to keep it on two wheels.

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