Rio
Moto Grand Prix at Jacarepagua, Round 12
Rossi's
Rio Win Secures
Manufacturers' Crown for Honda
Nelson
Piquet Circuit, Jacarepagua,
Brazil, September 19th :Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda
RC211V) scored a controlled and cool race win at the Rio GP and in
the process delivered himself his sixth victory of the year, his third
in succession and the MotoGP Manufacturers Title to Honda. Honda has
now won 15 such honours in the premier class of GP racing.
The 24-lap race was held in warmer conditions than most of practice,
adding to the pre-race uncertainty but most riders erred on the side
of safety in their choice of tire compounds. Rossi who secured second
place until lap nine, conserved his tires until the ninth lap when
he opened up an instant gap over early leader and eventual second
place rider Sete Gibernau (Telefonica Movistar Honda RC211V).
Gibernau was unchallenged by the race sensation Makoto Tamada (Pramac
Honda RC211V), who used his Bridgestone tires to great effect to pass
much more experienced riders in his first ever visit to Rio to secure
3rd place. 67,000 Spectators filled the Nelson Piquet circuit over
the race weekend.
Max Biaggi (Camel Pramac Pons RC211V) secured fourth place after
fighting off the attentions of another Honda rookie Nicky Hayden (Repsol
Honda RC211V). Fading somewhat towards the end Hayden was nonetheless
once more showing true grit in race conditions. His result made it
five Hondas in the top five, completing an excellent weekend of collective
work.
Final Qualifying:
Rossi's
Rio Pole After Record Breaking Session
Valentino
Rossi (Repsol Honda RC211V) had to ride to the full extent of his
powers to take pole position at the 4.933km Nelson Piquet circuit
in Rio, pushing the qualifying record to a new best of 1:49.038 in
the process. In what turned out to be a three-way duel for supremacy
between Rossi, Loris Capirossi (Ducati) and Sete Gibernau (Telefonica
Movistar Honda RC211V) the action was all packed into the final ten
minutes, with the relatively warm track temperatures also playing
their part in proceedings.
Theoretically,
the warmer track on day two, after a grey and cool opening session
on Thursday, should have offered greater scope for improvement in
lap times but the opposite appeared to be true at the bumpy Brazilian
circuit. It thus took some time for the riders to find their optimum
set-ups, and they had to devote a lot of time and effort in finding
good race set-ups. Once they had finally fitted qualifying tyres,
it was a different story.
Loris Capirossi
had propelled himself to a clear lead on the times sheets in the final
few minutes, outpacing Gibernau with a last throw of the dice but
Rossi was waiting in the wings, riding aggressively to secure the
pole position by a margin of 0.302 seconds.
Despite a last
attempt by provisional pole position man Max Biaggi (Camel Pramac
Pons RC211V) to reinstate himself at the top of the timesheets his
last lap was an imperfect one, and he had to settle for a front row
start in fourth. On the second row Troy Bayliss (Ducati) leads off
top Yamaha rider thus far Shinya Nakano. Nicky Hayden ran out seventh,
with Tohru Ukawa eighth, the last man on the second row.
The real test
for the race will be tyre selection, as the track has already presented
problems in this area, proving to be very hard to read as the weather
changes. All being well, Rossi is the best-placed rider pre-race and
is in a good position to go about adding to his already impressive
Rio race record.
“To make
the pole position is always good,” said Rossi. “Today
we tried hard because yesterday we didn’t have enough time to
test the qualifying tyre. Today the plan was to try two but we were
only able to use one because we worked a lot on race set-up for tomorrow.
1:49.0! I rode very well and the qualification tyre was very good.”
MotoGP
Gibernau was the leader over the line for the first lap, despite Loris
Capirossi (Ducati) taking the initial holeshot. Gibernau's early advantage
was nullified by Valentino Rossi shortly after Gibernau plotted his
escape, with the Italian first catching and then holding station on
Gibernau's tail for nine laps. An almost processional first few laps
were close, with only 2.6 seconds separating first and seventh after
the early exchanges of fire.
A superb surge
by Bridgestone tire user Makoto Tamada took his Pramac Honda into
the fight for the podium places by lap six. He harried fourth place
Max Biaggi, with Nicky Hayden and Troy Bayliss just behind. Biaggi
was the one to pounce first, however, passing third placed Capirossi
on lap eight, the same lap Olivier Jacque (Yamaha) entered the pits
to retire through practice injury.
Tamada tired
of sitting in the wake of Capirossi and he passed the slowing Ducati
rider with ease on lap nine. With the first four all Honda riders,
Rossi determined to alter the order, passing Gibernau with 15 laps
to go. He immediately set the fastest lap of the race, and a new lap
record of 1:50.539, as he pushed the pace out front, soon achieving
a leading margin of 1.5 seconds. He broke the lap record again on
lap 10, with a 1:50.453, just as Nobuatsu Aoki retired one of the
Protons and Tamada passed Biaggi for third.
With 12 laps
to go only seven seconds separated the leader and eighth place man
Shinya Nakano (Yamaha) with the running order now Rossi, Gibernau,
Tamada, Biaggi, Capirossi, Hayden, Bayliss and Nakano. Toiling with
set-up and grip woes, Ukawa was in an uncomfortable ninth place, ten
seconds from Rossi. His lot was to improve as other riders lost grip
and drive on the slick Rio tarmac, and he would move up to finish
seventh.
Nicky Hayden's
continual improvement took him past Capirossi on lap 12 making it
five-for-five RC211Vs in front. Starting to pressurise Biaggi, Hayden
found the four times 250cc champion a tough nut to crack and he had
to give best to the Roman Emperor. Biaggi felt he suffered lack of
grip at exiting corners and his machine had a slight lack of top speed,
just like his team-mate Ukawa. In his turn Ukawa was enjoying the
second half of the race more than the first, as he motored up to seventh
with seven laps to go.
Ducati Marlboro
Team riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss completed this afternoon’s
Rio GP in sixth and tenth positions, a result that didn’t fully
live up to the squad’s pre-race expectations. The duo had qualified
second and fifth yesterday and had high hopes of giving their crew
a fourth-consecutive podium finish.
“We expected
better than that,” said Ducati Marlboro Team technical director
Corrado Cecchinelli. “The only people who beat us here were
Honda, except this time there were too many of them in front of us!
Now we need to sit down and have a chat with our riders to see what
happened. This is our first time here, but I don’t want to make
excuses."
Loris Capirossi
qualified just three tenths off pole position yesterday, but the Ducati
Marlboro Team man was unable to reproduce that kind of performance
over full-race distance. He started well, running third in the early
stages before slipping back to sixth. The result was good enough to
preserve Capirossi’s fourth place in the World Championship
standings.
“We had
some minor worries with the engine-braking system in warm-up, the
bike was a little difficult to control into the turns, and we couldn’t
resolve the problem for the race,” explained Capirossi. “We
had changed the engine yesterday, but that was just a normal maintenance
procedure. Anyway this is a learning year for us, and when you have
problems like this, for sure you learn for the future.”
Ducati Marlboro Team rider Troy Bayliss rode to a dogged tenth-place
finish, unaware that wife Kim had given birth to their third child
in Monaco earlier in the day. The Aussie, who had high expectations
for today’s race after qualifying just a fraction of a second
off the front row, rode as hard as ever but slipped to tenth at the
flag.
The race order
changed little at the front in the last few laps, but Shinya Nakano
(Yamaha) and Carlos Checa (Yamaha) picked off the struggling Troy
Bayliss who eventually finished tenth. Marco Melandri (Yamaha), Alex
Barros (Yamaha), Colin Edwards (Aprilia), Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia)
and Ryuichi Kiyonari scored the last points in 11th to 15th places,
and Jeremy McWilliams just missed scoring a point by taking 16th on
the Proton KR V5. Kenny Roberts scored 17th on the Suzuki, Andrew
Pitt 18th on the Kawasaki; WCM rider David De Gea was 19th in a race
with four non-finishers.
In the championship
a familiar trio of Honda riders dominate, with Rossi on 262, Gibernau
on 211 and Biaggi on 174. The Ducati pairing of Capirossi and Bayliss
have 123 and 112 points respectively, as Ukawa good placing today
helps him regain sixth spot, with 94 points.
MotoGP
Results:
1). 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Honda RC211V(4) Repsol Honda
Team 0:44:36.633; 2). 15 Sete GIBERNAU ESP Honda RC211V(4) Team Telefonica
Movistar Honda 0:44:39.742; 3). 6 Makoto TAMADA JPN Honda RC211V(4)
Pramac Honda Team; 0:44:43.931; 4). 3 Max BIAGGI ITA Honda RC211V(4)
Camel Pramac Pons; 0:44:45.868; 5). 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA HondRC211V(4)
Repsol Honda Team; 0:44:47.798; 6) 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Ducati Ducati
Marlboro Team; 0:44:51.459; 7). 11 Tohru UKAWA JPN Honda RC211V(4)
Camel Pramac Pons 0:44:53.994; 8).56 Shinya NAKANO JPN Yamaha d'Antin
Yamaha Team 0:44:57.872; 9). 7 Carlos CHECA ESP Yamaha Fortuna Yamaha
Team 0:44:58.155; 10). 12 Troy BAYLISS AUS Ducati Ducati Marlboro
Team 0:44:59.604; 11). 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Yamaha Fortuna Yamaha
Team 0:45:09.543; 12).4 Alex BARROS BRA Yamaha Gauloises Yamaha Team
0:45:16.769; 13).45 Colin EDWARDS USA Aprilia Alice Aprilia Racing
0:45:30.732; 14).41Noriyuki HAGA JPN Aprilia Alice Aprilia Racing
0:45:33.867; 15). 23 Ryuichi KIYONARI JPN Honda RC211V(4) Team Telefonica
Movistar Honda 0:45:34.311; 16). 99 Jeremy McWILLIAMS GBR Proton KR
Proton Team KR 0:45:42.702; 17).10 Kenny ROBERTS Jr. USA Suzuki Suzuki
Grand Prix Team 0:45:46.077; 18). 88 Andrew PITT AUS Kawasaki Kawasaki
Racing Team 0:45:59.096; 19). 52 David DE GEA ESP Harris WCM WCM 0:44:54.808.
DNF: 8 Garry McCOY AUS Kawasaki Kawasaki Racing Team 0:26:49.708;
DNF: 9 Nobuatsu AOKI JPN Proton KR Proton Team KR 0:21:18.796; DNF:
35 Chris BURNS GBR Harris WCM WCM 0:18:33.563; DNF: 19 Olivier JACQUE
FRA Yamaha Gauloises Yamaha Team 0:13:37.459.
The man we love to
hate, Australian Matt Mladin on the podium with is 4th consecutive Number
One.
Mat
Mladin clinches his 4th consecutive AMA Superbike Title
at Barber Season Finale
Aaron
Yates Tates Home the Bacon at Barber on Saturday
Burmingham, AL, Sept 20-21st: Despite facing the
fiercest race action of the season, Yoshimura Suzuki's Aaron Yates
had no choice but to impress in Race One todayon Saturday if he wanted
to keep his slim title hopes afloat for tomorrow's Race two final
in The AMA Superbike National Championship. The Georgian did come
through in a major way, surviving an epic multi-rider battle at Barber
Motorsports Park to take his eighth career Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike
victory.
The early laps
of RaceOne were pure havoc. The Honda twins, typically stronger off
the line than the Suzuki fours, ran into Turn 1 for the first time
1-2-3, with cagey Miguel DuHamel leading the charge. VIR winner Kurtis
Roberts made his presence felt early as well, zapping both American
Honda RC51s in less than a lap-and-a-half, and then setting about
protecting his lead furiously. It didn't take long for the sluggish-starting
Suzukis to join the mix, as Yates and Mladin flew in formation to
break up the all-Honda party within three laps.
The middle of
the race was even more frantic, with each of the top five riders taking
a turn at the front thanks to some dazzling overtaking maneuvers.
Following several near falls and collisions amongst the fast guys,
DuHamel became the race's first victim, tumbling off into the gravel
in Turn 2 on lap 10. It quickly became a five-man pack at the front
again, however, as Ducati Austin's Giovanni Bussei had found his groove
by that point and reeled in the leaders.
Then on lap 16,
Roberts and Yates finally established themselves as the primary contenders
with a huge championship lead to protect, Mladin decided he had seen
enough and eased his pursuit. “It was a good ride today, had
a go in the first half of the race and kept it out of trouble after
that,” said Mladin. “I got through to the lead and led
a few laps, but the boys were getting a bit close and it’s not
the time of the year for me to be getting rough and banging bars with
people. Halfway through the race I was actually having a ball out
there and a bit of fun, but then I decided that this isn’t really
the thing to be doing at this point. Aaron needed to have a go and
he was, while all of the others had nothing to lose and were just
having a good go at each other. It was close hard racing, but something
I didn’t need to be close to, so I was happy to roll off the
throttle a little and bring it home behind them.” Mladin dropped
back to fifth momentarily, but crossed the line in fourth after Bussei
took an off-track excursion.
Team Honda's
Ben Bostrom ended up a lonely third, but was responsible for enough
fireworks in first half of the contest to make up for several races.
The Californian was pushing exceptionally hard on Saturday, and looked
very much like the rider that had won several World Superbike races
in the recent past. "That was the most fun race I've had all
year," Bostrom remarked. "It was definitely great to be
up there racing with the guys again; it felt good. I don't think we've
slid the front or rear this much all year. This is one of the better
racetracks we have, and I think that's why everyone was hanging it
out."
Meanwhile at
the front, Yates and Roberts relived their VIR Monday battle, but
this time Yates was the victor. He actually broke his rival's spirit
a few laps from the end with some nifty passes in traffic. Roberts
accepted defeat, which resulted in a deceptive 5.931-second margin
of victory for the Suzuki ace. Afterwards Yates remarked, "Yeah,
that race was a lot of fun for me. It turned out to be a really good
race. I guess so much for me saying earlier that it's hard to pass
out here. There were passes going on in just about every turn. This
place is just a blast to ride."
Roberts laughed.
"That was definitely too exciting for me! I would have rather
had it easy. First sixteen laps were fun, like Ben said -- except
for when me and him about took each other out. I just kind of settled
for second there when he got that second on us. I was a bit sore from
crashing earlier in the day, and I was happy to take what we got."
Austin Ducati's
Bussei reentered the race after running into the grass to take fifth,
while DuHamel remounted and fought his way back up to seventh. Shawn
Higbee was the top privateer in sixth. Jordan Szoke, Tom Kipp, and
Vincent Haskovec rounded out the top 10. As a result of Yates' victory,
Mladin's title lead was trimmed down to a still-healthy 29-point advantage
heading into Sunday's finale.
Saturday
Superbike:
1. Aaron Yates (Suzuki); 2. Kurtis Roberts (Honda); 3. Ben Bostrom
(Honda); 4. Mat Mladin (Suzuki); 5. Giovanni Bussei (Ducati); 6. Shawn
Higbee (Suzuki); 7. Miguel Duhamel (Honda); 8. Jordan Szoke (Suzuki);
9. Tom Kipp (Kawasaki); 10. Vincent Haskovec (Suzuki)
In other racing
on Sunday, the Pro Honda Oils 600cc Supersport race was won by Tommy
Hayden (Kawasaki) over Damon Buckmaster (Yamaha), with Duhamel in
third. Buckmaster’s teammate, Jamie Hacking, won the 750cc Supersport
title. Yamaha’s Hacking won in Formula Xtreme,with Erion Honda’s
Jake Zemke riding to a strong second for the title as well, with Suzuki’s
Ben Spies finishing third and earning the Xtreme title.
Australian Matt Mladin wrapped up his 4th consecutive AMA Superbike
Championship.
Kurtis
Roberts wins on Sunday, Mladin Wraps up Title
Erion
Honda’s Kurtis Roberts ended the 2003 AMA/Chevy Trucks U.S.
Superbike in style, winning the final of 17 rounds at the all-new
Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Only an unfortunate
run-in with a lapped rider caused by team mate Ben Bostrom on the
25th of 28 laps which also took our Miguel DuHamel, kept Honda from
sweeping the podium. Italian new comer Giovanni Bussei brought the
Austin Ducati 998R home in 2nd place, possibly securing him a return
contract to AMA Superbike next season on an expanded Ducati factory
supported team with Ruben Xaus.
Matt Mladin rode a strong but conservative race to inherit 3rd place
after the Honda duo crashed out, although any finishing position would
have been good enough for Mladin to the wrap up his 4th consecutive
AMA Superbike title. Saturday 's Superbike race winner and Yoshimura
Suzuki team mate Aaron Yates was hindered by an electrical cut-out
porblem the first half of the race. But once the big GSXR1000 sorted
itself out, Yates turned in the quickest laps of the race as he entertained
race watchers with brilliant tire spoking power slides out of the
corners. Aaron finished the race in 4th, secured 2nd overall in the
Championship behind Suzuki team mate Mladin. Hondas
finished three-four-five in the championship, with Roberts third in
front of Bostrom and Duhamel.
“I've got
to take my hat off to the crew,” Roberts said. They did an awesome
job and never gave up all year. They wanted to win their first one
and I'm glad we gave them more than one.”
Sunday’s
race was red-flagged twice due to accidents, but each time Hondas
were in the lead, as they’d be once it was run to term. The
trio of Honda Superbike riders formed up at the front on the eighth
lap and stayed there, with Bostrom and Roberts swapping the lead,
until the mishap with the lapper. Then it was Roberts alone, sailing
to his second win of the year, this time by 5.237 seconds. Second
went to Giovanni Bussei (Ducati), a career AMA best, with Suzuki’s
Mat Mladin clinching the Superbike championship with a cautious third.
In Saturday’s
race, Roberts had less luck. He started feeling a vibration in his
rear tire early in the race, slowing the pace after leading across
the stripe for the most of the first 13 of 28 laps. Then he was passed
by Aaron Yates, the two swapping the lead until the 19th lap when
he settled into the lead. Roberts was second with Ben Bostrom third.
Duhamel, who’d led the first lap, crashed out of fourth place
on the 10th lap, re-mounting to finish seventh.
Kurtis Roberts,
First Place Sunday. "The race was pretty tough with my teammates
pushing quite hard. We all knew it was the last race of the year.
Ben (Bostrom) was riding really hard and you could tell he wanted
to stay in the front and pace. He was leading a pretty fast pace so
I didn't mind following him. I got by him a little earlier than I
wanted to and he went back by me in some lappers. I came back by again
and it was plus eight so I looked over my shoulder and there was no
one there. I saw Miguel's bike being picked up, but I thought maybe
he just tucked the front. There wasn't any marks from any big havoc.
I think it was just Miguel lying there. For two laps, I couldn't kind
of believe it. It was like, 'why didn't I get one of these earlier
in the year?'
It was team mate
Ben Bostom who caused the crashed which took out a lapped privateer
and teammate Miguel Duhamel as they chased leader Roberts into a corner.
The privateer was holding the normal race line, having just been passed
by leader Roberts going into the corner. Duhamel kept up his speed
and went wide around the outside of the lapped privateer, but Bostom
was determined to hang with team mate Duhamel and did not slow enough
to go insidee or avoid the lapped rider, instead nailing him hard
in the rear of his bike and sending them both down. The lapped rider
was knocked into DuHamel's pstch where he was run over by Miguel and
then the other Honda rider went down as well.
Bostrom was less
than apoligetic afterwards for the accident and injuries which he
caused, no aware that the live Speed TV coverage of the race showed
him to be clearly at fault. Nor was Miguel told that Bostrom had knocked
the lapped rider into him and caused him to crash as well.
Ben Bostrom, DNF Sunday, "This was the funnest race by far.
Everyone rode really well. The track’s got all kinds of great
passing. Even though there’s no straightaways, there’s
all kind of passing. That was a fantastic race ruined by some lappers.
They’ve got a wonderful racetrack here. It was so exciting to
see the Hondas one-two-three, kind of like Daytona all over again.
All three of us were ecstatic being up there again.
Miguel Duhamel, DNF Sunday, "It’s really disappointing
for myself and Honda because we would have had 1-2-3 easy. I believe
we would have won, but I didn’t and Kurtis did. I went in that
corner there a little bit slower than usual, just in case that would
happen. When that guy fell, I picked it up and kind of clipped his
arm, but his momentum got underneath my bike and wedged me up and
I hit the grass. I felt bad because I rode over him a bit and I fell
on him and the bike fell on him. I got up real quick to look at the
bike, then i realized I couldn’t breathe. My elbow came into
my ribs, so I just lay back down trying to catch my breath."
Sunday
Superbike:
1. Kurtis Roberts (Honda); 2. Giovanni Bussei (Ducati); 3. Mat Mladin
(Suzuki); 4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
5. Steve Rapp (Suzuki); 6. Shawn Higbee (Suzuki); 7. Tom Kipp (Kawasaki);
8. Vincent Haskovec (Suzuki); 9. Eric Wood (Suzuki); 10. Michael Barnes
(Suzuki)
Superbike
Final Standings:
1.Mat Mladin (550/10 wins); 2. Aaron Yates (519/3 wins); 3. Kurtis
Roberts (474/2 wins); 4. Ben Bostrom (462)
5. Miguel Duhamel (417/1 wins); 6. Shawn Higbee (396); 7. Eric Bostrom
(350); 8. Jason Pridmore (339); 9. Vincent Haskovec (285); 10. Jordan
Szoke (283)
