Succes for the Repsol riders in Italy, podium presence in all of the classes.
Max Biaggi second in a passionate and much contended MotoGP race; victory for Dani Pedrosa in the 250cc and third place for Joan Olivé in the 125cc.
As always, and as has been happening year after year, the Grand Prix of Italy on the mythic track of Mugello has been again host to three thrilling races, with an impressive finish thanks to the performance of Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi in the MotoGP. The morning started with a thrilling 125cc race, eventful finish included, followed by another grouped race in the 250cc, to reach the climax of the day with the MotoGP race, which had a 100% Italian podium.
Right after the start, Valentino Rossi went out like a cyclone and after crossing the finish line for the first time in the leading position, escaped from the rest. Melandri, Capirossi and Gibernau tried in vane to follow his slipstream, while, a bit further in the back, in sixth and seventh place, the riders of the Repsol Honda Team Max Biaggi and Nicky Hayden were finishing their first lap. With Rossi in the lead, opening a gap, Biaggi did not want to loose time and started to push harder. Once he had overtaken Checa, Capirossi, Melandri and Gibernau, who crashed later, Max contacted Rossi halfway the race, while Melandri and Capirossi were fighting for the third step of the podium. Sixth, fighting with Checa and some ten seconds behind there was Nicky Hayden trying to get closer to the leading group. And in the front, in the fight for the lead, Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi showed today their best cards, protagonising an intense duel in front of the several fans who had gathered in Mugello. With three laps to go, Rossi took the lead and managed to open a gap enough to take the final victory. Second place went finally to a spirited Max Biaggi, and the third to Loris Capirossi. Nicky Hayden finished sixth behind Melandri, fourth, and Checa, fifth.
In the 250cc, good and bad for the interests of the Repsol riders. Victory for Dani Pedrosa after a very even race, and a surprising and hard worked for second place for Jorge Lorenzo, who is technically supported by Repsol. The bad side of the day was for the pupils of the Repsol Aspar Team. After the second practice day everything seemed to indicate that Randy De Puniet and Sebastián Porto were going to fight for the victory, but a few laps after the start it became clear that it wouldn’t be possible today. Randy made a good start and put himself third, followed by Sebastián fourth, while Pedrosa and Dovizioso had taken the lead. During the first laps of the race, several riders were swapping positions in the lead, including Randy De Puniet. With the arrival of Stoner and De Angelis, the front group was made up by six riders. Porto was fifth, but as opposed to yesterday, the pace of the Argentinean rider was slower and he began loosing positions. In the sixth lap, De Puniet crashed and was not able to get back on the track.
Halfway the race, Lorenzo joined the group made up by Pedrosa, Stoner and De Angelis, while the Argentinean rider was definitively loosing contact. With six laps to go, Dani Pedrosa improved the pace and went straight towards his third victory of the season. Sebastián Porto had to settle for the fifth final place, while the podium was completed by Lorenzo -second-, and De Angelis -third-.The eighth-of-a-litre class started at the scheduled time but with one participant missing. Repsol rider Julián Miralles could not take part in the race after the serious injury suffered yesterday in his right leg after the heavy crash during the second qualifying practice. Today, Miralles is waiting for the permission of the doctors of the Hospital in Florence to fly back to Spain, where he’ll undergo urgent surgery with Dr. Ángel Villamor. Julián fractured his tibia and fibula yesterday, in addition to a dislocation of his right ankle. In the mere sporting aspect, excellent performance of Jorge Martínez Aspar’s pupil Héctor Faubel, who fought for the victory until the very last instants of the 125cc race.
Faubel who started from the front row with the third fastest time, made an intelligent race, although the reward was not the deserved on. Héctor joined the leading group, studying the evolution of his rivals lap after lap. Towards the end, Kallio and Faubel reached together the last section of the Italian track. Faubel had to keep very close to Kallio if he wanted to have the chance to overtake him on the finish line, and he did, but the Finn opened the throttle to avoid being passed and crashed taking Faubel with him, thus ruining an excellent performance. With these two riders out, the victory went to Talmacsi, followed by Luthi and Repsol rider Joan Olivé, who performed today his best race of the season so far. Olivé kept himself in the second group throughout the race and knew how to make good use of his rival’s crash, thus achieving a well deserved place on the podium, his first one of the season and second in the championship (Assen, 125cc Dutch GP, 2002). Sergio made an excellent race as well in the second group fighting with Pasini and Olivé for the sixth place, but a crash in the last lap, in the corner before the chicane, ruined his options for a good result. Jordi Carchano finished 23rd, after overcoming the problems he had after the operation on his left hand.
Standings:
125
- G.Talmacsi (KTM) 40.12.658
- T.Luthi (Honda) 40.12.718
- J.Olivé (Aprilia) 40.27.371
- M.Passini (Aprilia) 40.27.383
- T.Koyama (Honda) 40.27.737
World Championship:
- T.Luthi, 74 points.
- M.Kallio, 66
- G.Talmacsi, 62
10. H.Faubel, 30
14. S.Gadea, 20
250
- D.Pedrosa (Honda) 40.31.909
- J.Lorenzo (Honda) 40.33.095
- A.de Angelis (Aprilia) 40.33.466
- C.Stoner (Aprilia) 40.33.499
- S.Porto (Aprilia) 40.38.015
World Championship
- D.Pedrosa, 98 points.
- A.Dovizioso, 77.
- C.Stoner, 76.
6. S.Porto, 49
9. R.de Puniet, 36.
MotoGP
- V.Rossi (Yamaha) 42.42.994
- M.Biaggi (Honda) 42.43.353
- L.Capirossi (Ducati) 42.46.868
- M.Melandri (Honda) 42.46.973
- N.Hayden (Honda) 42.51.198
World Championship
- V.Rossi, 120 points.
- M.Melandri, 71.
- M.Biaggi, 67.
- S.Gibernau, 53
8. N.Hayden, 36.
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Max Biaggi
2nd, 42’43.353:
‘Great race. I’m super happy with the result. We come out from a terrible situation in the best way: stepping on the podium and, more than everything, fighting for the win. We almost made it. HRC Team did a very good job and I thank them all: mechanics, suspensions’ guys, tyre people, engineers and, of course, Erv. Thanks to this job the bike was working well immediately, since Friday practice. Now we must keep this pace. I’m not thinking about the championship, I prefer to fight race by race.’
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden
6th, 42’51.198:
‘A tough race. I didn’t get the best of starts but when I actually got going we managed some pretty good lap times. I got past a few guys and had a pretty good rhythm going but we were just missing a little something – the bit we needed to get onto the next group. Me and Checa had a good race – I really wanted to beat him but it wasn’t to be. On the positive side it’s the closest I’ve been to the leaders in terms of time all season and by quite some margin so it give the whole team some cause for optimism. Obviously not thrilled about sixth. We gave it our best today and we’ll come back fighting in Barcelona next week.’
250. Dani Pedrosa
1st, 40’31.909:
‘This has been a special victory because I had never won here before, although it’s been difficult. It’s been a very long race, a very hard one, but in the end we got the reward. We’ve known how to make good use of the other’s mistakes but I also think that my bike was the most balanced one. That allowed me to increase the pace towards the end and thus open a gap that gave me a little margin before the finish. Of the four riders in the lead, the tyres of the two Hondas were in better shape; Stoner’s didn’t look bad, but De Angelis seemed to have problems. I want to thank my team, because we had several problems during the practices and they have worked really hard to give me a competitive bike for the race. This year’s aim is to make it as good as possible at every race; thinking about the Championship would be a mistake. Now we’re going to Montmelo, a circuit I like a lot. Racing at home is always special, so let’s hope that all fans will be there to cheer us up and to have fun.’
250. Sebastián Porto
5th, 40’38.015:
‘The truth is that I’m not satisfied at all with this result. We’re not here to finish fifth, and I don’t know what is happening because our bike is not responding like the others. I had a good pace yesterday, despite some engine problems and I thought that we would be doing a good job today, but it hasn’t been like that. I don’t understand what is happening and why we’re having so many problems. This year everything seems to be against us and I don’t understand why. It’s a shame because we’re loosing important points for the championship. At least we managed to finish among the top five; let’s see if we’re able to find the right path for the next race.’
250. Randy De Puniet,
not classified:
‘I don’t know what’s happening, but luck is not on our side. I haven’t scored in several races and the truth is that I’m not happy at all. I had problems with the settings on Friday, but we found the solutions on Saturday, I had a good feeling and was optimistic. Today, however, when I took the start of the race, I noticed that the bike was shaking a lot in the back, I don’t know if it was due to a problem with the tyres or with the suspensions. The engine was working well and I was riding to the limit in order not to loose contact with the group, but I crashed in the sixth lap. I don’t understand what is happening, because the bike worked well this morning during the warm-up, but when it came to the race, it was very difficult to ride. Now I’ll sit down with my team to see what the problem is.’
125. Joan Olivé
3rd, 40’27.371:
‘It’s been a very hard and exciting race. I haven’t stopped pushing hard since the beginning and that’s the only way to get good results. After the start, my only thought was to catch-up with the front group and once I had got them, I knew that I could overtake them and I did. I’m very happy for this result, first because I’m back on the podium after such a long time and then, because despite having a bad start of the weekend, we made some changes this morning that worked quite well. Too bad we weren’t able to do much during the preseason, because this good result could have arrived earlier. I want to thank the team, my parents, my sponsors and all those who have trusted in me and who have been supporting me all this time. Let’s hope that this podium finish is the start of better times, but we have to remember that this is just a podium finish. No what we have to do is to stay calm and keep on working in this line. I’m very confident in my team and I’m sure that if we continue like this, we’ll be able to be in the front again.’
125. Héctor Faubel,
not classified:
‘I’m really angry because we made a great race and we had been working well throughout the weekend. I was convinced that I was able to overtake Kallio in the last section before the finish, because my bike was doing better there. The crash has been a shame, but such are races and there’s nothing we can do. Fortunately I didn’t hurt myself, although it’s been a heavy crash, I actually had a light commotion and I don’t really remember how it happened. Now they’re going to take me to the Borgo de San Lorenzo Hospital for a CAT to check if there’s any serious injury. We’ve lost a great chance to score points for the overall standings, but we have to forget that and reach Barcelona with the same eagerness and excitement we had as we had when arrived here.’
