Repsol riders on the podium of the three classes.
Max Biaggi third in MotoGP, Randy De Puniet third in the 250cc, and Héctor Faubel second in the 125cc.
The second round of the 2005 World Championship held in Portugal this weekend brought good results for the interests of the Repsol riders in the three classes. In MotoGP, Italian rider Max Biaggi fought hard throughout the race against the current World Championship leader Valentino Rossi for a place on the podium, while Frenchman Randy De Puniet in the 250cc and a surprising Héctor Faubel in 125cc were fighting for the victory until the very last lap. The rain that had been falling during the night and showed up intermittently during the morning complicated the work of riders and teams, although it wasn’t necessary to stop any of the races.
The starting order of the races was changed in this Grand Prix due to the time difference in Portugal, and the riders of the 250cc had to get ready to open the race day. The main actors of this race were Repsol riders Randy De Puniet, Dani Pedrosa and Sebastián Porto who were fighting for the victory in different stages of the race. After the start it was Sebastián Porto who took the lead opening an important gap of more than four seconds after the second lap. However, the rear tyre of the Argentinean rider drastically lost performance after a few laps, hindering Porto from any try to avoid being caught up by the pursuing group, with Pedrosa in the lead. While the track was drying up, the riders began to increase their pace, a pace that Porto wasn’t able to follow due to his traction problems.
Thinking about the championship and trying to score as many points as possible, the Argentinean rider preferred not to take too many risks and settled for the ninth final place. His teammate Randy De Puniet, improving throughout the race, protagonised an intense fight for the victory in the last laps with Dovizioso and Stoner. The victory was taken by Australian rider Stoner, followed by Italian Dovizioso and Frenchman De Puniet. Dani Pedrosa, with visibility problems due to the steamed up visor of his helmet and also with a rear tyre that didn’t work as expected, did not manage to step on the podium today, crossing the finish line on fourth. His teammate Hiroshi Aoyama was sixth.The MotoGP race, second of the day on this occasion, had a bit of everything: surprises, some rain, uncertainty and a couple of crashes.
The most significant was with no doubt Gibernau’s crash, who was leading the race with an advantage of a bit over a second over Brazilian rider Alex Barros and ten seconds over the man in third, leader of the overall standings Valentino Rossi. Fourth, fighting against the Italian was Repsol rider Max Biaggi, who lapped almost throughout the race with the current World Champion. His teammate Nicky Hayden did not make a good race today, beginning with a bad start that set him back to the twelfth position after the first lap. The crashes of several riders ahead of him due to the intermittent rain allowed him to move up to the seventh final position. Winner of the race was Alex Barros, with Valentino Rossi second and Max Biaggi third.
In the 125cc race, Héctor Faubel gave the surprise of the weekend and his fight for the victory will surely be not the last one Jorge Martínez Aspar’s pupil will be protagonising this season. The race started as all races in this class, with a crowded group of riders looking for spaces, slipstreams and positions in the lead of the pack. Finnish rider Mika Kallio took the lead from the start and was not going to leave the place until the end of the race, but with six laps to go he was passed by Faubel. The Repsol rider who had been sixth after the first lap, put himself second in the third lap, and together with Kallio they began to open a small gap over the rest of the riders, just when Talmacsi crashed creating a small chaos in the pursuing group.
The escaping duo kept on enlarging the gap up to three seconds, enough to let the laps go and becoming conscious about the fact that the victory would have to be decided between the two of them. With six laps before the end of the race, Faubel took the lead and it wasn’t until the penultimate lap when the Finnish rider started his attacks. A couple of overtaking manoeuvres from one and the other gave the excitement to the last lap, after which Kallio was crowned winner by a tight margin of only 8 thousands of a second. A good result for Héctor Faubel – his first podium finish in the World Championship – who thus moved up to third place in the overall standings.
After the two Grand Prix staged on the Iberian Peninsula, the Motorcycle World Championship heads now for Asia, to contest the first ever Grand Prix of China in two weeks time.
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Max Biaggi
3rd, 4720.124: Someone has certainly said that today Max Biaggi is there. Let me tell you: Max Biaggi has always been there. But today we also had a very good bike. Even if we can do much, much better. HRCs potential is far higher than that. Unfortunately I had to race with the second bike because bike No.1, the machine I had the better feeling with, had a technical problem. Definitely, todays third place leaves us satisfied. Im happy for me and especially for my team: finally I saw them smiling and I thank them all. This podium was really needed to recharge our batteries on the way to Chinas GP. Our job is not done yet, but we are on the right way: the answer I was looking for is in the electronics.
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden
7th, 4811.174: Im not very happy about the race at all or the way the whole weekend went really. We didnt seem to click all weekend and I never felt 100% comfortable on the bike. I got good drive at the start but lost places on the first turn. During the first few laps, when the tyres and the track was good, I was making progress. Then things just seemed to go off and I went backwards. Its difficult to describe how wet the track was in parts. I just wanted to hang on, get some experience and get some points. There are a lotta races left and weve gotta lot of racing left to do.
250 GP Randy De Puniet
3rd, 4536.440: Its been a difficult race, especially considering the conditions. I made a good start, behind Sebastián, but he escaped and I stayed with the group made up by Pedrosa, Stoner and Dovizioso. It was difficult to keep up with him at the beginning, because I didnt feel very comfortable on the bike. I lost some positions, but halfway the race I noticed that I was able to reach the lead. I took the lead in the last lap and thought that I was able to win, but I made a little mistake in T3 loosing all my chances for the victory. Im happy anyway with this result and I want to thank Repsol, the Team Aspar and Aprilia for the work weve done this weekend.
250 GP Dani Pedrosa
4th, 4538.018: The rear tyre began to skid halfway the race. I thought the others would have the same problem, but when I put myself in the back I saw that my problems were bigger; in the last right-hand corner, the very long one, they managed to open a big gap. And then, 12 laps before the end of the race, the visor began to steam up on the right side, and therefore I had to open and close it on the straight. In the end, the fourth place, considering everything that had happened and the instability of the day, isnt bad at all, although I would have liked to be on the podium.
250 GP. Sebastián Porto
9th, 4602.416: We havent been lucky today and I really feel helpless because I made a good start and I think that if it werent for the problem with the tyre I would have won the race. I used the two first laps to open a gap over the rest, I had a big advantage but from the fourth lap on, the rear tyre began to wear and therefore I had to slow down. Then the other riders began to overtake me. Its been really hard to ride the bike under these conditions and Ive been just about to crash several times. Im really angry because the victory was almost sure, but these are things that happen and theres nothing we could do against it.
125 GP. Héctor Faubel
2nd, 4119.439: We were a bit worried about the weather in the morning, because its really changeable here and I had a good setting, but for a dry race. Just as in Jerez, my intention was to make a good start and be in the lead to try to escape. And thats how it went. Together with Mika, we began opening a gap over the rest of the riders. I had some problems in the braking areas and I noticed that the only way to overtake was being faster than him in the main straight, because my bike is faster than his. In the end, it hasnt been possible by eight thousands of a second. Weve been very close, but Im very satisfied with the result. Lets hope that were able to be in the top in the next race. Weve done a great job and Id like to thank Jorge, the team and my sponsors, in general, all those who trusted in me.
