For those of you who haven’t heard, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Harley-Davidson won Daytona, and Kenny Roberts (Suzuki) won last Sunday’s 500 GP race in Spain.
I know it’s a little late, but due to circumstances beyond our control (mostly, at least) we couldn’t post the roadrace GP results on Sunday. In any event, for those of you who have been carefully avoiding the news in order to hear it first from MD, here it is.
The warm up lap for the 500 race resulted in Max Biaggi (Yamaha) crashing, and his bike bursting into flames. This unfortunate incident was, for Biaggi, also a fortunate one. He left enough fluid on the track during his crash to cause a significant delay in the start of the race, and a second warm up lap. This allowed Biaggi to take his place on pole, rather than starting from pit lane at the back of the pack.
In any event, Kenny Roberts quickly took the lead, a lead he would never relinquish. In the process, he breaks a six year old lap record set by Kevin Schwantz.
With pole-sitter Biaggi pulling off (unhappy with something on his back-up bike), the fight for second involved Carlos Checa (Yamaha) and rookie Valentino Rossi (Honda), with Checa coming out ahead. Then rain stopped the action after lap 16.
With the riders lined up according to their positions after the end of the 16th lap, a ten lap sprint was organized to determine (on aggregate time) the finishing order of the race. Reigning champion Alex Criville (Honda) won the ten lap sprint — just barely in front of Carlos Checa. On aggregate time, however, Kenny Roberts won the race, with Checa second and Rossi third.
In the 250 race, Aprilia’s Ralf Waldmann took the checkered flag ahead of the Hondas of Daijiro Katoh and Tohru Ukawa.
After four rounds, Kenny Roberts and Carlos Checa are pulling away from the field in championship points, with Roberts on top. In the 250 class, Katoh and Yamaha’s Shinya Nakano rank first and second after round four.
250cc Final (Top 10)
1. Ralf Waldmann (#6 - APRILIA) 45'56.451 2. Daijiro Katoh (#74 - HONDA) 46'01.639 3. Tohru Ukawa (#4 - HONDA) 46'02.503 4. Olivier Jacque (#19 - YAMAHA) 46'20.121 5. Anthony West (#14 - HONDA) 46'26.136 6. Marco Melandri (#13 - APRILIA) 46'33.000 7. Marcellino Lucchi (#34 - APRILIA) 46'40.095 8. Klaus Nohles (#26 - APRILIA) 46'43.717 9. Sebastian Porto (#9 - YAMAHA) 46'47.089 10. Franco Battaini (#21 - APRILIA) 46'47.157
250cc Points Standing (Top 10)
1. Daijiro Katoh (81 pts.) (HONDA) 2. Shinya Nakano (67 pts.) (YAMAHA) 3. Olivier Jacque (56 pts.) (YAMAHA) 4. Tohru Ukawa (52 pts.) (HONDA) 5. Ralf Waldmann (47 pts.) (APRILIA) 6. Anthony West (41 pts.) (HONDA) 7. Marco Melandri (35 pts.) (APRILIA) 8. Franco Battaini (27 pts.) (APRILIA) 9. Sebastian Porto (26 pts.) (YAMAHA) 10. Naoki Matsudo (21 pts.) (YAMAHA)
500cc Final Results (Top 10)
1. Kenny Roberts (#2 - SUZUKI) 45'52.311 2. Carlos Checa (#7 - YAMAHA) 45'53.170 3. Valentino Rossi (#46 - HONDA) 45'55.836 4. Alex Criville (#1 - HONDA) 45'57.348 5. Alex Barros (#10 - HONDA) 46'04.919 6. Loris Capirossi (#65 - HONDA) 46'09.747 7. Nobuatsu Aoki (#9 - SUZUKI) 46'11.795 8. Regis Laconi (#55 - YAMAHA) 46'19.900 9. Jurgen vd Goorbergh (#17 - HONDA) 46'20.088 10. Tadayuki Okada (#8 - HONDA) 46'28.231
500cc Points Standing (Top 10)
1. Kenny Roberts (80 pts.) (SUZUKI) 2. Carlos Checa (71 pts.) (YAMAHA) 3. Garry McCoy (48 pts.) (YAMAHA) 4. Alex Barros (41 pts.) (HONDA) 5. Nobuatsu Aoki (41 pts.) (SUZUKI) 6. Alex Criville (34 pts.) (HONDA) 7. Norick Abe (34 pts.) (YAMAHA) 8. Tadayuki Okada (32 pts.) (HONDA) 9. Loris Capirossi (30 pts.) (HONDA) 10. Regis Laconi (24 pts.) (YAMAHA)
