ROSSI TAKES SECOND SUCCESSIVE WIN FROM DRAMATIC BARCELONA
AFFAIR
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi emerged from a crash-strewn
race at Catalunya with 25 more points to boost his world title
defence, thanks to his third Grand Prix victory of the season
at Montmelo today. One of the most dramatic races in recent
history began to unfold from the first corner, when Sete Gibernau
(Ducati) collided with his team-mate Loris Capirossi under
braking and both riders went tumbling into the gravel at high
speed, taking Marco Melandri (Honda) with them. All three
riders were injured and unable to join the restarted race
after the red flags were subsequently raised, although John
Hopkins (Suzuki), Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki) and Dani Pedrosa
(Honda) did make it back to the grid after also running off
track during the first corner melee.
Casey Stoner (Honda) repeated the excellent start he got
at the first race start, taking the hole-shot and then leading
over the first eight laps before eventually folding under
constant pressure from Rossi and sliding into the gravel.
With extremely high temperatures and low grip levels several
other riders also crashed out, leaving Nicky Hayden (Honda)
as the only man capable of chasing the Italian. With less
than a second separating the pair for most of the race, Rossi
turned on the style with typical flair in the closing stages
and had opened out a 4.509 second advantage over the American
when he took the chequered flag.
With no fewer than eight riders failing to make it to the
end of the race it was a credit to Rossi’s team-mate
Colin Edwards that he arrived home in fifth place, collecting
some valuable championship points and more crucial data with
the new version of the YZR-M1 chassis that was available to
him on both bikes for the first time this season. The American’s
compatriots Hayden and Kenny Roberts (Team KR) completed the
podium.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st; 41’31.237)
“The start of the race was hard for everybody because
we were all very worried about the riders who crashed –
especially Marco Melandri because we could see his accident
was a bad one. Just before the start Doctor Costa told me
that Marco was more or less ok and I was very relieved. Even
then it was tough to concentrate on re-starting the race.
I made a mistake at the start and Stoner came past me, but
my bike was working so well that I was able to push from the
beginning and when the fuel came down it was even better.
I knew that some of the other riders were having trouble with
their tyres but my team have done a great job with Michelin
this weekend and I had lots of grip to the end. Hayden pushed
very hard but I kept my pace up and was able to extend the
advantage over him. The M1 has been so much fun to ride all
weekend and I want to say a big thank you to the whole team
for getting it to this stage. To win at two of my favourite
tracks like Mugello and Catalunya is a big, big satisfaction
for me.”
COLIN EDWARDS (5th; +22.548)
“I can’t say I’m happy because I feel we
missed a chance to finish on the podium today, but we’re
at an early stage with this chassis and we have made a lot
of progress this weekend. We felt we had found a good compromise
with the set-up in practice but the grip levels were low in
the race and I kept losing the front. It’s a difficult
problem to ride around because it’s a fine line between
pushing it so hard that it folds and not pushing it enough
to get the required load down to the track. I’m disappointed
but I was very close to the incident in turn one and I know
it could have been me in the ambulance, so things could have
been worse for me. It was a big shock for all of us but thankfully
nobody was seriously hurt and we all hope the injured riders
can be back with us soon.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“Of course we are delighted with the result and the
confirmation of the progress with our bike. We now know that
we have a competitive package for our riders so we hope we
can fight like this every weekend until the end of the season.
We said this was an important spell for us and I am delighted
with the way the team, the riders and the bike have responded.
Now we have just five days to the next one at Assen and we
have to try and do it all over again!”
|
