D O M I N O

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Japanese MotoGP, 18th September 2005, Motegi

Gauloises Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi suffered a rare fall in the Grand Prix of Japan today, after making a sensational start from eleventh on the grid and passing seven riders by the fourth lap. Seven laps later he suddenly came together with Marco Melandri (Honda) as they pitched into the notorious turn ten and collided into the gravel, leaving Max Biaggi (Honda) and Loris Capirossi (Ducati) clear at the front. The race was eventually won by Capirossi, who passed Biaggi six laps from the end and opened up a 1.4 second advantage to claim his first win of the season.
Rossi’s Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards rode a battling race and eventually finished sixth, despite some front-end problems with his M1. He moved up to third in the championship, sixteen points behind Biaggi. Biaggi is now the only rider with a mathematical chance of denying Rossi his second MotoGP title for Yamaha, with the reigning World Champion needing thirteen points from next Sunday’s race in Sepang, Malaysia, to clinch the title.

VALENTINO ROSSI (DNF)

“We knew this would be a difficult race but the mechanics worked hard to improve the bike this morning in the warm-up and it worked well over the first few laps. I was able to pass a lot of people but I started to have a few problems with the front tyre when I arrived behind the front three. I knew it would be a risk to try and overtake and I expected Loris to pass Max in the final few laps. I knew I could be World Champion with fourth place and so I decided to just wait and do my race. Then Marco made a small mistake and suddenly I was behind him. It was the first time I had followed him into turn ten and we took completely different lines. He went to the outside of the track to cut across and get good acceleration out of the corner but I went to the inside to run wider on the exit. For the first 50m of braking we were at exactly the same speed so there was no warning, but he was able to stop the bike much harder than me and I couldn’t avoid him. You can’t see it very well on the television but I wasn’t even trying to pass him, it was just one of those things. I apologised to Marco and he said ‘it happens.’ Now I am very concerned for him and I just hope he is ok.”

-{http://www.rossifiles.com/index.php}

RESULTS

1. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 43min 30.499 secs
2. Max Biaggi ITA Repsol Honda Team 43min 31.978 secs
3. Makoto Tamada JPN Konica Minolta Honda 43min 46.726 secs
4. Carlos Checa ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 43min 52.647 secs
5. John Hopkins USA Team Suzuki MotoGP 44min 3.711 secs
6. Colin Edwards USA Gauloises Yamaha Team 44min 5.414 secs
7. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team 44min 16.393 secs
8. Kenny Roberts USA Team Suzuki MotoGP 44min 26.997 secs
9. Toni Elias SPA Fortuna Yamaha Team 44min 42.536 secs
10. Ruben Xaus SPA Fortuna Yamaha Team 45min 5.426 secs
11. Franco Battaini ITA Blata WCM 44min 37.51 secs

DNF:
Marco Melandri ITA Team Movistar Honda 21min 49.319 secs
Valentino Rossi ITA Gauloises Yamaha Team 21min 50.273 secs
Alex Barros BRA Camel Honda 21min 59.118 secs
Sete Gibernau SPA Team Movistar Honda 20min 8.26 secs
Shinya Nakano JPN Kawasaki Racing Team 14min 43.191 secs
Tohru Ukawa JPN Camel Honda 7min 29.419 secs
Alex Hofmann GER Kawasaki Racing Team 3min 49.96 secs
Roberto Rolfo ITA D’Antin Ducati Pramac 3min 49.595 secs
Naoki Matsudo JPN Moriwaki Racing lap 1 secs

DNS:
James Ellison GBR Blata WCM

this was << sexy beanz >> at 1:33 AM