Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

MotoGP Race Results From Brno:

1. Max Biaggi, Yamaha YZR-M1, 22 laps, 44:36.498
2. Daijiro Kato, Honda RC211V, -2.755 seconds
3. Tohru Ukawa, Honda RC211V, -7.598 seconds
4. Sete Gibernau, Suzuki GSV-R, -11.889 seconds
5. Carlos Checa, Yamaha YZR-M1, -14.029 seconds
6. Loris Capirossi, Honda NSR500, -18.260 seconds
7. Jeremy McWilliams, Proton KR3, -24.840 seconds
8. Norick Abe, Yamaha YZR500, -26.572 seconds
9. Alex Barros, Honda NSR500, -28.741 seconds
10. Olivier Jacque, Yamaha YZR500, -29.156 seconds
11. Kenny Roberts, Suzuki GSV-R, -32.920 seconds
12. Jurgen v.d. Goorbergh, Honda NSR500, -38.670 seconds
13. Garry McCoy, Yamaha YZR500, -45.144 seconds
14. Akira Ryo, Suzuki GSV-R, -51.932 seconds
15. Tetsuya Harada, Honda NSR500, -62.171 seconds
16. Regis Laconi, Aprilia RS3, -62.238 seconds
17. Sylvain Guintoli, Yamaha YZR500, -73.465 seconds
18. Valentino Rossi, Honda RC211, DNF, -2 laps, mechanical
19. John Hopkins, Yamaha YZR500, DNF, -10 laps, mechanical
20. Nobuatsu Aoki, Proton KR3, DNF, -11 laps, crash
21. Shinya Nakano, Yamaha YZR500, DNF, -22 laps, crash
22. Pere Riba, Yamaha YZR500, DNS


World Championship Point Standings:

1. Rossi, 220 points
2. Ukawa, 140 points
3. Biaggi, 134 points
4. Checa, 96 points
5. Barros, 94 points
6. Abe, 90 points
7. Kato, 80 points
8. Capirossi, 75 points
9. Jacque, 48 points
10. Roberts, 45 points
11. Aoki, 43 points
12. TIE, Nakano/Hopkins, 41 points
14. Ryo, 36 points
15. Gibernau, 34 points


More, from Desiree Crossman:

Well, today wasn’t a good day for Red Bull. John (Hopkins) had a great start, the best one yet. He was going good on the first lap, sitting in 7th but he said Tohru Ukawa sprayed some rocks around a turn and they hit the windscreen, his helmet and the radiator, causing overheating. So by the 12th lap John came in due to overheating.

Garry (McCoy) also had a great start, but was pushed out in turn one so he dropped back into 16th. He eventually got back into 13th.

Valentino’s tire blew up so he came in and then got it changed. He wasn’t down a lap, he was behind Sylvain who was 18th, and he could easily caught up to 15th but he gave up and retired into the pits so he didn’t finish, either.

John is 13th in the championship and is only 4 points out of the top 10. The only person to have gained ground on him was Kenny Roberts. So s–t happens, and now we have to look on to Portugal.



More, from a press release issued by Red Bull Yamaha:

CZECH REPUBLIC GRAND PRIX
SUNDAY 25th August ­ RACE DAY

DISAPPOINTING DAY FOR RED BULL DUO

Red Bull Yamaha riders Garry McCoy and John Hopkins had hoped for better results today in Round 10 of the Moto GP World Championship, but it was just not to be. McCoy, starting from the front row, was relegated to 16th place by the end of the first lap as he was squeezed out by the pack in turns 1 and 2. McCoy, who qualified on the front row for the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2001, was hoping for much more today. In qualifying yesterday, the Slide King from Australia set the fastest ever lap of the Brno circuit by a rider on a 500cc machine.

Hopkins, who had “a hell of a start” according to the 19-year-old American rookie, retired from the race after 12 laps when engine trouble forced him back into 18th place.

Garry McCoy: 13th, scoring 3 points today
World Championship Classification,­ 20th with 21 points

“I made a good start but by turn one and two things were terrible, there were a lot of guys bumping into each other and I was forced to back off. A few guys got past me early and by later in the first lap I got bumped by Gibernau and lost some more places. So it wasn’t really a good start to the race. Just shows you have to get away with the leaders.

“By three laps into it, I thought I was making some progress but I just could not make any headway. We had a couple of race tyre choices and I guess I was hoping for better, but in the end the tyres really weren’t that bad but I could of done with carrying more corner speed.”


John Hopkins: Retired due to mechanical problems
World Championship Classification ­ 13th, with 41 points
“I got a great start off the line and held my position through the first corner when we all got bunched up. I had several sprays of stones from Ukawa and by the end of the first lap my windscreen was cracked with pieces flying off it and my helmet and visor got hit hard with the rocks. The next thing I noticed some liquid on the front inside of the windscreen so I knew I had some problems. By lap 12, I was forced to retire when the engine failed. I’ve since found out that one of the stones, courtesy of Ukawa, punctured the radiator and caused it to leak. So better luck next time I guess.

“I really want to thank my crew also for their effort this weekend; I had a minor problem on the grid and all of them worked so fast and professionally to have the bike ready.”


Peter Clifford ­ Director of Racing
“John thought it was a race, not a stone throwing contest. He was riding superbly but there is nothing much you can do against an overheating engine. Both guys got off the line great but it all went to hell in a basket for Garry in the first corner. It’s not what we expected after qualifying well.”


THE RED BULL YAMAHA TEAM WILL TEST IN BRNO TOMORROW. BOTH RIDERS PLUS OUR 2002 TEST RIDER JEAN-MICHEL BAYLE WILL BE TESTING AIRBOXES AND FURTHERING OUR TYRE DEVELOPMENT WORK WITH DUNLOP.



More, from a press release issued by Yamaha:

Max Biaggi (Marlboro Yamaha Team) put in a masterful performance in the Czech Republic, on August 25, to score the YZR-M1’s first ever MotoGP World Championship win. The Brno magician backed up his pole position performance on the four-stroke to take the holeshot, and the race win by 2.755 seconds over the ever-improving Daijiro Katoh (Honda) – now four-stroke mounted. Although Biaggi was regularly in the firing line of defending MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi (Honda), the Roman Emperor never faltered and led every lap until the chequered flag.

Misfortune struck Rossi on lap 15, of 22, when his rear tyre came apart and he was forced into the pits. With a new rear tyre fitted Rossi returned to the fray in 18th place only to withdraw a few laps from the finish. This left Tohru Ukawa (Honda) to take third from Sete Gibernau (Suzuki), with Carlos Checa (Marlboro Yamaha Team) completing the four-stroke dominated top five. The Spaniard produced the perfect start, entering turn one behind his teammate in second place, before struggling with set-up difficulties to finish the race 14.029 seconds behind Biaggi.

Norick Abe (Antena 3 Yamaha d’Antin) was the first of the Yamaha YZR500 two-strokes in eighth, followed closely by Alex Barros (Honda) and Olivier Jacque (Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3). After a relatively strong qualifying performance by the Red Bull Yamaha WCM team, Garry McCoy and John Hopkins ended the Brno MotoGP with a 13th and a DNF respectively – the latter withdrawing with a holed radiator.

Marlboro Yamaha Team
Max Biaggi 1st: “This victory means a lot to me, I gave everything I could. That kind of race is very tough, tyre choice is very difficult, so is bike set-up, and then you have to ride to look after the tyres. I rode hard from the start and my pit board told me just how close Rossi was. I was getting signals ‘+0.1, +0.2, +0.0′, so they would have overtaken me even if I’d made the tiniest mistake. So I stayed calm and used my brain to choose the right lines and save my tyres.

“When I saw ‘+2.0′ I was dreaming that this could be my first MotoGP victory but I never knew what had happened. I always look in front because I want to stay concentrated, so the only way I know what’s happening behind is from my pit board. I just thought Kato had overtaken Rossi.

“We struggled at the first three races this year but the bike improved and we recovered. It’s never easy, if it was, everyone would have a good bike. So I won this one for everyone in the team, thanks to them.”

Carlos Checa 5th: “We changed the set-up for the warm-up but the results weren’t so clear. So we started the race with a slightly different setting, but I immediately felt that I wouldn’t be able to keep the front-running pace. I think we lost our way with the set-up of the new chassis, we just need to spend more time experimenting with different settings, so tomorrow’s tests will be very useful.”

YZR-M1 project leader Ichiro Yoda: “I’m very happy, for sure. One year ago here Max crashed, so this is like a revenge for us. I’d like to thank Max and everyone else at Yamaha and in the team they have all worked so, so hard these past few months.

We’ve made many improvements to the M1 since the start of the season, but the most significant have been these: engine-management system for better throttle-to-tyre connection, engine-braking system for better corner entry, and a chassis with more front-end performance, for better turn-in. Now we will keep working because we want to take more victories and go for next year’s MotoGP title.”


Antena 3 Yamaha d’Antin
Norick Abe 8th: “I had some problems with the front sliding, but this was only after mid-race distance, around seven or eight laps in. But the start was great; I think on the first lap I was already eighth behind Kenny, which was so good considering. I followed him for a while and he was not so bad, but then I decided to make the pass and try for McWilliams. That’s when the front started to slide and I just couldn’t close the gap any further. If I tried any harder I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it to the end. I think today was enough.”

Pere Riba DNS: “After this morning’s warm-up I had a think about it, the leg and the situation, how far behind I was with my times, and I decided that it was better not to race. If I crashed in the race then it would only set me back further, and it would be for nothing, so I thought it was better to rest and see how things go for Estoril.”



Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3
Olivier Jacque 10th: “That was a difficult race. The handling of the bike was not so good, especially on the exit of the turns, while I was trying to get the power down, which made it difficult to keep my pace up. Near the end the bike started to feel better and my times improved, but it just wasn’t enough to make up what I had already lost.”

Shinya Nakano DNF: “I was hit from behind twice on that opening lap. The first time was into turn one, which pushed me wide and I lost a few places, the second unsettled the bike while I was entering the left-hander and I crashed. What can I say, other than I’m disappointed?”


Red Bull Yamaha WCM
Garry McCoy 13th: “I managed to get off the line really well but between turn one and turn two there was a lot of fairing bashing going on and it forced me wide, which let everyone by. It then happened again, and by the end of the first lap I’d gone from fourth to 16th. It just shows you’ve really got to get a good start to stay in with a chance. Once I got through that I thought I just try and make some headway. This was the best I could do today.”

John Hopkins DNF: “I got off the line well, and I was up there on the first few corners when Ukawa ran wide and showered me in rocks from the edge of the track. They hit my screen, which cracked, and my helmet, too. And after a little while I noticed water on the inside of the fairing. Soon after that I found my rhythm and started to improve my times when the bike lost power, forcing me out of the race. It turns out one of the rocks had also gone through the radiator and that caused one of the cylinders to seize up.”



More, from Telefonica Movistar Suzuki:

GIBERNAU FIGHTS FOR THE ROSTRUM AT CZECH GRAND PRIX

MotoGP – Round 10, Brno, Czech Republic, August 25, 2002
Team Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki rider Sete Gibernau rode his best race of the year in today’s Czech Republic GP, to come within one place of the top-three rostrum after pulling through from the third row of the starting grid.

Teammate Kenny Roberts Jr was 11th after heroic efforts to overcome a poor starting position were thwarted by niggling set-up problems, causing the former World Champion to drop back again after climbing to eighth from 19th on the grid.

Wild card Suzuki factory rider Akira Ryo was 14th, making it three out of three in the points for the new-this-year V4 four-stroke GSV-R 990cc machine.

Gibernau’s stirring ride saw the Spanish GP winner hold his ninth qualifying position on the first lap, and immediately start picking his way through the field, finally passing fast starting Loris Capirossi for sixth on the ninth of 22 laps of the sweeping 5.403km Brno circuit.

He wasn’t finished yet, however, and kept his head down to close on the pair disputing fourth. He passed compatriot Carlos Checa at half distance, and spent the rest of the race harrying eventual third-place rider Tohru Ukawa, inches away from his rear wheel until the very closing stages, when sliding tyres meant Sete was obliged to slacken his pace.

Roberts was 19th on the grid, though last-minute set-up changes meant he was able to set fifth-fastest time in morning warm-up. He got a good start to finish the first lap in 11th. He also picked up places and was behind Sete in eighth by lap four. Soon afterwards, however, he started to pay the price of not finding the correct bike settings during practice, and he started to drop back from the 10th lap, finally finishing 11th.

The race, 10th of 16 rounds in the MGP World Championship, was won by Italian rider Max Biaggi.

SETE GIBERNAU – Fourth Position
“That was a very hard race, and of course I feel I did my best to get fourth, my best result on this bike. But at the same time our aim is to win races, not finish fourth, and although I and my team did everything we could this weekend, we still need help from the factory to keep improving the new bike to get it to the highest level. It is very difficult to overtake with the bike as it is, but I was able to move through until I caught Ukawa. I kept pushing him, but for the last laps my front tyre was sliding a lot, and I thought I was going to crash, so I had to slow my pace a little to be sure of finishing. Overall, it was a good race – we’ve proved we’re capable of fighting hard, and that we’re capable of going for race wins. And that we will never give up.”

KENNY ROBERTS Jr – 11th Position
“Starting from the back of the grid meant I had a hard job from the beginning. I made a lot of places from the start, but the way we had the bike set up promoted heavy tyre wear, and the rear started to chunk from about the sixth lap. After that I lost a lot of my turn-in ability, and every time I touched the throttle the bike would snap sideways. I had to think about finishing rather than continuing to gain places. My problems were all set-up related, because we got started so late with getting the bike set during qualifying. We persevered with settings I’d never used before because we thought they could give us some advantage – but in the end we had to go back to old settings and start again this morning.”

GARRY TAYLOR – Team Manager
“A big thank you to Sete. This result was just what the whole team needed, and feeds enthusiasm back for our hard work. He rode with his head, and with his heart. Kenny managed to get from the back of the grid right up to eighth, but we paid the price for us not finding the proper direction until warm up this morning. When he got off the bike, he had lots to say about set-up, but nothing about the right arm that was so troublesome that he needed surgery. That’s one major problem solved. Now we stay on for two days of testing, to continue working on improving the bike and our overall situation.”


Note: In the post-race press conference, Biaggi said that his motivation is still high even though he is leaving the Yamaha team at the end of the season. The comment was Biaggi’s confirmation of rumors that he is leaving Yamaha. It is believed that Biaggi will ride for Ducati, which has landed Marlboro sponsorship, in 2003.