Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Sete Gibernau won the red-flagged-and-restarted Fench Grand Prix, beating Valentino Rossi across the line by 0.165-second after Rossi ran wide in the final corner on the last lap. Alex Barros finished third.
Under new MotoGP rules, the race was not scored on aggregate time. Instead, the order at the end of the 13-lap restart determined the final finishing order.
Carlos Checa and Troy Bayliss crashed before the race was stopped for rain, and Makoto Tamada, John Hopkins and Andrew Pitt crashed on the wet track after the restart.
Colin Edwards was the best-finishing American at 10th, with Nicky Hayden 12th and Kenny Roberts the 16th and last finisher.
Spanish riders swept the weekend, with Dani Pedrosa winning the 125cc race and Toni Elias winning the 250cc race.
Results, 13-lap Restart
1. Sete Gibernau, Honda, 24:29.665
2. Valentino Rossi, Honda, -0.165 seconds
3. Alex Barros, Yamaha, -1.793
4. Olivier Jacque, Yamaha, -29.912
5. Max Biaggi, Honda, -31.493
6. Jeremy McWilliams, Proton KR3, -33.946
7. Tohru Ukawa, Honda, -35.447
8. Noriyuki Haga, Aprilia, -36.231
9. Garry McCoy, Kawasaki, -51.254
10. Colin Edwards, Aprilia, -61.802
11. Norick Abe, Yamaha, -1 lap
12. Nicky Hayden, Honda, -1 lap
13. Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, -1 lap
14. Shinya Kakano, Yamaha, -2 laps
15. Marco Melandri, Yamaha, -2 laps
16. Kenny Roberts, Suzuki, -2 laps
17. Andrew Pitt, Kawasaki, DNF, crash, -10 laps
18. John Hokpins, Suzuki, DNF, crash, -11 laps
19. Makoto Tamada, Honda, DNF, crash, -12 laps
20. Troy Bayliss, Ducati, DNS, crash
21. Loris Capirossi, Ducati, DNS, mechanical
22. Carlos Checa, Yamaha, DNS, crash
23. Nobuatsu Aoki, Proton, DNS, mechanical
250cc Results
1. Toni Elias, Aprilia, 26 laps, 43.55.538
2. Randy de Puniet, Aprilia, -3.740 seconds
3. Roberto Rolfo, Honda, -4.562
4. Fonsi Nieto, Aprilia, -4.972
5. Naoki Matsudo, Yamaha, -5.122
6. Sylvain Guintoli, Aprilia, -6.100
7. Anthony West, Aprilia, -29.672
8. Alex Debron, Honda, -34.885
9. Christian Gemmel, Honda, -35.013
10. Joan Olive, Aprilia, -35.559
125cc Results
1. Dani Pedrosa, Honda, 24 laps, 41:58.500
2. Lucio Cecchinello, Honda, -2.337
3. Andrea Dovizioso, Honda, -2.427
4. Casey Stoner, Aprilia, -11.278
5. Pablo Nieto, Aprilia, -11.814
6. Youichi Ui, Aprilia, -12.592
7. Stefano Perugini, Aprilia, -18.930
8. Steve Jenkner, Aprilia, -25.206
9. Thomas Luthi, Honda, -29.471
10. Masao Azuma, Honda, -33.910
More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:
French GP, Le Mans
Race Day
Sunday, May 25 2003
DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM LEADS AGAIN BUT RUNS OUT OF LUCK
Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss had a luckless time at Le Mans this afternoon, both riders exiting from the French Grand Prix in the early stages.
Capirossi led from the start and enjoyed a brief tussle with Valentino Rossi (Honda) before encountering a minor technical glitch that forced his withdrawal. Bayliss tumbled out a few laps later, the Aussie uninjured in the fall.
The day marked a major change in fortunes for MotoGP’s youngest team, which has led every GP so far this year and scored two podium finishes and one pole position.
“In racing you have to expect bad days, you can’t always have good days,” said Ducati Marlboro Team director Livio Suppo. “The most important thing is that both the riders are okay.”
Ducati Marlboro Team technical director Corrado Cecchinelli added: “This was always going to be a difficult race because we only had dry track time on Friday, though that wasn’t the reason for Loris’ and Troy’s problems. The worst thing is that we have learned very little about this track for next year. But now we go to Mugello, with our hearts and minds set on achieving the best-possible result at our home GP.”
CAPIROSSI SIDELINED BY QUICKSHIFTER GLITCH
Loris Capirossi had real hopes of another great result on his Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici at Le Mans today, but those hopes were dashed just minutes after he’d used his V4’s awesome power to lead away from his third consecutive front-row start.
“I got a very good start,” said the Italian who is mostly recovered from the stomach problems that had put him in hospital on Tuesday. “I fought with Valentino, who passed me, and then I started having problems with the quickshifter. It was killing the power for longer than necessary whenever I changed gear, so it was impossible to continue.”
BAYLISS TUMBLES OUT OF FRENCH GP
Ducati Marlboro Team rider Troy Bayliss started today’s French GP in fine style, rocketing into the top ten from a fourth-row start. But pretty soon the Aussie was having trouble – neither he nor his bike had ever run at Le Mans before this week, and with only two hours of dry-track time behind them, he had a far from perfect bike set-up. Bayliss crashed out at the La Chapelle right-hander.
“I’ve been struggling with the bike all weekend,” he said. “We’ve been having a few little problems and it was the same in the race, then I crashed. It was a strange crash, I’m not really sure what happened.”
More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Yamaha:
French Grand Prix
Sunday, 25 May 2003
Le Mans, France
A DAY OF STOPS AND STARTS FOR FORTUNA YAMAHA
The Fortuna Yamaha Team looked set for a strong result in the French Grand Prix after MotoGP rookie Marco Melandri yesterday qualified on the front row for the 28-lap race, with team-mate Carlos Checa in a solid sixth. Although both riders initially began the Le Mans main event in fine form a number of unexpected factors, including a race restart and a high-speed crash, eventually contributed to a disappointing result for the factory team.
Melandri, in only his second race this season, produced a lightning start to be well in the top five at the end of the opening lap. The 20-year-old Italian then showed form that belied his limited four-stroke experience, slipping past Yamaha wild card entry Norick Abe to take fourth position. He then continued with this impressive momentum to outride fellow Italian Loris Capirossi (Ducati) on lap three, to take third – behind race leader Alex Barros (Gauloises Yamaha Team) and Valentino Rossi (Honda).
By lap six, however, rear traction concerns saw the 250cc World Champion slip back through to eighth before the race was red flagged due to rain on lap 16. With the introduction of the new race restart, which only takes into consideration the rider position on the track at the time of the red flag and not the time advantage, Melandri restarted an unpredictable wet race from eighth on the grid with full-wet front and an intermediate rear. The combination proved incorrect for the slowly drying track conditions and Marco ended the French Grand Prix in 15th place.
Aggressively taking control of both race starts, Barros finally succumbed to the pressure of Rossi and race winner Sete Gibernau (Honda) – the trio in a class of their own today. Meanwhile hometown hero Olivier Jacque (Gauloises Yamaha Team) made up for his poor qualifying performance to finish fourth.
“At the beginning of the first half of the race I had a good feeling with
the bike but later I started to have some problems with the rear,” said
Melandri. ” I felt a little bit nervous because the bike felt a bit strange.
In the second half of the race the track was quite wet and we used an intermediate rear, which was maybe a bit of a gamble. The front straight was dry but other parts of the track were quite wet. I felt fine physically overall but my fingers got a bit tired from using the front brake. I’m quite pleased with the way the weekend turned out but would have liked to have done better today. That’s the gamble you have to make with tyres in wet races. I’m looking forward to Mugello as it’s my home Grand Prix and I want to do well in front of my fans there.”
For Carlos Checa it was another disappointing weekend when – after a sturdy start that placed him seventh on the opening lap – the Spaniard highsided his YZR-M1 exiting the first hairpin on lap two. In an attempt to save himself from the fall Checa was flung over the ‘bars and his left hand caught under the bike – resulting in a badly grazed thumb. Although unsure of exactly why his race ended in this fashion Checa felt that he may have hit a wet patch, which could have contributed to the fall.
“I lost the rear and just couldn’t keep control of the bike,” said the disappointed Spaniard. “I’m really not sure if I touched a wet patch or not, but I got on the gas and then I lost control. Gibernau had just passed me and I was next to Biaggi, we were in a very close group and on the exit of the corner I kept the inside line and at that moment the bike just stood up and threw me off. I had followed that same line on the previous lap so I don’t know why it happened. It’s one of those falls where it’s impossible to say why.
“I went to the Clinica Mobile because my hand was under the bike when I slid off and I have grazed my thumb quite badly. They have cleaned it up and covered it – apparently it will take a few days to heal properly.”
Team Director Davide Brivio had a philosophical approach to the day’s events, “It was a real shame that Marco couldn’t keep the pace he deserved today but we chose an intermediate rear for him and it didn’t pay off this time. He has performed brilliantly this weekend and I would like to congratulate him on his recovery since Suzuka. He is sure to put up a good fight for the next race in Mugello and we look forward to seeing what he can do there.
“I’m really disappointed for Carlos and his team because they have worked very hard this weekend to find the right set-up and they’ve not had much luck so far this season. We’re not sure what caused his fall but we think it could have been a wet patch on the track. We will analyse the lap data and try to find out. Anyway the main thing is that he is not hurt, except for some skin damage on his hand, which should heal fairly quickly.”
More, from a press release issued by John Hopkins’ publicist:
Crash ends miserable French Grand Prix for Hopkins
LE MANS, France – The French Motorcycle Grand Prix went from bad to worse for Suzuki rider John Hopkins. Sunday’s race ended in a high-side crash after only two laps were completed, this after Hopkins had suffered two crashes on Saturday. It marked the first non-classified finish for Hopkins this season.
“This is one of those weekends I’d just as soon forget,” said a battered Hopkins. “My shoulder was the worst thing, but now my whole body is bruised and I can’t tell what hurts the worst.”
The crash, which happened during the third lap while Hopkins ran in 13th, left Hopkins bewildered. “I don’t know what I did wrong,” he said. “It happened mid-turn under neutral throttle. I did the same thing I’d done the lap before. It was like every crash I had this weekend – no warning. It’s frustrating when you don’t know the reason you go down.
“We changed the engine mapping to deal with the ultra-slick track. Maybe that had something to do with it, it’s hard to say. I probably made a bad tire choice. I went with a cut rear (slick) and a full rain front. We thought it would dry out a little more than it did.”
The team has canceled scheduled testing and Hopkins will try to rest and heal before the next round in Mugello, Italy.
“Basically I’m just going to rest for the next couple of weeks,” Hopkins said. “I’m pretty discouraged right now, but things like this are part of racing. I just have to move on.”
Hopkins dropped from 10th to 14th in the world championship standings.
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
MOTOGP CHAMPIONSHIP 2003
ROUND 4 – GRAND PRIX POLINI DE FRANCE
25TH MAY 2003 – MOTOGP RACE
McCOY SCORES FIRST TOP TEN FINISH FOR KAWASAKI
King of Slide, Garry McCoy, gave the Kawasaki ZX-RR it’s first top ten finish with a storming ride to ninth place in today’s two part French Grand Prix at Le Mans, watched by a near capacity crowd of 73,000.
McCoy’s mastery of the wet conditions in the second half of the race gave Kawasaki their first top ten Grand Prix finish since Kork Ballington took the two-stroke KR500 to seventh place in the San Marino GP at Mugello in 1982.
While McCoy celebrated his best result of the season so far, his Fuchs Kawasaki team-mate, Andrew Pitt, was left ruing the decision to run an intermediate rear tyre in the second part of the race. The 26-year-old Australian crashed out of the race at the final corner on lap four as a result of standing water cooling the rear tyre and not allowing it to get up to working temperature.
The French GP, scheduled for 28 laps, had started in dry but overcast conditions and was stopped by race officials with 13 laps remaining when a rain shower hit the Bugatti Circuit. At the time of stoppage Pitt was 17th and McCoy 19th, the positions from which they started the second part of the race.
McCoy had shown the wet track potential of the Dunlop-shod Kawasaki in final qualifying on Saturday and he continued his mastery of the slippery conditions by storming his way from 19th to sixth place at the end of lap one. As the race unfolded on a drying track, the Australian worked to conserve his treaded, soft compound rear tyre and was rewarded with an impressive ninth place.
Garry McCoy – 9th Position
“This result is great for Kawasaki and great for me. It was a real poker game for tyres at the restart. From the back of the grid I could see all the tyre warmers coming off the other bikes and a lot of them had intermediates, not wets, and I thought; ‘crikey, here we go I’ve picked the wrong tyre.’ We maybe went just a little too soft in the rear, because towards the end it felt like a slick, but then the Dunlop wets have worked great all weekend, so in the end we had the tyre to do the job. Hopefully this will put everyone in a good frame of mind as we head to Mugello.”
Andrew Pitt – DNF
“By the time we got to the line the rain had stopped and the track looked as if it was going to dry out pretty quick. Right at the last minute we decided to stick an intermediate in the rear, which turned out to be a mistake. The track didn’t dry out as quickly as we thought it would and, at the final corner on lap four, the bike just stepped out and that was the end of that.”
Harald Eckl – Team Manager
“I’m very happy for Garry and the team to finish ninth. In the wet our bike works well, although we know there is still a lot of work to do in dry conditions. But, overall, this is great motivation for all of us. The restart rule is a tough one – to go half distance and then only have the second part count for the result – but it’s great for the spectators and it was a fantastic race. It was difficult to make a tyre choice for the changeable conditions in the second part of the race and Andrew unfortunately went the wrong way. Thankfully he was not injured when he crashed and I’m sure he’ll be looking to make amends at Mugello in two weeks time.”
GRAND PRIX POLINI DE FRANCE – MOTOGP RACE RESULT
1. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Telefonica Movistar Honda 24:29.665; 2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Repsol Honda +0.165; 3. Alex Barros (BRA) Gauloises Yamaha Team +1.793; 4. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Gauloises Yamaha Team +29.912; 5. Max Biaggi (ITA) Camel Pramac Pons +31.493; 6. Jeremy McWilliams (GBR) Proton Team KR +33.946; 7. Tohru Ukawa (JPN) Camel Pramac Pons +35.447; 8. Noriyuki Haga (JPN) Alice Aprilia Racing +36.231; 9. Garry McCoy (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +51.254; NC. Andrew Pitt (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +10 Laps
CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS AFTER 4 OF 16 ROUNDS
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Repsol Honda 90; 2. Max Biaggi (ITA) Camel Pramac Pons 67; 3. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Telefonica Movistar Honda 63; 4. Alex Barros (BRA) Gauloises Yamaha Team 46; 5. Troy Bayliss (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 40; 6. Tohru Ukawa (JPN) Camel Pramac Pons 32; 7. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Gauloises Yamaha Team 26; 8. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 22; 9. Colin Edwards (USA) Alice Aprilia Racing 18; 10. Norick Abe (JPN) Yamaha Racing Team 18; 19. Garry McCoy (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team 7; 22. Andrew Pitt (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team 1
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:
SUZUKI GAMBLE GOES SOUR AT FRENCH GP
Le Mans, France – Sunday, May 25, 2003
Team Suzuki rider Kenny Roberts soldiered on through a rain-interrupted French GP at the Bugatti circuit at Le Mans today, finishing 16th after a gamble on tyres went wrong.
Team-mate John Hopkins crashed out on the treacherous wet surface, after taking the same gamble.
The race, scheduled to run for 28 laps, had been stopped after 15, when rain that had ruined Saturday practice made a slight return. For the first time, new rules were applied, so that the positions in the first race only determined starting positions for the second 13-lap sprint to the flag.
Roberts had been making fair progress in the first race, and was up to 11th at the head of his group after starting from 17th when the new white flag with a red cross was displayed. Hopkins had started 11th on the grid, but had dropped back to 16th, battling inconsistent engine braking – abbreviated practice meant there had not been enough time to set up the sophisticated electronic system.
The sprinkling of rain had ended when the riders formed up again on the grid, on a dry surface on the front straight, and with the clouds clearing away. The Suzuki teamsters decided to gamble that the rest of the track would soon dry, and selected intermediate rear tyres to make the most of it. In fact, the back part of the circuit remained wet, and the gamble didn’t pay off.
Hopkins paid the greater price, with a third fall of the weekend on the slick tarmac. He landed heavily on his already injured right shoulder, and although no fractures were found, he was bruised and beaten up, and is likely to pull out of tests scheduled for tomorrow.
Roberts also realised at once that his rear tyre would not allow him to any chance of riding competitively, but with the team and factory engineers amassing vital data for the effort to bring the new Suzuki GSV-R MotoGP machine to its full potential, the 2000 World Champion continued to the finish, the last of only 16 riders to finish.
The race was won by Sete Gibernau, from Valentino Rossi and Alex Barros – the trio that had run away up front, using full wet tyres.
KENNY ROBERTS Jr. – 16th Position
I was having an okay first race in the dry. I was able to be a little bit aggressive against some of the guys at the back, and get somewhat of a feeling for the bike. The character of the track meant I didn’t have to worry about running into the back of anyone under brakes. At most tracks this year I’ve been very tentative in that area, because that is one thing we are having some problems with. For the second race, we needed to gamble to have a shot to be in the top five. I knew it was wet, and I knew it was a gamble. At some race tracks, it would have dried out very quickly, but here parts of the track stayed wet to the end. So it was a bad choice if we were thinking about finishing tenth or 11th, but a good gamble if we wanted the top five. It didn’t work out.
JOHN HOPKINS – DNF – crash
In the first race, we had some engine management problems, and I was losing positions when it started to rain. For the second, it was a wrong choice of tyre. I went into a left-hander and the bike just slid out from under me. I landed pretty hard, and I’m feeling pretty beat up now, but nothing is broken. I need a bit of a break to get better. It wasn’t a good day.
GARRY TAYLOR – Team Manager
This may have been a GP, but it felt like a 24-hour endurance race. We were outgunned all weekend, but nobody could say John wasn’t trying, with three crashes over the weekend. Kenny rode really hard in the first race, but in the second it was obvious pretty early that our tyre gamble wasn’t going to pay off, but Kenny stayed out there plugging away in an effort to get more information. The riders are doing everything they can. We need some help from the factory engineers to get the new bike working the way it should.
More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Honda:
Le Mans, Sunday May 25.
Repeat Podium for Roberto Rolfo after hard race at Le Mans
Le Mans France, my 25. Roberto Rolfo again placed his Fortuna Honda on the podium, this time at the French Grand Prix, held at Le Mans. Rolfo was one of the heroes’s of the race, after a hard race he was able to overtake his rival Fonsi Nieto, on a last lap full of courage and great value to the team. The French Grand Prix was not a stroll in the park for the Fortuna Honda team and Roberto Rolfo, because they had to work hard to overcome their problems with machine set up on the new RS250RW. All the difficulties did not hinder the progress of the Altadis rider, who had only one day of dry practice, from repeating his success of 14-days.
Third place at Le Mans is a great result for Team Fortuna Honda, more so if we take into account the conditions that limited the possibility of the always-brave Roberto Rolfo.
The Altadis rider doesn’t need to say that the French race has been very hard because of only having one day of dry practice. Despite the conditions the team did a lot of valuable work. That’s why this podium finish has extra value, because everything did not run like clockwork.
Roberto Rolfo. “We still have a lot of work ahead of us. This third place finish gives us a lot of satisfaction but we have to think how the race developed and the problems w still have o resolve on set up. Honda have promised us new material in the near future, in fact we need more acceleration to be t a really competitive level. Here at Le Mans it has been possible to see the effort we have to make to stay in the slipstream,” said Rolfo.
“Having said all that the analysis we can make is that we have lost second place in the championship but the top group are all very close after a complicated meeting for us because of set up difficulties we found in practice,” concluded the Fortuna Honda rider.
More, from Desiree Crossman, with John Hopkins:
Today was a long day. It seemed like it dragged on. Not to mention I don’t know where my head was today. I was running around taking pictures for the site, and when I went to download them, I had no compactflash card in it. So I was NOT taking pictures at all. It helps to check it sometimes, I had to run around and get the same ones again. (BTW, I got a new camera from Andorra. Gemma got it for me, tax free whoo-hoo!)
John was already in pain from the crashes yesterday, and nothing was on his side today.
The race was red flagged with 13 laps to go ’cause of rain. So we had to go back out to the grid and do the whole grid thing again for the “second” race. Talk about a mad house! They have this new rule, where if it’s red flagged, the riders must stop and go back into the garage. Then, we have to re-grid, cause’ you know they want a show put on, so we go and re-grid. It was a 13 lap race. Can’t you just go in for 5 minutes, switch a tire and go back out. Must we all go back out? But hey, what do we know, or what do I know. I know it would abit easier for everyone to say the least.
Anyway, in the second race, Alex was in the lead. Olivier, Max, and Tohru had to start from the pit, but they ended up placing well. Alex was in the lead, and Sete took over. Then it was Rossi and they were all going back and forth. Alex ended up dropping back a bit but he got third. Vale and Sete were battling on the last lap, on the last corner. Vale ran abit wide and Sete came underneath him and it was almost a photo finish! Good battle. But before that, John crashed. He highsided again and landed on his injured shoulder. I hopped on the scooter and drove to where he was at, I couldn’t get in though ’cause there was a gate. One guy was nice enough to open it and let me through so I could pick him up. When I called John, he was a bit dizzy and was walking funny towards me. He banged his head pretty good.
We rode back to the garage and watched the race, that’s where we saw the battle with Sete and Vale. After, we went back to the motorhome and I helped John get out of his leathers, he can hardly move. It’s just one of those shitty weekends. The whole “2nd” race started because rain decided to start coming down for about 5-10 minutes, and then it went to sunshine again. What kind of crap is that? It was a strange day indeed.
Anyway, I’m happy Gaz scored some points, he got 9th and deserved it. Kenny got 16th. Colin and Nori ended up going alright here so the 2nd race was in their favor. I guess it’s favor or enemy here at this track ’cause it seemed to be John’s this weekend.
Well I have to go check up on him, and hopefully we will fly to Austria tommorrow. He was suppose to test, but I highly doubt it now. Tuesday is our itinerary to fly but guess what? There’s a strike, what’s new? So like I said hopefully we’ll fly out tommorrow, ’cause if that doesn’t happen we fly on Wed morning. That’s too long.
More, from a press release issued by Proton Team KR:
PROTON KR EQUAL-BEST SIXTH IN TWO-STROKE FAREWELL
Round 4: French GP, Le Mans
Race: Sunday, May 25, 2003
Jeremy McWilliams: Sixth position
Nobuatsu Aoki: DNF – breakdown
Proton Team KR rider Jeremy McWilliams closed a chapter of history at today’s rain-hit French GP, claiming sixth position in the restarted race. It was his best finish of the year, and equaled the three-cylinder two-stroke’s previous best results in what was almost certainly the independent lightweight machine’s last race.
Team-mate Nobuatsu Aoki was bitterly disappointed to be denied the chance also to exploit the difficult conditions, where the nimble lightweight is at its best. The race had started dry, and he had already retired out on the track with a seized engine when it was stopped by a shower of rain.
Under new rules applied for the first time, the first 15 of the scheduled 28-lap race counted only to determine grid positions for the restart, for a final 13-lap sprint. McWilliams started from 12th on the grid, with his KR3 machine on full wet Bridgestone tyres. After just one lap on a track that was streaming wet in some areas, even though the rain was over, he was up to sixth, and soon afterwards moved up to fifth. He lost one place again in the closing stages, forced to back off on a tyre worn “almost down to the canvas” by wheelspin on the treacherous surface.
At the back of the pit, three of the all-new V5 990cc four-stroke Protons were waiting. They arrived at Le Mans two days before the race, and both riders took the exciting and thunderous new machine for first circuit shake-down runs – it had only run in straight-line airfield tests before that. In a highly promising public debut, McWilliams set tenth-fastest time in a rainy final practice session, also setting fastest time on the two-stroke.
The bike, built in record time at the team’s Banbury base in England, is scheduled for full tests at Le Mans tomorrow. It is hoped that the V5’s race debut will be the Italian GP, in two weeks.
Today’s restarted 13-lap race was narrowly won by Sete Gibernau, from fellow Honda rider Valentino Rossi, and Yamaha rider Alex Barros.
JEREMY McWILLIAMS
There was nothing left of my tyre at the end of that race … No tread, and it was just a case of survival. The track was so slippery – it was the worst grip I’ve ever felt in my life, like riding on marbles. I was getting so much wheelspin it was hitting the rev limiter in every gear, but I was passing other people who had even worse wheelspin. A horrible race, but it was a good way to say goodbye to the two-stroke.
NOBUATSU AOKI
My engine seized in the first race, and ruined the day. I am really sad, because it was the last race with the two-stroke, and I wanted to finish well with it. Unfortunately, the rain just came a little bit too late for us. Still, another story starts tomorrow.
KENNY ROBERTS – Team Owner
The weather went in our direction in the end, but it was a bit too late. It was teasing us again. I knew we were in trouble from the restart, when it was dry on the front straight. Jeremy’s bike was geared for the wet. He did a great job with what he had. Now it’s goodbye to the two-stroke. The only time you will see it again is in parade races, unless we run out of spare parts for the new bike before Italy. I don’t expect that to happen, because the parts that were giving teething troubles until now have been fine this weekend. We have three of the new bikes here to test tomorrow.
More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing:
HONDA RACING INFORMATION
Results French Grand Prix at Le Mans.
Raceday Sunday May 25
Weather: Dry then wet
Track Conditions: Dry sections, some wet sections
Temperature: Ambient 13°C
Attendance: 133,770 (estimated, weekend)
GIBERNAU SCORES HIS SECOND WIN FOR HONDA
After Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda RC211V) had given himself a clear three second lead at the half way stage of the 28-lap Le Mans race a fall of rain brought out the red flags to stop the action. Sportingly, Rossi was the first to raise his hand as the riders slithered on slick tyres in a suddenly wet track. The restarted race was, however, won in fine style by Welkom GP victor Sete Gibernau (Telefonica Movistar Honda RC211V) who fully deserved his second maximum score of the year.
The new MotoGP regulations state that any race halted for rain will be re-started to completion of the full race distance, but only the second leg will count for the race result. Thus Rossi’s first leg advantage was negated and the grid for the restart formed up in the positions after the first 15 laps.
A magnificent last lap tussle between Rossi and Gibernau saw Rossi run off the track in his attempt to re-pass the Spaniard and smoke his spinning rear tyre exiting the final corner in an effort to recapture Gibernau before the finish line.
It was an excellent performance from Gibernau, hard fought and full of risk. “We could sit here talking about this race until the same time next year,” said the drained Spaniard. “Valentino (Rossi) or Alex (Barros) could have won this race. In the first part, in the dry, Valentino had it won; Alex and I were looking for second place. When the rain came down my team set up the bike perfectly and I have to thank them for that. The last lap from the inside was a great race for us – also for the fans I’m sure. Even if we were so close together in those conditions, it was a very fair race, everybody behaved like gentlemen. It’s just great to have won such a race. I’m so happy for everybody in the team.”
For Rossi, second was only a slight disappointment, and the championship leader came away with an enhanced points advantage.
“That was a good show for everyone!” exclaimed Rossi. “In the dry we had a good setting and it was possible to go away, but the
