Max Takes A Determined Second Place With Tohru In Fifth

[Jake]

This was a spirited all-round performance from the Camel Pramac Pons team with Max Biaggi on the podium in second and Tohru Ukawa in a solid fifth place at one of the more difficult tracks in the MotoGP calendar. Valentino Rossi (Honda) won the race and Loris Capirossi (Ducati) was third.



Max made a lightning start from the front row of the grid after qualifying second and he made the all-important ´holeshot´ into the tricky turn one which usually poses problems to riders when the field is bunched together on the opening lap.

The Roman made the most of this advantage and by the time the field came past the start-line for the second lap, he was already 0.6 seconds ahead of second-placed Rossi. The pair was soon joined by Capirossi and Sete Gibernau (Honda) and a four rider breakaway was soon 2.2 seconds ahead of Troy Bayliss (Ducati) in fifth. Gibernau would eventually finish fourth, just over a hundredth of a second behind Capirossi.

But Tohru had now made short work of the riders in front of him after his mediocre start. He had already disposed of Olivier Jacque and Shinya Nakano before he began working on passing Marco Melandri (all Yamaha). By lap 13 he´d made the pass on Melandri stick and the Japanese star held fifth until the final lap despite the close attentions of Bayliss.

Rossi overtook Max on lap 14 and after pulling out an advantage over him in two laps, the Camel Pramac Pons man stabilised the gap at around the three second mark. At the finish it stood at just over two seconds - Max pressurising the reigning World Champion all the way to the flag.

Max has now finished second four times this season and with one win to his credit, he lies third in the World Championship standings. With five rounds still to go there are still 125 points to be taken and the Camel Pramac Pons team will head to Rio in Brazil with both riders in determined mood.

Results:
1. Valentino Rossi (Honda) 46m 48.005s
2. Max Biaggi (Camel Pramac Pons) 46m 50.099s
3. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 46m 53.259s
4. Sete Gibernau 46m 53.274s
5. Tohru Ukawa (Camel Prmac Pons) 46m 58.586s
6. Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 47m 02.251s
7. Marco Melandri (Yamaha) 47m 04.148s
8. Carlos Checa (Yamaha) 47m 06.088s
9. Nicky Hayden (Honda) 47m 06.289s
10. Makoto Tamada (Honda) 47m 09.820s

World Championship standings after 11 of 16 rounds:
1. Valentino Rossi (Honda) 237 points
2. Sete Gibernau (Honda) 191 points
3. Max Biaggi (Camel Pramac Pons) 161 points
4. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 113 points
5. Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 106 points
6. Carlos Checa (Yamaha) 86 points
7. Tohru Ukawa (Camel Pramac Pons) 85 points
8. Alex Barros (Yamaha) 76 points
9. Nicky Hayden (Honda) 74 points
10. Shinya Nakano (Yamaha) 69 points

Max Biaggi (second): "I´m happy with the result. I got a good start and I was careful at turn one. I knew there would be a tricky situation there so to get through first was an advantage. Then I tried to impose my rhythm and split the group. My lap times were pretty good and I knew there would be a couple of people also at this level. I tried to stay in front but Rossi had a better pace. I´ll just keep working at it and we´ll move on from here."

Tohru Ukawa (fifth): "That wasn´t so bad, but it´s still not enough. It´s better, sure, but it´s still not good. The gap between me and the leaders was still too big and that was because I couldn´t get near them at the start. I must qualify better and get onto row two as an absolute minimum requirement - row three is not good enough. But I´m improving now and I kept my concentration throughout and just did my best."



from Camel Media Service