 Vallelunga
is a lovely little circuit for the riders, but a
nightmare for the press. It is based just off the main road,
so on a Sunday morning the traffic is terrible, in fact we
spent an hour and a half in traffic just to get onto the
main road to turn off and get into the circuit on the Sunday!
Also, because the Italians are so helpful with their road
co-ordination, there was roadworks going on on the motorway
coming down from the airport, and our tom-tom satellite navigation
decided to break, so we had to rely on a friend of ours,
Dunk, to give us directions to get to the track...which were
very useful and did not get us lost, I have to say! (Hence
the second part of the headline). When you get to the circuit
you have to drive down little paddock roads to get to the
press parking, which is miles away from the media centre
(we have to get a media shuttle just to get near to where
we have to be, then walk through the paddock because
the people driving refuse to go through the mass of people
who
say "oh look, there's a car driving down here...let's
walk in front of it!" even though we had to do this
just to get to the parking in the first place...and then
we still have
to walk over a bridge to get to the paddock where the media
office is situated!) There are also around four separate
paddocks here because each paddock is so small that not all
the trucks can fit into the same place! Not easy for interviewing
riders as you can't find them... The weather started off
cold and rainy on the Friday, but on
the Saturday
it
dried up, but I still found it cold despite the fact that
our editor and photographer were complaining about the heat
most of the day. Then the Sunday showed sun and warmth, which
meant that all riders rode on slicks for the Saturday and
Sunday, no hard decision for tyre choice!
 Friday practice and first qualifying was a little wet, but
that did not stop fast lap times and Bayliss qualified first
and a surprise was in store when Xaus qualified second. Toseland
was fastest in free practices but qualified fourth with Corser
ahead of him and Haga qualified surprisingly low in eighth.
Superpole started off with Borciani doing
a good lap, and he kept pole through Iannuzzo's and Smrz's
efforts. Nakatomi, however, took pole from Borciani and kept
it through the laps of Nieto, Neukirchner and Laconi. Roby
Rolfo, however, took pole from Nakatomi but unfortunately
did not manage to hold it through Haga, who kept pole from
Lanzi but Max Biaggi beat Haga's time, seeing as this is
his home circuit, and Fabrizio could not manage to beat his
time. Toseland was going in magnificent time and was going
to get pole but sadly he fell off the bike after finishing
split two and ended up eighth on the grid, which was only
second row so not as bad as it could have been but he was
not happy. Corser then came out and thrashed Biaggi's time,
as did Xaus, who could not, however, beat Corser's time whereas
Bayliss, being the fastest person to qualify, came out and
thrashed everybody's time getting pole position. This left
the front row as Bayliss on pole, Corser second, Xaus third
and Biaggi fourth. The second row was Haga, Lanzi, Fabrizio
and Toseland.
 Race one and Biaggi started
off in the lead but was quickly overtaken by Bayliss. Toseland
got
up into
second but unfortunately had a big wobble and despite holding
onto the bike he still got overtaken by Corser on the
inside, and at the same time Haga and Biaggi
tried
to also simultaneously tried to take Toseland, causing a
huge cluster in which no one fell off out of pure luck. It
did, however, leave Toseland in fifth. However, fifth soon
changed to fourth as Troy Corser lost the back end of the
bike, tried to hold it and ended up losing the front end
instead, falling off and the bike also taking Max Neukirchner
off. All this happening in lap one, it was shaping up for
an exciting race. Lap two was when things
first started improving for the British fans as Toseland
overtook Haga with a very forceful
pass, swapping paint as well as places back into third place.
Xaus came off but the bike still worked and
he restarted.
This left the current positions as Bayliss first and Biaggi
second with Toseland coming in close on
third
being chased by Haga. At the end of the lap Haga had taken
Toseland, and a gap started to form. Whilst this was happening
there was a battle between Biaggi and Bayliss, resulting
in the popular in front of his own crowd Biaggi doing a sly
overtake on the inside, taking first position and holding
it. This also gave Nitro Nori a chance to catch up with Bayliss
and start another one of the Bayliss-Haga battles, but no
matter how much he tried Bayliss kept blocking his attempts
to overtake, until lap seven that is...when Haga just went
straight past and stayed in second place. In the meantime,
a huge gap had now formed between Bayliss and Toseland, and
the battle for second between Haga and Bayliss meant that
Toseland could catch up.
 It all ended properly for Xaus in lap ten when his bike broke
and he had to retire from the race. Lap thirteen saw more hope
for Toseland to catch up when Bayliss caught up with Haga
and took second back, which he lost again on the next corner
when Haga objected to being overtaken, then on lap fourteen
Bayliss once again tried to take Haga and unfortunately ran
wide, which, although being bad luck for the Aussie, was
good luck for Toseland who had a chance to get in there and
start battling for a podium finish. This battle did not end
until lap seventeen, Bayliss took Haga, Haga took him back
on the next corner and then at the start of the seventeenth
lap they were neck and neck going into a corner until Bayliss
just pulled away and held second as Haga ran wide. Toseland
was now right on Haga's tail, overtaking him on lap eighteen
but Haga took third place straight back. Positions stayed
the same until lap twenty three where Toseland once again
took Haga and this time kept it, holding third place until
the end of the
race. This left the finishing positions as Biaggi first followed
by Bayliss, Toseland, Haga, Fabrizio, Lanzi, Laconi, Nieto,
Nakatomi and Iaunnuzzo.
Race two repeated race one when Bayliss
took the lead followed by James Toseland and Lanzi, who soon
got overtaken by Haga. Haga
tried to
take James twice and failed the first time, but on the second
time he managed to take second and keep it. I could even
imagine there being a "this is to revenge my bike in the
last race when you took a podium finish from me" scene going
on, but nothing that interesting happened in this race! Lap
two started with Corser taking Lanzi into fourth place, shortly
followed by Biaggi who also overtook Lanzi into fifth.
 In lap three Haga had formed a gap from
Toseland, but this is where it started to go wrong for the
young British
rider. Corser suddenly found himself in
fifth place when Biaggi did another one of his sly
overtakes on
the inside. There was a small battle between Corser and
Biaggi where Corser tried to take third back and immediately
lost it, and before the end of lap five Biaggi really
used his local knowledge and the crowd's enthusiasm (which
is worth a good ten horsepower) to reel in and pass Toseland.
Corser then started to catch up with Toseland who,
working
incredibly hard to keep third place, ended up losing
the back end of the bike and falling off. It was heart
breaking
watching him try to get the bike to work and by the time
he suddenly managed to kick it into gear he was down
to twelfth from third. Positions stayed the same until Corser
and Biaggi
had another small battle for second which Biaggi kept
second through and Laconi fell off the bike on lap thirteen.
Toseland
got into eleventh place when Michel Fabrizio broke down
and retired from the race.
This race was not the most interesting, as the only
other battle was on lap seventeen when Biaggi was about
to take
first from Bayliss but ended up running wide and staying
in second. This left the end results as Bayliss, Biaggi,
Haga, Corser, Rolfo, Xaus, Lanzi, Nieto, Nakatomi and
Neukirchner.
Toseland could have would up the championship
today, but his (by his standards) disappointing results mean
that, while he's still in an incredibly strong position,
he's going to have to work for that trophy right up until
the end. In fact, if Biaggi wins the first race then even
second place for Toseland will still leave the door open.
The Italian really could still snatch a sensational debut
season win, though even with Toseland's last couple of results
taken into account he's going to have a fight on his hands.
Oh yes, it's going to be one hell of a race...
 Race
One
1 Max Biaggi (Suzuki)
2 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
3 James Toseland (Honda)
4 Nori Haga (Yamaha)
5 Michel Fabrizio (Honda)
6 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
7 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
8 Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki)
9 Sunichi Nakatomi (Yamaha)
10 Vittorio Iannuzzo (Ducati)
Race Two
1 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
2 Max Biaggi (Suzuki)
3 Noriuki Haga (Yamaha)
4 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
5 Roberto Rolfo (Honda)
6 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
7 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
8 Fonsi Nieto (Kawasaki)
9 Sunichi Nakatomi (Yamaha)
10 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
Championship Standing
after twelve rounds:
1 James
Toseland 396
2 Max Biaggi 367
3 Nori Haga 363
4 Troy Bayliss 341
5 Troy Corser 267
6 Lorenzo
Lanzi 192
7 Ruben
Xaus 187
8 Roby Rolfo 177
9 Max Neukirchner 136
10 Michel Fabrizio 123
LB
|
