Tohru Ukawa won his
fist ever 'Blue Riband' race in a sensational last lap of the South African Grand
Prix at Welkom today. Ukawa and his REPSOL Honda teammate, reigning 500cc World
Champion Valentino Rossi, had raced their RC211V 990cc four-strokes nose to tail
throughout the 28 lap MotoGP race, Rossi leading for the opening 19 laps before
Ukawa took over to ride an intelligent front running race, conserving his tyres.
Rossi trailed his teammate until lap 26, then made his move re-passing Ukawa under
braking, but he could not shake off his teammate who put him under severe pressure
at the start of the last lap. Half way round the circuit Rossi ran wide and Ukawa
immediately passed him. Rossi was not finished. He recovered and mounted another
attack on Ukawa as they approached the last corner. He almost got alongside Ukawa,
and appeared to have the race line, but he was too fast into the corner and again
ran wide leaving Ukawa a clear run to the flag to win by 0.9 seconds.
Loris Capirossi made it an all Honda podium. The West Honda Pons NSR500 two-stroke
rider finished third, eight seconds behind Rossi. Daijiro Katoh (Team Fortuna
Honda Gresini), on another NSR500, charged through the field from 14th on the
start grid to outfight Carlos Checa on the last lap and claim fourth place.
Italian Marco Melandri raced to a start to finish victory in the 250cc race. The
MS Aprilia team rider was quickest off the line and made the best of a clear road
to race away from his rivals to score an easy win. The real interest in the race
was the battle for the minor places in the 26-lap race, and it produced plenty
of fireworks to keep the crowd of 40,000 on their feet.
Five riders were to feature in the battle with Franco Battaini (Imola Circuit
Aprilia), Roberto Locatelli (Tu Racing Aprilia), Randy de Puniet (Campetella Aprilia),
Roberto Rolfo, on the Team Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250, and Fonsi Nieto (Telefonica
MoviStar Repsol Aprilia) all involved. A mixture of tough riding, including two
collisions between Battaini and Locatelli, tyre wear and pure aggression produced
a superb finale. Battaini, having disposed of Locatelli, claimed second in the
race and the lead in the championship.
Locatelli made a mistake two laps from home which let the fast finishing Nieto
take third place. Rolfo also took advantage of the situation to claim fourth at
the flag. Locatelli was fifth with De Puniet sixth.
Reigning World Champion Manuel Poggiali (Gilera) emerged victorious from a superb
seven-man battle in the 125cc event. In a race which saw six men hold the lead
at various points in the 24-lap race, Poggiali held off determined late challenges
from Japanese GP winner Arnaud Vincent (Imola Circuit Aprilia) and Pablo Nieto
(Master Aprilia). Vincent almost made his last lap charge stick but failed by
just 0.27 seconds. Nieto was the man to loose out while attacking Vincent's second
place. The Spaniard made a bad mistake and ran wide, allowing both Dani Pedrosa
(Telefonica Movistar Junior Team) and Steve Jenkner (UGT 3000 Aprilia) past.
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