Qatar; Ressol Honda Team Update
Added on Sunday, October 3rd, 2004 by Carole Nash Editor
Qatar; Ressol Honda Team Update
TOP FIVE FINISH FOR REPSOL HONDA RIDERS
In an action packed race Alex Barros and team mate Nicky Hayden finished the scorching 22-lap encounter in Doha today in fourth and fifth places respectively.
After two days of hard fought qualifying the final grid order was dramatically re-arranged on race morning following protests from teams concerned about infringements to an article of the FIM Road Racing Grand Prix Regulations.
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) and Max Biaggi (Honda) were both docked six seconds as their start positions were deemed to have been tampered with last night (Friday). Rossi’s team laid down tyre rubber and Biaggi’s team washed and brushed his starting position. The penalties demoted Biaggi and Rossi to last and second last on the grid respectively.
Barros made good progress all weekend as he and his team mastered the complex 5.38km circuit. He was placed 14th after the first Free Practice session and quickly found his pace. He narrowly missed pole position and was fourth fastest in the morning warm up.
The 33-year old made a reasonable start and was placed fifth at the end of the first lap. On the fourth lap championship leader Rossi knocked the Brazilian off line with an aggressive overtaking manoeuvre that pushed Barros off line. He recovered only to run off the track when he nearly lost the front whilst running behind Shinya Nakano’s smoking Kawasaki. Barros rejoined the race in 18th and courageously fought his way up to finish fourth.
Hayden had adapted to the new track well and never been out of the top 10 in any of the sessions. This morning he looked good in race trim and finished the 20-minute session fourth fastest. In the race he took a while to find a comfortable rhythm and eventually finished a respectable fifth.
The result is a tonic for the 23-year old who hadn’t scored a championship point since the British Grand Prix at Donington back at the end of July where he finished fourth. In the following race he fell whilst chasing the leading pack at Brno then missed the next GP after sustaining a broken collarbone when he fell from a supermoto machine. At the last GP in Japan he was caught in the first corner incident that saw six riders go out on the first corner.
Sete Gibernau won the race from team mate Colin Edwards (Honda) with Ruban Xaus (Ducati) taking the last spot on the podium. Rossi crashed out meaning that Gibernau has closed the gap to 14 points with three races remaining. The MotoGP circus leaps continents for next weekends Malaysian GP, with the Australian GP the following weekend as the season moves to its climax. The championship concludes in Valencia on the last weekend of October.
Nicky Hayden;
“The first few laps I just couldn’t get any feeling from the front of the bike. My first few laps were so slow it was embarrassing. I kinda got the feeling back in the front when the tyre was more scrubbed in and it felt much better. I managed to get going and get into a decent sort of rhythm. If I try and look positively we got a top five finish and this is the first time we’ve scored any points since Donington. It was nice to actually finish. I’m definitely not happy with how the race went. It wasn’t pretty and I can only think about moving onto Malaysia and starting all over again next week.”
Alex Barros;
“Really disappointed. I got a bad start and I saw Sete and Checa move away so I know I need to catch. I pass Xaus and then Valentino touched me and knocked me off line. I go in the dirty section of the track and come back a few places later. Then I see the Kawasaki smoking and I am right behind. I brake and I feel the front go so I just run off the track and come back in nearly last place I think.
I then have to recover everything and we start the race again. I know I had a chance to fight with Sete today. We had a great opportunity and we missed the opportunity. The machine felt good and I need to look positively forward. I need to win. I want a victory. We have three races left this year.”
