Results 125/250 Races British GP

Dajiroh Katoh (Telefonica Movistar Honda) re-established his domination of the 250 class with what turned into a simple win, after the factory Aprilia of Tetsuya Harada (MS Aprilia) ran into problems half-way through the race. In what seemed to be an engine problem, Harada suddenly dropped back, with lap times that were 3 or 4 second slower than Katoh and slipped down the field, eventually finishing in 18th. place, almost being lapped by the winner. Other factory Aprilias that had a poor weekend were Roberto Locatelli (MS ERos Ramazotti Aprilia) who crashed heavily in practice and did not start the race and Jeremy McWilliams (MS Aprilia) who crashed on lap 16 while fighting for second place. He may have hurt himself as he initially got to his feet, before dropping back on to the gravel. Katoh himself almost blew it, when, with a 13 second lead, he missed a gear going into Goddards and took to the grass. He kept the bike upright and rejoined the track still 5 seconds ahead of second place, giving his pit crew a reassuring wave as he headed down the front straightaway. He made no second mistake, running the fastest laps of the race and pulling away for an easy win.

Harada had set the fasest time during practice, but Katoh was not far behind and both got away from the line cleanly. In fact the first lap was ridden with most of the top 10 riders in the position they had been on the starting grid. Harada led Katoh, with a small gap on the battle for third between McWilliams, Melandri (MS Aprila) and Alzamora (Telefonica Movistar Honda). After his win in Assen, McWilliams was determined to do well at his home GP, the 3rd. place finish on the Aprilia twin in the 2000 500cc race driving him on to do better. The three riders were pretty evenly matched, Melandri just able to hold on to third under strong pressure from McWilliams. With Harada fading badly, their battle was for second place from lap 12, with Roberto Rolfo (Safilo Oxydo Aprilia) again riding very well and joing the tail of the group on lap 9. With McWilliams crashing at Coppice on lap 16 and Alzamora fading a little, the focus of the race was on the all-Italian Aprilia struggle for second. Rolfo rides a semi-factory Aprilia, with Melandri on the best of the factory material, but Melandri was clearly having difficulty with the bike, complaining later that he had been unable to find a good race setting for the machine. Melandri held on to second place until the penultimate lap, but Rolfo passed and pulled away from him to take the runnerup spot, 10 seconds behind Katoh.

Youichi Ui (L&M Derbi) has had a very difficult season so far, falling well short of his status as firm favourite for the 2001 title. As he said himself after the race, he had to show that he really was capable of winning and this he did in convincing manner at the British track. In what was a pretty boring race, he quickly moved to the head of the field and pulled away from the rest of the riders for a comfortable win, pulling himself back into contention for the championship title. The first 2 laps and the last 2 laps saw all the action. Poggilai (Gilera), Ui, Elias (Telefonica Movistar Honda) and Azuma (Liegeois Honda) all got good starts from the front row, but were joined at the front by Jaruslav Hules ( Matteoni Honda) and Stefano Purugini (Italjet). For 2 laps these riders bumped and barged their way around the track until Hules crashed at Goddards, the slow lefthander leading onto the front straightaway. This gave Ui and Elias the possibility to break away from the rest, with Ui taking the lead on lap 4. The leaders spread out with Ui way ahead of Azuma, with a fight between Elias and Poggiali for third place. As the race came to a close Azuma had to slow with tire problems and Elias and Poggiali caught him with just 3 laps to go. The last lap was pretty mad, with all three riders chopping and slicing alongside each other, with a particularly aggressive passing move by Elias on Poggiali at the very slow Melbourne loop at the head of the track. Poggilai was incensed by the move that forced him into third and kicked out at Elias as they passed the line. A couple of 18-year old hot heads....

Next race German GP Sachsenring 22 July