Newsgroup: it.sport
Titolo: Dorna NEWS - Marlboro Riders

First 125 & 250cc Qualifying
250s
HARADA SEVENTH 
Tetsuya Harada ended this afternoon's hot and sunny opening 250 
qualifying session in seventh place aboard his Marlboro
Yamaha Team Rainey YZR250. The Japanese ace's efforts were not helped by 
an engine problem that lost him 20 minutes of
the hour-long outing. "We lost one-third of the session while my 
technicians fixed the bike," said Harada. "After that I had to
do one or two easy laps to check everything was okay, and that cost us 
more time. The engine was not as good as it had
been before the problem, so we have plenty of work to do for tomorrow. 
"We are working hard on chassis settings. I'm
using experimental Michelins tyres here Ğ the front is the same as I 
used during the IRTA tests here, but I tried a new rear for
the first time today. We are still getting some patter but it's not 
nearly as bad as it was at Mugello two weeks ago."
SUTER A GREAT SIXTH
Marlboro rider Eskil Suter was a great sixth fastest on his factory 
Mohag Aprilia. "I don't want to get too excited, but I think
the problems we had in Mugello and Imola are over," said the Swiss ace. 
"This afternoon Jan Witteveen from Aprilia gave me
some new cylinders and my bike was the fastest on top speed. Now we'll 
wait and see what we can do tomorrow."
BIAGGI CRASHES
Not even a crash could prevent Max Biaggi (Chesterfield Aprilia Team) 
from taking provisional pole. The Italian fell
mid-session and was able to complete only one more lap, but he'd already 
gone fast enough, ending the session 0.046
seconds ahead of local hero Olivier Jacque (Chesterfield Elf Tech 3 
Team). "I don't know why I crashed," said Biaggi. "I was
starting to come out of the turn when the bike slid away from me and 
I've no real idea why it happened. Perhaps there was
some dirt or a stone on the line. Considering that, I'm a little 
surprised to be on pole."
125s
OETTL TUMBLES OUT Italian 125 GP winner Peter Oettl did not make the 
best of starts to the French Grand Prix. The
Marlboro Team Eckl rider crashed his Aprilia halfway through this 
afternoon's opening 125 qualifying session. Though unhurt,
Oettl was unable to take any further part in today's action. "I fell 
during my second outing  we normally run two 20 minutes
'sessions' during qualifying," said Oettl. "I was just starting to get 
down to some good times when the back tyre stepped out
as I was exiting the Epingle left hander." Oettl ended the session 15th 
fastest, around 1.3 seconds slower than provisional
pole sitter Tomomi Manako (Honda). Team-mate Manfred 'Tex' Geissler also 
crashed out of the session, dropping his
Aprilia shortly after Oettl's accident. The young German had been 
suffering engine problems earlier in the session.
-- 
Dorna NEWS is a service of
FIM World Motorcycle Championship
Official Information Service
http://www.dorna.com
Developed by Delta Tre Informatica srl
http://www.deltatre.it

First 500cc Qualifying
BAYLE A BRILLIANT THIRD
Jean-Michel Bayle scored a superb provisional front-row start during 
this afternoon's baking hot first qualifying session at
Circuit Paul Ricard. Practising for his first 500 French GP, the former 
motocrosser moved up to third in the closing stages
aboard his Marlboro Yamaha Team Roberts YZR500, and was making a bid for 
provisional pole when he slid off at the final
turn on his last lap. He was unhurt in the tumble. "I'm pretty happy 
with the way things are going so far," he said. "This
morning we worked mainly on chassis settings. We started with the same 
set-up we ran during the Imola tests last week, but
Imola is a fast track where you need stability, while quick steering is 
the priority here. We changed the chassis set-up
accordingly and it seems okay now. The gearbox is fine too, and I did my 
fastest lap on race tyres." It was a pity I crashed
because it was a fast lap, maybe my quickest. The marshals were showing 
red and yellow flags (to indicate a slippery patch)
at that corner, but they'd been out for several laps and the track had 
seemed okay."
CAPIROSSI FOURTH 
Loris Capirossi led the early stages of the session, then fell from his 
Marlboro Yamaha Team Rainey YZR500, finally finishing
the session fourth fastest. The young Italian was pushing hard and 
trying to overtake Carlos Checa (Honda) when he crashed
mid-session. "Checa was going slower than me and I ran just a little 
wide to try and get past him Š I think the track must
have been dirty there," said Capirossi, who was unhurt and completed the 
session on his other machine. "I actually went
faster on my other bike and I feel good now, though we have plenty more 
work to do. The Yamaha's top speed is good, but
we're still losing out a lot to the Hondas on acceleration."
ROBERTS JUNIOR GRABS FIFTH
Kenny Roberts Junior rode another impressive qualifying session this 
afternoon, taking fifth fastest time in the closing stages,
despite problems with one of his machines. The Marlboro Yamaha Team 
Roberts man is also riding in some discomfort
following a crash during last week's IRTA tests at Imola. "Six laps into 
the session I was following Checa down the Mistral,"
recounted Roberts. "He ran wide into Signes and up and over the kerb, 
where there's a lot of gravel. He was still hard on the
gas though and he just sprayed my bike with stones. I got peppered and 
the stones holed the rad, so I had to come back into
the pits. "I went out on my spare bike but it wasn't running right. My 
guys got my best machine ready with 18 minutes to go. I
went out and then came back in for new tyres and that gave me seven hard 
laps, but we never got to anything on settings.
"We've still got a lot to do but I've got to hand it to my guys, they 
did a great job getting me out there again. I need to thank
Edwige, Jean-Michel's girlfriend, too. Last week I had my first crash 
since I broke my leg. A hose clip broke and I fell down
hard and slapped my leg pretty hard. The leg swelled up and it's real 
sensitive Š I could hardly walk on Tuesday when
Edwige gave me this French mud to put on my leg. I'm using before and 
after every session, and I don't think I'd be riding
without it!"
ABE LEARNING
Norifumi Abe finished this afternoon's first qualifying session 15th 
fastest aboard his Marlboro Yamaha Team Roberts
YZR500. The Japanese ace, winner of April's Japanese Grand Prix, has a 
super-fast corner-entry style and is struggling to
find the right front slick to give him the kind of grip he needs for a 
fast Ricard lap. "The main problem is that there are only
two left handers here, so the left of the tyre doesn't get so warm," he 
said. "Because of that, the front tyre is pushing a lot
through the lefts. We are running a softer construction Michelin here, 
but we still have more to do."
CRIVILLE ON TOP 
Marlboro rider Alex Criville rode a storming session on his Repsol 
Honda. The Spaniard was top of the table for much of the
outing, and when Mick Doohan toppled Criville on his penultimate lap, 
Criville was able to respond on his final lap, to grab
back provisional pole position. "I feel very comfortable here," said 
Criville, who has pushed Doohan hard at the last two GPs.
"The bike is working well and we've been doing a lot of work on 
suspension set-up and tyre choice, but we still need to
make some improvements. It's good to be on top Š but we aren't going to 
stop working."
CADALORA HITS PROBLEMS
Engine problems prevented Luca Cadalora from putting in some fast times 
aboard his Kanemoto Honda. The Italian ended
the first session 16th quickest. "This morning's session went quite well 
and the bike seemed okay," said the Marlboro rider.
"But this afternoon the engine wasn't working at low rpm and I was 
losing a lot of time as I tried to accelerate out of the
turns."
DOOHAN TOPPLED
World Champion Mick Doohan completed day one of qualifying second 
quickest. The Aussie held pole for a matter of
seconds at the end of the session, but was toppled by team-mate Alex 
Criville. "The tests we did here in May helped us get a
good base set-up," said Doohan, who is the only 500 rider who raced in 
the 500 class at the last Grand Prix at Circuit Paul
Ricard. "But the track temperature was a lot colder when we tested here 
(it was only 18 degrees centigrade in May, while
today's temperature was 38 degrees), so we've still got some fine tuning 
to do. This place is not a technical sort of racetrack.
The main thing you've got to watch is that there are only two left-hand 
turns. You don't get much heat building into the left
side of the tyres, so when you tip the bike in, it runs wide in those 
two turns."
BEATTIE SIXTH
Daryl Beattie completed day one at Ricard in sixth place on his Lucky 
Strike Suzuki. Beattie was followed by
much-improved Elf 500 ride Juan Borja and stunning French privateer 
Frederic Protat (ROC Yamaha). "We're working on
feel, trying to get the bike to turn good," said the Australian. "The 
left handers are a bit of a problem because there's only two
of them, but we're still struggling with the rights! The lefts don't 
seem as bad as they did when we tested here, because it's a
lot warmer. But we're better off here than if we were at Le Mans, we 
really struggled with edge grip there last year."
