Kenny Roberts surfs to second
24/07/2005
And celebrates his first ever podium on Bridgestone tyres
Horrid conditions with torrential rain and cold winds at today’s British Motorcycle Grand Prix were just right for Suzuki star Kenny Roberts who surfed to a fantastic second position right behind reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi, to celebrate his first podium finish since the Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro back in 2002.
The 31-year-old Californian had only qualified in 16th position in Saturday’s dry qualifying session, but the poor weather conditions on race day put the emphasis on riding skills and tyre grip rather than general bike’s performance. In a crash-ridden race, Roberts took advantage of all the havoc around him, and moved up to fourth position in just the three opening laps. The 500 cc World Champion of 2000 even took second place for a while and managed to keep Valentino Rossi at bay until mid-race, before the Italian superstar made his move.
Roberts however had still had something under his sleeve and squeezed past Honda rider Alex Barros in the fast Coppice corner on the last lap of the race - a thrilling move that also showed the impressive qualities of his Bridgestone rain tyres, that offered good and consistent grip throughout the race.
Ducati stars Carlos Checa and Loris Capirossi confirmed the strong Bridgestone performance in the rain with fifth and sixth position. Whereas Kawasaki rider Shinya Nakano crashed early in the race, the steady performance of his German team-mate Alex Hofmann was rewarded with eighth place in the end. Roberts’ Suzuki team-mate John Hopkins seemed set for a strong top ten result as well, but crashed and finished eleventh after a pit stop.
Kenny Roberts - Team Suzuki MotoGP - 2nd position
“It was a fun day, and it felt great to be able to ride with these guys! My bike and my Bridgestone tyres worked really well today, but it was still easy to make mistakes. Rather than trying to push, I therefore just tried to maintain my lap times, and opened the throttle very gingerly. Patience was the key to success, and I tried to brake early and sneak past on the inside line whenever someone else would run wide or would highside. I found myself within the leading group very early on in the race, but I didn’t think of winning, I just wanted to be able to ride and to finish within the top guys. When Rossi overtook and pulled away, I knew there was no way of staying with him, he just has an incredible level of confidence right now. I concentrated on Alex instead, and was careful to attack him in a spot where I knew I wouldn’t endanger either of us. It feels great to be back on the podium - especially as the fast corners of the track were very slippery, and we were all riding on a very fine line!”
Hiroshi Yamada - Motorcycle Racing Manager - Bridgestone Motorsport“
A very good day for us! When the rain started this morning, all of us had a high level of confidence, because all of our riders tried different wet tyres in the wet warm-up, and everybody was very pleased with our wet tyre performance on this track. We were also prepared and expected a good result when it started to rain heavily before the race, and Kenny’r great ride proved us right. Obviously, victory was out of reach, but second please is still very good, and Kenny’s attack on the last lap was thrilling to watch. The fact that four of our riders finished within the top eight confirms our good performance here in Donington Park. We used the same soft tyre compound that we’d used in Shanghai when Hofmann’s Kawasaki replacement rider Olivier Jacque surprised us all with second place!”
Bridgestone Results:
2. Kenny Roberts (USA) Suzuki, 53.01,844, 5. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati, 53.11,695, 6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati, 53.21,996, 8. AlexHofmann (GER) Kawasaki, 53.43,292, 11. John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki, 53.32,212, DNF: Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki