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Sportscar Show 2001
NEC Birmingham 28-29 April 2001

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This will be the 25th British GP since it moved to the mainland from the IOM in 1977. The first 10 GP’s were held at Silverstone, this year’s race will be the15th at Donington.

RESULTS click here

EVENT PREVIEW

If the action on the track this weekend is as exciting and fun-packed as the activities
were in the paddock on Thursday, the Cinzano British Grand Prix is sure to be one of the best yet. On a day usually reserved for the riders to quietly contemplate their race prospects
and the teams to finalise preparations for the battle ahead, it was all systems go as
thousands of race enthusiasts descended on the Derbyshire circuit for a day of thrills and
spills organised by recently nominated UK Charity of the Year Riders for Health.
The 'Day of Champions' project saw the riders' paddock opened to the public, with fans
taking the opportunity to meet their heroes and chat about life in the fast lane of MotoGP.
With quizzes, competitions and an auction amongst the many attractions, there was
never a dull moment under the blazing sun which shone down on the English venue
throughout the day. The showpiece of the event was a 'scooter shootout', which saw top
riders including Valentino Rossi, Leon Haslam and Marco Melandri go head to head in a
challenge to complete a slalom course on the start-finish straight and construct a giant
jigsaw in the quickest possible time.
Attention soon turned to the serious business at hand though, and the Championship
leader in the 500 class admitted he has reached a key stage of his title quest. "We have
this race and then one more before the break in the calendar, and it is extremely
important for me to maintain my lead over Max Biaggi," said Rossi, who holds a 21 point
advantage over his Italian compatriot. "I took my first ever 500 victory here last year in the
wet, but I'm hoping it stays dry this weekend because it is a track I like very much and
am sure I can go very fast on."
Biaggi, meanwhile, confessed to being disappointed with past results here on a 500, but
pointed to his 250 achievements at the venue and his new found love affair with the YZR
500 as his main weapons going into the first day of action tomorrow. "The Yamaha is
much more to my liking now, I feel 100% in myself and cannot remember a time when I
have ridden better in my life," he said. "It's taken us a while to tailor the bike to my needs
because it is suitable for a variety of riding styles, but we are happy with the way it is
going and with my record at this circuit in 250 we are hopeful of great success here this
weekend."
In the 250 class British rider Jeremy McWilliams may be too late to enter into the
Championship race with Daijiro Katoh and Tetsuya Harada, but his first ever win last
week in Assen has given him the confidence to improve on his near miss at his home
Grand Prix in the 500 class last year. "I fought all the way to the line with Valentino and
Kenny Roberts here last year, and it was one of those races that perhaps I should have
won. I have come very close so many times in the past so last week's result was
satisfying, but I won't be getting carried away and will prepare for this race just the same
as I would any other."
Manuel Poggiali leads the 125 class by a mere three points from Gino Borsoi as the
young brigade arrive on the British Isles. Toni Elias will be looking to convert himself from
a possible title contender to a serious challenger on the back of his first win last week,
whilst highly rated 15 year old Australian wildcard Casey Stoner will also be looking to
make an impression.

RESULTS

1st 46 HONDA Valentino ROSSI ITA Nastro Azzurro Honda
2nd 3 YAMAHA Max BIAGGI ITA  Marlboro Yamaha Team
3rd 4 HONDA Alex BARROS BRA  West Honda Pons
4th 41 YAMAHA Noriyuki HAGA JPN Red Bull Yamaha WCM
5th 7 YAMAHA Carlos CHECA SPA Marlboro Yamaha Team
6th 56 YAMAHA Shinya NAKANO JPN Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3
7th 28 HONDA Alex CRIVILLE SPA YPF Honda Team
8th 1 SUZUKI Kenny ROBERTS USA  Telefonica Movistar Suzuki
9th 19 YAMAHA Olivier JACQUE FRA Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3
10th 65 HONDA Loris CAPIROSSI ITA West Honda Pons
11th 15 SUZUKI Sete GIBERNAU SPA  Telefonica Movistar Suzuki
12th 17 PROTON KR Jurgen vd GOORBERGH NED Proton TEAM KR
13th 24 YAMAHA Jason VINCENT GBR Red Bull Yamaha WCM
14th 14 HONDA Anthony WEST AUS Dee Cee Jeans Racing Tea
15th 8 HONDA Chris WALKER GBRShell Advance Honda
16th 11 HONDA Tohru UKAWA JPN Repsol YPF Honda Team
17th 9 HONDA Leon HASLAM GBR Shell Advance Honda
18t 16 SABRE V4 Johan STIGEFELT SWE Sabre Sport
19th 68 PULSE Mark WILLIS AUS Pulse GP
 

500 FACTS & FIGURES * In the 500 class at Donington, Honda have taken five wins in the past six years. The last Yamaha win at Donington was with Simon Crafar in 1998. The last winner on a Suzuki was Kevin Schwantz back in 1994. * Simon Crafar still holds the lap record at Donington, which was set on the way to winning the race in 1998. * Valentino Rossi has won on each of the three occasions he has finished at Donington, the 125 race in 1997, the 250 race in 1999 and his first 500 class win last year. Rossi broke down while leading the 125 race in 1996 and crashed out of the 250 race in 1998 at McLeans after completing just two laps. Rossi is the only rider to have won in all three classes at Donington. * Max Biaggi has had two wins at Donington in the 250 class (1995 and 1996). He has not had a podium finish at the circuit from three starts riding in the 500 class. * Loris Capirossi has had more wins at Donington than at any other circuit having taken two wins in the 125 class and two in the 250 class. He has also started from pole at Donington on six occasions in the smaller classes. Loris Capirossi is the only rider in all classes of MotoGP to have finished in the top 10 at every event this year. * Norick Abe, who is scheduled to make his 100th Grand Prix start, has had two podium finishes from his six starts on a 500 at Donington. * Shinya Nakano has scored points in each of his first seven starts in the 500 class and is the highest place Rookie in the current Championship standings having scored 21 points more than second best newcomer to the 500 class Tohru Ukawa. * Alex Barros, who started on pole last year at Donington, has had nine starts on a 500 at the circuit with a best result of 3rd in 1997 on the V-twin Honda. He ran out of petrol while lying in third place in 1995, and was knocked off his Suzuki by Doohan on the first lap in 1993. * Alex Criville has had eight starts at Donington in the 500 class and had three podium finishes including a win in 1999. * Tohru Ukawa, has finished in fourth place at Donington in the 250 race for the past three years. Ukawa is the only one of the Rookies in the 500 class this year to have scored a podium finish. * Sete Gibernau’s eighth place finish last year was the first time he had made it to the finish at Donington in a 500 race. He retired from the race in 1997 after two stop-go penalties. He fell off during the race in 1998 and in 1999 he did not make it to the start due to injuries sustained in a crash during qualifying. * Kenny Roberts’ second place finish last year at Donington was his first podium finish from five starts there on a 500. Roberts has not had a top five finish since his win at Motegi at the back end of last year. * Carlos Checa has not had a top 10 finish at Donington from his five starts on a 500. He made his 500 class GP debut at Donington in 1995, but went out on lap after a collision with another rider at the Melbourne Hairpin. He also crashed in 1997 after completing just two laps and in 1999 on the first lap of the race. Checa missed the British GP in 1998 due to an injury sustained during a crash in qualifying. * Noriyuki Haga scored a double World Superbike win at Donington in 1998 on his debut ride at the circuit. * Jurgen vd Goorbergh´s 5th place finish on the V-twin Honda last year at Donington is his best ever result in the 500 class.

Jeremy McWilliams ends the British drought Jeremy McWilliams’ win at the Dutch TT ended a 15-year period without a British rider taking a GP win in any of the solo classes. Ian McConnachie was the last British rider to take solo GP victory, winning the 80cc race at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 1986. The last time a British rider took a win in the 250 class was when Alan Carter won the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in 1983. This win for Jeremy McWilliams has come after he has been the British rider who has achieved most in Grand Prix racing over the past few years as shown by the following: • 1997 - finished 10th in the final World Championship standings in the 250cc class - the first British rider to finish in the top ten in the 250cc Championship since Donnie McLeod in 1986. • 1998 - finished second in the 250cc race at the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring circuit - first British rider to finish on the podium in a 250cc GP since Donnie McLeod inished second at the Belgium GP at Spa in 1986. • 1999 - took pole position for the 250cc Grand Prix at Phillip Island in Australia - first pole position in the 250cc class for a British rider since Chas Mortimer took pole at the Belgium Grand Prix in 1979. • 2000 - finishes third in the 500cc race at the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello - first British rider to finish on the podium since Niall Mackenzie finished third at the British Grand Prix at Donington in 1993 riding a ROC Yamaha. • 2000 - qualified on pole for the 500cc race at the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island - first British rider to have taken pole in the 500 class since Niall Mackenzie at the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in 1987. A good day for Spain In addition to Toni Elias’ win at the Dutch TT, both Spanish riders Emilio Alzamora and David De Gea had their first ever podium finishes in the 250 class; De Gea had never before finished higher than eighth in any class of Grand prix racing. Here are a few statistics relating to Elias’ win and the Spanish podiums in 250: • Toni Elias became the youngest ever Spanish rider to win a Grand Prix. • The last Spanish rider to have a first time win in the 125 class was Emilio Alzamora in Argentina back in 1995. • The last time a Spanish rider finished on the podium in the 250 class was back in 1996 when De Gea’s team boss Luis D’Antin finished second at the Austrian Grand Prix. • The last time Spain had two riders on a 250 podium was at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in 1989, when Carlos Cardus won the race and Sito Pons came third. Toni Elias misses out by one day! In winning the 125 race at the Dutch TT Toni Elias becomes the sixth youngest rider of all time, just one day older than Manuel Poggiali when he won in France earlier this year and became the youngest non-Italian to win a Grand Prix. The following list shows the youngest riders to have won in Grand Prix, with Britain’s Alan Carter still the youngest rider to win outside the 125 class: RIDER -  AGE -  RACE 1. Marco Melandri 15 years 324 days Dutch TT/1998/Assen/125 2. Ivan Goi 16 years 157 days Austria/1996/A1-Ring/125 3. Loris Capirossi 17 years 123 days Britain/1990/Donington/125 4. Valentino Rossi 17 years 184 days Czech Rep./1996/Brno/125 5. Manuel Poggiali 18 years 95 days France/2001/Le Mans/125 6. Toni Elias 18 years 96 days Dutch TT/2001/Assen/125 7. Alan Carter 18 years 227 days France/1983/Le Mans/250