2001 Grand Prix 500 - Round 15

Proton Team KR rider Jurgen van den Goorbergh withdrew from the Malaysian GP, after suffering concussion in a crash in final qualifying yesterday. Although not otherwise injured, the 31-year-old rider was knocked unconscious in the crash, and was later taken to hospital in Kuala Lumpur for observation. A CAT scan revealed no serious injury, but Jurgen was still feeling groggy this morning, and the decision to rule him out of the race was taken by GP medico Dr Costa.

"This is a big event for our sponsors Proton, and I am very sorry not to be racing. We have been made very welcome and treated very well, so this is a big disappointment for me, and for the team. I don't remember the crash at all. The first thing I remember is being in hospital. My vision was very bad, and I felt very shaken up. "At least with Kurtis (Roberts) riding as a wild card, there will still be a Proton out there. This is the first time I have been unable to start a GP since 1993, so I am sorry also to have broken that long run."

Capirossi started from pole as nobody managed to beat his time from Friday's first qualifying during Saturday's final qualifying session. Rossi, Biaggi and McCoy rounded out the front row.

But it was Olivier Jacque and Kenny Roberts who led through turn one. Capirossi squeezed through on Jacque at the next corner. Biaggi was up to 3rd and Rossi 4th by the end of lap one, Barros 5th, McCoy 6th. West 16th.

McCoy was the fastest man on lap two. Kurtis Roberts crashed out at the start of lap three, not good for their major sponsor Proton which is based not far from Sepang. McCoy shot to 3rd after taking both Biaggi and McCoy in the same turn. Capirossi got through on Roberts for the lead, then McCoy also took Roberts. Biaggi went down after running in a little hot and hitting Kenny Roberts, taking them both out of the race. McCoy was the fastest man again on lap three and was chasing Capirossi for the lead.

McCoy tried to get under Capirossi which buggered the cornering lines of both of them up but Capirossi remained in front of McCoy, Rossi right with them. McCoy getting a little frustrated with not being able to find a way past Capirossi.

McCoy through for the lead. Rossi in to 2nd a lap later. McCoy leads from Rossi, Capirossi and now Abe in 4th. Rossi nearly had a big highside but managed to save it. A lap later Capirossi got through on Rossi to take 2nd but Valentino got it back shortly afterwards.

Rossi took the lead from McCoy at the end of the main straight to start lap thirteen of twenty-two after setting a new lap record on lap twelve. Abe up to 3rd. Rossi broke the record again on lap thirteen. Abe fell on lap thirteen.

ľ race distance and Rossi leads by a couple of seconds from the now 2nd placed Capirossi, 3rd placed McCoy and Nakano 4th. Ukawa further back in 5th, then Criville, Barros and Gibernau. The Shell Advance twin riders Leon Haslam and Brendan Clarke are in the points, 14th and 15th respectively.

McCoy got back up into 2nd a lap later but Capirossi and Nakano right on his case. Rossi had cleared out in front, making it look easy again.

Capirossi did an incredible late braking move at the end of the straight to take McCoy for 2nd. That was impressive braking indeed, it never looked as though he was going to get it stopped and turned in time but somehow he managed it.

As they started the last lap Nakano got through on McCoy but Garry got him right back. This little episode has allowed Capirossi to clear out a little room and make his 2nd place a lot safer.

Rossi takes his tenth win of the season from Capirossi, McCoy and Nakano. Biaggi makes a DNF once again and Capirossi moves within 4 points of 2nd place in the championship with one round remaining.

Anthony West 12th and Brendan Clarke 14th.

Valentino Rossi, 1st - "Even though the World Championship was already won to win a grand prix is always great. After all it was a 500cc class grand prix, not a 'Pallio della Ranna' (a competition for frogs) in a small village. I did not get a bad start but changing up from first to second gear I selected neutral so at the first corner there were many riders in front of me. The first lap was very difficult with so many aggressive riders around me but luckily when I passed the pits for the first time I was in fourth place, the situation almost under control. I saw that McCoy and Capirossi were trying to force the pace and decided to stay very close to them. But McCoy's riding style is so different from mine and it was difficult for me to hold my concentration having him in front of me sliding at every corner. So, at about midway through the race I decided to try and pass him. Once I did I immediately put together some laps in 2m 06s and made a gap that enabled me to finish the race in a relatively comfortable situation, despite the high temperature that left me feeling very tired after I had taken the chequered flag. As I said on Friday, the problem was to hold my concentration after having celebrated the World Championship win in Australia. I was able to do so and now we have just one race to go, at Rio in two weeks time. Like Sepang it's a track I like very much and I would like to end the season in the best possible way."

Loris Capirossi, 2nd - "I'm so happy, I have nothing to lose in Brazil. I now have a great chance of second place in the world championship. Just four points behind Biaggi, it's now a very important race. Whatever happens down there I will surely finish in third place. The race today was very hard, especially when the tyres started to go off.. I had real problems trying to pass Garry (McCoy) because of his riding style. I finally managed it with two laps to go and pulled away."

Garry McCoy, 3rd - "It was good to finish on the podium especially after struggling for so much of the season. It was a tough race though, especially with the heat causing the tyres to go off so soon. A couple of times, while I was in the lead, I tried to push and make a break, but I just couldn't get away from Valentino. What I'd like do now is go to Brazil and win it would be nice to end the year on a high note."

Shinya Nakano, 4th - "My start wasn’t so bad, I wasn’t so good either, but it was enough to keep me in touch with the lead group. In the first corner everyone closed the door so I lost some ground there, although it didn’t take me too long to get back in touch. The battle up front was running at a very hot pace, I guess that’s why there were a few crashes, but I tried to keep my rhythm and put in a charge near the end of the race. I was having a few problems with controlling the rear slides but I still had enough left to put in a few last lap attempts on Garry. Whatever the outcome, it was a fantastic dog fight!"

Tohru Ukawa, 5th - "It's the same story as always. I made a poor start, and I spent all of the race trying to recover positions. All in all, I think in Valencia, Australia and Japan: If I had started well, I'm sure that I would have made it to the podium finish. My pace lap by lap was one of the fastest in the race, which allowed me to overtake some of the riders. On the first laps, with a full tank, it is difficult to go fast, but from the sixth or seventh lap on, with less fuel n board, I start to feel much more comfortable even tough the tyres start to fade."

Alex Criville, 6th - "Not a bad performance after the race in Australia, even tough I would have preferred to be within the front group of Barros and Gibernau, the front runners were too far gone already. For a while it seemed as if we were able to get closer, but then Rossi took the lead, he upped the pace and started to push very hard and with him, the front group got away from us again. I'm still happy with the race I rode, even though I can't be satisfied with the result, I can't consider a good result. But at the same time it's obvious that if you are not at a hundred per cent, it is very difficult to get up onto the rostrum, and right now, I still haven't recovered completely."

Alex Barros, 7th - "It was difficult to follow the pace at the beginning of the race, but I thought I could do it. We hadn't a very good set-up on the front and that wore away the tyre too much. This weekend we only had two test sessions and we were short of time. I hope I will make a good race in Brazil to have a good end of the season."

Sete Gibernau, 8th - "After all the drama and replacing parts on the grid, the bike wasn't great, and I also made some mistakes with the chassis - I could have had it set up better. I got a bad start, but I was able to make up some places. After that, I just rode it as hard as I could. I was almost crashing all the time, making up for the speed I was losing on the straights. I think I was on the floor four or five times, but somehow managed to get up again. I guess today just wasn't meant to be our day."

Noriyuki Haga, 9th - "The first four or five laps were okay and I managed to stay with the lead group, but I didn't have the bike set up I needed to fight with the front runners. Today was a day for playing it safe, not crashing and making it to the finish line!"

Carlos Checa, 10th - "I got a good start, that's all I could do. The bike was chattering and if it wasn't chattering it was jumping around. The problems would start every time I flicked into a turn and laid the bike on its side. We tried everything to try and get around the problem and it's hard to know what was wrong, perhaps the chatter was something to do with the engine spec we were running, I just don't know. It's been a frustrating weekend."

José Luis Cardoso, 11th - "I’m happy with that result considering all the problems we had this weekend. In the warm-up this morning we tried one last thing and it worked, so I was actually able to race the bike rather than just ride it. I had a good battle with Carlos Checa the whole time and I think that a few more laps would have seen us all over Haga."

Anthony West, 12th - "In the early laps I was caught up with (Haruchika) Aoki, (Jose-Luis) Cardoso's V4, and (Kurtis) Roberts, changing positions and going back and forth. That meant I lost touch with the people in front. I was able to pull away when I got to the front of the group I was with, but I was too far away to catch anybody. I was riding completely by myself. After that I didn't have any problems with the bike. I was trying to keep my mind on the job with nothing to do except ride around in circles and try to keep my lap times consistent."

Norick Abe, 13th - "I can’t believe it, I crashed again! I think I’m jinxed here. Today I thought I was riding well, even putting in some hard passing moves. But from the beginning I was sliding the front everywhere. When Capirossi passed me he ran wide, so I shot up the inside and tried to get on the power a little earlier to get onto the straight in front of him. That’s when the front let go and I crashed."

Kurtis Roberts, DNF - "Everything seemed good for the first one-and-a-half laps, then I had some problem shifting and I went into Turn Four in too high a gear. That meant I lost touch with Aoki and Cardoso on one of the V4s. I was going fine again, and I went into Turn One the same way and the same speed I have all weekend, or maybe one or two km/h faster than the lap before, when the front tucked. If you do the same thing, then the bike should behave the same way, but it didn't It's down to a lack of set-up time. It could be a little because of the full tank, but it's more that we just didn't have a chance to get the bike right for me. I use a lot of front anyway, and this time it let go".

Olivier Jacque, DNF - "I managed to get a good start, but for some reason we were down on power compared to yesterday; or even this morning for that matter. So I tried to make up for it by getting on the gas earlier and braking deeper into the turns. I guess this pushed my tyres to their limits and wore them out quicker than expected, and that’s when I crashed. I lost the front heading into the turn."

Kenny Roberts, DNF - "That was really disappointing. That was the most comfortable I've been with the bike and the tyres for a long while, and I wasn't having any trouble with the pace. I believe I could have had a top-three rostrum finish. I led the first couple of laps, and when I got knocked off, Rossi had just passed me. He got into the turn a bit hot, and I squared it off, thinking I could get back underneath him again. But Max also got in a bit hot, and he couldn't do anything to avoid hitting me. I was in the right place, but at the wrong time. I've pulled a couple of muscles in my elbow, but hopefully I can be fit for the next race."

Max Biaggi, DNF - "I was coming through a little too fast. Kenny was going for his line and I ran into him. There's not much else to say except I'd like to give my apologies to Kenny."