Checa claims fifth for Marlboro Yamaha team.

Carlos Checa put in a determined ride at the South African MotoGP World Championship round, held at Welkom on April 21, to finish the 28-lap race in fifth place. Up until the closing stages the Spaniard had held onto a solid fourth place when 2001 MotoGP 250 World Champion Daijiro Katoh (Honda) made a late charge to dive through on the penultimate lap. It was a result that could have slipped through the Marlboro Yamaha Team rider's fingers when he stalled the YZR-M1 on the warm-up lap and was forced to push start the four-stoke machine on his own. He eventually made the grid before the green to start from his allotted seventh place.

"I rode my maximum today," said Checa. "But although I'm happy with the job we've done I'm not so happy with the result. In fact I won't be happy until we're fighting for the win. We are all working very hard and I know the bike will get better.

"I was already quite tired by the start of the race because I'd stalled the bike at the start of the warm-up lap and had to push-start it. After the start I was able to pass a few guys and work my way into fourth, which was the maximum result I could expect here. The bike's performance was very stable through the race, though I was losing some time up the back because the tyres were moving around a bit. Eventually it meant I lost fourth place."

The race looked set to produce a second consecutive Valentino Rossi (Honda) victory after both he and his teammate, Tohru Ukawa, broke away from the rest of the field. Only Loris Capirossi (Honda) - who finished the day third - was able to keep the two four-strokes in sight. Then at two-thirds race distance Ukawa made his first attempt on the race lead, which he took successfully and held until Rossi fought back on lap 26. An unexpected mistake by the defending MotoGP world champ, when he out-braked himself, opened the door for Ukawa. The Japanese took advantage of the mistake only to be attacked by the Italian on two more occasions, but Rossi wasn't able to make the moves stick and Ukawa was left to take his first MotoGP race win.

Olivier Jacque (Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3) attempted to follow Katoh's move on the final lap, but couldn't find a way by Checa'sYZR-M1 and was forced to be contented with sixth place. Even so the Frenchman was more than happy with the result. Hot on Jacque's tail was the No. 6 machine of Norick Abe (Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin) with eighth placed Shinya Nakano (Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3), in turn, all over his back wheel.

"Those last six laps were awesome!" Jacque exclaimed. "It was that close I nearly ran up the rear of Checa on more than one occasion. The start, though, was difficult with every one all over each other, but I really enjoyed it.

"The only tough part was the first few laps, with a full fuel tank. It kept pushing the front into the turns, which made it hard to hold the right line. Once I got through that I found my rhythm and came on the back of Katoh, but I didn't have enough left to follow him when he made the pass on Checa. Still I'm happy because we achieved our target."

"Not a good race for me; I'm quite disappointed because I felt that we could have done better than eighth," said Nakano. "At the start I didn't push hard enough and then I just couldn't find the rhythm. On the last lap I did try to get past Abe, but I lost the front-end and he came back in underneath me."

"Today the race was of a really high standard," said Abe. "I was putting in some pretty good lap times yet I still couldn't improve on seventh place. I'm now just looking forward to getting into the European part of the championship where I'm sure things will improve."

Meanwhile clutch problems saw Max Biaggi (Marlboro Yamaha Team) off to a poor start, but the Italian put in a hard run to recover a number of places and eventually finished the day ninth - two seconds ahead of a determined Garry McCoy (Red Bull Yamaha WCM).

"I had some problem with the clutch and the engine braking system this morning, though we've never had this problem before," said Biaggi. "Without this I would have had a better start and a better race, as the problem was also affecting me as I rode into the corners. Because of that I found it difficult to gain any positions."

"I made a great start and I felt quite comfortable holding fifth place," said McCoy. "I knew that there was no real chance that I could run with the lead group so I just tried to keep my head down and be consistent. But around the 15th lap or so I started having some big front-end slides, which made it harder work for me. I think it was this that brought on the pain from my leg and I just started thinking about finishing safely and getting some good points."