From a press release issued by Honda:

HONDA RACING INFORMATION

2002 MotoGP 500 World Championship, round 11
Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril
September 6/7/8 2002

ROSSI AIMS FOR RETURN TO BUSINESS AS USUAL IN PORTUGAL

MotoGP leader Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) aims to reassert his dominance of the 2002 World Championship this weekend at Estoril, before embarking on a round-the-world odyssey that will take him and his rivals to Brazil, Japan, Malaysia and Australia in the space of five weekends. Sunday’s Portuguese GP is the last of nine successive European events that have kept riders and teams in GP racing’s Continental heartland since May’s Spanish GP. The season ends back in Spain, at Valencia, on November 3.

Winner of eight of the first nine GPs of 2002, Rossi looked capable of adding a ninth victory at the Czech Grand Prix a fortnight back when tyre problems forced him out of the race. Since then he’s been testing at Valencia and is confident that he can return to his winning ways at Estoril, where he comfortably won last year’s Portuguese 500 GP.

During the two-day Valencia session Rossi focused on improving power delivery and rear-end traction, as well as testing new Michelin tyres. Both he and team-mate Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) were comfortably within the circuit lap record.

“We needed the tests because the MotoGP competition is getting stronger,” says Rossi, whose Brno DNF was his first non-podium result of the year. “Obviously the problems we had at Brno weren’t the best way to start the second half of the 2002 season, but the Valencia tests went well, so I’m looking forward to Estoril. We need a good result there to maintain the momentum we had built up during the earlier part of the season.”

Ukawa is hoping for a less torrid time in Portugal after two painful crashes during practice for the past three GPs. The Japanese star was unable to race at July’s British GP after a massive get-off but bravely returned the following weekend to take third place in Germany. And he repeated that result at Brno despite another crunching tumble during morning warm-up.

“The last couple of races have been very strange,” he says. “I’ve been unlucky and lucky. I’ve been pretty sore since Donington and my condition wasn’t made any better by my Brno crash. However, at the Sachsenring and Brno I managed to get podium finishes as a result of retirements ahead of me, and I still hold second position in the championship, so I will try my hardest to keep it a one-two for the Repsol Honda Team.”

Rossi and Ukawa will have to work as hard as ever this weekend since Estoril is one of the circuits where the 500cc two-strokes could worry the new breed of 990cc MotoGP four-strokes. The four-strokes have won all ten races so far, but the Portuguese track’s ultra-twisting layout (it’s the slowest track on the GP calendar) offers the lighter and more manoeuvrable 500s a glimmer of hope.

As ever, team-mates Alex Barros (West Honda Pons NSR500) and Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500) will be trying everything they know to get their 500s to the front, but while they’re confident they’ll be quicker through Estoril’s twists and turns, they’re concerned that the track’s long start-finish straight will tip the balance against them.

“We already know that the four-strokes are much faster than us in a straight line,” says Barros, currently the highest-placed 500 rider in MotoGP, in fifth place. “Even if we can make some tenths on them through the slower section, I’m sure they’ll be able to catch and overtake us on the main straight. The question is, will they be able to do that before the start-finish?”

Capirossi, who returned from injury at Brno, is also unsure of what awaits him at this Atlantic venue, where the unpredictability is heightened by the track’s situation close to the ocean, which means that it’s often lashed by strong winds that blow dust onto the circuit, dramatically reducing grip.

“The wind and dust can be a real problem at this track,” says Capirossi, eighth overall after missing two races. “And this year will be more difficult that ever because the four-strokes will be very fast on the start-finish, so we’ll have to take extra risks to stay with them.”

Just one place and five points ahead of Capirossi is MotoGP rookie Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini RC211V), who goes into his second race on Honda’s all-conquering RCV V5, which has won all but one of this year’s races. The little Japanese was a brilliant second on his RCV at Brno and is looking to go one better on Sunday, especially after an impressive test at Valencia, where he lapped faster than that of Rossi and Ukawa.

“I think we can say that Brno was like a test session for us, and that we’re thinking about fighting for victory at Estoril,” says Kato, winner of the past two 250 GPs at the track. “I learned so much at Brno, mainly that the RCV is a fantastic motorcycle. It’s easy to control compared to the 500 I had been riding, but its most wonderful feature is its amazing spread of power. Of course, over race distance you have to think about conserving tyre performance and so on, but for sure I’ll be in good shape to fight for another top result at Estoril.”

Honda’s other two 500 riders hope for better this weekend after disappointing results in the Czech Republic. Tyre problems consigned Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) to a 15th-place finish. “That was a real shame, I just didn’t have enough rear grip,” says Harada. “Our main concern at Estoril will be sorting this problem, trying to make sure I have enough grip to do the lap times of which I’m capable.”

Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500) finished three places ahead of Harada at Brno, and might have done better if his rear tyre hadn’t picked up rubber from the track, forcing him to slow. “We made a step forward in terms of tyre performance at Brno,” says the Dutchman, who is developing MotoGP tyres for Bridgestone. “The people at Bridgestone are working incredibly hard, giving us new material for almost every race and since the tyres worked well two weeks ago, we can hope they’ll be better at Estoril.”