Doohan miscounts

Motorcycling

The Italian Luca Cadalora won the German 500cc Grand Prix at the Nurburgring yesterday as the world champion Michael Doohan made an error counting the laps. Cadalora, riding a Honda, came home 0.2sec ahead of the Australian, who leads this year's championship.

It was Cadalora's second win of the season and the eighth of his career in 500cc racing. The Spaniard Alex Criville was third.

Doohan said he had not made a last-ditch attempt to regain the lead on the last lap because he had miscounted and thought he had another lap to go. "I messed up on the number of laps to go and should have concentrated harder on the pit board," he said. "But Luca rode a great race."

Doohan has fallen on his two previous outings at the Nurburgring and had said he would be happy just to finish here.

Cadalora's win moved him up to third place in the championship with 106 points from eight of the 15 races this season. His other win was in the first race of the season in Malaysia. Doohan remains leader with 166 points ahead of Criville on 109.

In the 250cc class, Ralf Waldmann won on his Honda, his second victory in succession. He closed the gap in the championship on the leader Italian Max Biaggi who finished fourth. Waldman's team-mate and fellow German Jurgen Fuchs was third.

Results, Digest, page 19