In his final outing for the Marlboro team, Max Biaggi headed the Hondas of Barros and Daijiro Kato, with the Red Bull 500 Yamaha of Garry McCoy fourth on the grid. Row two saw the Repsol Hondas of Rossi and Tohru Ukawa sandwiched by Carlos Checa’s second Yamaha, and eighth placed Jeremy McWilliams on the Proton triple. Loris Capirossi’s third best 500 was behind two more M1s and the first Suzuki GSV-R, with Shinya Nakano and Olivier Jacque either side of tenth placed Sete Gibernau.

The start saw four of the GP1 bikes take the point, but there was a nasty incident further back, involving two of the local riders. Checa’s bike failed to leave the line properly, and in the midst of the pack he was clouted hard from behind by José Luís Cardoso. Although Checa walked away from the incident, Cardoso appeared to be knocked out. Thankfully, he proved to be largely unhurt, and the wreckage was cleared quickly enough for the race to go on, under yellow flags at the incident site.

The shuffle at the front had seen Barros already pulling out a small gap as the leader, with the pursuing group made up of Kato, Biaggi and Rossi. Behind them was Nakano, on the first two-stroke, followed by Ukawa, McCoy, John Hopkins, Gibernau, Capirossi, Jacque, Kenny Roberts, Norick Abe, Nobuatsu Aoki and Jeremy McWilliams, already back to fifteenth. Up front, Rossi was quickly past Biaggi for third, while Hopkins was an early loser as he was demoted from eighth to twelfth.

Aoki posted the first racing retirement, while Rossi was further on the move, trying to keep Barros honest by moving up to second as Biaggi followed him past Kato. This foursome were already clear of the pursuing Ukawa, who had passed Nakano and was getting away from his compatriot. A bit further down, Roberts had overtaken Jacque, and McCoy had also been relegated to eleventh, ahead of McWilliams, Hopkins, Abe, Jürgen van den Goorbergh and Tetsuya Harada.

At the head of the field, Rossi set a fastest lap as he chased down Barros, and the Brazilian responded with one of his own. This pair continued to trade times as the leading foursome began to space out on the track and, meanwhile, McCoy was forced to take a stop-go penalty for a jumped start. He wasn’t to last much longer, as he fell in his haste to make up for lost time. Soon after it was the turn of Gibernau to run off track into the gravel, with last year’s race winner losing seventh place as result, but continuing on his way.

Although Barros, Rossi, Biaggi and Kato stretched their lead over Ukawa, who was now on his own, the group itself began to break up. The gap between P2 and P3 was growing ever wider, and it looked more and more like a two horse race. Nakano now held sixth position over Roberts, with Capirossi moving past Jacque for eighth, followed soon after by McWilliams. Behind them, both Abe and Goorbergh pushed Hopkins back to thirteenth, where he was followed by the wildcard riders Andrew Pitt (Kawasaki) and David García (Proton). Meanwhile, Harada, in his final GP, had to pit but was able to rejoin.

By half distance Rossi was running right on Barros’ tail, despite sliding a little wide in one or two turns, and there was no immediate pressure from behind. The next six riders - Biaggi, Kato, Ukawa, Nakano, Roberts and Capirossi - were each running on their own by now, but the battle for ninth was quite a close one, with McWilliams a little way ahead of a trio comprising Jacque, Abe and Goorbergh. In a last display of 500cc hardware, the Dutchman quickly joined McWilliams ahead of the M1 Yamaha pair.

Rossi began to really attack Barros now, only to find the Brazilian letting him past! He almost immediately returned the compliment, whereupon the gap began to grow again, although not by much. Further back, Capirossi had brought his Pons machine up behind Roberts’ Suzuki, but the Italian went down soon after in his attempts to move ahead. The seventh placed American had no time to reflect on this before he became the next retirement, gifting the place to McWilliams and his fast moving Proton.

In the last few laps there was little in the way of place changes, such had the field spread out, but the most intense tussle continued to be for first place. Rossi closed right in on Barros again, but he saw very few opportunities to pass and so waited for his chance. It came as they went into the first corner of the last lap,when the Brazilian ran wide and right up onto the exit kerbs. Valentino took full advantage, nipping alongside for the inside line as they approached turn two.

Braking as late as ever, Alex somehow grabbed back just enough ground to turn in ahead, on the outside of the Repsol machine, and was not tested again, despite Rossi’s continued attentions. It marked his sixth career win, and moved him to a close fourth place overall, just eleven points behind Biaggi in second. The last podium slot went to Max, with Kato, Ukawa and Nakano up next, and vd Goorbergh taking eighth from McWilliams in the dying stages. Rossi’s second meant he had scored more points in a year, and secured more podiums, than anyone previously - taking these records from Mick Doohan in his 1997 campaign.

In the 250cc race, Marco Melandri won for the ninth time this year, remaining largely unchallenged after the Spanish team-mates Fonsi Nieto and Toni Elías became indisposed. This pair ran two-three in the early stages, until Nieto went off in a front end slide, and then Elías dropped back with technical difficulties, and finished only tenth. This left the way clear for the Honda Gresini duo of Roberto Rolfo and Emílio Alzamora to make up the podium, with Rolfo holding of the crowd’s choice in a close tussle. The next finishers were Randy de Puniet, Roberto Locatelli, David Checa, Franco Battaini, Naoki Matsudo and Alex Debon.

The 125s saw the title decided at the last, with Aprilia’s Arnaud Vincent getting the verdict over Gilera’s Manuel Poggiali. With the 2001 champion making a mistake that cost him seven places from fourth position, Vincent was content to sit in behind local rider Daniel Pedrosa, as this pair had the best of the remaining field. Pedrosa duly won, to great acclaim, and Vincent was comfortably clear of Poggiali, who finished seventh, behind Pablo Nieto, Alex de Angelis, Steve Jenkner and Hector Barbera.

Check back here for a GP season review, as well as all the news of who goes where next year.

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