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Rossi’s tenth win gives him fourth GP title
By Dan Moakes May 8 2003
Valentino Rossi continued his dominance of GP racing in 2002 by winning for the tenth time from twelve races. However, with the Brazilian Grand Prix from Río de Janeiro being the second wet race in a row, this event was not lacking for action.
Rossi was challenged for supremacy by the Suzuki of Kenny Roberts and the Yamahas of Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa - the Spaniard recovering strongly from a poor start. A mistake from Carlos gave ‘Vale’ the lead back, and the Italian ran out the victor.

Rossi went into this race knowing that he had to beat team-mate Tohru Ukawa by at least eleven points to be sure of winning the championship. In qualifying Valentino was second, behind Biaggi, and Ukawa was back on row three, in ninth place. Making up the first row were the impressive pairing of Jeremy McWilliams (Proton) and Garry McCoy (500 Yamaha).

As in Estoril, the race was run in very wet conditions, which allowed riders from further down the grid to come to the fore. The start duly saw Rossi go straight into the lead, but from Roberts, who was up from 16th. Next came Biaggi, McWilliams, Ukawa, second row man Jürgen van den Goorbergh, and the rest. Checa, who had headed up row two, suffered an awful start and dropped to virtually last. Meanwhile, an incident in the midfield pack immediately sent Proton’s Nobuatsu Aoki and Suzuki’s Sete Gibernau off track, and also put Daijiro Kato off his Honda and out of the race.

The early running saw home favourite Alex Barros take his Honda NSR500 up from tenth to seventh, whilst Roberts passed Rossi on the inside for the lead. Ukawa was also making progress, taking fourth from McWilliams, but he was out almost right away, as he fell when the front of his RCV slid out from under him. The Japanese rider’s championship hopes were virtually gone there and then and, although he tried to restart, his race was also done.

This left a lead battle between Roberts and Rossi, who began exchanging fastest laps and remained in close company as a result. Behind Biaggi, McWilliams was soon relegated to fifth by the quicker Barros. Van den Goorbergh and Olivier Jacque were now ahead of Norick Abe, who had got in front of McCoy.

Checa once again proved his wet weather skills with fastest lap times that helped him come through from fifteenth place to twelfth, and onwards. The conditions were not so kind to others, as both Shinya Nakano and fifth-placed McWilliams were terminal fallers at this stage. The Ulsterman had once again squandered a great opportunity for a very good result.

All of this helped Checa further, the Yamaha man having come past the likes of Loris Capirossi, McCoy, Abe and Goorbergh into an amazing sixth place, behind Jacque. He was not done, either, as he soon relegated the Frenchman and took over fifth position, again making the fastest lap time. He then did the same thing to Barros.

With no let up in the rain, Roberts and Rossi remained up front, and Biaggi was not far back in third. Further down, both Abe and Capirossi were now ahead of vd Goorbergh, with Gibernau behind him in P10, aided by a quick but non-terminal tumble for John Hopkins on the WCM Yamaha. The lead battle was about the get more interesting, with Checa spurring Marlboro Yamaha team-mate Biaggi on, and the pair coming up on the tail of the two front men.

This was the signal for Rossi to make his move, and he passed Roberts and immediately began to pull away. The American seemed unable to respond, and he then saw the following duo both go past in one move, and drop him off steadily. Checa proved that his come back was no flash in the pan by overtaking Biaggi and setting about the champion.

At this stage, no-one but Carlos Checa seemed worthy of the win, and he enhanced this view by taking his M1 ahead of the RCV and into P1. Sadly, it was all over a couple of corners later. Going into a right hander, the back of the Yamaha slid out from underneath the Spaniard and he was off. Echoing the predicament of Gibernau in Portugal, this incident left ‘the Doctor’ with enough margin to take out the race - his tenth of the season. Checa tried to restart his bike, but without success.

With the gaps back to Biaggi, then Roberts, then Barros all stable, the final action came a little further back. Capirossi, having qualified twelfth, now closed up on fifth-placed Abe, who had started a place ahead of him, and the Italian Honda man was able to pass and pull clear. The next positions were occupied by Jacque, Gibernau, van den Goorbergh, Laconi (until he fell on the final lap) and McCoy, who had not been able to replicate his practice form in these conditions.

With Ukawa out, Rossi’s points lead was up to 106, over Biaggi, with just 100 left available. After titles in 125, 250 and 500, Valentino has now taken the first crown in the new 990cc era, and looks set to define the standard required over the next several years - if he stays in GP that long.

Having threatened to several times previously, Argentina’s Sebastian Porto took his first victory in the 250cc race, beating Italians Roberto Rolfo, Franco Battaini and Marco Melandri. Fonsi Nieto remains second in the points to Melandri, despite a no score, but now has a gap of 45 to make up. Rolfo and the rest no longer have any realistic hopes of the title.

In the 125 race, Masao Azuma was victorious for the first time in 2002, having previously not finished higher than fourth, and he was followed home by championship rivals Arnaud Vincent and Manuel Poggiali. Gabor Talmacsi of Hungary was fourth - easily his best result to date, whilst Spaniard Daniel Pedrosa was out of luck on this occasion.

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