The 250cc World Championship had boiled down to a two-way race between Melandri and Spaniard Fonsi Nieto, both on Aprilia machinery. It was this pair that took control of the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island, leaving their nearest challengers to fight it out for third. Melandri needed only to finish within two points of Nieto to tie up the title, while Fonsi had to make sure of the win.

Nieto duly went in front early on, but with the Italian right on his tail. The following group, comprising Toni Elías, Roberto Rolfo and Sebastian Porto, could not keep up. Indeed, Elías was eventually dropped by the Honda-Yamaha pair, at which point he came under attack from Randy de Puniet. Roberto Locatelli went out of contention when he crashed his Aprilia.

The leading duo continued to increase the pace, and Melandri took the lead from Nieto. But, as the race wound up dramatically, Fonsi made his move. These two managed to swap places on almost every other corner of the final lap, and Nieto was sat right behind as they approached the line. Attempting to draft his way past at the finish, the Spaniard was virtually alongside Marco, but lost out by 0.007s. Porto was third, from Rolfo, Elías and de Puniet.

The main GP1 event started with the unexpected sight of four two-stroke machines on row one, three of which were on Bridgestone tyres. The flowing nature of the Phillip Island course allowed for the Michelin-shod four-stroke race winners to be relegated to the second row, against most expectations. Pole sitter Jeremy McWilliams, on the Proton 3-cylinder, was joined by team-mate Nobuatsu Aoki, third, as well as Garry McCoy, second on a Yamaha, and Jürgen van den Goorbergh’s Honda. For this group, the start would be all important.

Row two saw Alex Barros, Tohru Ukawa, Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi, in that order, with Loris Capirossi and Daijiro Kato making up the top ten. Régis Laconi was well placed on the Aprilia, next to Kato, with Honda wildcard Shin’ichi Itoh among those on row four. Norick Abe, on an M1 Yamaha for the first time, would not start, due to a spill during practice that left him last on the grid.

Unfortunately for the 500 teams, McWilliams in particular failed to anticipate the lights, and it was the RC211V Hondas that came to the front initially. Barros led from the Repsol bikes of Rossi and Ukawa, with Kato heading the front row mounts of McCoy and Goorbergh. Seventh was Kenny Roberts, in front of a close tussle between Suzuki team-mate Sete Gibernau and Yamaha’s Biaggi, which the Spaniard initially won. Aoki had dropped to tenth, ahead of Capirossi, Laconi, John Hopkins, and McWilliams, who had lost thirteen positions off the line. Behind ‘Jezza’ came Shinya Nakano, Carlos Checa, Olivier Jacque, Andrew Pitt, Itoh, José Luís Cardoso and Tetsuya Harada.

As the first lap was completed, Barros was already putting a bit of gap between himself and Rossi, and Ukawa was now fending off Goorbergh, from McCoy and Kato. This battle for third was where much of the early action was to be seen, with Jürgen passing Tohru and countryman Daijiro also putting on the pressure. This allowed Rossi to move clear, and turn his attention to latest nemesis Barros.

Capirossi was the race’s first retirement, due to front suspension problems, and twelfth placed McWilliams also had an early moment of difficulty. The rapidly progressing Ulsterman, trying to make up for his start, went into one bend too fast, and forced himself off track temporarily. He was faced with a fight back from P20. At the front, Barros and Rossi began trading fastest laps, but it was the Brazilian who was able to stretch out his lead. The remainder of the field began to break up into separate groups.

Still very close were the third to fifth placed riders, with Kato going ahead of Ukawa on the start-finish straight, and a little way behind vd Goorbergh it was McCoy and Roberts together. Eighth was now being disputed by Biaggi, Aoki and Gibernau, and the next runners were in the order Jacque, Checa, Laconi, the advancing Itoh, Nakano, Cardoso and Hopkins. McCoy began to move clear of Roberts, with Gibernau, having lost out to both Biaggi and Aoki, now coming under pressure from Jacque.

As Itoh retired, interest remained centred on the trio of fellow Honda riders going after third place. Both Ukawa and Goorbergh were able to get past Kato in one go and, meanwhile, Aoki’s Proton was getting the better of Biaggi for eighth. As Laconi’s Aprilia became the next bike to withdraw, the race up front began to get very lively, and Rossi soon drew right up onto Barros’ tail. For several laps Valentino attacked the Pons team rider, especially into turn one and the downhill hairpin corner, but always Alex’s smooth late braking kept him in front. At one point, Vale almost backed his bike into the other RCV on the brakes, but somehow he kept things clean.

The riders in places six to ten now came together as one close group, thanks to McCoy’s slowing Red Bull Yamaha. The Australian was quickly pushed to the back of this queue, behind Jacque, whilst Biaggi and Aoki both passed Roberts in the same short period of activity. The reason for McCoy’s difficulty became apparent when he pitted to have his rear Dunlop changed, and dropped a lap behind in the process. Following the now ninth placed Jacque at this stage were Checa, Gibernau and a very fast McWilliams, then Nakano, Hopkins and the place swapping duo of Cardoso and Harada.

Barros maintained his lead from Rossi, who looked to be just holding position, with home rider McCoy now sitting right behind them, although out of contention. Kato was able to quickly pass both Goorbergh and Ukawa for third, whilst Aoki moved his Proton into sixth at the downhill hairpin, only for Biaggi’s M1 to breeze right back past on the straight. A little way down was McWilliams, who backed up his qualifying performance by passing both Gibernau and Checa to run tenth. This form made his poor start look particularly costly.

As the race neared it’s conclusion, with four laps to go, Rossi made his move and took the lead away from Barros. The Brazilian had a small ‘moment’ as he tried to respond, but managed to get back on terms with the champion. An attempt to re-pass saw Alex run too wide, and he had to slot into second again. Action behind was no less exciting, as Ukawa passed Kato into the final lap, and Aoki continued to look for a way past Biaggi.

Barros remained intent on adding a sixth GP win to his CV, and he shaped up for one last late braking attempt to retake the lead. As the pair approached a right-hander, Alex dived onto a very tight inside line. There was no way he could make the corner, and he was forced to run straight into an escape road while Rossi continued on, still shadowed by McCoy. The quick thinking Barros had enough in hand to rejoin in second place, and he duly salvaged that position, while Rossi added his eleventh victory of 2002.

Third went to Ukawa, with Kato grabbing fourth from the impressive van den Goorbergh on the line. Behind this trio came Biaggi and Aoki, with Jacque also making a place on Roberts at the last. McWilliams salvaged tenth place, ahead of Checa and Gibernau, but Hopkins was a late loser having run off the road and had to pick his Yamaha up to continue. These results allowed Ukawa to close to within a point of Biaggi, for second, with one race left to run.

The 125 race began life as a seven way struggle, until second placed Alex de Angelis had to pull out, and Simone Sanna was dropped off the lead pack. Nevertheless, the racing was highly entertaining, with plenty of overtaking to be savoured. Early leader and champion elect Arnaud Vincent was somehow demoted by Lucio Cecchinello, Daniel Pedrosa, Manuel Poggiali and Pablo Nieto. Then Nieto came through from fourth to second, while Pedrosa went the opposite way. The final lap saw Poggiali pass Cecchinello for the win, from Nieto, Vincent and Pedrosa. The result gave Vincent an eight point advantage over Poggiali, down from twenty. Sanna, Jenkner, Azuma, Olivé and Dovisioso completed the top ten.

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