Five of the RCV’s seven pilots topped the timesheets in qualifying, with Pramac’s Max Biaggi (first) and Makoto Tamada (second) fastest. The works Repsol machines of Rossi and Nicky Hayden were third and fifth, respectively, with the American rookie in his best position to date. Valentino’s closest challenger, Telefónica’s Sete Gibernau, was right there in fourth.

For once, the Ducati riders could not get their V4 mount amongst the leading Hondas, Loris Capirossi lining up sixth and Troy Bayliss back in tenth. These two were split by the principal Yamahas of Carlos Checa (seventh), Alex Barros (eighth) and Marco Melandri (ninth). Tohru Ukawa’s RCV was eleventh, from Shin’ya Nakano’s M1, before the best of the rest - Colin Edwards had his Aprilia thirteenth, with Suzuki’s wildcard rider Akira Ryo fourteenth.

In amongst the remaining runners - the regular Suzuki, Proton, Kawasaki and WCM entries - was Tamaki Serizawa, making his second start on the Honda-powered Moriwaki MD211VF. As the first Japanese race since the death of Honda’s Daijiro Kato, Motegi was also the scene of a small ceremony to commemorate the former 250cc star’s career, and officially retire his number 74 plate from GP racing.

The start went well for Gibernau, as he leapt into an immediate lead from Biaggi, Hayden, Rossi, Capirossi, Tamada, Barros, Olivier Jacque (up from fifteenth to eighth), Ukawa, Nakano and Ryo. Not so lucky were Bayliss, Checa and Suzuki’s John Hopkins, who managed to come together on the first bend and head straight into the gravel run off. None of them would rejoin the track. Early movers were Rossi, past team-mate Hayden; and Ukawa, past Jacque.

The leading eight riders quickly became two groups of four, although Gibernau seemed to be pulling away from Biaggi, despite not being 100% well. The Italian responded, mounting an attack on the inside of turn one and getting through. Meanwhile, Bridgestone-shod Tamada was on another mission, passing Capirossi to lead the second group, and then chasing after the four Honda men out front. Marco Melandri’s start had not gone well, but the fifteenth placed man set an early fastest lap as he made his intent clear.

With Capirossi unable to hang onto Tamada, the four-way battle for the lead evolved into a five-hander. Biaggi brought the fastest lap down as he began to pull away, but this was beaten by Tamada as he came up behind Hayden. No doubt seeing Biaggi’s progress, Rossi moved ahead of Gibernau and broke the lap record as he went after his big rival. With Hayden sliding the rear of his fourth placed machine, Tamada was on the attack.

The pace of Biaggi and Rossi became such that they began to move clear of Gibernau, but then Valentino made a mistake. Going late and wide into turn one, the champion went off the track. It caused enough of a delay to drop him behind Marco Melandri, and into ninth position, and meant that we were in for a bit of excitement as he fought his way back. Meanwhile, Biaggi was now out on his own, leaving Gibernau, Hayden and the rapid Tamada to dispute second.

With Biaggi apparently in control, and building up his lead, the focus moved further back. Tamada kept the pressure on Hayden, finally getting past on the inside at a right-hander, whereafter he went in pursuit of Gibernau. A couple of times Makoto attempted to pass, only to see the Spaniard able to fight back right away. This allowed Hayden to keep in touch, regardless of the harder rear Michelin tyres being used by the Repsol men.

Whilst all this was going on, Rossi was on the move. The riders in positions five to eight were closely matched, but a little spread out as they motored on. Valentino successively moved past Melandri, Capirossi, Ukawa and Barros, none of whom had much answer. He was then faced with a gap of over five seconds to make up to Hayden, but proceeded to break the lap record again as he charged forward. And he underlined his abilities by catching his team-mate.

As Biaggi had taken his lead beyond 4.0s, the race was now all about second position. Tamada attacked Gibernau, but took himself wide and lost out to both Hayden and Rossi. Then Valentino managed to overtake Hayden on the inside at a right-hander, and immediately get through on the inside of Gibernau at the following left-hander. He was left with 5.0s to make up on Biaggi, and only five laps to do it in.

However, this was just a bit much too ask. Indeed, ‘the Doctor’ now found that he was unable to pull away from his RCV pursuers, and was left to finish second. But third was still undecided, and Tamada looked anxious to make up for his mistake. After his third place in Brazil, he was keen to do the same in front of his home crowd. His first move on Hayden took him too wide, but he finally slipped inside at the right-hander at the end of the back straight, on the penultimate lap.

Now his target was Gibernau and, on the final lap, he got himself alongside the Spaniard as they came onto the back straight. Unfortunately, the two touched as they approached the corner, and it was enough that Sete went wide. On the outside, he was only ever on target for the gravel trap. Although he did get his bike back onto the circuit, it was only just in time to beat Melandri to fifth position. Tamada was third, with Hayden fourth, but the Japanese was excluded afterwards, for causing an avoidable incident.

Melandri’s progress had been impressive. The early stages had seen him get by several riders in quick succession, including Ryo, Nakano and Jacque. Then he had joined onto the back of the Barros-Ukawa-Capirossi group, and ultimately got past each of these in turn for his best finish to date. Capirossi had been going backwards from his early fifth place, but eventually rounded out the top eight behind Barros and Ukawa.

Nakano and Ryo were next, with the Suzuki man five places ahead of regular team leader Kenny Roberts, and the points for eleventh to fourteenth went to Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda), Noriyuki Haga (Aprilia), the disappointing Jacque, and Proton’s Nobu Aoki. Retirements had included Jeremy McWilliams and Chris Burns, whilst Kawasaki scored no points for the sixth race running.

Valentino Rossi may not have won, but he still gained seven points over Sete Gibernau. With three races remaining, the Italian only needs eighteen points to retain his crown. He doesn’t need to win again, but if he does it will all be over. For Sete, the prospects are good for finishing second, which would represent his best season to date. Max Biaggi is not too far back, but he will need a bit of good fortune to move up.

Standings after thirteen races: Rossi 282; Gibernau 224; Biaggi 199; Capirossi 131; Bayliss 112; Ukawa 103; Hayden 101; Checa 93; Barros 90; Nakano 84; Tamada 69.

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