Noriyuki Haga will not start the race after a tooth infection got the better of the Japanese star.

Roberts got the jump off the line and led them through turn one.  The two Gauloises Yamahas went down after Jacque performed a highside which took Nakano off the circuit but the Japanese rider got going again.  Roberts leading from Ukawa, Capirossi and Abe.

Ukawa took Roberts as they commenced the second lap while Rossi shot through to 3rd but is nearly a second behind the leading duo.  Jurgen Van Den Goorbergh retired with mechanical troubles.  McCoy 12th, West 13th, Clarke 17th.

Roberts took Ukawa on lap three to regain the lead.  Rossi was the fastest man on lap two and three.  Ukawa went back into the lead as they commenced lap five.  Gibernau slid out of the race at this stage.

Barros then started a huge charge to take Checa, then he took Rossi's 3rd position.  Roberts then stuck his hand up as rain started falling again, Barros then performed a lovely mono for his home crowd as the riders head back towards the pits and get ready for a wet re-start.

McCoy led the re-start for the first lap before being taken by Rossi, Ukawa and Criville.  Rossi also held the lead on the combined time.  Ukawa threw it down the road.  Barros then charged past Abe, Biaggi and Criville to take 2nd on the road.

Rossi, Barros, Checa, Biaggi were the leading quartet on corrected time but Rossi had a second over his pursuers with 16 laps to run.  McCoy had drifted back to 9th.  West was the first V-Twin at this stage and 11th overall.  West's crew pray for rain every race but the track is not wet enough for them to be able to run up the front.  Kenny Roberts obviously having some mechanical problem....

Rossi has stretched his lead to well over 2 seconds on corrected time but Barros had closed that down to only 1 second with 13 laps remaining. 

Biaggi and Checa then pushed Barros back to 4th and the two Yamaha men started dicing with Rossi.  On corrected time Rossi still had a half a second lead though from Checa. 

With 8 laps remaining Checa got ahead of Rossi for track position and Biaggi also started to show Valentino a wheel here and there.  Checa then opened up enough of a gap over Rossi on the track to become the leader on combined time.

The leaders had lapped everyone down to Garry McCoy in ?? with 2 laps to run.  Checa was still just managing to hold out Rossi but Rossi crossed the line to get the flag only a tenth behind Checa on the track which was enough to give Rossi the win on corrected time.

• Race Result

• Championship

1. Rossi
2. Checa 0.143s
3. Biaggi 6.980s
4. Barros 19.05s
5. Capirossi 20.60s
6. Abe
7. Criville
8. Cardoso
9. Nakano
10. McCoy
11. Haslam
12. Gibernau
13. West
14. Aoki
15. Clarke
16. Roberts
17. Veneman

Manufacturers

1. Honda - 367
2. Yamaha - 296
3. Suzuki - 153

1. Rossi 325
2. Biaggi 219
3. Capirossi 210
4. Barros 182
5. Nakano 155
6. Checa 137
7. Abe 137
8. Criville 120
9. Gibernau 119
10. Ukawa 107
11. Roberts 97
12. McCoy 88
13. Goorbergh 65
14. Haga 59
15. Jacque 59
16. Cardoso 45

Carlos Checa, 2nd - "I saw the chequered flag and I thought I'd won. When I found out the result it was probably the worst feeling of my life. I've been chasing this win for three years with my team, the team did a great job here, the bike felt good and I thought I'd found my opportunity. West turned around as we were coming at him, Rossi saw him too, then I met him in the middle of the turn, so I couldn't open the throttle where I usually do and that was enough to lose me the race. I don't know what West was thinking. This is such a frustrating way to lose and the people that run this sport must do something about the blue-flag system. On Friday I complained that there were no blue flags to warn lapped riders to move over, but it hasn't made any difference."

Max Biaggi, 3rd - "This was a very tough weekend for me. This track is so bumpy that we couldn't get the bike set up to suit me. I couldn't use my speed because I wasn't getting enough feeling from the front, that's why I qualified tenth. I think the damp conditions helped today, though maybe my choice of an intermediate front wasn't perfect. It's great to get second in the championship. Okay, so second isn't brilliant but it's all I could do today. Over the last few days I've read a lot of newspapers telling me how motivated Capirossi was to beat me for second overall, so I wanted to ride a good race to make sure of second. Now we look forward to next year and the big question mark of four-strokes. We've got a lot of testing ahead of us and I hope we can have a great machine for 2002 so we can go one better than this year."

Alex Barros, 4th - "I felt very well in the first part of the race and I was recovering positions quite comfortably. I was convinced I could get a great result that I could dedicate to the fans. On the contrary, in the second part I realized I could not do it well. At the beginning I touched Biaggi, but the problem was that we did not make a good selection of the tyres. I mounted the same as in Valencia, but they worked much better there. In fact, the race was a real lottery."

Loris Capirossi, 5th - "The race conditions were very bad and it was very difficult to ride like that. I chose mix tyres in the front and back and that was a mistake. Anyway, I think I've made a perfect race considering the material I had, and I am satisfied because after a very long season I am on the podium of the first three. I hoped to finish second, but I also knew it would be very difficult. Now I will rest and think about how to improve this result next year."

Norick Abe, 6th - "It was a great race with Barros and Capirossi, but they were fighting amongst themselves more than with me. That’s how I was able to pass them in the last corner; they’d tripped each other up and I slid underneath both of them. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to beat them on aggregate, but it was still a good race."

Alex Criville, 7th - "The second race went much better for me than the first, I felt good with all possibilities to stay up front. But I had an intermediate tyre on the rear, which lost its performance rapidly when the track dried up. I wasn’t able to keep the pace of the front runners any more and had to settle for the position I was in. In the beginning, I took considerable risks in order to match the speed of the race leaders, but the bike was sliding a lot, and I realised that I couldn’t achieve a top finish without risking too much, when finishing the race was what I wanted most today. This was my last race with Honda, I was working a total of eight years with this company, and I can say that they were very good apart from the last two, as I achieved one World Championship and one second place overall."

José Luis Cardoso, 8th - "I’m happy with the result, it’s good for me, but I don’t think that it was a good race. When I came in for the restart, like Abe, we changed to cut slicks both front and rear but for some reason it brought on some chatter that we hadn’t had in the first leg. It made it difficult to really attack after the first few laps, so I just rode around looking for points."

Shinya Nakano, 9th - "Rookie of The Year was one of my targets this year, the other was to win a race, which I think I could have done here. But I guess it was not to be. I did everything that I should have; a good start and I had the setup I needed. I remember seeing Jacque come up the inside into turn one and then the back of his bike just came around and highsided him in front of me. I had nowhere to go. It was good that I remounted my bike so that I could take part in the restart, which I needed to do to secure fifth in the championship, Norick still had a chance of beating me if he won the race and I didn’t score a point."

Garry McCoy, 10th - "I was feeling confident out there in the dry, and I was amazed at the grip that we had with the slicks, but it was raining enough to call the race. For the restart we opted to run a full wet front and an intermediate rear, but the track dried up so quickly that within only a few laps the front was all over the place. In these conditions it’s a gamble, and you need a little luck on your side."

Sete Gibernau, 12th - "I thought I had a good chance in the first race. I didn't start too well, but I was catching up the leading group and feeling strong when it started to rain and they had to stop the race. In fact I crashed because of the rain, but I was able to make the restart. After that, the position was simple. We made a wrong choice of tyres, and that was it. It was obvious from the start and all I could do was ride carefully and wait for the finish. Now we have to go home, and work hard to prepare for a better season next year."

Anthony West, 13th - "I stayed on the racing line in the last corner because I thought it was the safest thing to do for all of us. I'd been feeling a vibration from my rear tyre and I was worried it might fly apart. I knew from the first lap I'd made the wrong tyre choice and I was just riding for a finish. When (Carlos) Checa and (Valentino Rossi) came up on me I was already in the middle of the corner. They weren't on 'full wets' (tyres) like me so they were carrying more speed. If I had tried to move over I might have hit them or caused an accident and wiped all three of us out. That's why I stayed where I was and let them ride around the outside of me. I've heard Checa is blaming me for losing the race, but if I did hold anyone up I didn't mean it, I had to make a split-second decision and I did what I thought was the safest. I don't have a history of blocking other riders or causing accidents. This was a difficult race for me because of the tyres. It was like dirt-tracking, but I was trying not to slide too much because I didn't want to wear the tyre out too fast."

Kenny Roberts, 16th - "We simply made the wrong decision. We had advice from the weather people that it was going to carry on raining, and it was still wet and drizzly on the line for the restart. Until we actually left the line. It's disappointing. I felt we would have done well here, given different circumstances. But in the end there were too many ifs."

Olivier Jacque, DNF - “I managed a really good start and I carried that momentum into the first turn. It was all looking good until I tried to change down through the gears but it was like the clutch wouldn’t disengage, so I had to bash down through the ‘box. It meant that the transition wasn’t smooth and as I selected second gear the back end locked up. I’m just sorry that Shinya got caught up in it.”

Jurgen Van Den Goorbergh, DNF - "You could say that was disappointing. Or even more than disappointing. I came here to race, and I believe I did a good job to make it through to race day. This morning I was fastest, which shows I was capable of a good result. Then in the race something broke. It's a shame to finish the season this way - the bike has been quite reliable all year. Until this important day".