With Kato arriving full of confidence after winning the last two 250cc races at the track situated west of Lisbon, Biaggi will have his work cut out to secure his and Yamaha's second win of the season after taking his maiden MotoGP victory in Brno. Meanwhile the championship leader, Italian Valentino Rossi will be chasing his ninth victory of the season after dropping out of the Brno race with tyre problems. Riding the factory Honda RCV, Rossi still leads his team-mate Tohru Ukawa by a massive 80 points in the championship with six rounds remaining. He won the 500cc race in Estoril last year.

Although he will leave them at the end of the season, Biaggi and Yamaha are determined to finish the season on a high after the first victory of the M1 in Brno. His team-mate Carlos Checa is staying with Yamaha and will want to, at least, consolidate his fourth place while some of the riders who may want to replace Biaggi next season will look to impress.

Italian Loris Capirossi finished second last year and set the fastest lap riding the NSR Honda Pons machine. He returns after finishing a brave sixth in Brno while still recovering from a broken wrist. The former 125 and 250cc World Champion should be much stronger on Sunday and will want to beat his team-mate Alex Barros, who is fifth in the championship, just two points behind Checa and four in front of Norick Abe's Yamaha D'Antin machine. The Honda Pons team will have one RC211V Honda four-stroke for the last four races of the season and both Barros and Capirossi want to ride it. The next two races could decide who gets the nod.

Two years ago Australian Garry McCoy won the windswept first motorcycle Grand Prix in Estoril and he finished third last year. He returns riding the Yamaha WCM machine and is showing glimpses of his old form after another injury-plagued season. He qualified on the front row at Brno and together with his team-mate, 19-year-old American John Hopkins will be seeking a good end to an up and down year. Another Yamaha rider, Norick Abe, has had a brilliant season scoring in every round but one, while the Yamaha Tech 3 duo of Olivier Jacque and Shinya Nakano want to improve on their respective ninth and 12th championship positions.

The Suzuki factory team of Kenny Roberts and Sete Gibernau stayed at Brno for a productive two-day test. Spaniard Gibernau finished a moral boosting fourth in the race on the GSV-R while Roberts is back to full fitness after the operation on his arm at the end of July. Ulsterman Jeremy McWilliams also had a good race in the Czech Republic after finding himself down in 17th place at the end of the first lap. Riding the Proton KR three-cylinder he fought his way back up to seventh at the chequered flag.

Twenty year-old Italian Marco Melandri became the first rider for 17 years to win six successive 250cc Grands Prix when he was a comfortable winner in Brno, riding an Aprilia. He leads Spaniard Fonsi Nieto by 37 points in the championship, as he chases his seventh successive victory in the 26-lap race on Sunday. Nieto, also on Aprilia, eventually finished fourth after a mistake put him in the gravel trap. Italian Roberto Rolfo crashed the Honda Gresini machine as he chased Melandri but still retained third place while Nieto's team-mate, Toni Elias held onto fourth, after finishing third. Another man in form is Argentinean Sebastian Porto who's finished second and third in the last two Grands Prix, on board the Yamaha.

The 125cc World Championship is building towards another tremendous climax. Just two points separate world champion Manuel Poggiali and the in-form Frenchman Arnaud Vincent, who was third in Brno after winning the two previous Grands Prix on the Aprilia. Poggiali won the race last year but the Gilera rider is coming under enormous pressure from both Vincent and 16-year-old Spaniard Daniel Pedrosa, riding a Honda. Pedrosa was second in Brno behind Italian veteran Lucio Cecchinello who secured his third win of the year and closed the gap on the leading trio to create even more anticipation before this weekend's race.