As the riders took their places on the grid after a 250 race held in mixed conditions, a light drizzle was falling on a wet track.  Casey Stoner managed to take a 6th place finish in the 250 race.  Compatriot Garry McCoy lined up for the MotoGP race on the front row of the grid.

Valentino Rossi can wrap up the championship this round if he wins, and his team-mate Tohru Ukawa does not take a podium position.

It was Valentino Rossi who led the field through turn 1, as Aoki and Kato headed off in to the kitty litter.  Carlos Checa sat on the line for seconds with his Yamaha YZR-M1 wheel-spinning violently.  Rossi was the early leader from Roberts, Biaggi and Ukawa on the first lap, McCoy 9th.

Roberts immediately started to pile the pressure on Valentino Rossi, late on lap 1 the American did manage to squeeze under Rossi in one of the left-handers and started to pull lengths out on Rossi. 

As they started lap 2 the race order was Roberts, Rossi, Biaggi, Ukawa.  But not for long as Ukawa fell off a couple of turns in to lap 2 after losing the front end of his RC211V machine.  This effectively meant that as long as Rossi finished the race in front of Biaggi the 2002 MotoGP Championship is Rossi's.

Both Shinya Nakano and Jeremy McWilliams went out on lap 4 in separate incidents.  Carlos Checa had put his head down after a terrible start to be holding down 5th place, behind Barros, as they approached one-quarter race distance.

Checa then stepped up another level to make himself the fastest man on the circuit, and soon slipped through on Barros for 4th and set out after his team-mate, Biaggi, in 3rd.

With 10 laps to go Rossi moved through on Kenny Roberts for the lead.  Both Biaggi and Checa went past Rossi on the same lap, relegating the American to 4th place.  A lap later Checa took 2nd from Max Biaggi and immediately started closing on Valentino Rossi.  The track was even wetter at this stage of the race than it was at race start.

At two-thirds race distance Carlos Checa was right on Rossi's back wheel, just waiting for a chance to squeeze past.  He did so as they started lap 17, but then lost grip two corners later and slid out of contention.  The Spaniard tried valiantly to get going again, after picking up his machine, but failed to make the YZR-M1 fire.

Biaggi then took up the mantle again and started to close on Rossi, the gap was 1.5 seconds with 5 laps to run.  Barros the best of the two-stroke runners in a distant 4th position, Kenny Roberts 3rd.

Rossi responded by picking up the pace a little to maintain the gap to Biaggi, then he went up another peg to pull distance out over Biaggi, just to further stamp his dominance. 

Rossi then put on a riding display, backing the Honda in, and coming out the other side with the front wheel hovering a few inches off the deck, amazing stuff in the atrociously wet conditions.

Rossi takes the win and with it the 2002 MotoGP Championship.  Biaggi 2nd, Roberts 3rd.  Rossi's entourage was waiting for him on the circuit with his new world champion shirt and the #1 plate for the front of his RC211V Honda.