Rossi’s renewed status as champion will allow him to concentrate solely on the job of winning races, unfettered by the need to keep one eye on the championship table. The combination of 23-year-old Italian Rossi and his new-for-2002 RC211V has been all but unbeatable this season, with the magic figure of ten race wins reached at the previous Rio GP on September 21.

Such has been Rossi’s prowess that only two riders have beaten him in 2002;  one of them his team-mate Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) and the other Max Biaggi (Yamaha), when a tyre problem ruled Rossi out of the reckoning at Brno. In addition to scoring 270 points from a possible 300, Rossi’s dominance has also run to seven pole position starts and eight fastest laps, seven of which were completed at lap record pace.

According to the rider himself, the secret of Rossi’s success has been simple, if far from easy in this tough and most important of all race classes. “This season has been great. Honda have made a fantastic bike,” he says. “We arrived at the beginning of the season with a good advantage.  Yamaha have come good later in the championship but we have made a good season, without any mistakes.”

Rossi’s historic win was his fourth World Championship success but that fact has not slaked his thirst for more champagne before the end of the year. “I really want to win more races, especially on Honda’s own circuit,” he adds. “The weather can be changeable at Motegi but, as we have shown more than once, we can win in both the wet and the dry.”

Rossi now has a more than realistic chance to re-write the history books in only his third year in biking’s premier class. Despite his short reign at the very top, he now sits seventh on the all-time 500/MotoGP winners’ list, and requires three more wins from four attempts to overtake legendary Honda rider Mick Doohan’s 1997 record of 12 wins in a single season. A win at Motegi would equal Rossi’s personal best of 11 in one season.

Rossi already knows what it takes to win at the impressive 4.801km Motegi circuit, having been victorious last year on the way to his 500cc World Championship. Still the current lap record holder at the circuit, with a 1’50”591 (set in 2000), Rossi is a strong favourite to win in Japan for the second time this year, despite the enhanced number of Honda RCV four-strokes on the grid for this race. “I know there will be another Honda five at Motegi and that is obviously going to make things tougher, but for next year it seems everyone will have a four-cylinder anyway.”

Ukawa, injured at Donington Park earlier in the season, bounced back from that painful experience with a trio of podium places, the sequence only blotted by a crash in the rain at Rio, demoting him to third in the championship. Currently eight points from second overall, the Japanese rider is determined to give Honda a 1-2 championship finish come season end.

“Obviously I was really disappointed about falling in Rio, but now I have to think positive and look to the remaining four races to do my best, especially at Motegi,” he says. “I really want to regain second place in the championship and a good result at home in Japan will be the first step.”

The last current RC211V rider, Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini RC211V), put his four-stroke on the podium at his Brno debut but has been luckless since then, falling in Estoril and getting knocked off at Rio. Nonetheless, the quietly spoken 2001 250 World Champion is a force to be reckoned with, having won the Motegi 250 GP in 2000, and also having won four Suzuka 250 GPs. “I like to race at home in Japan and I hope to have more luck at Motegi than I have had at the last two races,” he says. “I’m sorry about Rio because we had really good settings for wet conditions, and I had improved the feeling I had with the five cylinder in the wet.”

The V5 promised to the West Honda Pons team mid-way through the season should be made available to the Spanish-based team at Motegi, making a total of four RC211Vs on the grid. Team riders Alex Barros (West Honda Pons NSR500) and Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500) have been consistently the best two-stroke riders of the season, fighting a remarkable rearguard battle against the wave of more powerful 990cc four-strokes.

Barros in particular has been a front-runner, at Assen and Sachsenring, and if he can adapt quickly to the four-stroke’s characteristics, as all who have ridden the RCV have managed to do so far, he may be on for his first podium finish since his third place at Donington Park in July. An equally good rider in wet conditions, Barros is looking forward to Motegi: “Carlos Checa’s fall at Rio meant that I moved up the overall classification. Now I am fourth and if I ride the four-stroke at Motegi I will be able to fight to keep this position, especially as I won the ‘two-stroke race’ at Rio.”

For Capirossi, the 2002 season has been particularly challenging, thanks to a wrist injury that ruled him out of potential podium finishes. Coming off the back of a strong ride at Rio, the Italian will hope to be as competitive as possible on his NSR. “I think I have been riding well since I returned from injury but it is very hard to stay in contention with the four-strokes at any circuit,” he explains. “We have to take many risks to maintain our position in races.”

Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) is another rider with good previous form at Motegi, winning last year’s Pacific 250 GP. Home advantage may also help the two-stroke rider, who has ridden into the top ten three times in 2002. “We have had the same problems all year on the bike, a lack of grip in races, and that seems to be in either wet or dry conditions,” he says.

Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500) has declared himself happy with the progress his tyre supplier Bridgestone in all conditions but will be hoping for a dry track surface after his recent Rio experiences. “The front end was getting away from me running those lap times in Brazil and I found I couldn’t run with the other two-stroke riders I was racing,” says the Dutchman. “I suppose it was not a bad race considering the circumstances. I was on the limit, but I’ve lost the front too many times this year to take too many risks in these conditions.”

Italian 250 charger Robby Rolfo (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) has had a changeable 2002 season as one of only two full NSR 250 riders in the championship. Occasional set-up quandaries in qualifying have held back some of his race performances, but Rolfo is one of the most combative riders in the whole GP paddock.  The latest of his four second-place finishes this season came at Rio, and second overall is still a realistic ambition for Rolfo. “Now I want to think about taking my first victory – for me, for the team and for the fans,” he says. “The Honda should perform well at Motegi and I know that second place in the championship is not far away.”

Team-mate Emilio Alzamora (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) has had an even more eventful season than Rolfo, including a recent operation to relieve arm-pump. Now fully fit, the former 125 World Champion is looking for his best result of the year at Motegi, hoping to go one or two better than his previous best of third on home soil at Jerez. “I’m in really good condition, I haven’t had a problem with my arm recently, and I can have a really good result before the championship is finished. Motegi would be the perfect place to start.”

Daniel Pedrosa (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R) lies third in the ultra-competitive 125cc class, despite failing to finish the previous round at Rio. Suffering from some machine and set-up problems in recent races, Pedrosa chooses not to think of the past, but concentrate on the future. “I don’t want to dwell on it. Now I have to think of Motegi, and keep on giving it my maximum to the end of the season, to give my best efforts to the end of the championship.”

Masao Azuma (Tribe by Breil Honda RS125R) will be praying for wet weather after his astonishing feat at Rio, starting 18th on the grid but bursting through to win by almost two seconds in treacherous wet conditions.

After Motegi, the championship continues its whirlwind Australasian tour, with Sepang and Phillip Island following on consecutive weekends, before the final championship round at Valencia on November 3.

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