The two retirements left Rossi and Capirossi to concentrate on chasing down the Brazilian, the recently crowned MotoGP World Champion making his move on lap 18. Although he held onto the lead for two laps it was clear set-up concerns were hindering Rossi's progress. Barros took advantage of the situation and went on to win the Motegi MotoGP by 1.641 seconds, with Capirossi third.

Front row starter Carlos Checa (Marlboro Yamaha Team) had a less than ideal beginning to the 24-lap race after entering turn one in tenth place. The Spaniard recovered some lost ground but was also suffering from a front tyre lacking feel; preventing him bridging the gap to the leaders and eventually forcing him to settle for a safe fifth.

Olivier Jacque (Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3) ended his two-stroke YZR500 chapter with a strong seventh after a race long battle with Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin rider Norick Abe. The Frenchman, and teammate Shinya Nakano (16th) will make their four-stroke debuts in Malaysia next week on the Yamaha YZR-M1. Yamaha YZR-M1 test rider Wataru Yoshikawa finished his wildcard ride with a 12th, while Pere Riba (Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin withdrew from the start of the race due to his poor physical condition.

Marlboro Yamaha Team

Carlos Checa 5th: "I didn't have the same feeling as I'd had during practice and qualifying. Now we must analyse the data and work out what went wrong. The feeling was already different in warm-up, so we changed the set-up for the race but the front-tyre feeling still wasn't right. I tried to adapt my riding to get around the problem but the lap times never came. It was impossible for me to brake and flick into the turns as I'd done before, and I couldn't keep the bike leant over at speed or with the brake on."

Max Biaggi DNF: "We chose a very soft front tyre, which was a big risk and turned out to be a problem. The tyre started smoking and though I was able to do another two or three laps it was impossible to continue. The tyre was our choice, usually the M1 can use softer tyres than the other four-strokes, but this was a gamble that didn't pay off. I was confident of a good result because I'd been fast and consistent during practice, but now I know that we should've been more conservative on tyre choice. I'm disappointed, but hopefully we can make up for this in Malaysia and get back second in the championship."

Marlboro Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio: "Carlos and Max ran an excellent pace in practice, qualifying and morning warm-up, but weren't able to reproduce that speed in the race. Max had a problem with his front tyre after we decided to go with a soft compound. We knew it was a risky choice - sometimes you take risks and win, but it didn't work out like that today. Carlos also chose the same front but he uses a slightly different set-up, and maybe Max was just a bit unlucky. Carlos did well to score some good points. We leave Motegi tonight, heading for Sepang, where we expect to perform much more strongly on race day."
 

Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin

Norick Abe 8th: "I had a good race with OJ all the race, although he never made a pass until the last lap. Since I didn't get a chance to follow him I couldn't tell where he was strong and where he wasn't. I knew he would try something, but I thought it would be under brakes in to the back esses, so I left my braking a little late to try and protect my position. Instead what he did was take advantage of that small error and nailed me through the turn. I tried to re-take him but I couldn't; it was a good but tough race."

Red Bull Yamaha WCM

John Hopkins 14th: "I had a really good run during the first part of the race, but then as things wore on the bike started to fade. It started to slide everywhere and I couldn't keep up the pace I wanted. I tried to adapt my riding style to suit but eventually I started to fall back into the clutches of the guys behind. I can't say it was a wrong tyre choice because I was pretty sure this was the best considering the conditions, but it was not to be today."

Garry McCoy 17th: "I got off the line well enough but when I really gave it a fist full the bike felt like it choked for a second, and when it came back on I was virtually last into turn one. It was pretty messy back there, guys using all different types of lines, so I tried to get through and make a break on them and that's probably when I used up the best part of my tyres. When I tried to push the bike was moving around everywhere in the turns."

Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3

Olivier Jacque 7th: "I'm quite lucky because after this morning's crash I wasn't feeling that good. I'd knocked my head in the fall and it took me a while to begin feeling myself again. Then, in the race I had a small clutch problem off the line before things started to come good. Once I got into a rhythm I began to really enjoying myself, although I didn't want to take unnecessary risks since next week I get the M1, which will be the start of a new chapter for me. So I concentrated on staying clean and planning my move on Norick; he was very fast everywhere and made no mistakes until the last lap, which I took advantage of. I'm very happy with how it worked out and that's why I did the burnout in the pits."

Shinya Nakano 16th: "My start was actually quite good, but then I lost two or three places when a large rock hit the front of the bike, but truth be known, even without that I wouldn't have been able to stay with the group. As has been the story all weekend, I just didn't feel comfortable on the bike. Now I just want to turn the page and get on with the four-stroke project in Malaysia."