Marco Melandri had his championship chances dealt a cruel blow when his Aprilia suffered mechanical problems early on in the race which meant the Italian had to retire.  Fonsi Nieto took the win to close the points gap to Melandri.  Nieto also took a new lap record.

Robby Rolfo (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) took third place in the 20-lap 250cc event, running at the front in the early laps. The Italian was pleased with his form after a somewhat difficult qualifying session.

"I am very pleased with that after we experienced some problems with the set-up of the machine in practice," said Rolfo, clearly the quickest Honda rider on display. "It was good to be challenging for the lead in the early part but it was not easy to try and lap in the 2:09 bracket all the time. I have to say thank you to my team who put in a lot of work, in the right direction, to improve the set-up of the bike and that allowed us to take this podium - even if we did not have too much acceleration in some parts of the track."

Emilio Alzamora (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) battled through the midfield to finish a charging eighth, running at a good pace and displaying a real hunger for the fight.

"I found the right set-up for the race only in the warm-up," said the largely satisfied Spaniard. "This made me confident but I got hit by one of the Yamahas after I had got a good start and that pushed me wide. I tried hard and I moved up the order and at the end I was running the same pace as the leaders."

The best of the privateer Hondas was ridden by Haruchika Aoki (DeGraaf Grand Prix Team Honda RS250R/W) scoring a top 12 on the evolution spec machine.

Jason Vincent (By Queroseno Racing Honda RS250R/W) took two points for with Jakub Smrz (DeGraaf Grand Prix Team Honda RS250R/W) 16th, one place ahead of Leon Haslam (By Queroseno Racing Honda RS250R/W).

In the 250 title race Rolfo continues in third place overall, the top Honda rider thanks to his total of 186 points, with eighth place Alzamora breaking through the 100 point barrier, on 101.

First – Fonsi Nieto: “I am very happy, because we worked very hard and well for this race. In the first session we had many problems with the setting, but on the second day we already had found the answers. In general terms, I am riding better in the first laps of the race, where I had problems earlier in the year. I am going to try to see that the championship is decided in my favour in Valencia, because I think I owe that to the Spanish fans. When they told me that Melandri had retired, I slowed my pace. I could have ridden quicker, but I preferred to be conservative to be sure of finishing. It’s important that we both took first and second. I’m hoping to help Toni so he can finish third in the championship, and I want to thank him for helping me today – I know it is very difficult to let another rider win when you know you have the chance of winning yourself. I think we did a great job together. This was a great race for our sponsors and our team, and a race I will remember for many years.”

Second – Toni Elias: “I was a very hard race because of the extreme heat. This morning I received team orders, and we planned what to do in the race if Melandri were to retire. If this was to happen and Fonsi and I were riding together, today it was necessary that he should get the maximum possible points. In the first laps Fonsi set a very hot pace, and it was very hard for me to follow him. Then little by little I was able to catch him, because I also had a good pace, and we had worked hard all weekend towards the race. Finally I caught him. I could have fought for the win, because in the last section I was quicker than him, but I accepted the team orders. I would have liked to win, but I respect this decision, and I am very happy that Fonsi again has a chance of the championship. My bike ran really well all weekend.”

Casey Stoner - 11th - "I am not very happy with the race today as I felt I could have had a very good result. Unfortunately yesterday we had a detonation problem and had to run the race with a new cylinder and pipes. This was very difficult as we did not have time to test the new parts and the engine setting was wrong. This caused the bike to cut out one cylinder off the start and then it would not rev out for the rest of the race. I am very happy with the way I rode, but also disappointed for I believed I could have had a very good result today. The team tried very hard to make a good bike for today but unfortunately this does not always work out."

• Oct 13 - Round 14 - Reports from Sepang - Red Bull - Dorna - Marlboro Yamaha - HRC - Proton - Kawasaki - Suzuki -

• Oct 13 - Round 14 - 125 Result - 250 Result - MotoGP Result -

• Oct 12 - Round 14 - Reports from Final Qualifying - Yamaha - Proton - Kawasaki - HRC -

• Oct 12 - Round 14 - 125 Grid - MotoGP Grid - 250 Grid -

• Oct 12 - Round 14 - Saturday morning practice at Sepang

• Oct 11 - Round 14 - Team Reports from first qualifying at the Malaysian GP - Yamaha - Kawasaki - Proton -

• Oct 11 - Round 14 - Stoner 12th in 250 first qualifying

• Oct 11 - Round 14 - First Qualifying from Sepang, Andrew Pitt and the new Kawasaki are five seconds off the pace

• Oct 11 - Round 14 - Josh Waters was 32nd fastest out of 34 riders in 125 first qualifying, just ahead of his team-mate

• Oct 11 - News - Wayne Gardner crashed heavily during qualifying for the Bathurst Endurance car race this morning.  Today is also his 43rd birthday, reports suggest Gardner was slightly concussed but he has now been released from the medical centre

• Oct 11 - Round 14 - MotoGP First Practice, Sepang

• Oct 10 - News - Young Casey Stoner has at least one race win under his belt so far at Sepang, today he beat Biaggi, Barros and Rossi in a Go-Kart race at the Malaysian circuit.  Stoner had qualified on pole for the kart race but then it was started on a reverse grid, so Casey had to charge through the pack from behind and still took the win!

• Oct 10 - Round 14 - Yamaha explain the set-up criteria for Sepang

• Oct 10 - News - Proton's V5 on track, Aoki and McWilliams to continue in 2003

• Oct 10 - Walk back in time - Sepang 2001 - Sepang 2000 -

• Oct 10 - News - First Colin Edwards was rumoured to be heading to Ducati SBK for 2003, then Yamaha GP, then Honda GP and the latest on the merry-go-round is an Aprilia GP bike..........Where ever it stops nobody knows...........

• Oct 10 - News - Clint Farr Memorial Trophy to be staged in conjunction with the SKYY Vodka Australian MotoGP

• Oct 10 - Round 14 - HRC Preview Sepang -

• Oct 8 - News - Bayliss completes his first MotoGP test