Max Biaggi, who crashed out of the Malaysian GP last year, starts from the front row for the tenth time in 2002. Biaggi has had four wins in Malaysia in the 250cc class, but these were all at the Shah Alam circuit. This will be Biaggi’s 150th consecutive GP start, having not missed a race since the French GP in 1992.  The Italian was second quickest during qualifying, and also second in this morning's warm-up.

Daijiro Kato set a new lap record on his way to winning the 250cc race in Malaysia last year, after qualifying on pole position.  He starts his first MotoGP race at Sepang from third place on the grid.

Another previous 250 race winner, Loris Capirossi, won the first 250 event at Sepang back in 1999.  Loris is the highest placed two-stroke on the grid, for the seventh time this season, and rounds out the front row for today's race.  Capirossi’s lap time is the fastest ever lap of the Sepang circuit by a two-stroke machine, 0.852 seconds faster than his pole lap from last year.

Valentino Rossi starts from his lowest grid position since he qualified in eleventh place for the German GP last year.  The Italian has been complaining about the rear suspension of his RC211V and only managed to qualify eighth, however the world champion was fourth quickest in warm-up this morning.

Alex Barros made the most of his pole position to lead the field through turn one for the first time, Biaggi and Kato right behind.  Barros and Biaggi immediately pulled some ground on their pursuers.  Valentino Rossi had made it up to fifth by lap two.  Rossi then took fourth from Ukawa on lap two before out-braking himself and losing two positions.

Rossi powered back by Checa for fifth with 18 laps to run.  Alex Barros, Max Biaggi, Daijiro Kato and Tohru Ukawa were the top four on lap three but the gaps had closed down a little.  On the next lap however Barros pulled some time out on Biaggi.  Tohru Ukawa pushed forcefully past Daijiro Kato for third place which lost Kato a lot of time.  Olivier Jacque crashed his new four-stroke Yamaha out at this early stage of the race.

Valentino Rossi pushed through Kato and Ukawa to take third place on lap five but Barros and Biaggi had the speed to maintain the gap, which on lap seven was 1.5 seconds.  Andrew Pitt and the new Kawasaki were a distant last place and lapping around five seconds off the pace of the leaders, slower than the lap-times achieved by the leading 250 riders.  John Hopkins has struggled all weekend at Sepang and crashed, but still managed to rejoin the race in front of Andrew Pitt.

By lap ten Barros had stretched his gap to Biaggi out to seven-tenths of a second, Rossi a further 1.3 seconds behind Biaggi, Tohru Ukawa still on his tail.  Then a lap later Max Biaggi seemed to pick up some speed and slotted past Alex Barros for the lead.  Valentino Rossi then put in a scorcher of a lap to close right on to the tail of Barros, Tohru Ukawa was still right behind Rossi.  Tetsuya Harada retired with what seemed like tyre problems.

At half race distance the leading quartet were covered by only 1.1 seconds, then another four seconds back to Daijiro Kato in fifth.

Valentino Rossi put a near block pass on Alex Barros at the end of lap 14 which sent them both wide and allowed Tohru Ukawa to go past both of them for second place.  Rossi was in third and an angry Barros came back at Rossi at the end of the main straight but had to stand it up after running in too deep, this allowed Rossi to get him right back.  The battle between the Honda riders had allowed Max Biaggi to escape a little, to the tune of 1.1 seconds over second placed Ukawa.  The leading quartet all on medium compound tyres, front and rear.

Rossi went under Ukawa on the brakes but again ran wide which allowed Ukawa to take his second place right back.  Rossi tried it again a couple of corners later but this time managed to make it stick.  Rossi ran wide again which allowed Ukawa to switch back under him once again to retain second.  Biaggi had further benefitted from the fight for second and had stretched his lead out to 2.1 seconds.  Nobuatsu Aoki retired with mechanical troubles.

The Ukawa-Rossi battle had also allowed Barros to close up on the battle for second a little.  Rossi put a move on Ukawa again on lap 18 but a couple of corners later Ukawa got him back once again, only for Rossi to repeat it again and take second place. 

Ukawa had a big moment and had to get out of the throttle which allowed Barros to take third place.  Rossi put his head down to try and catch Max Biaggi, with only a couple of laps remaining but the gap was a healthy two seconds in Biaggi's favour. 

But on the penultimate lap Rossi closed a full second on Biaggi, who had maybe backed off the pace a little too much and thought his lead was safe.  But Biaggi held on and took the win by half-a-second over Rossi.  Barros third, Ukawa fourth.

A new race lap record for Max Biaggi, 2m04.925 on lap five, the only rider to dip under 2m05 during the race.  Biaggi's win also secured the 600th Grand Prix victory by an Italian rider. 

Andrew Pitt finished the race as the last machine still running, five seconds behind John Hopkins.

Tohru Ukawa recorded the highest speed at Sepang with 307.4, Rossi set the second highest speed at 306.5, Biaggi 3rd on 305.6.  The fastest top speed recorded by a two-stroke was 294 by Tetsuya Harada on the Pramac Honda.  Andrew Pitt's Kawasaki reached 293.9.

The MotoGP circus now packs up and heads to Phillip Island for the 2002 SKYY Vodka Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, October 18-20.