Barros put the hammer down straight away and had gapped Rossi by nearly a full second as they crossed the line to commence lap 2.  Van Den Goorbergh got the better of Ukawa for 3rd place on lap 3 as McCoy had drifted further back to 6th.

Barros set a new lap record on lap 8, 1m32.377, under Roberts lap record from 1999 but still outside McWilliams pole time. Capirossi retired from the race.

Kato had been leading the battle for 3rd for a few laps before being shuffled to the back of his group of 3 riders which included Kato and Van Den Goorbergh.

Rossi had a fantastic 11th lap to eclipse the lap record just set by Barros with a 1m32.233 to close within 7-tenths of Barros. Laconi retired to his pit bay.

The next lap around Rossi had closed right on to the tail of Barros after another great lap. Rossi on a medium rear while Barros is on a medium-soft rear, both riders on Medium front Michelins. Itoh went out of the race.

By half race distance the competition had clearly become a two man affair, Barros and Rossi. McCoy entered the pits on lap 14 to get a new tyre after his rear tyre blistered.  He rejoined the race with a fresh tyre.

Barros and Rossi continued their battle for the lead and lapped McCoy with 9 laps to run. But McCoy stayed right on their tails even though he was a lap down, getting some excellent TV time for sponsor Red Bull.

John Hopkins slid off on lap 21 but managed to rejoin.

Rossi hit the lead with 4 laps to go as Barros looked to be suffering from a lack of grip from his medium-soft rear Michelin.

But Barros came back at Rossi under brakes for Honda Corner with 2 laps to run but ran a little deep and Rossi got him right back.

Barros did the exact same thing on the last lap but even more deep and had to take the escape road which left Rossi to cruise home on the final lap and take the win.  Barros recovered enough to take 2nd place, some 10 seconds down on Rossi.  Third placed Tohru Ukawa took the final podium spot 11 seconds behind the winner.