Alex Barros the early leader from Max Biaggi and Valentino Rossi, Kato in 4th, McCoy in 7th.

Rossi got through on Biaggi for 2nd early on lap 2.  Nobuatsu Aoki came to grief on the Proton.  McCoy received a 10-second stop-go penalty for jumping the start.  He rejoined at the back of the field but a few laps later his race ended in the kitty litter.

Barros and Rossi traded fastest lap for fastest lap.  With 23 laps to run Barros had half-a-second over Rossi.

At half race distance Valentino Rossi actually stuck his nose in front of Barros momentarily before Barros took his lead right back and Rossi settled in behind.  Loris Capirossi and Kenny Roberts were fighting for 7th place before Capirossi bit the dust.

With 10 laps remaining in the 30 lap race Barros had stretched a gap of 1 second over Valentino Rossi once again.  Max Biaggi a very distant 3rd.

Then with only a few laps left Rossi closed the gap down to only a couple of tenths and was ready to pounce.

Rossi was right on Barros' pipe as they started the final lap and showed the Brazilian a wheel early in the lap but Barros held on to take the win.

Andrew Pitt comes home 12th and scores Kawasaki's first 500/MotoGP points for a long, long time.  He seems a sure thing to ride the machine next year and Australia's Garry McCoy has been hinted at for the second seat, but at this stage that is perhaps a little fanciful.