A few rain drops fell which put an early end to the 250 GP race and handed Melandri the race win after he had already crashed.  The rain made no difference to Australia's Casey Stoner whose engine seized in the very early stages of the race and left him to limp home to the pits.

Dry conditions greeted the MotoGP grid with three two-strokes on the front row, Biaggi the only four-stroke on the front row.  The still injured Ukawa out-qualified his team-mate Valentino Rossi, the RC211V pairing 5th and 6th on the grid.  Another pair of team-mates, Jacque and Nakano qualified 1st and 2nd which was a real turn up for the books.

The two-strokes have their best chance of a win at Sachsenring, teams have said that riders are at wide-open-throttle for only around 10% of the lap, many riders only use 2nd-through-5th gears on their machines.

They lined up on the grid in slightly overcast conditions and it was Max Biaggi who got a great run off the line to lead the field through turn one, Ukawa got off really well from the second row to shoot up in to second, before taking the lead by the exit of turn one, Barros also went through on Biaggi relegating the Yamaha man to third.  Rossi had a terrible start and circulated lap one in ninth place.  Jacque and Nakano had also worked their way past Biaggi before the start of lap two, pushing him back to fifth.

Ukawa and Barros out in front on lap two from the Yamaha duo of Jacque and Nakano.  Barros tried to put a move on Barros on lap two but could not quite make it stick.  By the start of lap three Biaggi had been pushed back to seventh, while Rossi had moved up to eighth.  Ukawa was the fastest man on lap one but Barros was on a mission and set the fastest time on lap two.

Barros looks to have the goods on Ukawa through the tight stuff but the V-5 four-stroke can walk away from him on the straights.  On lap four a few sprinkles of rain came and went, and it was only a few drops and nothing that could be described as a shower.

McWilliams hosed past Rossi and Biaggi in the corners but was made to look like he was on a moped as soon as they got on the straight as the four-strokes of Rossi and Biaggi made him look as though he was going flat-out backwards.  Cardoso was notified of the fact he had scored a jump-start penalty.

While Ukawa and Barros had gapped their pursuers a little on the first couple of laps, they had been caught by the Gauloises Yamahas and Valentino Rossi with 25 laps to run.  Jacque then went through on Barros for second, while Rossi recorded the fastest lap on the fifth time around.

Rossi was up to fourth by lap six after out-braking Shinya Nakano.  Barros took his second position back from Jacque while Rossi stalked them from behind.

Barros and Jacque then went through on Ukawa as the leading quarter nearly went four wide in to a corner.  With 23 laps to run the race order was Barros, Jacque, Ukawa, Rossi.  Barros and Jacque then escaped a little from the two RC211V Hondas in the tight stuff.   Rossi saw this and out-braked his team-mate to take third.  Biaggi was fifth by this time and started to challenge Ukawa for fourth.

Rossi started to challenge Barros and Jacque a few laps later, with two-thirds of the race remaining.  With the power of the four-stroke all Rossi will have to do when we wants to past is follow them on to the straight and then blow straight past them.  McCoy was running tenth at this stage. 

Daijiro Kato, Sete Gibernau and Yukio Kagayama then went down in a big crash with Kato looking quite banged up.  The Japanese rider has been promised a four-stroke for the next round in five weeks time and should have enough time to recover with the summer break commencing at the end of the race.

After looking to be able to take the lead at will Valentino Rossi then dropped back a little from Jacque and Barros, he was then relegated to fourth by Ukawa for a lap before taking his third spot right back.  Biaggi then went through on Ukawa for fourth on the next corner.

Rossi had to get out of the power when the back stepped out on the off-camber entry to the main straight which allowed Biaggi to get the run on him and take third. 

Rossi took the inside line on Biaggi to take third back in to the slow left hander at half race distance.  Barros, Jacque, Rossi , Biaggi, Ukawa the top five.

Valentino Rossi finally got enough drive on to the main straight with 12 laps to go to take second place off Jacque in to turn one.  Rossi then took Barros on the short straight to take the lead for the first time. 

Rossi, Barros, Jacque, Biaggi, Ukawa, Checa, Abe, Nakano , McWilliams, McCoy, Aoki, Hofmann, Ryo, Laconi, Vd Goorbergh the race order with two-thirds race distance under their belt.

Jacque took second from Barros a lap later and closed right on to the tail of Rossi.  Jacque stayed with Rossi lap after lap from there, a little bit faster through the first half of the circuit, but Rossi looked to have an advantage over the more open second half of the circuit.

With six laps to run Jacque and Barros went through on Rossi after the Italian ran a little wide out of one of the left-handers.  Biaggi tried to make a move on Rossi for third in to turn one of the next lap but Rossi managed to hold him out.

With three laps to run Barros tried to out-brake Jacque in to turn one but Barros lost the front and his bike slid straight in to Jacque and took him out.  Just when the two-strokes looked to actually be able to take a race win, the two main protagonists take each other out.  Amazing stuff, Valentino Rossi was then of course gifted the race lead, Biaggi second, Ukawa third. 

Rossi takes the win, Biaggi second, Ukawa third.