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For the first time ever Alex Barros had taken pole position, next to him on the grid was Max Biaggi, 3rd on the front row was Valentino Rossi, and Loris Caprirossi filled out the front row.
2nd row was made up of Carlos Checa, Kenny Roberts (leading championship), Tadayuki Okada and Nobuatsu Aoki. Alex Criville was is 12th position after crashing twice in practice.
Roberts had a brilliant start from the 2nd row, coming throught to lead followed by Rossi and Capirossi. Going into the esses Rossi takes the lead, Capirossi also passed Roberts, Capirossi then passed Rossi for the lead.
Capirossi got out to a 2.8 second lead with a great battle going on between Rossi, Checa, Biaggi, Roberts, Barros and Abe. Places from 3rd to 8th changing over and over. Cappirossi lead shrinks due to the hard charging from Rossi in 2nd and Biaggi in 3rd but pressing hard for 2nd.
They were followed by Checa, Barros, and Roberts. Criville crashes out,Rossi and Biaggi continued to pressure Capirossi, at the 14th lap Rossi is all over Capirossi as Capirossi slips and slides on a tire that appears to be giving trouble and when he runs wide exiting a corner Rossi slides on past and opens up a lead of about 7 bike lengths.
Barros crashes out, Rossi has Capirossi all over his tail, Biaggi is still right in there as well. McCoy crashes out further back in the field. Rossi pushing hard to get away nearly highsides and while getting back under control Capirossi retakes the lead. Rossi wont give up and swarms all over the back of Capirossi, Biaggi is still right in there.
Two laps out Rossi attempts to take the lead, Capirossi held him out, Biaggi wants past as well, Rossi holds our Biaggi, and gets back in front of Capirossi.
Having retaken the lead, Rossi slides off at the next corner into the kitty litter. So Capirossi back infront is hounded by Biaggi, who squeezed through to take the lead. Only to have Capirossi take it back again, Biaggi tries again on the outside but loses the front wheel and he to slides off the track. He remounts quickly looking for finishers points.
Capirossi first, Checa 2nd and Jerry McWilliams 3rd
A very exciting race which has resulted in Roberts and Checa sharing the world championship lead with 100 points each. Abe is 3rd in the points with 85.
Full results
Loris Capirossi, Italy - Honda
Calos Checa, Spain - Yamaha
Jeremy McWilliams, UK - Aprilia
Nobuatsu Aoki, Japan - Suzuki
Norick Abe. Japan - Yamaha
Kenny Roberts, USA - Suzuki
Regis Laconi, France - Yamaha
Tadayuki Okada, Japan - Honda
Max Biaggi, Italy - Yamaha
Sete Gibernau, Spain - Honda
Jurgen Goorbergh, Netherlands - Honda
Valentino Rossi, Italy - Honda
Jose Luis Cardoso, Spain - Honda
Sebastien Le Grelle, France - Honda
Yoshiteru Konishi, Japan - Honda
DNF- Harada, McCoy, Barros, Criville, Ramsay, DeGea, and Tessari.
LR
