Mick Doohan crashed during the first qualifying, and suffered a double-fracture of the right leg; complications from the injury would keep him from racing until Brazil.

As the light went out, Schwantz managed to jump the rest to catapult himself into the lead, followed by Lawson and Alex Barros; John Kocinski was down the field with a bad start.

Coming up to the Veenslang and Ruskenhoek corners, Lawson tried to pass Schwantz but failed, with the Suzuki rider answering accordingly and maintaining his lead.

Schwantz' bike fell in front of Lawson and he couldn't avoid hitting it, making them both crash out of the race as a result.

The pair rolled onto the grass at a high speed, with Schwantz coming to a standstill when he heavily hit a stack of reinforced bales and Lawson when he tumbled hard into a ditch.

Lawson was able to walk away unhurt, but Schwantz had to be carried off with a broken arm via a stretcher by the trackside medical personnel, being in visible pain as they do so.

Crivillé finally made the move on the Brazilian at the Stekkenwal, forcing Barros wide and almost making him lose second to Garriga.

However, Barros fought back and retook the lead when he dived down the inside of Crivillé at the opening of the Geert Timmer Bocht, with Kocinski losing the bike as he exited the corner for a moment.

Garriga made his move at the entrance of the Haarbocht, driving side-by-side with Crivillé but forcing the Campsa Honda rider wide and snatching back second place as a result.

However, when Garriga arrived at the Madijk corner, he took a line that was too wide, undoing all the hard work as he lost both second to Crivillé and third to Kocinski.

Lap fourteen and Crivillé passes Kocinski for second at the second part of the start/finish straight, finalising the move at the entrance of the Haarbocht.

However, when Barros entered the Ruskenhoek, he made a slight mistake and went wide, possibly due to tyre troubles, gifting the lead to Crivillé, second to Kocinski and third to Garriga.

On lap fifteen, Crivillé shadowed Kocinski and made good use of the power of his Honda to overtake the Marlboro Yamaha rider at the fast Ruskenhoek section.

As lap seventeen begins, the top six is as follows: Crivillé, Barros, Kocinski, Garriga, Mamola and Niall Mackenzie, who had overtaken Duhamel for the sixth spot.

Barros lines up yet another pass going into the Geert Timmer Bocht - this time for the lead - but Crivillé refuses to let him by and bravely holds on to stay ahead, just making the corner.

Coming out of the Ossebroeken, Barros tried to go side-by-side with Crivillé but ended up having a little twitch, causing him to lose a bit of speed.

At the Strubben turn, he ran slightly wide, allowing Kocinski to pass underneath him and snatch second position from him.

It looked like Barros had secured second place, but coming out of Duikersloot he had a big moment, allowing Kocinski to catch right up to him, passing him at the Meeuwenmeer in the process.

All this was enough for Crivillé to build up big enough of a gap and cross the line to win his first ever 500cc race in his premier-class rookie season.