Big mover is Àlex Crivillé who shoots past many riders from tenth, slotting into second entering the First Corner (Turn 1).

Niall Mackenzie also makes up many places from twelfth, fighting with Honma at the First Corner before taking the position at Snake (Turn 3).

At the Casio Triangle (Turn 15), Mick Doohan and Schwantz go up the inside of Abe and Honma for second and seventh place.

At the entrance of Dunlop, Doohan dives down the inside of teammate Crivillé and snatches seventh place away from him, with Abe having a look around the outside.

At the exit of Dunlop and the start of the short straight before Degner (Turn 8), the American passes Mackenzie, promoting him to fifth.

As Abe is still very close behind Doohan, Mackenzie and Daryl Beattie get a one minute penalty for a jump start.

Exiting the Casio Triangle (Turn 17) and heading onto the start/finish straight, Abe looks to be making a pass but just misses the speed to do so, having to slot in behind Doohan again.

Behind them, fifth place Shinichi Ito is also starting to catch the group of Doohan, Schwantz and Abe as well.

At the Casio Triangle, Schwantz makes a lunge up Doohan's inside entering the corner, passing him and moving up to second position.

Lap seven and Doohan slipstreams past Schwantz again, making good use of his superior top speed to overtake the Lucky Strike Suzuki at the start/finish to retake second.

On lap eight, Doohan starts to pull a small gap to Schwantz with Cadalora still losing more ground to the trio.

Lap nine and Abe now passes Schwantz at the start/finish straight, entering the First Corner, taking second place away from the American.

Lap eleven and wildcard rider and home hero Abe leads the Japanese Grand Prix.

Halfway through Dunlop, Abe has a huge moment that forces him to go wide and lose second position to Doohan.

Lap thirteen and Abe is now right behind Doohan, going up his inside and retaking second at the entrance of the First Corner, the Japanese fans cheering him on as he does so.

However, Abe has a much better exit out of 130R, goes alongside Doohan and passes him on the outside at the entrance of the Casio Triangle, promoting him up to second place again.

Lap fifteen and Ito does not manage to get past Leuthe easily, being blocked upon entry of the First Corner for a moment.

Schwantz then nearly hits a backmarker - Bernard Haenggeli - exiting Degner, him then sitting upright and looking back to see Abe, Doohan and Ito pass him.

The incident has allowed Abe to close right up to Schwantz - who had opened up a gap to the Japanese rider.

Coming up to the Spoon Curve, Abe then makes a late lunge and outbrakes Schwantz, going a bit wide but still being able to keep first place.

At the Casio Triangle, Schwantz then lunges up the inside of Doohan and comfortably passes him before the entrance of the corner.

However, exiting the 130R and coming up the Casio Triangle, Abe makes a very late lunge, his bike sliding a bit as he does so, moving alongside Doohan and taking back second position from him entering the corner.

However, entering the First Corner, Abe loses the front end and crashes out at high speed, tumbling through the gravel and almost hitting the tyre barrier as a result.

A confused Abe is seen lying on his front in the gravel next to his destroyed motorbike, the marshalls running up to him to make sure he is alright and waving the yellow flag.

His crash promotes Doohan to second, Ito to third, Cadalora to fourth, Honma to fifth and Barros to sixth place.

At the Casio Triangle, the fans cheer for Schwantz as he goes through, crossing the line in jubilant fashion - doing a wheelie - to win his first race of the year.

On the parade lap back to parc-fermé, Schwantz carries the American flag as some fans invade the track.

As the American national anthem starts for Schwantz, Doohan laughs and Ito looks down with crossed arms in respect.