This is the opening round so no points had been given out for the world championship, but this year's favourites were Valentino Rossi, Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa and Alex Barros.

The second row of the grid consists out of Max Biaggi in fifth, rookie Daijiro Kato in sixth, wildcard rider Akira Ryō in seventh and Olivier Jacque in eighth position.

As the lights go out, multiple riders such as Rossi, Capirossi and Biaggi have a terrible start, being swallowed up by the pack.

From behind however, riders like Ryō, Ito and Jacque who managed to get into the top three positions thanks to a good start, with the Frenchman now leading into the First Corner (Turn 1) on the opening lap.

Exiting the First Corner however, it is Ito who goes up the inside of Jacque to lead the race for the first time, with Ryō doing likewise almost immediately after.

A train of three riders is now starting to form behind Rossi, consisting out of Abe, Sete Gibernau and Repsol Honda teammate Ukawa.

At the Casio Trinagle, Rossi makes his move and goes up the inside of Checa to take fourth place from him.

Ito also closes up on Ryō but the Telefónica Movistar Suzuki rider manages to maintain the lead as they exit the chicane.

American rookie John Hopkins has crashed out and is shown trying to push start his bike in the grass at the Casio Triangle.

On lap six, Jacque puts his arm up in the air as he takes a different line while crossing the start/finish straight to acknowledge that he has seen the team's pit board.

Rossi is closing up on Ito at the straight before 130R (Turn 14) as Ryō now extends his lead over the fellow Japanese rider.

As Ito touches the white line and has a slight moment exiting the 130R, Rossi finally makes his move at the Casio Triangle.

At the Hairpin, Gibernau closes up a lot on fourth placed Checa, then overtaking him around the outside of 200R to take the position from him.

On lap twelve - the halfway point of the race - the field bunches up and it has now become a four-way battle for victory.

Exiting 130R, Gibernau touched the white line, causing him to have a moment and lost a bit of drive in the process.

Extremely disappointed, he falls on the ground next to his machine, then walks away in pure anger, kicking the gravel multiple times as a result.

Exiting the Casio Triangle, Ito now has almost fully closed the gap, making it a three-way fight for the win.

At the Casio Triangle, Abe pulls a switchback move by going to the outside, then to the inside for a late lunge, passing Ukawa for fifth exiting the chicane.

Checa meanwhile has also overtaken Ito by taking a wider line at Snake (Turn 2) and sneaking past, moving him up into third place.

Ryō meanwhile is still harassing Rossi and exiting Spoon Curve, he has a slight moment, allowing the Japanese wildcard rider to get close to him again.

However, as the duo comes up to lap Kato, Ryō makes good use of it as Rossi is forced to brake as to not directly crash into him, almost overtaking him on the outside but just lacking the speed to finish the move on the start/finish straight.

He has a slight wobble exiting 130R but manages to stay on the bike and eventually crosses the line, raising his arm to celebrate his first win of the season - making him a back-to-back winner in both the last race of the 500cc and the first one of the MotoGP era, a feat never achieved before - with Ryō coming home a fair second place +1.550 seconds behind 'The Doctor'.