Results 125/250 Brazilian GP

Having taken the world chamionship, some riders might have eased up for the last race of the year. Not Dajiroh Katoh (Telefonica Movistar Honda). Despite being pushed very hard by a gang of Aprilia riders, he fought back in the closing stages of the race to take and defend the lead from Marco Melandri (MS Aprilia). His motivation was simply to close the season and his 250 career with a win, prior to moving to the new MotoGP class. Retaining the same Gresini team, but with assistance from Erv Kanemoto, who will also run his own team with Bridgestone tires and Jurgen van der Goorbergh, Katoh may be an even hotter prospect than Nakano has turned out to be this year.

Surprise polesitter was Fonsi Nieto (Valencia Aspar Aprilia), who had got a tow from Katoh on his fast lap and then slingshot past to claim the fastest qualification time. It wasn't quite raining, but the track was still damp as the riders lined up at the start. Nieto proved that he could maintain a fast pace during the race, getting off the line cleanly and mixing it with Katoh and the factory Aprilias of Melandri, McWilliams, Loacatelli and Harada for the first 6 laps. A couple of mistakes on lap 6 caused him to loose touch with the leading group, but he recovered later in the race to pass Harada and battle with McWilliams for 4th. place. It was close racing for all 22 laps, but by lap 16, it was clear that the winner would be one the group of three riders at the head of the field. First McWilliams had lost contact with the leaders, with Harada dropping back dramatically as the race drew to a close. Locatelli spent several laps at the front, until Katoh struck on the penultimate lap, with Melandri going past as well. Both riders were riding on the edge of disaster, but Katoh had a 10 meter advantage that Melandri just could not close down.

Youichi Ui (L&M Derbi) needed to win the race to have any chance of taking the world championship, so he did. Riding a masterful race in very tricky weather conditions, he led for almost all the race, until Simone Sanna (Safilo Oxydo Aprilia) caught him on the penultimate lap. Ui came back at him and retook the lead, which he was able to hold to the chequered flag. Manuel Poggiali (Gilera) simply needed to finish in 13th. place or higher to become world champion, which he did. For the first half of the race, even this looked doubtful as he was riding very carefully to avoid crashing, especially after almost falling on lap 8. The track was very difficult as it was still very damp and taking a long time to dry. At one stage Poggiali was in 11th. place, but falls from a couple of riders ahead of him and his own refocused concentration saw him cross the line in a respectable 5th. place and become the first motorcycle world champion from San Marino.