From a press release issued by Marlboro Yamaha:

MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX, SEPANG
Race Day, Sunday October 13 2002

MARLBORO YAMAHA RULE TOUGHEST GP OF YEAR

Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR-M1 rider Max Biaggi won a thrilling Malaysian GP in withering heat and humidity at Sepang this afternoon, coming out ahead of a frantic four-man skirmish with Honda rivals Valentino Rossi, Alex Barros and Tohru Ukawa. Team-mate Carlos Checa had a more difficult day, coming home seventh.

Despite the boiling conditions, with temperatures soaring to 36 degrees and the track surface at 45 degrees, Biaggi’s race time bettered last year’s Malaysian 500 GP by an astonishing 45 seconds. That lightning-quick pace was further proof of the awesome speed of the new-generation MotoGP four-strokes, and none more so than the ever-improving M1, which had 15kmh more speed this weekend than during winter tests here.

“Max made a great job today,” grinned M1 project leader Ichiro Yoda, celebrating the bike’s second win. “He now understands the character of the machine, so he can set it up well. During practice and qualifying we worked hard to perfect the spring balance and chassis balance to help the tyres, and also the engine character to make the bikes easier to ride out of the corners. This worked well for Max but not so well for Carlos; he’s had a difficult weekend and didn’t have so much confidence in the bike.”

Biaggi won the M1’s first victory in August. The bike has also scored four pole positions.

BIAGGI SCORES M1’s SECOND GP WIN, ITALY’S 600th
Max Biaggi’s Sepang triumph was a crucial and landmark success for the Marlboro Yamaha Team man. Not only did the victory lift him to second overall, it was also his tenth premier-class GP win, the M1’s second success and Italy’s 600th. The Italian rode a breathtaking race in what was his 150th consecutive GP start (he hasn’t missed a race since the French GP in 1992), completing the first lap in second, then moving past leader Alex Barros just after half distance and staying ahead till the flag. He crossed the line half a second ahead of compatriot Rossi, the trio of RCV riders bumping and barging into each other for much of the race.

“When you win it’s the best day of your life and I’m very, very happy today because this is a very difficult race, the most difficult of the year,” said a beaming but sweat-drenched Biaggi who started from second on the grid. “I managed to stay second after the start, and when I saw Rossi and Ukawa closing on me and Barros, I went ahead and tried to run a good pace. The heat was incredible, and when you see ‘+0.0’ and ‘+0.2’ on your pitboard all race it’s very tough and not easy to concentrate. But I like this kind of race – push hard and control. I must say thank you to Michelin who are making great tyres. The four-strokes make much more power than the two-strokes, so of course the rear tyre does spin, but with good traction. I ‘d also like to dedicate this win to my team and to Yamaha. They all put in so much effort, even though I won’t be with them next year, but I think I’ve also proved that I don’t give up.”

SET-UP DIFFICULTIES KEEP CHECA SEVENTH
Carlos Checa qualified just a fraction of a second off the front row in yesterday’s final qualifier but was unable to reproduce that pace over race distance. Sixth after the first lap, the Marlboro Yamaha Team star got up to fifth on lap three but then slipped back, ending the race defending seventh place from Kenny Roberts Junior (Suzuki).

“We weren’t able to set up the bike for this track, we lost our way and I’ve not felt confident all weekend,” said Checa, who celebrates his 30th birthday on Tuesday. “I didn’t have the grip to keep rolling the bike into the turns and I couldn’t open the gas out of the corners, I was almost stopped mid-turn. My team worked hard and we tried many things but now we need to analyse what happened here, maybe we will compare our race data to Max’s data.”

ROSSI WINS BARGING MATCH FOR SECOND
MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi fought his way into second after a ferocious race to the finish with Alex Barros and Tohru Ukawa, with whom he made contact at least twice. “Our settings weren’t perfect,” said Rossi after his second successive defeat. “I made some mistakes, like when I tried to overtake Barros and ran wide. But I hope this race helps us to make the bike better for the next races.” Barros took third, Ukawa fourth, just 2.2 seconds separating the first four men home.

RESULTS
1. MAX BIAGGI (ITA) Marlboro YAMAHA Team (YZR-M1) 44’01.592

2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Repsol HONDA Team (RC211v) +0.542

3. Alex Barros (BRA) West HONDA Pons (RC211v) +1.572

4. Tohru Ukawa (JPN) Repsol HONDA Team (RC211v) +2.238

5. Daijiro Kato (JPN) Fortuna HONDA Gresini (RC211v) +8.475

6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Gauloises YAMAHA Tech 3 (YZR-M1) +23.000

7. CARLOS CHECA (SPA) Marlboro YAMAHA Team (YZR-M1) +24.360

8. Kenny Roberts (USA) Telefonica Movistar SUZUKI (GSV-R) +24.709

9. Loris Capirossi (ITA) West HONDA Pons (NSR500) +27.669

10. Norick Abe (JPN) Antena 3 YAMAHA d’Antin (YZR500) +41.811

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) 310
2. MAX BIAGGI (JPN) 189
3. Tohru Ukawa (JPN) 182
4. Alex Barros (BRA) 159
5. CARLOS CHECA (SPA) 136
6. Norick Abe (JPN) 123
7. Loris Capirossi (ITA) 109
8. Kenny Roberts (USA) 92
9. Daijiro Kato (JPN) 91
10. Olivier Jacque (FRA) 66

More, from a press release issued by Red Bull Yamaha WCM:

MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX
Sunday, 13th October 2002

GARRY McCOY and John Hopkins ended today’s Malaysian GP in 15th and 18th places respectively as the Red Bull Yamaha team suffered a frustrating day at round 14 of the MotoGP world championship.

As anticipated pre-race by the Australian and American duo, today’s 21-lap battle at the Sepang circuit was dictated by tyres as both struggled to overcome a lack of grip in an effort to better their final positions. McCoy collected a solitary world championship point but it was hardly the boost he was looking for with his home race at Phillip Island, near Melbourne, taking place in just seven days time.

His problems were evident from the time sheets. The 30-year-old’s fastest lap in the race came on lap four, but his time of 2:08.156 was almost three seconds slower than the time he’d produced in an encouraging display to qualify ninth yesterday. Despite making a good start to hold his grid position for the majority of the opening lap, it wasn’t long before McCoy found himself struggling to maintain his pace with the traction problems taking hold from the early stages.

It was a particularly disappointing day for Hopkins, who struggled to recover from a poor start. Pushing hard to try and maintain his impressive points-scoring record in his rookie season, he tumbled off his two-stroke 500 shortly before the halfway point. Although he managed to remount, he ended up 18th.

It promises to be a tough conclusion to the 2002 campaign for the Red Bull Yamaha team in the face of mounting opposition from the increased number of 990cc four-strokes. Proof of the vast gulf between the four-strokes and two-stroke 500s was evident this afternoon. Max Biaggi’s overall race time on the Yamaha YZR-M1 was 45 seconds faster than last year¹s winning time set on a two-stroke when McCoy finished third.

GARRY McCOY, 15th
World Championship ppoints,­ 20th, 33 points
“That was the best I could do and the toughest race I’ve had to score one point. I jumped with the pack at the start but the edge grip on my tyre went away early ­ virtually from the first lap and I was just sliding it into corners on the brakes, gassing it up and holding it sideways. It was really hard work to keep the bike upright and it just wasn’t possible to carry any decent corner speed. In Turn One I was just idling on the throttle. In the end I was just having fun, especially holding big slides through Turn Three. It was the best our race tyres could do today.”

JOHN HOPKINS,­ 18th
World Championship points, 13th, 53 points
“The tyres wouldn’t hook up, it was a bad race, that’s it. I didn’t make the start I wanted and then got stuck behind slow riders. When I crashed I just tucked the front. Nothing more I can say really.”

PETER CLIFFORD – TEAM DIRECTOR
“That was thoroughly disappointing. There¹s not really too many positives we can take away from today at all other than the fact that both guys are in one piece. Performance wise it has got to be better in Australia.”

More, from a press release issued by Fuchs Kawasaki:

PITT CLAIMS NEW KAWASAKI’S FIRST GP FINISH
Australian GP beginner Andrew Pitt brought the brand new prototype Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR to its first GP finish at Sepang today, with a steady ride to 19th in baking hot conditions that saw three other starters fall by the wayside.

Pitt, 2001 World Supersport champion, was just six seconds behind Yamaha-mounted John Hopkins at the end of the race, after lapping steadily at the back of the field to give the lime-green bike a faultless first race finish at the second attempt.

The Kawasaki will race at the final two rounds of the season, in Australia and Valencia, in preparation for a full first season next year.

Andrew Pitt – 19th:
The biggest experience was to learn how to ride with the bike sliding. I managed to maintain my lap times all the way to the finish, and it was good to get into the rhythm. Only at the beginning I made too many mistake, because I tried too hard in the first few laps. I opened the throttle too early and too hard, the way I used to do it with the 600, and I had a few big moments because of that. Now I’m looking forward to Phillip Island where we will try some modifications with my seating position and with the handlebars. I would have liked to take same points here, and now I’ll try to do that in Australia!!

Harald Eckl – Team Manager:
The most important thing for Andrew and for us was to get a race finish. Andrew could have pushed a little harder in the beginning of the race, but he only experienced later on that the bike was still easy to control when it started sliding. He maintained his pace all the way through and he did lap times in the 2.10s, whereas John Hopkins in front of him slowed down to 2.11s. I’m sure Andrew will be faster again at his home track where he won the World Supersport race at the beginning of the season!

More, from a press release issued by Michelin:

BIAGGI WINS AT SEPANG, OBLITERATES RACE RECORD

Biaggi just beats Rossi and betters Sepang race record by an incredible 45 seconds

This afternoon’s Malaysian Grand Prix was MotoGP racing at its very best – four men battling back and fourth out front and the race record demolished in truly breathtaking style. Max Biaggi (Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) rode magnificently in ferocious heat to beat arch-rival Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin) by a half a second, Alex Barros (West Honda Pons RC211V-Michelin) and Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin) crossing the line a close third and fourth.

Biaggi’s race time was an incredible 45 seconds quicker than last year’s Malaysian 500 GP, won by Rossi, proving that Michelin technology can handle the 200-plus horsepower MotoGP four-strokes in even the most torrid conditions. Sepang is generally acknowledged as the toughest event of the season but Michelin riders totally dominated the 21-lap race, filling the top 11 finishing positions, the first non-Michelin rider coming in 45 seconds behind the winner.

“This was a good weekend for us – it proved that our four-stroke tyres are at a very good level now, even in such difficult conditions,” said Michelin Grand Prix manager Emmanuel Fournier. “All the first three guys chose exactly the same fronts and rears, while Ukawa had a slightly different rear. Daijiro (Kato, Fortuna Honda Gresini RC211V-Michelin) used a different front from his usual favourite, he chose the same front as the other guys but didn’t like it so much. And it was a good result for Shinya (Nakano, Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) in his first race on a four-stroke.”

Biaggi was as impressed as ever by his tyres. “Michelin are making very good tyres,” he said after his second MotoGP win, which was also his tenth premier-class success and Italy’s 600th all-classes GP victory. “The new four-strokes make much more power than the two-strokes but the tyres handle it well. Of course, you get wheelspin from the rear, but always with good traction. When you win it’s the best day of your life and I’m very, very happy today because this is a very difficult race, the most difficult of the year.”

Starting from second on the grid, Biaggi spent the early laps chasing pole-starter Barros, winner of last Sunday’s Pacific GP, with Rossi and Ukawa chasing hard after passing Kato. Just after half-distance Barros missed a gear and Biaggi pounced, taking the lead and working hard to open a gap. At one point he had two seconds on his pursuers, who were elbow-to-elbow as they squabbled over second, Rossi suffering at least two collisions. In the final laps Rossi did break clear but couldn’t get close enough to launch an attack on first place.

“The heat was incredible,” added Biaggi, now second overall in the 2002 MotoGP series. “And when you see ‘+0.0′ and ‘+0.2′ on your pitboard all race it’s very tough. But I like this kind of race – push hard and control.”

MotoGP champ Rossi, who had qualified eighth, his worst grid slot of the year, suffered set-up problems similar to last Sunday’s Pacific GP when he was beaten by Barros. “My first problem was our settings,” said the Italian. “Also, I lost too much time at the beginning when I made some mistakes overtaking Kato and Ukawa. Hopefully we will learn something from today to make things better for the next races.”

Barros was happy enough with another podium finish in his second RCV ride, though frustrated at losing vital time while battling with Rossi and Ukawa. “Me and Valentino touched while we were fighting and that helped Max, for sure,” he said. “After I dropped to fourth, Ukawa and Rossi were doing the same thing, which helped me close the gap, and when Ukawa made a mistake I got back into third.”

Just 1.5 seconds separated the top-three finishers, Ukawa a further 0.7 seconds down and Kato another six seconds back in fifth. Nakano came through from eighth for his second-best result of 2002, passing Carlos Checa (Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) at two thirds distance. Checa just held onto seventh from Kenny Roberts (Telefonica Movistar Suzuki GSV-R-Michelin). Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500-Michelin) was top two-stroke finisher in ninth, bettering last year’s 500 race time by 17 seconds.

More, from a press release issued by Team Proton KR:

McWILLIAMS IN THE POINTS AT SEPANG

Round 14: Malaysian GP, Sepang
Race: Sunday, October 13, 2002

Jeremy McWilliams: 12th Position
Nobuatsu Aoki: Did not finish

Jeremy McWilliams overcame an awful start at today’s Malaysian GP to fight his way through to 12th place from 18th on the first lap, to give Proton Team KR something to cheer about at the home race for their sponsors Proton.

Team-mate Nobuatsu Aoki was poised behind him, planning his own overtaking move for the final lap when his three-cylinder engine cried enough with just three of the 21 laps of the 5.548km Sepang race track left to go.

McWilliams’s stirring recovery ride came after clutch problems on the start line robbed him of the advantage of his excellent second-row starting position. This had been hard won, with a series of blazingly fast laps in qualifying at a track where two consecutive straights take away any advantage accruing to the lightweight three-cylinder Proton KR3 from its much greater corner speed compared with the heavier but more powerful four-cylinder rivals.

In spite of the problems, the race went better than team owner Kenny Roberts had expected. With 990cc four-strokes making half the field in this first year of the new MotoGP series, this was another race where he expected to be battling against enormous odds. As at several other race-tracks this season, the efforts of his riders, the level of refinement of the final version of the KR3 machine and the ever-improving performance of the Bridgestone tyres far exceeded his expectations.

Next year, however, Proton Team KR face the opposition on level terms, with their own new V5 990cc four-stroke, which was officially launched at a packed press conference at the nearby Proton factory on the eve of the Malaysian GP.

JEREMY McWILLIAMS
The clutch jammed up on the start line – it was juddering instead of slipping, and I just had to let it out and bog the engine because I was worried that something might break. It was not a good start to the race. After that, I could close up, but with the difference in straight line speed I was yo-yoing back and forth all the time. I caught up to Abe, who finished tenth, but I had chosen a tyre that was more medium-compound than hard, and that was a mistake. It was really spinning up. I wasn’t going forward in turns where I should have been making up time. I just made it too hard for myself. Looking at where Capirossi finished, in ninth, I think I could have been up there, but I just lost too much time going through the traffic. Not a pleasant race.

NOBUATSU AOKI
That was hard work, and for no result. All weekend I’d been having trouble with the bottom cylinder nipping up, and throughout the race I was being very careful, especially not to rev the bike too hard on the back-shifts, especially into Turn One and the last hairpin. Jeremy caught me and went past, but when I was following him I wasn’t going in his slipstream, because that would make the engine run much hotter. My plan was to stay behind, and try to pass him again on the last lap, but I never got there. I was really enjoying myself, and then my engine seized.

KENNY ROBERTS – Team Owner
We knew it would be a long, hot race, which is very difficult for us, and we did get one bike through it. I need to get Nobu on a V5 that he can backshift. He revs the engine high on the shifts, which is hard on the equipment, and for some reason we’re having trouble making him a bike that can live with it. We’re just getting through this season, and looking forward to next year with our new four-stroke.

More, from a press release issued by Honda:

HONDA RACING INFORMATION

MotoGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2002
MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX, SEPANG
Race Day, Sunday October 13th, 2002

ROSSI SECOND AFTER BATTLING SEPANG RACE

An incident strewn 21-lap MotoGP race at Sepang delivered reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) a close second place, his 13th podium finish of the inaugural MotoGP season. The 20 points he earned for second took him through the 300 barrier, to a giddy level of 310, with two races remaining. Only a DNF at Brno spoils his 2002 season podium perfection, having been no worse than second in every race he has finished.

The Italian rider was in pugilistic form at Sepang, trying to overcome an imperfect set-up by attacking his rivals on the brakes, with occasionally unforeseen outcomes. Despite Rossi’s up and down performance on the day, his second place finish was part of a race in which the leading four-stroke machines of the new MotoGP generation cut a monumental 45 seconds off the previous best race time, set in 2001.

Long time leader Alex Barros (West Honda Pons RC211V) was one to be demoted by Rossi’s attempted overtake, dropping both riders out of contention for the immediate lead mid-race and ultimately the race win; eventually taken by Yamaha rider Max Biaggi, by the margin of 0.542 seconds from Rossi.

Said Rossi of his latest MotoGP adventure: “My first rival was Ukawa, my team mate, and it was not such an easy race for me because my set-up was not so good. I lost the front twice and I didn’t have the right feeling from the front from then on. I took Ukawa and Kato but with two seconds to Barros and Biaggi it was very difficult to catch them. When I did, Alex made a mistake and I tried to overtake him but we both arrived too fast, with Biaggi going into the lead. I had to release the brake, touched Alex and we ran wide. We lost the race basically.”

For Barros it was a frustrating day but he was philosophical about not finally challenging for his second win in a week, despite leading for long periods of time, looking to have the measure of the chasing Biaggi.

“Maybe at some time I did the same thing to Valentino; try to overtake but make a mistake,” shrugged Barros. “This is a sport so I do not take it too personally. If you try to pass and have some contact then this is normal. I lost the race when I made two mistakes. In the last laps we made some compromises to make it to the finish, and I could not overtake anyone because we were all evenly matched. This is only my second four-stroke GP race and we have made two podium finishes, so I should be happy and thank my team for that.”

Barros regained enough composure and concentration to take a close third place for his satellite team, and remains fourth in the World Championship overall.

A real tussle with his team-mate Rossi saw Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) fighting for the podium to start, then chase Barros home for an eventual fourth place.

“The first positive thing is that my machine felt good and I didn’t have any major problems,” stated Ukawa. “I got a good start and then started fighting with Valentino and Kato so that Biaggi and Barros wouldn’t get away. I had a few frights with the front end tucking under and the rear sliding, mainly because the track temperature was so high. I can’t complain about losing the podium. It was a good race and I tried as hard as I could.”

Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini RC211V) fell prey to the advance of Rossi on lap five and Ukawa on lap six, running out fifth at the flag, the fourth Honda rider in the top five places.

“I had a little problem on the bike – imperfect settings on the front – and it tucked in on one of the corners, making me run straight on. I have to look to Phillip Island now because fifth place is not my full potential on this machine.”

For front row qualifier Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500) the Sepang race was a tough challenge, and his concerns about the competitiveness of the two-stroke machines around the uniquely configured and lengthy Sepang circuit proved to have basis in fact. Capirossi was top two-stroke finisher on his NSR, albeit in ninth place.

“I am a professional and I go out to win every race I enter,” said Capirossi of his Sepang experience. “I do my work as well as I can but it is very frustrating when you are a winning rider to finish 27 seconds behind the race winner. I was still 17 seconds faster than the race winner’s time from last year obviously I tried my best but this circuit is the worst of the year for the two strokes.”

Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500) took 13th place after a race spent making progress from being 17th at the end of the first lap.

“I got quite a bad start and had to fight it out with Aoki, McWilliams and Laconi,” said Jurgen of his early race showings. “We’re getting better on tyre compounds and that shows on the overall lap times. My race time today would have given me second place in the race last year.”

Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) dropped out of the race on lap 11, with no hope of completing the race in a points scoring position.

Robby Rolfo (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) took third place in the 20-lap 250cc event, running at the front in the early laps. The Italian was pleased with his form after a somewhat difficult qualifying session.

“I am very pleased with that after we experienced some problems with the set-up of the machine in practice,” said Rolfo, clearly the quickest Honda rider on display.

“It was good to be challenging for the lead in the early part but it was not easy to try and lap in the 2:09 bracket all the time. I have to say thank you to my team who put in a lot of work, in the right direction, to improve the set-up of the bike and that allowed us to take this podium – even if we did not have too much acceleration in some parts of the track.”

Emilio Alzamora (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) battled through the midfield to finish a charging eighth, running at a good pace and displaying a real hunger for the fight.

“I found the right set-up for the race only in the warm-up,” said the largely satisfied Spaniard. “This made me confident but I got hit by one of the Yamahas after I had got a good start and that pushed me wide. I tried hard and I moved up the order and at the end I was running the same pace as the leaders.”

The best of the privateer Hondas was ridden by Haruchika Aoki (DeGraaf Grand Prix Team Honda RS250R/W) scoring a top 12 on the evolution spec machine.

In the 250 title race Rolfo continues in third place overall, the top Honda rider thanks to his total of 186 points, with eighth place Alzamora breaking through the 100 point barrier, on 101.

Daniel Pedrosa (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R) overcame the effects of a back and foot injury to score an excellent second place finish across the line at Sepang, only for the race result to be called from the penultimate lap. The revised result was due to the chequered flag being shown to some backmarkers one lap too early. Pedrosa was thus demoted to third but kept his slender World Championship aspirations alive with two rounds remaining, now sitting on 207 points to the leader’s 240.

Leaping into an early advantage from a front row start, Pedrosa was part of the three man breakaway group, eventually growing in size to contain six, but finally whittled down to a last lap four-man shootout for the win.

“That was particularly pleasing considering how I felt after the crash yesterday, even if I did lose second place due to a mistake from the Race Director,” said Pedrosa. “I really hurt my back and feet but I was also helped because my bike was running well in the race. My mechanics worked hard to fix the bike before the race and it all paid off really well.”

The championship packs its travel cases for the penultimate round at Phillip Island on October 20, with the last race of the year taking place at Valencia, two weeks after that.

RESULTS:

MotoGP Race Classification (21 laps = 116.508 km)
1 Max BIAGGI, YAMAHA, 44’01.592
2 Valentino ROSSI, HONDA, 44’02.134
3 Alex BARROS, HONDA, 44’03.164
4 Tohru UKAWA, HONDA, 44’03.830
5 Daijiro KATO, HONDA, 44’10.067
6 Shinya NAKANO, YAMAHA, 44’24.592
7 Carlos CHECA, YAMAHA, 44’25.952
8 Kenny ROBERTS, SUZUKI, 44’26.301
9 Loris CAPIROSSI, HONDA, 44’29.261
10 Norick ABE, YAMAHA, 44’43.403
11 Akira RYO, SUZUKI, 44’44.195
12 Jeremy McWILLIAMS, PROTON, 44’47.353
13 Jurgen vd GOORBERGH, HONDA, 44’49.908
14 Sete GIBERNAU, SUZUKI, 45’02.862
15 Garry McCOY, YAMAHA, 45’14.688

MotoGP World Championship Positions:
1 ROSSI 310
2 BIAGGI 189
3 UKAWA 182
4 BARROS 159
5 CHECA 136
6 ABE 123
7 CAPIROSSI 109
8 ROBERTS 92
9 KATO 91
10 JACQUE 66
11 NAKANO 55
12 AOKI 54
13 HOPKINS 53
14 McWILLIAMS 45
15 GIBERNAU 44

250cc Race Classification 250cc (20 laps = 110.96 km)
1 Fonsi NIETO, APRILIA, 43’28.624
2 Toni ELIAS, APRILIA, 43’29.036
3 Roberto ROLFO, HONDA, 43’31.571
4 Sebastian PORTO, YAMAHA, 43’36.534
5 Franco BATTAINI, APRILIA, 43’37.205
6 Randy DE PUNIET, APRILIA, 43’37.330
7 Naoki MATSUDO, YAMAHA, 43’47.779
8 Emilio ALZAMORA, HONDA, 43’51.083
9 Shahrol YUZY, YAMAHA, 43’51.318
10 David CHECA, APRILIA, 43’57.974

250cc World Championship Positions:
1 MELANDRI 248
2 NIETO 221
3 ROLFO 186
4 ELIAS 161
5 PORTO 156
6 BATTAINI 124
7 LOCATELLI 108
8 ALZAMORA 101
9 DE PUNIET 96
10 MATSUDO 82
11 STONER 59
12 DEBON 58
13 YUZY 52
14 AOKI 49
15 CHECA 42

125cc Race Classification (18 laps = 99.864 km)
1 Arnaud VINCENT, APRILIA, 40’32.656
2 Lucio CECCHINELLO, APRILIA, 40’32.934
3 Daniel PEDROSA, HONDA, 40’33.001
4 Manuel POGGIALI, GILERA, 40’33.469
5 Pablo NIETO, APRILIA, 40’36.303
6 Steve JENKNER APRILIA, 40’38.944
7 Mika KALLIO, HONDA, 40’45.676
8 Hector BARBERA, APRILIA, 40’45.684
9 Masao AZUMA, HONDA, 40’45.911
10 Alex DE ANGELIS, APRILIA, 40’54.150

125cc World Championship Positions:
1 VINCENT 240
2 POGGIALI 220
3 PEDROSA 207
4 CECCHINELLO 152
5 JENKNER 148
6 NIETO 113
7 SANNA 94
8 AZUMA 93
9 KALLIO 78
10 BORSOI 76
11 DE ANGELIS 74
12 UI 62
13 OLIVE 62
14 GIANSANTI 41
15 BARBERA 38

More, from a press release issued by Suzuki:

ALL THREE SUZUKIS IN THE POINTS AT SEPANG

MotoGP – Round 14, Sepang, Malaysia, October 13, 2002.

Team Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki riders Kenny Roberts Jr. and Sete Gibernau finished eighth and 14th in today’s Malaysian GP, with wild card factory Suzuki rider Akira Ryo a fighting 11th in blazing hot conditions at the Sepang circuit outside the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Roberts’s place came after a determined ride near the front of the field around 21 laps of the 5.548km track, and he finished a frustrating small margin behind seventh-placed Carlos Checa, less than four tenths of a second ahead.

Gibernau had a day of very mixed fortunes, after setting good lap times in the morning warm-up only to suffer an engine failure. Riding with a replacement engine that was not perfectly set up, he ran off the track early in the race because of problems under braking. He got back and pulled through from near the back into the points again.

Ryo also had mixed feelings, in his role as development rider for the new-this-year project. His position fell short of his second place at the opening round at Suzuka, but the fast-improving state of the bike left him satisfied with a year of hard work.

From Sepang, the GP circus travels south to Australia for the penultimate round next weekend, before finishing the year at Valencia two weeks after that.

KENNY ROBERTS – Eighth Position
“Our team worked their asses off this weekend, in very hot conditions, with a couple of crashes and engine problems. Our mechanics are probably the best in the paddock, and they just got on with the job, and I went out and gave it my all – 100 percent effort as always It’s disappointing that at this stage this was the best result we could get. Everything I could make up in the corners I’d lose again going into them and coming out again. I’m fighting the motorcycle much more than the others, and there isn’t a moment I can relax. But at least we’re making ground. We know what we need, and the factory engineers are doing their hardest to give it to us. Each race now we’re also racing for next year, to help them develop the machine to a higher level.”

SETE GIBERNAU – 15th Position
“I didn’t get a good start – then it got worse when I ran off. I just touched the grass, but when I got back I