2002 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

  2002 Japanese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 16 races in the 2002 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	7 April 2002
Official name	SKYY Vodka Grand Prix of Japan
Location	Suzuka
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.821 km (3.618 mi)
MotoGP
Pole position
Rider	Valentino Rossi
Time	2:04.226
Fastest lap
Rider	Valentino Rossi
Time	2:19.105
Podium
First	Valentino Rossi
Second	Akira Ryo
Third	Carlos Checa
250 cc
Pole position
Rider	Fonsi Nieto
Time	2:08.049
Fastest lap
Rider	Osamu Miyazaki
Time	2:25.896
Podium
First	Osamu Miyazaki
Second	Daisaku Sakai
Third	Randy de Puniet
125 cc
Pole position
Rider	Dani Pedrosa
Time	2:13.957
Fastest lap
Rider	Stefano Bianco
Time	2:30.798
Podium
First	Arnaud Vincent
Second	Mirko Giansanti
Third	Manuel Poggiali

The 2002 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 2002 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 5–7 April 2002 at Suzuka. The race was historic in that it was the first race of the MotoGP class, with engine capacities raised to 990cc from 500cc.

MotoGP classification

Pos	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	46	Valentino Rossi	Honda	21	49:32.766	1	25
2	33	Akira Ryo	Suzuki	21	+1.550	7	20
3	7	Carlos Checa	Yamaha	21	+8.353	4	16
4	72	Shinichi Ito	Honda	21	+10.829	3	13
5	6	Norifumi Abe	Yamaha	21	+20.423	12	11
6	4	Alex Barros	Honda	21	+32.259	13	10
7	9	Nobuatsu Aoki	Proton KR	21	+39.633	15	9
8	55	Régis Laconi	Aprilia	20	+1 lap	19	8
9	65	Loris Capirossi	Honda	20	+1 lap	2	7
10	74	Daijiro Kato	Honda	20	+1 lap	6	6
11	31	Tetsuya Harada	Honda	20	+1 lap	16	5
12	21	John Hopkins	Yamaha	16	+5 laps	18	4
Ret	11	Tohru Ukawa	Honda	18	Accident	11
Ret	56	Shinya Nakano	Yamaha	17	Accident	9
Ret	99	Jeremy McWilliams	Proton KR	16	Accident	21
Ret	15	Sete Gibernau	Suzuki	12	Accident	14
Ret	19	Olivier Jacque	Yamaha	12	Retirement	8
Ret	10	Kenny Roberts, Jr.	Suzuki	6	Accident	10
Ret	3	Max Biaggi	Yamaha	6	Accident	5
Ret	17	Jurgen vd Goorbergh	Honda	4	Retirement	20
Ret	8	Garry McCoy	Yamaha	2	Accident	17
DNQ	20	Pere Riba	Yamaha

250 cc classification

Pos	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	89	Osamu Myazaki	Yamaha	19	47:09.454	8	25
2	50	Daisaku Sakai	Honda	19	+6.941	12	20
3	17	Randy de Puniet	Aprilia	19	+29.020	2	16
4	7	Emilio Alzamora	Honda	19	+45.300	6	13
5	9	Sebastián Porto	Yamaha	19	+45.495	7	11
6	8	Naoki Matsudo	Yamaha	19	+54.725	10	10
7	49	Choujun Kameya	Honda	19	+1:00.572	22	9
8	4	Roberto Rolfo	Honda	19	+1:02.287	14	8
9	6	Alex Debón	Aprilia	19	+1:18.282	5	7
10	21	Franco Battaini	Aprilia	19	+1:19.377	4	6
11	24	Toni Elías	Aprilia	19	+1:31.481	11	5
12	92	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda	19	+1:50.269	13	4
13	10	Fonsi Nieto	Aprilia	19	+1:56.005	1	3
14	51	Hugo Marchand	Aprilia	19	+2:06.670	26	2
15	22	Raúl Jara	Aprilia	18	+1 lap	20	1
16	15	Roberto Locatelli	Aprilia	18	+1 lap	9
Ret	11	Haruchika Aoki	Honda	18	Accident	17
Ret	19	Leon Haslam	Honda	16	Retirement	25
Ret	25	Vincent Philippe	Aprilia	14	Accident	23
Ret	3	Marco Melandri	Aprilia	13	Accident	3
Ret	41	Jarno Janssen	Honda	9	Accident	27
Ret	18	Shahrol Yuzy	Yamaha	7	Accident	18
Ret	12	Jason Vincent	Honda	4	Accident	24
Ret	76	Taro Sekiguchi	Yamaha	2	Accident	21
Ret	48	Shinichi Nakatomi	Honda	1	Accident	19
Ret	32	Héctor Faubel	Aprilia	1	Accident	28
Ret	27	Casey Stoner	Aprilia	0	Accident	15
DNS	42	David Checa	Aprilia			16
DNQ	28	Dirk Heidolf	Aprilia

125 cc classification

Pos	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	21	Arnaud Vincent	Aprilia	18	+46:22.971	2	25
2	6	Mirko Giansanti	Honda	18	+1.164	15	20
3	1	Manuel Poggiali	Gilera	18	+2.558	5	16
4	9	Noboru Ueda	Honda	18	+3.479	18	13
5	16	Simone Sanna	Aprilia	18	+10.188	19	11
6	66	Shuhei Aoyama	Honda	18	+23.056	12	10
7	47	Ángel Rodríguez	Aprilia	18	+23.653	13	9
8	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	18	+33.488	1	8
9	4	Lucio Cecchinello	Aprilia	18	+34.285	3	7
10	23	Gino Borsoi	Aprilia	18	+47.304	11	6
11	7	Stefano Perugini	Italjet	18	+1:01.770	24	5
12	12	Klaus Nöhles	Honda	18	+1:06.064	14	4
13	25	Joan Olivé	Honda	18	+1:28.936	25	3
14	19	Alex Baldolini	Aprilia	18	+1:36.264	29	2
15	17	Steve Jenkner	Aprilia	18	+1:56.859	7	1
16	80	Héctor Barberá	Aprilia	18	+2:11.594	33
17	31	Mattia Angeloni	Gilera	18	+2:14.164	37
18	20	Imre Tóth	Honda	18	+2:17.104	36
19	46	Sunathai Chaemsap	Honda	18	+2:35.641	23
Ret	33	Stefano Bianco	Aprilia	15	Accident	20
Ret	65	Toshihisa Kuzuhara	Honda	14	Accident	22
Ret	18	Jakub Smrž	Honda	13	Accident	26
Ret	41	Youichi Ui	Derbi	12	Accident	10
Ret	57	Chaz Davies	Aprilia	12	Accident	27
Ret	39	Jaroslav Huleš	Aprilia	7	Accident	4
Ret	50	Andrea Ballerini	Honda	7	Accident	30
Ret	36	Mika Kallio	Honda	7	Accident	31
Ret	5	Masao Azuma	Honda	6	Accident	6
Ret	34	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	6	Accident	28
Ret	8	Gábor Talmácsi	Italjet	5	Retirement	21
Ret	84	Michel Fabrizio	Gilera	5	Retirement	35
Ret	10	Jarno Müller	Honda	5	Accident	16
Ret	67	Hideyuki Ogata	Honda	4	Accident	32
Ret	22	Pablo Nieto	Aprilia	3	Accident	17
Ret	15	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	1	Accident	8
Ret	11	Max Sabbatani	Aprilia	0	Accident	9
Ret	68	Akira Komuro	Honda	0	Accident	34

References

• "FIM official website". Retrieved 2008-04-12.