2003 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

The 2003 Japanese Motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 2003 MotoGP Championship. It took place on the weekend of 4–6 April 2003 at Suzuka. The meeting was overshadowed by the death of Daijiro Kato in the MotoGP race, after he crashed at 130R and hit the barrier at high speed in the ensuing Casio Triangle. Since the accident, Suzuka has failed to reappear on the calendar, with the Japanese Grand Prix moving to Twin Ring Motegi, the previous home of the Pacific Grand Prix.

  2003 Japanese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 16 races in the 2003 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	6 April 2003
Official name	SKYY vodka Grand Prix of Japan[1][2]
Location	Suzuka Circuit
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.824 km (3.619 mi)
MotoGP
Pole position Rider Valentino Rossi Honda Time 2:06.838 Fastest lap Rider Valentino Rossi Honda Time 2:04.970 on lap 6 Podium First Valentino Rossi Honda Second Max Biaggi Honda Third Loris Capirossi Ducati
250 cc
Pole position Rider Hiroshi Aoyama Honda Time 2:17.930 Fastest lap Rider Hiroshi Aoyama Honda Time 2:09.839 on lap 17 Podium First Manuel Poggiali Aprilia Second Hiroshi Aoyama Honda Third Yuki Takahashi Honda
125 cc
Pole position Rider Alex de Angelis Aprilia Time 2:15.417 Fastest lap Rider Stefano Perugini Aprilia Time 2:14.282 on lap 6 Podium First Stefano Perugini Aprilia Second Mirko Giansanti Aprilia Third Steve Jenkner Aprilia

MotoGP classification

After the Friday timed sessions Norifumi Abe, who was already competing in the event as a wild card entry, was designated as the replacement rider for the injured Marco Melandri.[3]

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	46	Valentino Rossi	Repsol Honda	Honda	21	44:13.182	1	25
2	3	Max Biaggi	Camel Pramac Pons	Honda	21	+6.445	2	20
3	65	Loris Capirossi	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	21	+8.209	15	16
4	15	Sete Gibernau	Telefónica Movistar Honda	Honda	21	+13.209	6	13
5	12	Troy Bayliss	Ducati Marlboro Team	Ducati	21	+23.099	13	11
6	45	Colin Edwards	Alice Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	21	+29.040	9	10
7	69	Nicky Hayden	Repsol Honda	Honda	21	+29.126	22	9
8	4	Alex Barros	Gauloises Yamaha Team	Yamaha	21	+30.526	8	8
9	56	Shinya Nakano	D'Antin Yamaha Team	Yamaha	21	+33.447	10	7
10	7	Carlos Checa	Fortuna Yamaha Team	Yamaha	21	+40.200	4	6
11	17	Norifumi Abe	Fortuna Yamaha Team	Yamaha	21	+44.790	14	5
12	41	Noriyuki Haga	Alice Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	21	+1:03.358	17	4
13	21	John Hopkins	Suzuki Grand Prix Team	Suzuki	21	+1:03.950	12	3
14	10	Kenny Roberts Jr.	Suzuki Grand Prix Team	Suzuki	21	+1:04.085	7	2
15	19	Olivier Jacque	Gauloises Yamaha Team	Yamaha	21	+1:09.990	21	1
16	8	Garry McCoy	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki	21	+1:16.572	20
17	88	Andrew Pitt	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki	21	+1:17.380	23
18	48	Akira Yanagawa	Kawasaki Racing Team	Kawasaki	21	+1:23.605	18
19	25	Tamaki Serizawa	Moriwaki Racing WCM	MD211VF Proto	21	+1:35.459	16
20	11	Tohru Ukawa	Camel Pramac Pons	Honda	21	+1:57.128	3
Ret	6	Makoto Tamada	Pramac Honda	Honda	12	Accident	5
Ret	9	Nobuatsu Aoki	Proton Team KR	Proton KR	7	Retirement	19
Ret	99	Jeremy McWilliams	Proton Team KR	Proton KR	6	Accident	24
Ret	74	Daijiro Kato	Telefónica Movistar Honda	Honda	2	Fatal accident	11
DNS	35	Chris Burns	WCM	Harris WCM		Did not start
Sources: [4][5][6]

250 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	54	Manuel Poggiali	Aprilia	19	41:36.284	23	25
2	92	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda	19	+1.373	1	20
3	72	Yuki Takahashi	Honda	19	+1.496	7	16
4	5	Sebastián Porto	Honda	19	+1.700	6	13
5	21	Franco Battaini	Aprilia	19	+11.771	16	11
6	10	Fonsi Nieto	Aprilia	19	+13.220	9	10
7	3	Roberto Rolfo	Honda	19	+13.497	4	9
8	8	Naoki Matsudo	Yamaha	19	+14.027	5	8
9	68	Tekkyu Kayoh	Yamaha	19	+24.546	12	7
10	50	Sylvain Guintoli	Aprilia	19	+42.722	8	6
11	6	Alex Debón	Honda	19	+43.246	3	5
12	36	Erwan Nigon	Aprilia	19	+47.871	21	4
13	11	Joan Olivé	Aprilia	19	+1:09.405	30	3
14	16	Johan Stigefelt	Aprilia	19	+1:09.779	13	2
15	96	Jakub Smrž	Honda	19	+1:21.048	10	1
16	34	Eric Bataille	Honda	19	+1:21.788	28
17	13	Jaroslav Huleš	Yamaha	19	+1:35.538	15
18	57	Chaz Davies	Aprilia	19	+1:38.489	29
19	18	Henk vd Lagemaat	Honda	19	+1:41.507	25
20	98	Katja Poensgen	Honda	18	+1 lap	26
Ret	33	Héctor Faubel	Aprilia	18	Accident	18
Ret	15	Christian Gemmel	Honda	17	Accident	24
Ret	26	Alex Baldolini	Aprilia	17	Retirement	11
Ret	14	Anthony West	Aprilia	15	Accident	17
Ret	24	Toni Elías	Aprilia	14	Retirement	27
Ret	71	Katsuyuki Nakasuga	Yamaha	10	Accident	2
Ret	7	Randy de Puniet	Aprilia	4	Retirement	20
Ret	28	Dirk Heidolf	Aprilia	0	Accident	19
Ret	67	Tomoyoshi Koyama	Yamaha	0	Accident	22
Ret	9	Hugo Marchand	Aprilia	0	Retirement	14
Source: [7]

125 cc classification

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	7	Stefano Perugini	Aprilia	18	40:53.083	5	25
2	6	Mirko Giansanti	Aprilia	18	+0.037	4	20
3	17	Steve Jenkner	Aprilia	18	+1.033	13	16
4	4	Lucio Cecchinello	Aprilia	18	+6.701	3	13
5	34	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	18	+8.594	8	11
6	41	Youichi Ui	Aprilia	18	+8.940	18	10
7	22	Pablo Nieto	Aprilia	18	+9.083	11	9
8	3	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	18	+22.993	2	8
9	12	Thomas Lüthi	Honda	18	+33.708	17	7
10	23	Gino Borsoi	Aprilia	18	+34.234	20	6
11	36	Mika Kallio	Honda	18	+34.280	34	5
12	24	Simone Corsi	Honda	18	+35.245	28	4
13	11	Max Sabbatani	Aprilia	18	+35.818	6	3
14	79	Gábor Talmácsi	Aprilia	18	+35.945	23	2
15	42	Gioele Pellino	Aprilia	18	+36.307	22	1
16	32	Fabrizio Lai	Malaguti	18	+42.964	21
17	8	Masao Azuma	Honda	18	+43.063	30
18	19	Álvaro Bautista	Aprilia	18	+51.526	19
19	31	Julián Simón	Malaguti	18	+57.880	24
20	65	Toshihisa Kuzuhara	Honda	18	+58.129	25
21	58	Marco Simoncelli	Aprilia	18	+58.412	15
22	63	Mike Di Meglio	Aprilia	18	+1:16.078	33
23	10	Roberto Locatelli	KTM	18	+1:17.164	27
24	25	Imre Tóth	Honda	18	+1:21.140	31
25	14	Chris Martin	Aprilia	18	+1:21.384	32
26	21	Leon Camier	Honda	18	+1:56.001	36
27	67	Akio Tanaka	Honda	17	+1 lap	37
Ret	66	Shuhei Aoyama	Honda	17	Retirement	12
Ret	78	Péter Lénárt	Honda	15	Accident	35
Ret	27	Casey Stoner	Aprilia	8	Accident	7
Ret	33	Stefano Bianco	Gilera	7	Accident	10
Ret	48	Jorge Lorenzo	Derbi	7	Retirement	29
Ret	15	Alex de Angelis	Aprilia	6	Accident	1
Ret	1	Arnaud Vincent	KTM	2	Retirement	16
Ret	26	Emilio Alzamora	Derbi	2	Retirement	14
Ret	80	Héctor Barberá	Aprilia	1	Accident	9
Ret	68	Sadahito Suma	Honda	1	Retirement	26
DNQ	64	Cheung Way On	Honda		Did not qualify
Source: [8]

Championship standings after the race (motoGP)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round one has concluded.[9]

Riders' Championship standings Pos. Rider Points 1 Valentino Rossi 25 2 Max Biaggi 20 3 Loris Capirossi 16 4 Sete Gibernau 13 5 Troy Bayliss 11

Constructors' Championship standings Pos. Constructor Points 1 Honda 25 2 Ducati 16 3 Aprilia 10 4 Yamaha 8 5 Suzuki 3

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

1. "2003 Japanese MotoGP". Motorsportmagazine.com. 13 June 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
2. Mitchell, Malcolm. "Suzuka Circuit - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project". Progcovers.com. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
3. "Abe replaces Melandri at Fortuna Yamaha". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 5 April 2003. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
4. "2003 Japanese MotoGP - Motor Sport Magazine Database". 13 June 2017.
5. "SKYY Vodka Grand Prix of Japan – MotoGP – Race Classification" (PDF). MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 6 April 2003. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
6. "motogp.com · JAPANESE GRAND PRIX · MotoGP Race Classification 2003". www.motogp.com.
7. "SKYY Vodka Grand Prix of Japan – 250cc – Race Classification" (PDF). MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 6 April 2003. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
8. "SKYY Vodka Grand Prix of Japan – 125cc – Race Classification" (PDF). MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 6 April 2003. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
9. "Standings" (PDF). resources.motogp.com. 2003. Retrieved 2019-08-22.