The premier class race fulfilled all expectations and the riders who had shown themselves in better shape yesterday where those who played the leading roles today, with Marco Melandri as a surprise guest. Repsol rider Max Biaggi, who had set the second fastest time this morning during the warm-up, thus achieving a one-two result at the warm-up for the Repsol Honda Team on the time sheets -Hayden had been fastest -, lost every chance to fight for the victory or a place on the podium after only a few laps, when the tyres of his Honda lost grip and he crashed, though lightly but enough to be unable to rejoin the race.

In the back, a group of four escaped riders, with Hayden in the lead, followed by Rossi, Melandri and Checa was moving on quickly. Although the first two of them managed to take an advantage of more than one and a half second, with eight laps to go, the four riders had closed-up again, with Rossi in the lead. The fight for the

second place between Hayden and Melandri allowed Rossi to escape five laps before the end of the race and once Hayden had managed to overtake Melandri, it was already too late to try to fight for the victory that went to Rossi, followed by the Repsol rider, with Carlos Checa third after overtaking Melandri in the last lap.

In the race of the eight-of-a-litre class, Luthi started pushing very hard leaving the rest of the pack with hardly any chance to fight for the victory. The Swiss rider escaped from the first lap leaving a large group of riders behind, who began the fight for the remaining steps of the podium from the very start as well. Repsol rider Héctor Faubel, together with Koyama, Kallio, Talmacsi, Pasini, Simoncelli and Rodríguez among others, held a nice fight, lap after lap, waiting for the end of the race to start the final attack.