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2003 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

Field	Value
Grand Prix	Japanese
flag	Japan
Official Name	SKYY vodka Grand Prix of Japan
Location	Suzuka Circuit
Course_mi	3.619
Course_km	5.824
Race_No	1
Season_No	16
Date	6 April
Year	2003
Image	Circuit Suzuka.png
Pole_Rider_MotoGP	Valentino Rossi
Pole_Rider_MotoGP_Country	Italy
Pole_Rider_MotoGP_Bike	Honda
Pole_Time_MotoGP	2:06.838
Fast_Rider_MotoGP	Valentino Rossi
Fast_Rider_MotoGP_Country	Italy
Fast_Rider_MotoGP_Bike	Honda
Fast_Time_MotoGP	2:04.970 on lap 6
First_Rider_MotoGP	Valentino Rossi
First_Rider_MotoGP_Country	Italy
First_Rider_MotoGP_Bike	Honda
Second_Rider_MotoGP	Max Biaggi
Second_Rider_MotoGP_Country	Italy
Second_Rider_MotoGP_Bike	Honda
Third_Rider_MotoGP	Loris Capirossi
Third_Rider_MotoGP_Country	Italy
Third_Rider_MotoGP_Bike	Ducati
Pole_Rider_250	Hiroshi Aoyama
Pole_Rider_250_Country	Japan
Pole_Rider_250_Bike	Honda
Pole_Time_250	2:17.930
Fast_Rider_250	Hiroshi Aoyama
Fast_Rider_250_Bike	Honda
Fast_Rider_250_Country	Japan
Fast_Time_250	2:09.839 on lap 17
First_Rider_250	Manuel Poggiali
First_Rider_250_Country	San Marino
First_Rider_250_Bike	Aprilia
Second_Rider_250	Hiroshi Aoyama
Second_Rider_250_Country	Japan
Second_Rider_250_Bike	Honda
Third_Rider_250	Yuki Takahashi
Third_Rider_250_Country	Japan
Third_Rider_250_Bike	Honda
Pole_Rider_125	Alex de Angelis
Pole_Rider_125_Country	San Marino
Pole_Rider_125_Bike	Aprilia
Pole_Time_125	2:15.417
Fast_Rider_125	Stefano Perugini
Fast_Rider_125_Country	Italy
Fast_Rider_125_Bike	Aprilia
Fast_Time_125	2:14.282 on lap 6
First_Rider_125	Stefano Perugini
First_Rider_125_Country	Italy
First_Rider_125_Bike	Aprilia
Second_Rider_125	Mirko Giansanti
Second_Rider_125_Country	Italy
Second_Rider_125_Bike	Aprilia
Third_Rider_125	Steve Jenkner
Third_Rider_125_Country	Germany
Third_Rider_125_Bike	Aprilia

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 been removed from the MotoGP calendar, with the Japanese Grand Prix having been moved to Twin Ring Motegi, the previous home of the Pacific Grand Prix.

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.

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

Daijiro Kato died on 20 April 2003 from injuries sustained during the accident.

250 cc classification

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

125 cc classification

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

Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)

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

;Riders' Championship standings

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	ITA Valentino Rossi	25
2	ITA Max Biaggi	20
3	ITA Loris Capirossi	16
4	SPA Sete Gibernau	13
5	AUS Troy Bayliss	11

;Constructors' Championship standings

Pos.	Constructor	Points
1	JPN Honda	25
2	ITA Ducati	16
3	ITA Aprilia	10
4	JPN Yamaha	8
5	JPN Suzuki	3

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

References

| Previous_year's_race = 2002 Japanese Grand Prix | Next_year's_race = 2004 Japanese Grand Prix

References

(13 June 2017). "2003 Japanese MotoGP".
Mitchell, Malcolm. "Suzuka Circuit - The Motor Racing Programme Covers Project".
"2003 Japanese MotoGP | Motorsport Database".
(5 April 2003). "Abe replaces Melandri at Fortuna Yamaha". [[Dorna Sports]].
(13 June 2017). "2003 Japanese MotoGP - Motor Sport Magazine Database".
(6 April 2003). "SKYY Vodka Grand Prix of Japan – MotoGP – Race Classification". [[Dorna Sports]].
"motogp.com · JAPANESE GRAND PRIX · MotoGP Race Classification 2003".
(6 April 2003). "SKYY Vodka Grand Prix of Japan – 250cc – Race Classification". [[Dorna Sports]].
(6 April 2003). "SKYY Vodka Grand Prix of Japan – 125cc – Race Classification". [[Dorna Sports]].
(2003). "Standings".

Info: Wikipedia Source

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