World champion Valentino Rossi closed the book on 52 years of 500cc motorcycling on Saturday by winning the rain interrupted Brazilian Grand Prix in dramatic fashion. After chasing Carlos Checa for the best part of nine laps, Rossi, riding a Honda, pipped the Spanish Yamaha rider on the final straight to win the 580th and final 500cc race. Checa appeared to cross the line first but Rossi's combined time for the two stages of the race was better by 0.143 seconds. Italy's Max Biaggi, riding a Yamaha, finished third to guarantee second place in this year's championship over compatriot Loris Capirossi, who was fifth in the race.
Rossi, who won the title in Australia with two races to spare, claimed his fourth successive win and his fifth in six races as he rounded off the final season of 500cc in style. From next season the top level of the series, which has been limited to 500cc machines since 1949, will be contested by 990cc four-stroke prototypes.
Earlier, 18-year-old Manuel Poggiali, who had not won a race before this season, claimed San Marino's first world motorcycling championship when a fifth-place finish gave him the 125cc title. Youichi Ui, the only man who could catch Poggiali, won the race but his sixth win of the season - twice as many as Poggiali - was in vain. Poggiali topped the standings with 241 points, following by Ui with 232 and Spain's Toni Elias with 217.
Japan's Daijiro Katoh, who had already wrapped up the 250cc championship, gave his year a fitting climax by claiming his eleventh win out of sixteen races. His final points total for the season, 322, was a record beating Rossi's haul gained in claiming the 250cc title in 1999 by 13.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
