When the lights went out and Gibernau overtook the battling duo of Rossi and Biaggi at the start, both Gibernau and Biaggi left the rest of the pack behind as they had a better pace, overtaking each other for the lead on a few occasions and setting new lap records with each passing lap. Biaggi led the race at the start of lap four, but Gibernau made his move on the run-up to turn one, briefly making contact before Biaggi let Gibernau through into the lead. Exactly at the halfway point of the race, both riders (who were just 0.500 seconds apart) had to deal with backmarkers. Gibernau managed to overtake the Kawasaki of Garry McCoy but Biaggi had troubles with McCoy nearly high-siding off his bike whilst trying to make way for the "Roman Emperor". Biaggi would make up some of the lost time, but by lap eleven Gibernau started to pull a real gap, being two seconds faster than anyone else on the track. Eventually, Gibernau crossed the line +10.111 ahead of second place Biaggi to score yet another win for his team. He also took his first-ever fastest lap in the MotoGP class.