1998 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

  1998 Japanese Grand Prix

Race details
Race 1 of 14 races in the 1998 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season
Date	5 April 1998
Official name	Marlboro Grand Prix of Japan
Location	Suzuka Circuit
Course	Permanent racing facility 5.864 km (3.644 mi)
500cc
Pole position Rider Max Biaggi Honda Time 2:05.772 Fastest lap Rider Max Biaggi Honda Time 2:06.746 on lap 4 Podium First Max Biaggi Honda Second Tadayuki Okada Honda Third Noriyuki Haga Yamaha
250cc
Pole position Rider Daijiro Kato Honda Time 2:08.430 Fastest lap Rider Naoki Matsudo Yamaha Time 2:09.284 on lap 8 Podium First Daijiro Kato Honda Second Shinya Nakano Yamaha Third Naoki Matsudo Yamaha
125cc
Pole position Rider Noboru Ueda Honda Time 2:15.162 Fastest lap Rider Masao Azuma Honda Time 2:16.128 on lap 6 Podium First Kazuto Sakata Aprilia Second Tomomi Manako Honda Third Masao Azuma Honda

The 1998 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 1998 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on 5 April 1998 at the Suzuka Circuit. The rookie Max Biaggi surprised everyone by winning his first ever GP500 race.

500 cc classification

Source:

Pos.	No.	Rider	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	6	Max Biaggi	Marlboro Team Kanemoto	Honda	21	44:59.478	1	25
2	2	Tadayuki Okada	Repsol Honda	Honda	21	+5.416	3	20
3	50	Noriyuki Haga	Yamaha Racing Team	Yamaha	21	+5.502	6	16
4	4	Àlex Crivillé	Repsol Honda	Honda	21	+10.532	10	13
5	21	Kyoji Nanba	Yamaha Team Rainey	Yamaha	21	+10.879	2	11
6	3	Nobuatsu Aoki	Suzuki Grand Prix Team	Suzuki	21	+13.479	8	10
7	9	Alex Barros	Honda Gresini	Honda	21	+20.266	13	9
8	8	Carlos Checa	Movistar Honda Pons	Honda	21	+20.439	5	8
9	11	Simon Crafar	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha	21	+20.773	11	7
10	15	Sete Gibernau	Repsol Honda	Honda	21	+47.101	12	6
11	10	Kenny Roberts Jr.	Team Roberts	Modenas KR3	21	+1:13.558	15	5
12	7	Doriano Romboni	MuZ Roc Rennen Sport	MuZ	21	+1:22.856	22	4
13	19	John Kocinski	Movistar Honda Pons	Honda	21	+1:24.964	9	3
14	5	Norick Abe	Yamaha Team Rainey	Yamaha	21	+1:25.293	7	2
15	14	Juan Borja	Shell Advance Racing	Honda	21	+1:59.992	16	1
16	57	Fabio Carpani	Team Polini Inoxmacel	Honda	20	+1 lap	24
Ret	1	Mick Doohan	Repsol Honda	Honda	15	Retirement	4
Ret	22	Sébastien Gimbert	Tecmas Honda Elf	Honda	11	Retirement	20
Ret	88	Scott Smart	Team Millar Honda Britain	Honda	4	Accident	23
Ret	17	Jurgen van den Goorbergh	Dee Cee Jeans Racing Team	Honda	1	Retirement	19
Ret	23	Matt Wait	FCC TSR	Honda	1	Accident	21
Ret	29	Keiichi Kitagawa	Suzuki Grand Prix Team	Suzuki	1	Retirement	14
Ret	18	Garry McCoy	Shell Advance Racing	Honda	0	Retirement	18
Ret	28	Ralf Waldmann	Team Roberts	Modenas KR3	0	Retirement	17
DNS	55	Régis Laconi	Red Bull Yamaha WCM	Yamaha		Did not start
Sources:

250 cc classification

Source:

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	54	Daijiro Kato	Honda	19	41:17.096	1	25
2	50	Shinya Nakano	Yamaha	19	+0.896	3	20
3	51	Naoki Matsudo	Yamaha	19	+0.962	5	16
4	31	Tetsuya Harada	Aprilia	19	+1.094	9	13
5	19	Olivier Jacque	Honda	19	+34.301	4	11
6	55	Yukio Kagayama	Suzuki	19	+37.035	14	10
7	65	Loris Capirossi	Aprilia	19	+37.104	6	9
8	17	José Luis Cardoso	Yamaha	19	+43.094	12	8
9	12	Noriyasu Numata	Suzuki	19	+43.105	15	7
10	9	Jeremy McWilliams	TSR-Honda	19	+43.909	16	6
11	6	Haruchika Aoki	Honda	19	+44.000	21	5
12	4	Stefano Perugini	Honda	19	+44.067	13	4
13	52	Choujun Kameya	Suzuki	19	+44.168	10	3
14	18	Osamu Miyazaki	Yamaha	19	+44.637	8	2
15	7	Takeshi Tsujimura	Yamaha	19	+44.727	17	1
16	53	Makoto Tamada	Honda	19	+53.855	18
17	11	Jürgen Fuchs	Aprilia	19	+1:01.999	11
18	37	Luca Boscoscuro	TSR-Honda	19	+1:04.359	20
19	24	Jason Vincent	TSR-Honda	19	+1:08.853	22
20	14	Davide Bulega	Honda	18	+1 lap	26
Ret	25	Yasumasa Hatakeyama	Honda	18	Accident	27
Ret	21	Franco Battaini	Yamaha	17	Accident	19
Ret	5	Tohru Ukawa	Honda	14	Retirement	2
Ret	46	Valentino Rossi	Aprilia	10	Retirement	7
Ret	44	Roberto Rolfo	TSR-Honda	7	Retirement	25
Ret	16	Johan Stigefelt	Suzuki	2	Accident	24
Ret	27	Sebastián Porto	Aprilia	1	Accident	23
Ret	41	Federico Gartner	Aprilia	0	Accident	28
DNS	8	Luis d'Antin	Yamaha		Did not start
DNS	20	William Costes	Honda		Did not start
OFFICIAL 250cc REPORT

125 cc classification

Source:

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Points
1	4	Kazuto Sakata	Aprilia	18	41:23.963	2	25
2	3	Tomomi Manako	Honda	18	+0.156	18	20
3	20	Masao Azuma	Honda	18	+0.201	6	16
4	10	Lucio Cecchinello	Honda	18	+2.783	7	13
5	53	Noboyuki Osaki	Yamaha	18	+26.381	9	11
6	8	Gianluigi Scalvini	Honda	18	+26.468	10	10
7	52	Hiroyuki Kikuchi	Honda	18	+33.198	12	9
8	5	Masaki Tokudome	Aprilia	18	+33.422	11	8
9	51	Takashi Akita	Yamaha	18	+33.552	23	7
10	13	Marco Melandri	Honda	18	+33.834	14	6
11	9	Frédéric Petit	Honda	18	+34.215	19	5
12	62	Yoshiaki Katoh	Yamaha	18	+46.152	26	4
13	29	Ángel Nieto, Jr.	Aprilia	18	+46.574	16	3
14	54	Kazuhiro Takao	Honda	18	+48.281	17	2
15	26	Ivan Goi	Aprilia	18	+59.684	20	1
16	17	Enrique Maturana	Yamaha	18	+1:03.598	22
17	11	José Ramírez	Aprilia	18	+1:12.202	25
18	19	Andrea Ballerini	Honda	18	+1:12.287	27
19	18	Paolo Tessari	Aprilia	18	+1:21.902	28
20	21	Arnaud Vincent	Aprilia	18	+1:28.393	29
21	7	Emilio Alzamora	Aprilia	18	+1:33.214	24
Ret	41	Youichi Ui	Yamaha	14	Retirement	3
Ret	22	Steve Jenkner	Aprilia	13	Retirement	15
Ret	2	Noboru Ueda	Honda	12	Retirement	1
Ret	15	Roberto Locatelli	Honda	10	Accident	4
Ret	23	Gino Borsoi	Aprilia	7	Retirement	13
Ret	16	Christian Manna	Yamaha	6	Retirement	30
Ret	32	Mirko Giansanti	Honda	4	Accident	8
Ret	50	Yuzo Fujioka	Honda	2	Accident	5
Ret	39	Jaroslav Huleš	Honda	1	Retirement	21
OFFICIAL 125cc REPORT

Championship standings after the race (500cc)

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

Riders' Championship standings

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Max Biaggi	25
2	Tadayuki Okada	20
3	Noriyuki Haga	16
4	Àlex Crivillé	13
5	Kyoji Nanba	11

Constructors' Championship standings

Pos.	Constructor	Points
1	Honda	25
2	Yamaha	16
3	Suzuki	10
4	Modenas KR3	5
5	MuZ	4

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