# 2001 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix

The 2001 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix was the first round of the 2001 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 6–8 April 2001 at the Suzuka Circuit.

## 500 cc classification

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Team | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Nastro Azzurro Honda | Honda | 21 | 44:51.501 | 7 | 25 |
| 2 | 5 | Garry McCoy | Red Bull Yamaha WCM | Yamaha | 21 | +0.724 | 4 | 20 |
| 3 | 3 | Max Biaggi | Marlboro Yamaha Team | Yamaha | 21 | +0.956 | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | 6 | Norifumi Abe | Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin | Yamaha | 21 | +1.176 | 6 | 13 |
| 5 | 56 | Shinya Nakano | Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 21 | +3.256 | 2 | 11 |
| 6 | 4 | Alex Barros | West Honda Pons | Honda | 21 | +14.515 | 8 | 10 |
| 7 | 1 | Kenny Roberts Jr. | Telefónica Movistar Suzuki | Suzuki | 21 | +22.876 | 9 | 9 |
| 8 | 65 | Loris Capirossi | West Honda Pons | Honda | 21 | +28.732 | 1 | 8 |
| 9 | 28 | Àlex Crivillé | Repsol YPF Honda Team | Honda | 21 | +34.478 | 11 | 7 |
| 10 | 7 | Carlos Checa | Marlboro Yamaha Team | Yamaha | 21 | +53.765 | 12 | 6 |
| 11 | 17 | Jurgen van den Goorbergh | Proton Team KR | Proton KR | 21 | +58.688 | 16 | 5 |
| 12 | 12 | Haruchika Aoki | Arie Molenaar Racing | Honda | 21 | +1:17.338 | 17 | 4 |
| 13 | 9 | Leon Haslam | Shell Advance Honda | Honda | 21 | +1:17.681 | 20 | 3 |
| Ret | 24 | Jason Vincent | Pulse GP | Pulse | 19 | Retirement | 21 | |
| Ret | 11 | Tohru Ukawa | Repsol YPF Honda Team | Honda | 16 | Accident | 5 | |
| Ret | 68 | Mark Willis | Pulse GP | Pulse | 15 | Retirement | 23 | |
| Ret | 33 | Akira Ryō | Telefónica Movistar Suzuki | Suzuki | 12 | Accident | 15 | |
| Ret | 19 | Olivier Jacque | Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 11 | Retirement | 19 | |
| Ret | 41 | Noriyuki Haga | Red Bull Yamaha WCM | Yamaha | 10 | Accident | 10 | |
| Ret | 15 | Sete Gibernau | Telefónica Movistar Suzuki | Suzuki | 8 | Accident | 14 | |
| Ret | 21 | Barry Veneman | Dee Cee Jeans Racing Team | Honda | 5 | Retirement | 24 | |
| Ret | 16 | Johan Stigefelt | Sabre Sport | Sabre V4 | 3 | Retirement | 22 | |
| Ret | 10 | José Luis Cardoso | Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antin | Yamaha | 0 | Accident | 13 | |
| Ret | 8 | Chris Walker | Shell Advance Honda | Honda | 0 | Accident | 18 | |
| DNQ | 14 | Marcus Payten | Dee Cee Jeans Racing Team | Honda | | Did not qualify | | |
| Sources: |||||||||

## 250 cc classification

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 74 | Daijiro Kato | Honda | 19 | 41:03.596 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 31 | Tetsuya Harada | Aprilia | 19 | +18.763 | 8 | 20 |
| 3 | 15 | Roberto Locatelli | Aprilia | 19 | +18.835 | 3 | 13 |
| 4 | 8 | Naoki Matsudo | Yamaha | 19 | +23.135 | 7 | 13 |
| 5 | 44 | Roberto Rolfo | Aprilia | 19 | +24.423 | 9 | 11 |
| 6 | 5 | Marco Melandri | Aprilia | 19 | +26.595 | 2 | 10 |
| 7 | 21 | Franco Battaini | Aprilia | 19 | +31.142 | 6 | 9 |
| 8 | 99 | Jeremy McWilliams | Aprilia | 19 | +43.953 | 5 | 8 |
| 9 | 9 | Sebastián Porto | Yamaha | 19 | +45.887 | 11 | 7 |
| 10 | 46 | Taro Sekiguchi | Yamaha | 19 | +48.496 | 15 | 6 |
| 11 | 10 | Fonsi Nieto | Aprilia | 19 | +53.583 | 12 | 5 |
| 12 | 66 | Alex Hofmann | Aprilia | 19 | +1:05.172 | 18 | 4 |
| 13 | 87 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Honda | 19 | +1:05.267 | 14 | 3 |
| 14 | 12 | Klaus Nöhles | Aprilia | 19 | +1:17.422 | 13 | 2 |
| 15 | 50 | Sylvain Guintoli | Aprilia | 19 | +1:18.183 | 25 | 1 |
| 16 | 42 | David Checa | Honda | 19 | +1:18.602 | 24 | |
| 17 | 57 | Lorenzo Lanzi | Aprilia | 19 | +1:26.040 | 26 | |
| 18 | 20 | Jerónimo Vidal | Aprilia | 19 | +1:35.868 | 23 | |
| 19 | 48 | Shinichi Nakatomi | Honda | 19 | +1:41.647 | 16 | |
| 20 | 47 | Tekkyu Kayoh | TSR-Honda | 19 | +1:43.891 | 27 | |
| 21 | 55 | Diego Giugovaz | Yamaha | 19 | +1:49.324 | 28 | |
| 22 | 98 | Katja Poensgen | Aprilia | 18 | +1 lap | 30 | |
| Ret | 37 | Luca Boscoscuro | Aprilia | 16 | Retirement | 17 | |
| Ret | 18 | Shahrol Yuzy | Yamaha | 15 | Accident | 21 | |
| Ret | 22 | José David de Gea | Yamaha | 14 | Accident | 20 | |
| Ret | 6 | Alex Debón | Aprilia | 6 | Accident | 4 | |
| Ret | 11 | Riccardo Chiarello | Aprilia | 6 | Retirement | 29 | |
| Ret | 45 | Stuart Edwards | TSR-Honda | 5 | Retirement | 31 | |
| Ret | 81 | Randy de Puniet | Aprilia | 4 | Retirement | 10 | |
| Ret | 7 | Emilio Alzamora | Honda | 1 | Accident | 19 | |
| Ret | 19 | Julien Allemand | Yamaha | 0 | Accident | 22 | |
| DNS | 49 | Choujun Kameya | Yamaha | | Did not start | | |
| DNQ | 16 | David Tomás | Honda | | Did not qualify | | |
| DNQ | 23 | César Barros | Yamaha | | Did not qualify | | |
| Source: ||||||||

## 125 cc classification

| Pos. | No. | Rider | Manufacturer | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
| 1 | 4 | Masao Azuma | Honda | 18 | 40:59.192 | 4 | 25 |
| 2 | 41 | Youichi Ui | Derbi | 18 | +0.067 | 1 | 20 |
| 3 | 16 | Simone Sanna | Aprilia | 18 | +0.604 | 19 | 16 |
| 4 | 23 | Gino Borsoi | Aprilia | 18 | +0.898 | 6 | 13 |
| 5 | 54 | Manuel Poggiali | Gilera | 18 | +1.151 | 2 | 11 |
| 6 | 9 | Lucio Cecchinello | Aprilia | 18 | +1.376 | 3 | 10 |
| 7 | 17 | Steve Jenkner | Aprilia | 18 | +14.173 | 5 | 9 |
| 8 | 6 | Mirko Giansanti | Honda | 18 | +14.632 | 16 | 8 |
| 9 | 21 | Arnaud Vincent | Honda | 18 | +15.735 | 18 | 7 |
| 10 | 22 | Pablo Nieto | Derbi | 18 | +16.333 | 22 | 6 |
| 11 | 29 | Ángel Nieto Jr. | Honda | 18 | +17.384 | 11 | 5 |
| 12 | 11 | Max Sabbatani | Aprilia | 18 | +17.992 | 9 | 4 |
| 13 | 8 | Gianluigi Scalvini | Italjet | 18 | +18.621 | 12 | 3 |
| 14 | 15 | Alex de Angelis | Honda | 18 | +18.628 | 14 | 2 |
| 15 | 57 | Hiroyuki Kikuchi | Honda | 18 | +23.655 | 15 | 1 |
| 16 | 24 | Antonio Elías | Honda | 18 | +34.401 | 17 | |
| 17 | 39 | Jaroslav Huleš | Honda | 18 | +34.521 | 13 | |
| 18 | 26 | Daniel Pedrosa | Honda | 18 | +46.838 | 23 | |
| 19 | 25 | Joan Olivé | Honda | 18 | +47.378 | 34 | |
| 20 | 98 | Masafumi Ono | Honda | 18 | +48.164 | 25 | |
| 21 | 18 | Jakub Smrž | Honda | 18 | +58.746 | 26 | |
| 22 | 56 | Yuzo Fujioka | ERP Honda | 18 | +1:00.982 | 28 | |
| 23 | 28 | Gábor Talmácsi | Honda | 18 | +1:01.962 | 31 | |
| 24 | 10 | Jarno Müller | Honda | 18 | +1:21.581 | 21 | |
| 25 | 14 | Philipp Hafeneger | Honda | 18 | +1:49.589 | 32 | |
| Ret | 55 | Hideyuki Nakajoh | Honda | 15 | Retirement | 10 | |
| Ret | 5 | Noboru Ueda | TSR-Honda | 14 | Accident | 7 | |
| Ret | 31 | Ángel Rodríguez | Aprilia | 14 | Retirement | 29 | |
| Ret | 19 | Alessandro Brannetti | Aprilia | 13 | Retirement | 30 | |
| Ret | 20 | Gaspare Caffiero | Aprilia | 12 | Accident | 20 | |
| Ret | 34 | Eric Bataille | Honda | 11 | Accident | 24 | |
| Ret | 7 | Stefano Perugini | Italjet | 5 | Accident | 8 | |
| Ret | 12 | Raúl Jara | Aprilia | 0 | Retirement | 35 | |
| Ret | 27 | Marco Petrini | Honda | 0 | Accident | 27 | |
| Ret | 97 | Naoki Katoh | Honda | 0 | Accident | 33 | |
| Source: ||||||||

## Championship standings after the race (500cc)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round one has concluded.
| Pos. | Rider | Points |
| 1 | Valentino Rossi | 25 |
| 2 | Garry McCoy | 20 |
| 3 | Max Biaggi | 16 |
| 4 | Norifumi Abe | 13 |
| 5 | Shinya Nakano | 11 |
| Pos. | Constructor | Points |
| 1 | Honda | 25 |
| 2 | Yamaha | 20 |
| 3 | Suzuki | 9 |
| 4 | Proton KR | 5 |
| 5 | Pulse | 0 |
* Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.