It was an advantage the reigning World Champion would never let slip, holding his concentration for the next 17 laps despite the attentions of surprise challenger Olivier Jacque (Kawasaki), riding in place of the injured Alex Hofmann. Jacque passed Sete Gibernau (Honda) for second place with seven laps to go and closed in on Rossi at the front, but was unable to seriously threaten the Italian's second victory from the opening three rounds of the championship.

With Marco Melandri (Honda) eventually passing Gibernau on the final lap to snatch third place, Rossi's advantage at the top of the World Championship now stands at 25 points over his Italian compatriot. A determined performance from his team-mate Colin Edwards, who rode from 13th on the grid to take the flag in eighth, means the Gauloises Yamaha Team now lead the teams' championship, with Yamaha also on top in the manufacturers' standings.

The Fortuna Yamaha riders Ruben Xaus and Toni Elias finished the Grand Prix of China in 10th and 14th position respectively. Building on his impressive qualifying performance Elias made a great start, which saw him move into third position on the opening laps. The 'MotoGP Rookie' looked set to demonstrate his true potential, but bad fortune robbed him of the chance to remain with the lead riders. It was deemed the Manresa rider had badly positioned his bike on the starting grid and as a result the circuit officials imposed a 'drive-through' penalty that saw him have to return to the pit-lane before rejoining the race. His team-mate Xaus was thinking only of scoring points and making up some of the ground lost in the championship points race, and eventually finished in tenth place.

"Out of all the victories in my career, this was the one I least expected - I am really surprised. It is the first time I have won in the wet on the Yamaha, so it is a special victory. We had some problems with the set-up of the bike this weekend but the team made some modifications overnight, changing the front fork setting, and already in the warm-up it felt good. I got off to a good start in the race and I was quite surprised to be at the front so quickly. There was a lot of water on the track so I had to keep my concentration at 100%. I was smooth and in control all the way to the end, and the race worked out perfectly for me. All I can say is big thanks to Jeremy Burgess, the rest of the team and Yamaha because we have worked especially hard for this win.”