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32-528: The subsidiary was established in 2007 as a result of the Japanese manufacturer's necessary split from Harald Eckl's organisation, who managed the Kawasaki MotoGP team since 2002 . The reason for the split was Eckl's involvement with a competitor's MotoGP activities, which forced Kawasaki to terminate the relationship immediately. For the first time since Kawasaki returned to the premier class of motorcycle racing,

64-451: A 250cc race; he won his first and only race in the 2001 German Grand Prix . The 250cc entry list also included three former 125cc World Champion : Haruchika Aoki , Roberto Locatelli and Emilio Alzamora . The season started with a wet race at Suzuka which was won by Japanese wildcard rider Osamu Miyazaki , who was riding for Daytona Yamaha team. Honda 's wildcard rider Daisaku Sakai and Aprilia 's Randy de Puniet completed

96-472: A mechanical failure on the first lap, while Nieto won the race to reduce the gap to 27 points. Melandri finally clinched the 250cc title in the Australian Grand Prix with a close win over Nieto. They fought until the last lap and Melandri won the race with just 0.007 second gap at the finish line. Melandri became the youngest 250cc world champion at the age of 20 years and 74 days. Melandri ended

128-533: A scaled down team named Hayate Racing Team for the 2009 season . The team was renamed due to limited factory involvement, with Kawasaki providing only one bike with Marco Melandri as the sole rider. The team achieved better than expected results with 6th and 5th placings early in the season. Melandri finished in 2nd place at the French Grand Prix . This result is equal to Kawasaki's best ever result in MotoGP and

160-443: A year with Honda, won the opening race at Suzuka under wet condition. He then extended his lead in the championship with two second places in the second and third race behind Manuel Poggiali and Lucio Cecchinello respectively. In the following race at Le Mans , Cecchinello won his second successive race ahead of Poggiali, while Vincent finished fourth. Poggiali then took over the championship lead from Vincent after winning

192-470: Is their first podium finish since 2007. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Season still in progress. 2002 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season The 2002 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 54th F.I.M. Road racing World Championship season. The season consisted of 16 races, beginning with

224-538: The Chinese Grand Prix , gashing his arm severely enough to be unable to race for 2 Grands Prix. He returned to racing only to crash again during practice at the Catalan Grand Prix , missing this race too. Following the series of injuries, Jacque announced his retirement from competition, but planned to continue as a team test rider. He was replaced by Australian rider Anthony West . The team's best result for

256-604: The Dutch TT . Melandri continued his streak to six consecutive wins and extended his lead in the standings to 37 points after the Czech Republic Grand Prix . Nieto won the Portuguese Grand Prix for Aprilia's tenth consecutive victory. Nieto, who crashed in lap 13, recovered from seventh position to win the rain-soaked race over Melandri. Aprilia's winning streak was broken when Yamaha 's Sebastián Porto won

288-585: The Italian Grand Prix . Poggiali won the following race at Catalunya with a late overtake at the finish line over Spanish teenager Daniel Pedrosa . Two weeks later, Pedrosa bounced back to win his first ever race in the 2002 Dutch TT , with Poggiali finishing in second place. Vincent, who led the championship in the first four races, returned to the top of the podium with two consecutive wins at Donington Park and Sachsenring . After finishing third behind Cecchinello and Pedrosa at Brno , Vincent won

320-554: The Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix on 7 April 2002 and ending with the Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix on 3 November. The premier class , now renamed MotoGP, introduced new rules and regulations which allowed 990cc four-stroke bikes to race alongside the previous year's 500cc two-stroke bikes. Defending champion Valentino Rossi won his second premier class title by winning 11 races and scoring 355 points. He clinched

352-521: The Kawasaki ZX-10R road bike as a basis, with Paul Bird Motorsport (2009–2011) and Provec Racing, based in Granollers , Barcelona Province , Spain from 2012, together with World Supersport 300 from 2019 to 2021. The team used the new 800cc Ninja ZX-RR and Bridgestone tyres in 2007 . Randy de Puniet and Olivier Jacque were chosen as team riders. Olivier Jacque crashed in practice during

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384-534: The Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix under wet race condition. Rookie Toni Elías won the following race at Motegi after a last-lap battle with Melandri. Melandri finished second and increase his lead over Nieto in the championship standings to 52 points. With 52 points lead and three races to go, Melandri only need to finish in front of Nieto in the Malaysian Grand Prix to clinch the championship. However, he suffered

416-478: The following race at Phillip Island while Vincent finished in fourth to reduce the lead back to eight points. In the last race of the season at Valencia , Vincent finished second behind Pedrosa to clinch the 125cc title while Poggiali finished in seventh place. Vincent ended the season with 273 points and five race wins, 19 points ahead of defending champion Poggiali who scored 254 points and four race wins. Pedrosa and Cecchinello finished third and fourth in

448-499: The FIM confirmed the 2002 calendar. On 4 December 2001, the FIM confirmed that the dates of the Rio and Valencian Community Grands Prix had swapped places. The following sixteen Grands Prix were scheduled to take place: The following changes are made to the regulation for the 2002 season: FIM released a 20-rider entry list on 13 March 2002. Àlex Crivillé , who was listed on the entry list,

480-601: The RC211V bike. In that race, Kawasaki returned to the world championship after 20 years absence. Kawasaki, with their four-stroke Ninja ZX-RR , raced as wildcards in the last four races of the season as a preparation before entering the championship full-time in the following season. In the following race at Sepang , Yamaha expanded their four-stroke presence by providing the YZR-M1 bikes to Tech 3 pair Olivier Jacque and Shinya Nakano . Another Yamaha rider, Norifumi Abe , raced

512-514: The Rookie of the Year. All races were won by the four-stroke bikes, while the two-strokes only managed to record five podiums finishes. Honda won the constructors championship with 390 points and 14 wins, followed by Yamaha who won the other two races. Repsol Honda team won the teams championship by winning 12 races and scoring 564 points from Rossi and Ukawa. Marlboro Yamaha and Honda Pons who won two races each

544-407: The fifth YZR-M1 on the grid for the last two races of the season. Rossi ended the season with 355 points from 11 wins and four second places. Biaggi finished second to Rossi with 215 points and two race wins. Ukawa and Barros completed the top four with 209 and 204 points respectively. Previous year's 250cc champion Daijiro Kato finished in seventh position with two podium finishes and was named as

576-399: The four-stroke Honda RC211V bike, won the first race of the season at Suzuka under wet conditions. Suzuki's test rider Akira Ryō , who raced as a wildcard entry, and Yamaha's Carlos Checa completed the all four-stroke podium. Rossi's teammate, Tohru Ukawa , won the second race before Rossi went on to dominate the championship by winning seven consecutive races. Max Biaggi handed

608-589: The four-stroke Yamaha YZR-M1 its first win in the Czech Republic Grand Prix at Brno , while Rossi had to retire due to tyre problems. In that race, Honda also expanded their four-stroke presence by providing the RC211V bike for Honda Gresini rider Daijiro Kato . Rossi then won two consecutive races in Portugal and Brazil , clinching the world championship in the latter. In the Pacific Grand Prix , Honda Pons rider Alex Barros won his first race riding

640-480: The podium. In the following race at Welkom , Aprilia's Marco Melandri took his second career 250cc win. Fonsi Nieto then took his first ever race win in the Spanish Grand Prix . Nieto also took the lead in the championship standings from de Puniet and Franco Battaini . Nieto then won the following race at Le Mans before Melandri won the next three races and overtook the championship lead from Nieto after

672-425: The return of Dunlop and the entry of Bridgestone to the premier class. Dunlop supplied the tyres for Suzuki, Aprilia, Yamaha WCM and Pramac Honda . Bridgestone supplied the tyres for Team Roberts and Kanemoto Racing . Michelin supplied the tyres for the remaining six teams. However, after only two races, Suzuki switched back to Michelin tyres for the remainder of the season. Valentino Rossi , riding

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704-617: The season was a 2nd-place finish by Randy de Puniet at a wet Japanese Grand Prix . For 2008 John Hopkins joined the team alongside Anthony West . Results were poor though, being regular midfield runners throughout the season. In August 2008, Kawasaki signed Marco Melandri to join John Hopkins for the 2009 season . However, the Great Recession led Kawasaki to reconsider its MotoGP program, and Kawasaki pulled out of MotoGP for 2009. After negotiations with DORNA, Kawasaki provided

736-502: The season with 298 points from nine race wins, three second-place finishes and one fourth-place finish. Nieto finished second in the standings with 241 points and four wins, followed Honda's Roberto Rolfo and rookie Toni Elías with 219 and 178 points respectively. Elías, who recorded one race win and four further podium finishes, was named as the Rookie of the Year. Aprilia won the constructors championship with 382 points and 14 race wins from Melandri, Nieto and Elías. Honda finished second in

768-528: The standings with 244 points but failed to record any race win. Yamaha, who won two races courtesy of Miyazaki and Porto's wins in the wet, finished third with 211 points. The 125cc entry list was headlined by defending champion Manuel Poggiali and two-time championship runners-up Youichi Ui and Noboru Ueda . There were five other riders who have previously won a 125cc race: Masao Azuma , Lucio Cecchinello , Stefano Perugini , Simone Sanna and Arnaud Vincent . Arnaud Vincent, who returned to Aprilia after

800-512: The standings with three wins each. The Rookie of the Year title was won by Finnish rider Mika Kallio who scored 78 points with the Red Devil Honda team. Aprilia won the constructors championship with 341 points and eight race wins from Vincent and Cecchinello. Honda finished second in the standings with 285 points and four wins from Pedrosa and Azuma while Gilera finished third with 254 points and three wins from Poggiali. On 18 October 2001,

832-457: The team became a complete ‘in house’ factory team. On January 9, 2009, Kawasaki announced it had decided to "suspend its MotoGP racing activities from 2009 season onward and reallocate management resources more efficiently". The company stated that it will continue racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles as well as supporting general race oriented consumers. The emphasis was subsequently placed on World Superbike Championship racing using

864-400: The title at the Rio de Janeiro Grand Prix , with four races left in the season. The 250cc title was won by Marco Melandri who won nine races and scored 298 points. He clinched the title at the Australian Grand Prix and became the youngest ever champion in the 250cc class. Arnaud Vincent won the 125cc title by 19 points difference over defending champion Manuel Poggiali . The title

896-530: The top fifteen finishers. A rider had to finish the race to earn points. Bold – Pole position Italics – Fastest lap Points were awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider had to finish the race to earn points. Bold – Pole position Italics – Fastest lap Points were awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider had to finish the race to earn points. Bold – Pole position Italics – Fastest lap Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix Too Many Requests If you report this error to

928-440: The wet Portuguese Grand Prix and retook the championship lead from Poggiali. Honda riders, Masao Azuma and Pedrosa, won the following two races at Rio de Janeiro and Motegi while Poggiali reduced Vincent's lead to just eight points courtesy of two podium finishes and Vincent's mechanical problem at Motegi. Vincent extended his lead by winning the Malaysian Grand Prix while Poggiali finished in fourth. However, Poggiali won

960-440: Was decided in the last race of the season at Valencia with Vincent finishing in second place to secure the title. The season marked the start of a new era in the premier class with the arrival of 990cc four-stroke bikes. Four factory teams, Repsol Honda , Marlboro Yamaha , Suzuki and Aprilia , raced with the new four-stroke bikes while all the satellite teams raced with the 500cc two-stroke bike. The season also marked

992-480: Was replaced by Pere Riba at the Antena 3 Yamaha d'Antín team before the start of the season. For 2002 Michelin and Dunlop entered the sport as tire manufacturers beginning a 6 year Tyre war . The FIM released a 25-rider entry list on 13 March 2002. Alex Hofmann , who was listed on the entry list, withdrew before the start of the season. FIM released a 33-rider entry list on 13 March 2002. Points were awarded to

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1024-424: Was second and third respectively. The 250cc class was certain to have a new champion as previous year's champion Daijiro Kato and 1993 champion Tetsuya Harada , who finished second to Kato last year, both moved up to the MotoGP class. Only three riders remained from previous year's top six: Marco Melandri , Roberto Rolfo and Fonsi Nieto . Melandri was the only rider in the 250cc class who has previously won

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