Honda wanted nothing more than to beat Yamaha and🌃 Valentino Rossi at their home Japanese Grand Prix - a feat they would achieve thanks to Makoto Tamada and his Bridgestone shod RCV... but with Rossi increasing his already comfortable world championship lead by a further 10-points, Yamaha backed their sta🍌r rider for not risking more in pursuit of the Camel Honda rider.

Rossi made an excellent start from his front row grid position, le𒅌ading the field into the first corner and thus escaping a six-rider pile-up caused by a collision between Loris Capirossi and John Hopkins.

Rossi and Tamadaꦬ then charged away from the remains of the pack, with the former leading until the home hero made a successful paꦅss along the back straight on lap 10. From that point on Tamada built a gap over Rossi, and ended the race just over six-seconds ahead of the five-times world champion.

"I made a great start and that put me in front," recalled Rossi. "I tried to stay with Makoto and tried to win. After leading for the first ten laps he overtook me and then I started to slide a lot and I had a lit🍬tle problem exiting the corners under acceleration.

"It was impossible for me to get back 💞in front of Makoto and for sure I would have preferred to win," admitted the Italian, before adding: "This second place improves our championship position though, another ten-points of a gap. This was an important race for us in every respect."

Indeed, Rossi's second place - combined with a distant sixth for nearest title rival Sete Gibernau - means the #46 is now 39-points clear of the Catalan with just four rounds, and 100 po෴ints, remaining. Max Biaggi remains third on 158 after being among the f𝐆irst corner casualties.

"Looking at the championship, today was a good day for us because♓ we have increased our championship lead and that was important," said factory Yamaha team director Davide Brivio. "OK, we didn't win, but Valentino tried and today Tamada was quite strong in his entire race package. It was correct for Valentino not to take too many risks at this point in the champ✅ionship."

Rossi's straight-talking crew ꦓchief Jerry Burgess - now looking a🥀t winning the war, rather than each and every battle - also considered the weekend far from a defeat:

"Our rivals have fewer points and few🎐er races to earn them in now. We knew this race would be difficult for us, so you have to say it turned out not bad,🌄" declared the Australian.