Winner takes all.

Roberto Locatelli won the 125cc Pacific Grand Prix while rival Youichi Ui crashed out, handing the Italian his first World championship.

The start saw Locatelli take the lead from pole position with Ui, Cecchinello and Azuma behind him respectively, putting the two championship rivals together on the track.

This situation did not last for long because Locatelli immediately began to pull away and was 0.8secs ahead at the end of the first lap, indicating hat he still held the advantage he had in qualifying.

By lap three Locatelli had moved into the lead by 1.5seconds, now separated from the three rider group chasing behind, who appeared to be being held up by Ui.

On lap five Azuma (last years winner) moved briefly ahead of Ui, while Locatelli continued charging - setting the fastest lap of the race for the first eight laps. Emilio Alzamora (fifth) now began to catch the group in front.

Locatelli by now was clearly in a race of his own and not going to be caught, with his lap times up to 1.4secs a lap quicker than the rest of the field. The race for second meanwhile was very much alive with Alzamora catching the group of riders disputing that position, still being lead by Ui.

With Locatelli's lead up to eight seconds he seemed to pace himself - but was still the only rider doing under 2minute laps. Simone Sanna (Locatelli's teammate) in sixth was by now the second fastest man on the track (behind his teammate) and catching the second place group himself.

Ui's championship challenge came to an end on lap fourteen when the Derbi rider crashed for the third time this weekend, handing Locatelli the championship should he finish in first or second. The Diesel Vasco Rossi Racing team duly told their lead rider of this development via his pit board.

On lap seventeen Azuma ran wide allowing the now charging Sanna into fourth place, who immediately began to catch Cecchinello overtaking him swiftly and setting his sights on second place Alzamora.

The order at the front remained the same and Locatelli's fifteen second lead was never greatly eroded, bringing the twenty-six year old his first World Championship before he makes the predicted move up to the 250cc class next year. Reigning World Champion Alzamora held on to second with Sanna taking third.

But all the attention was rightly on Locatelli who stopped on his slowing down lap to have a number one fitted to his bike before doing synchronised burn-outs with teammate Sanna.

Full results to follow.......

1. Roberto Locatelli 41mins 55.152secs
2. Emilio Alzamora +13.790secs
3. Simone Sanna +16.429secs
4. Lucio Cecchinello +17.692secs
5. Masao Azuma +21.734secs
6. Ivan Goi +28.060secs
7. Alex De Angelis +28.277secs
8. Noboru Ueda +28.322secs
9. Arnaud Vincent +29.155secs
10. Pablo Nieto +29.521secs
11. Angel Nieto Jr. +33.499secs
12. Manuel Poggiali +38.889secs
13. Toni Elias +39.828secs
14. Steve Jenkner +39.983secs
15. Gino Borsoi +40.151secs