Preparations underway in Rio for the last 500cc.

Riders, teams and officials have this week made their final long distance trip of the season and today descended on the Nelson Piquet circuit in Rio, Brazil, in preparation for the last race of the 2001 calendar. One rider absent at the track was 500cc World Champion Valentino Rossi, whose flight was delayed in Milan due to fog. The Italian's team have confirmed the rider's safe arrival in the country, however, and he will be ready to take part in the first qualifying practice tomorrow.

In the absence of the charismatic youngster, attention turned to local hero Alex Barros, who approaches his home race with high hopes of improving on second place here a year ago. "Last year I had a good battle with Rossi and I came very close to victory. This time I am sure we can be competitive again and hopefully we can go one better. The fans here create a very good atmosphere and the support I get really gives me positive energy."

The 500cc World Championship has already been decided but there is still plenty of flavour left in the top class with the battle for second place set to go right to the wire. Capirossi's consistency has coincided with some indifferent results for Biaggi and the former now lies just four points behind his Italian compatriot despite failing to win a race so far this season.

With work in the paddock well underway many of the riders took time out to take part in a friendly game of football against top local side Flamengo. With the Brazilian side's first team in action tonight a second string including sports stars and celebrities was put out to face a MotoGP select XI which included Barros, Checa, Gibernau, Haslam, McWilliams, Hoffman and Cardoso. Included in the Flamengo line up was basketball star Oscar Schmidt, who recently broke the sport's all-time scoring record.

Daijiro Katoh took the 250 title with a dominant ride in Malaysia a fortnight ago but, unfortunately for the rest of the field, he insists he is still determined to take maximum points in what will be his last appearance in the category. "Next year I will be riding in MotoGP but I am just concentrating on my last 250 race before I start to think about anything else," he said. With Harada having already sealed second place in the championship, much of the attention in the quarter-litre class this weekend will be on the fight for third between Italian pair Melandri and Rolfo. Melandri holds a five point advantage over his fellow Aprilia rider after dropping several points in the last few races due to injury.

Manuel Poggiali says that he will be going out for the best possible result in the 125 race despite knowing that he only needs to finish thirteenth or above to become World Champion. "This is an important race both for me and my country," said the Gilera rider. "I need three points but I know I can't relax and I hope to be celebrating on Saturday night." Ui is the only rider capable of beating Poggiali to the title but he must win the race to have any chance. Elias will be doing his utmost to stop the Japanese rider however, having today confirmed that this will be his last 125 race before stepping up to 250 with Aprilia in 2002.