opening of the pit lane, some take off and do a sighting lap. Officials declared that they are allowed to do one sighting lap, followed by a grid formation and one warm-up before the start. During the sighting lap, one of the riders - Nobuatsu Aoki - got stuck in the gravel and couldn't get out. After a relative period of waiting, all the riders line up on a now rain soaked grid and begin the warm-up lap. Because of the reshuffle and delayed start, Capirossi will start in pole position as usual. Aoki however does have to start from the pits because he could not make the start in time. The same thing happened to Aoki's teammate Jeremy McWilliams, meaning that both will have to start from the back of the grid. All riders slowly slot into their respective grid positions and as the lights go out, it is Rossi who has the best start and moves up into the lead at the S-Bocht (Turn 1), followed by Biaggi in second and Gibernau in third, moving up from seventh and taking multiple positions by going on the right side of the circuit. Barros makes up multiple positions from the second row and moves up into fourth, also benefiting from Capirossi's appalling start which dropped him way back into the field after he failed to get away properly. Jacque, who initially looked to have a bad start, managed to get away well and overtakes multiple people before going up the inside of teammate Barros at the Haarbocht (Turn 2) for fourth position. Also at the Haarbocht, Gibernau surprises both Rossi and Biaggi by lunging up their insides and taking over the lead of the race after just two corners, with Biaggi also snatching second from Rossi in the process. The young Italian now had lost two positions in one corner on the opening lap. The duo then opens up a slight gap back to Rossi. At the straight before the medium speed unnamed right hander before Strubben, a charging Troy Bayliss goes up the inside of Barros and takes fifth place from him. At the Ruskenhoek (Turn 8), Jacque closes up on Rossi and Jacque looks to make a move on 'The Doctor' at the Stekkenwal (Turn 9) but decides to stay behind for the time being. Jacque then takes third from Rossi, almost immediately followed by Bayliss who goes