World champion Michael Doohan was beaten for only the second time this season during the Indonesian Grand Prix on a red hot Sentui circuit, near Jakarta, during his own Honda team-mate Tadayui Okada. Doohan led from the start but was soon being harried by Okada who went into the lead for eight laps as the race reached and past the halfway stage. During the final two laps the lead changed five times before the Japanese rider made the decisive final lap move that took him to second place in the world championship above Nobuatsu Aoki who was fourth in the race and dropped to third in the championship points table.
