American Kenny Roberts led from start to finish in winning his second grand prix of the World championship season at Motegi, Japan yesterday.

Roberts (25) notched up another 500cc success for the resurgent Suzuki team, overcoming a strong late challenge from defending world champion Michael Doohan to add to his season-opening victory in Malaysia last weekend. Japan's Norick Abe took third place on a Yamaha.

Doohan began to whittle down Roberts's lead on the wet Motegi track after passing Abe on the 14th of the 25 laps. But Roberts, who began in pole position, managed to find a little more power in the Suzuki engine to take the chequered flag with four seconds in hand. Roberts, son of triple world champion `King Kenny' Roberts, will start the next race in Spain on May 9th on top of the championship table with a maximum 50 points.

Doohan, who has won the world title five times, follows on 33 points and Spaniard Carlos Checa, sixth at Motegi, is in third place on 30 points.

"We just want to carry this on into Europe," Roberts said. "We have to do some work on the suspension .. .

but we know we've got the speed to do it and we've got the mental edge now."

Suzuki won the world manufacturers' title from 1976 to 1982, but the win in Malaysia was the first by one of their bikes in the blue-riband class for four years. It came after they decided to abandon 250cc racing to concentrate on the bigger bikes this year.

The team's improved form has unsettled traditional giants Honda. "The biggest thing we've done to the bike since last season is change the colour. That's not enough," said Doohan, who has voiced several concerns about his Repsol Honda since he finished fourth in Malaysia.

"I couldn't get into a groove without making a mistake," the Australian added.

Treacherous conditions on the tight, twisty Motegi circuit got the better of several leading riders yesterday.

American John Kocinski started on the front row of the grid but skidded out on lap 16, while Italian favourite Max Biaggi finished back in ninth place and nearly a minute off the lead on his Yamaha.

"I've not had a great start to the year - no points in Malaysia and not such a good result here - but this was my first ever wet 500cc race," said Biaggi, the former world 250cc world champion who won his debut 500cc race in Japan last year.

Japan's Shinya Nakano won the 250cc grand prix after dominating the race from start to finish on a rain-soaked Motegi track. Nakano led for most of the race, maintaining a lead of around five seconds on Italian duo Loris Capirossi, who won last week's season-opening race in Malaysia on his Honda, and Franco Battaini, who began the race in pole position on an Aprilia bike. Capirossi did well after starting from the third row of the grid. "Yesterday we were testing different tyres and the ones we chose went really well today and so did the machine," Nakano said after the race.

The result puts Nakano, who came third in Malaysia, level on 41 points with Capirossi at the top of the championship table, and leaves Ukawa just one point behind in third. A rider in Italy's national 600cc Supersport championship was killed near Rimini today when his bike failed to take a corner in a qualifying race and crashed. Claudio Carotti, a 43year-old with many years' racing experience, died on the way to hospital after the accident at Misano.