1993

Wayne Rainey and Luca Cadalora from Team Marlboro Yamaha Roberts, and Freddie Spencer and Bernard Garcia from Yamaha Motor France entered the 1993 series on the YZR500. Rainey, going for his fourth consecutive championship, was leading the series up to round 11. However, a fall in the following GP in Italy took him out of the competition for the rest of the season. The points system had been changed from this season to 25 points for 1st, 20 points for 2nd, and 16 points for 3rd, thus increasing the gap between top finishers.

In the opening round in Australia, Rainey did not get a clean start. Still, he managed to recover to finish 2nd behind Kevin Schwantz (Suzuki). Rainey then went on to win the Malaysian and Japanese GPs. In the following round in Spain, Rainey battled with Schwantz but finished behind him in second. Up to this point he had successfully defended his championship lead since round two. When Schwantz took the win in the fifth round in Australia, however, he also took the lead in the championship ranking away from Rainey. The competition got tougher from then on, as Daryl Beattie (Honda), Schwantz, Rainey, Mick Doohan (Honda) and Cadalora all traded wins. Rainey took his fourth win of the season in the 11th round to get back into the championship lead. However, after falling off his bike in round 12 in Italy, Rainey had to sit out the rest of the season.

Rainey's championship hopes faded away as he was unable to race from round 13 onwards. Cadalora, on the other hand, took his first-ever win in the 500cc class in the British GP and followed it up with another win in Italy. In the 13th round in the USA, he finished 3rd. Cadalora thus contributed to Yamaha's manufacturer's title, and finished fifth overall in the ranking.

The final round of the FIM cup was held in Jarama. At this point, Yamaha was leading the manufacturers ranking by a 21-point margin over Suzuki. With Rainey absent, Schwantz and Cadalora fought for the lead in the early part of the race. Then John Kocinski (Cagiva) began to close in and eventually took the lead. Meanwhile, Cadalora took a spill while riding in third. Shinichi Ito, who had grabbed the lead on lap 17, also took a fall in lap 21. Kocinski was unable to avoid getting caught up in this and went down too. This put Alex Barros (Suzuki) in the lead, and he eventually won the race. At the point where Barros took the checkered flag, Suzuki gained 25 points in the manufacturer's title race. The outcome of that title race then rested on the results of the remaining Yamaha riders. Despite being a minute behind the leader, Garcia of Yamaha Motor France kept up a consistent pace throughout to finish in 7th, his personal best. These nine points allowed Yamaha to clinch the manufacturer's title with a margin of five points. It was Yamaha's eighth manufacturer's title in the 500cc class. Out of the 40 riders who were awarded points, eight riders were on the YZR500 and 21 were on ROC Yamaha and Harris Yamaha machines.

The 250cc class was been renamed as "GP2" from this year. Tetsuya Harada of the Telkor-Yamaha Valesi team won the championship racing on a TZ250M. In the opening round in Australia, Harada overtook John Kocinski (Suzuki) before the finishing line to finish three-tenths of a second in front. In the second round in Malaysia, Harada fought with Nobuatsu Aoki until the very end but finished 2nd. Harada then took back-to-back wins in the third and fourth rounds in Japan and Spain, which gave him a considerable lead over 2nd-ranked Tadayuki Okada (Honda) in the standings. He was unable to deliver in the following fifth and sixth rounds, howver, and engine trouble caused him to retire in the eighth round in the European GP. In the 10th round in Britain, he was hit by Carlos Checa (Honda) in turn one right after the start, causing an early retirement from the race. Also in the 12th round, he fell during a battle with Ruggia (Aprilia), causing an early withdrawal once more.