Jerez, May 11: Italy's Loris Capirossi snatched pole for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix from team mate Troy Bayliss in the last minute of Saturday's final qualifying session to give Ducati their first pole position in MotoGP.
Spain's Sete Gibernau headed the qualification list at Jerez for much of the second session on Saturday (May 10) as no one could better his Friday first session time. Then world champion Valentino Rossi set a provisional pole time halfway through the session, only to have Bayliss beat it shortly after. The Australian's time held until Capirossi went faster on his 23rd, and final lap, to secure pole. Rossi could not improve and tumbled down the order to fifth place. Bayliss kept second place, while Max Biaggi of Italy improved from 12th in Friday's session to claim third place on the grid ahead of his Honda team mate Tohru Ukawa of Japan. Gibernau, who won the last race, the South African Grand Prix, could not improve on Friday's time which still gave him sixth place for Sunday.

Rossi, who has won at Jerez for the past two seasons, had clocked a new lap record of one minute 41.900 for the 4.44-kilometre circuit during the morning's free practice, but eased up considerably in official qualifying.


Frenchman Randy de Puniet crashed off track early in the 250cc session but recovered to post the fastest time in qualifying.


Manuel Poggiali of San Marino, currently leading the championship, was second on the grid with Franco Battaini third. Roberto Rolfo was fourth and local favourite Fonsi Nieto fifth.


Fonsi Nieto's cousin, Pablo Nieto, gave the home crowd more to cheer about by grabbing pole in 125cc class. Lucio Cecchinello of Italy was second and Alex de Angelis was third. Spain's Daniel Pedrosa fell during the session but got back in the groove to finish a strong fourth fastest.


Leading grid positions for Sunday's MotoGP race at the Spanish Grand Prix after Saturday's final qualifying session: 1. Loris Capirossi (Italy) Ducati one minute 41.983 seconds 2. Troy Bayliss (Australia) Ducati 1:41.993 3. Max Biaggi (Italy) Honda 1:42.124 4. Tohru Ukawa (Japan) Honda 1:42.258 5. Valentino Rossi (Italy) Honda 1:42.276 6. Sete Gibernau (Spain) Honda 1:42.285 7. John Hopkins (U.S.) Suzuki 1:42.579 8. Nobuatsu Aoki (Japan) Proton KR 1:42.609 9. Olivier Jacque (France) Yamaha 1:42.643 10. Carlos Checa (Spain) Yamaha 1:42.711 11. Colin Edwards (U.S.) Aprilia 1:42.761 12. Makoto Tamada (Japan) Honda 1:42.827


125cc 1. Pablo Nieto (Spain) Aprilia 1:47.711 2. Lucio Cecchinello (Italy) Aprilia 1:48.059 3. Alex de Angelis (San Marino) Aprilia 1:48.269 4. Daniel Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 1:48.319 5. Steve Jenkner (Germany) Aprilia 1:48.482 6. Youichi Ui (Japan) Aprilia 1:48.655 7. Hector Barbera (Spain) Aprilia 1:48.904 8. Andra Dovizioso (Italy) Honda 1:48.909 9. Mirko Giansanti (Italy) Aprilia 1:48.942 10. Marco Simoncelli (Italy) Aprilia 1:49.075


250cc 1. Randy de Puniet (France) Aprilia 1:44.723 2. Manuel Poggiali (San Marino) Aprilia 1:44.897 3. Franco Battaini (Italy) Aprilia 1:44.899 4. Roberto Rolfo (Italy) Honda 1:45.688 5. Fonsi Nieto (Spain) Aprilia 1:45.836 6. Toni Elias (Spain) Aprilia 1:45.968 7. Anthony West (Australia) Aprilia 1:46.119 8. Sebastian Poro (Argentina) Honda 1:46.122 9. Sylvain Guintoli (France) Aprilia 1:46.246 10. Naoki Matsudo (Japan) Yamaha 1:46.307


Bureau Report