Capirossi takes pole

Loris Capirossi has qualified on pole position for the Motegi GP.

The Italian dominated the final qualifying session with a lap of 1:45.725, setting a new best lap for the circuit in the process.

Valentino Rossi took second place on the grid with a last minute change of tyres letting him go out and set his best time of the session on his last lap.

Sete Gibernau looked likely to make it two Ducati’s on the front row but he was knocked down to fourth place by Honda rider Marco Melandri who starts from the final place on the front row of the grid.

The Repsol Hond’s had a bad weekend so far with Hayden managing a last ditch attempt to push himself to seventh and Dani Pedrosa only managing to qualify in ninth.

Final positions:

Loris CAPIROSSI

Valentino ROSSI 0.267

Marco MELANDRI 0.526

Shinya NAKANO 0.567

Sete GIBERNAU 0.592

Toni ELIAS 0.602

Nicky HAYDEN 0.765

Randy DE PUNIET 0.788

Dani PEDROSA 0.852

Colin EDWARDS 1.002

Casey STONER 1.123

Kousuke AKIYOSHI 1.234

John HOPKINS 1.347

Kenny ROBERTS JR 1.586

Chris VERMEULEN 1.727

Naoki MATSUDO 2.102

Carlos CHECA 2.181

Makoto TAMADA 2.702

James ELLISON 2.992

Alex HOFMANN 3.024

Jose Luis CARDOSO 4.635