MotoGP 2002 - Round 12 - Rio - Qualifying 2 / Grid

Max Biaggi's objective became clear within the first few minutes of today's final qualifying session for the MotoGP class at the Cinzano Rio Grand Prix, bettering his provisional pole position time on just his second lap of the afternoon. The Italian then went on to improve several more times as he claimed his third pole position of the year and broke his own circuit best lap from two seasons ago. The Yamaha rider has been in fine form so far this week, and his consistently quick lap times will worry his rivals, and more specifically Valentino Rossi, who would be unable to proclaim himself champion here on Saturday if Biaggi finishes more then two points ahead of him.

The Roman rider, who has finished on the podium in Rio in both of the last two races in Brazil explained his consistency so far, "I have pushed hard since Friday and we have made great progress. This track is not my favourite but we improved throughout the sessions and in the last five to ten minutes today I was able to put my head down and go at my pace for a fast lap." Biaggi ultimately finished just over a quarter of a second in front of Rossi, as the pair look to battle it out at the front as they have done so many times over the last couple of years.

Rossi has various options if he wants to be crowned MotoGP World Champion tomorrow, but he must rely on Ukawa finishing 11 points behind him, and concentrate on getting in front of Biaggi. The Italian won the two-part race here last year, and with the forecasts being for rain tomorrow, everybody in the paddock is hoping that the clouds stay away long enough for the 24 laps to take place in dry conditions, and another legendary struggle to ensue.

Third on the grid went to the flying Northern Irish rider Jeremy McWilliams taking the season's best result for the Proton KR outfit. The lightweight three-cylinder machine was not expected to find the going easy at this circuit, where the long back straight generally favours the more powerful bikes, however McWilliams dispelled that belief as he swept into a very impressive front row slot, his first in the elite class since he took pole at the final race of the 2000 season in Phillip Island. Garry McCoy equalled his best start of the year as he finished off the front row in fourth.

The second row is headed by Carlos Checa, despite his machine billowing smoke late on in the session. The Yamaha rider took the spare machine out onto the track, but was unable to better the time he had made earlier in the hour. He will be joined on row two by Daijiro Kato, Olivier Jacque and Jurgen van den Goorbergh, with the third row belonging to three Japanese riders, Ukawa, Aoki and Abe, with Capirossi in twelfth.

After having been so close a few times earlier on in the season, Randy de Puniet finally took his first career pole position in the 250 category this afternoon. He snatched the top spot from the grasp of Sebastian Porto in the dying moments of the session and was visibly stunned yet delighted by his performance. Porto had led for the last part of the 45 minute qualifying, and missed out on his second successive pole by a whisker. He will start from second, with overnight pole holder Toni Elias in third and championship leader Marco Melandri in fourth. Fonsi Nieto lines up in fifth place for the race, hoping that he can overcome Melandri in order to keep the pressure on the Italian in the title chase.

Australia's Casey Stoner is 11th on the 250 grid, "I am very pleased to qualify 11th today because it is my first time at this track. We are starting to solve many problems that we have been having with suspensions setting at the last 4 races. I am looking forward to tomorrow and I know if we keep working hard we can find a good race setting and then have a good result."

Having set a blistering pace throughout the day on his Gilera, Manuel Poggiali confirmed his overnight pole in the 125 class, and at the same time set a new pole position record for the category. With Arnaud Vincent in second position there promises to be a fierce battle between the two front runners in the championship. Gabor Talmacsi was the surprise package in third position, the Hungarian Honda rider having tucked in behind Poggiali to get his best ever grid placing for tomorrow's GP. Finishing off the front row was Alex de Angelis, just ahead of his team-mate and manager Lucio Cecchinello. Third in the standings, Dani Pedrosa will start from the back of row two after encountering problems during both of today's sessions.

Biaggi 1m50.568
Rossi 1m50.827
McWilliams 1m50.862
McCoy 1m50.927
Checa 1m50.978
Kato 1m51.066
Jacque 1m51.160
Goorbergh 1m51.197
Ukawa 1m51.211
Aoki 1m51.287
Abe 1m51.476
Capirossi 1m51.481
Nakano 1m51.517
Hopkins 1m51.624
Barros 1m51.670
Roberts 1m51.753
Laconi 1m51.820
Gibernau 1m51.944
Harada 1m52.339
Cardoso 1m52.747