MotoGP 2002 - Round 13 - Motegi

The last two MotoGP races have taken place under wet conditions, and Honda's Daijiro Kato has completed just seven laps of them, in his second and third races on the RC211V machine he steered to second place on his first ride in Brno. Riding at both his and Honda's home circuit of Motegi this weekend, the reigning 250cc World Champion will be praying there are no repeats of the typhoons which hit the region earlier in the week, as he demonstrated in the bright Japanese sunshine that he would be a force on Sunday, taking provisional pole for the Gauloises Pacific Grand Prix of Motegi in a new circuit best time.

On top of the fear of the rain, Kato will not have good memories of last year's race here when he suffered his first ever GP race crash, however he aims to rid himself of those demons with a good performance in front of a partisan crowd. "It's only Friday, yet I feel on fine form," said the diminutive Japanese rider, and he added, "Honda really have worked on the bike and I'm very hopeful for this weekend. I was told I was sliding about a lot, but I simply felt comfortable and quick with a good all-round setting."

Kato dominated practice today as he slid and spun his back wheel around the 4.801km circuit, leading several times throughout the hour, and finishing with a flourish to take provisional pole from under the nose of Max Biaggi in a time of 1 minute 49.052 seconds.

Biaggi himself has been in fine form since the summer break with a couple of poles and podiums, including the famous win to break the Honda stronghold in the Czech Republic. The Italian kept the pressure on Ukawa as they duel for second position in the championship, with the second quickest time today, while newly crowned MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi was in third place just behind him. Carlos Checa completed the provisional front row after having resolved a problem with the front springs on his Yamaha M1.

Loris Capirossi put one over his Team Pons colleague Alex Barros by finishing a place ahead of him in fifth, despite the Brazilian riding the RCV Honda for the first time this weekend. Nevertheless Barros was impressed with the power of his new four-stroke, and hopes to improve tomorrow, finishing ahead of both Kenny Roberts' Suzuki and another RCV Honda of Tohru Ukawa. On its first MotoGP qualifying session, the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR took a respectable 14th place on the grid with Akira Yanagawa at the helm.

Marco Melandri goes out in Japan looking to cement his case for the title, which he leads by a comfortable 45-point margin from Spain's Fonsi Nieto. Melandri is on provisional pole for the 250 category, finishing ahead of another Spaniard, Toni Elias, who is becoming increasingly comfortable on the Aprilia in his rookie year in the class. Randy de Puniet followed up his pole last week with third here today, and Fonsi Nieto finished off the provisional front row as he aims to claw back some of Melandri's advantage. Australia's young Casey Stoner qualified 24th.

After a couple of recent disappointments and a 48-point gap to championship leader Arnaud Vincent, Dani Pedrosa could be forgiven for thinking that with just 100 points to play for, his title aspirations are looking slim. The Spaniard let onlookers know today that he intends to finish the season on a high, as he set the quickest time in the 125cc class, at the track where he took his second career podium last year. Andrea Dovizioso was a surprising second, also on a Honda, with Vincent coming in third. The Frenchman's main title rival, reigning champion Manuel Poggiali, came in tenth, unable to match his time from the free practice earlier in the day.

Kato 1m49.052
Biaggi 1m49.162
Rossi 1m49.720
Checa 1m49.885
Capirossi 1m49.975
Barros 1m50.260
Roberts 1m50.560
Ukawa 1m50.697
McWilliams 1m50.912
Laconi 1m51.161
Jacque 1m51.215
Hopkins 1m51.356
Abe 1m51.554
Yanagawa 1m51.657
Aoki 1m51.883
Gibernau 1m51.964
Harada 1m52.097
McCoy 1m52.125
Nakano 1m52.467
Yoshikawa 1m52.497
Goorbergh 1m52.598
Riba 1m53.131