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MotoGP
2002 - Round 14 - Sepang - Qualifying 2 / Grid October 12th, 2002 |
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MotoGP
2002 - Round 14 - Sepang - Qualifying 2 / Grid October 12th, 2002 |
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 Alex
Barros' season has taken on another dimension since he took over at the
handlebars of the Honda RC211V last week in Motegi. After having won the
race there on Sunday, now the Brazilian has taken his first pole
position of the season at the Gauloises Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix
which finished its qualifying sessions today. Barros has impressed all
year, but the seasoned challenger has never looked so on his game as he
has done over the last few days. With the help of the bike which has
dominated this season, he can certainly consider himself one of the real
favourites for tomorrow's race.
Setting a new pole position record of 2'04.487 seconds, over two seconds within the race-lap best from last year, Barros was evidently delighted, "The main point is that the machine was very good and we have a good rhythm for tomorrow. Yesterday I was slower than Valentino but today we lapped consistently in the 2'05s which is good. I didn't expect to be on pole because we had no settings and started this weekend from scratch, so a big thanks to all my team." The session witnessed several riders taking their turn in the pole position slot, after Barros had taken Ukawa's overnight pole time from the Japanese rider early on in the hour, it was another Japanese man, Daijiro Kato, who took the advantage away from the Brazilian. Max Biaggi looked to have secured pole as he set his best time with just over a minute to go ahead of Barros, but the Sao Paolo-born rider had different ideas, storming to the top spot with the last lap of the session. Biaggi will start from second tomorrow, while Kato and Capirossi make up the rest of the front four. With Capirossi stealing that final spot in the first row right at the
death, Carlos Checa was relegated to row two, albeit from the more
conducive left-hand side of the track. The provisional pole holder,
Tohru Ukawa, will line up alongside him, with Jeremy McWilliams
performing impressively once again on the lightweight Proton KR3, so
much so that he pushed the World Champion, Valentino Rossi, back into
eighth place. McCoy lines up at the head of row three, with Vd
Goorbergh, Abe and Roberts to his right, and with Aoki, Harada, Gibernau
and Nakano behind him on row four. The latter and his teammate Jacque
have not had the baptism they would have liked aboard their new M1
machines, as they line up in 16th and 17th for tomorrow.
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