Biaggi on pole for British GP

Max Biaggi has stormed into pole position for the start of the British GP at MCN Donington Park on Sunday.

Telefonica Movistar Honda rider Sete Gibernau was the first rider to better championship leader Valentino Rossi’s already quick time but Biaggi went on to knock over a second off his time from yesterday’s qualifying session to jump in to first place for the start of the race.

Rossi only managed to improve his time by 0.258 seconds allowing Yamaha’s Marco Melandri to slip past as well, dropping Rossi down to fourth position on the grid.

Melandri’s team-mate Carlos Checa pushed his Yamaha to fifth place ahead of the Ducati riders Troy Bayliss, sixth, and Loris Capirossi, seventh. Gauloises Yamaha rider Olivier Jacque finished the second row.

British Superbike star Yukio Kagayama took the Suzuki to 17th while Brit Jeremy McWilliams, who is still riding the two-stroke Proton KR3 machine after trouble with the new four-stroke KR5 in testing, clung to a 19th place start.

WCM riders Chris Burns and David De Gea, in their first GP start this season, filled the last two slots despite both riders crashing their out-dated two-strokes in the mornings practice session.

M.Biaggi 1:30.740, S.Gibernau 1:30.862, M.Melandri 1:30.926, V.Rossi 1:30.938, C.Checa 1:31.035, T.Bayliss 1:31.036, L.Capirossi 1:31.067, O.Jacque 1:31.241, C.Edwards 1:31.354, T.Ukawa 1:31.385, S.Nakano 1:31.614, A.Barros 1:31.776, N.Hayden 1:31.779, N.Haga 1:31.877, J.Hopkins 1:31.962, M.Tamada 1:32.526, Y.Kagayama 1:32.573, G.Mccoy 1:32.793, J.Mcwilliams 1:32.802, R.Kiyonari 1:33.288, A.Pitt 1:33.705, N.Aoki 1:34.364, C.Burns 1:34.400, D.De Gea 1:36.851

Check back regularly throughout the weekend for full updates on all the action from MCN Donington park.