Capirossi tops 203mph in first session

Lorris Capirossi has already topped the 200mph mark in the first practice at the fifth round of the MotoGP world championship in Mugello, Italy.

After 14 laps of the first practice session Capirossi was taking his Ducati to just 0.2mph under the record breaking top speed he set at the IRTA test at Catalunya, in March.

Valentino Rossi took the fastest lap of the session on his Honda RC211V with a time of 1:51.848, just 0.59 seconds under the circuit’s fastest recorded lap, set by him last year.

Rossi was closely followed by Sete Gibernau, Shinya Nakano, Olivier Jaque, and Tohru Ukawa, all of whom finished with lap times less than a second behind the Italian.

Despite his high top speed Capirossi only managed to take the Desmosedici to the seventh fastest lap, 0.06 of a second behind sixth placed Max Biaggi.

Noriyuki Haga’s Alice Aprilia was the second fastest bike on the track with a top speed of 202.1mph but he only managed to hold on to 13th place with a time of 1:54.038.

The first qualifying session starts at 1pm today, UK time, with the second session at 1pm Saturday and warm up for the MotoGP race at 9am on Sunday. Check back regularly for updates on the racing plus live reports from MCN’s Summer Sports Bike show throughout the weekend.

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