Rossi on provisional pole for British GP

Valentino Rossi is on provisional pole at the end of the first qualifying session for the British GP at MCN Donington Park.

Honda RCV rider Rossi upped his already quick pace from the morning’s practice session to finish qualifying with a 1:31.196 lap bettering the circuit’s previous best lap by 0.367 seconds.

Troy Bayliss continued to push Rossi hard on the Ducati V4 finishing the session just 0.082 seconds behind.

Sete Gibernau on the Telefonica Movistar Honda upped his pace after a slow start to the morning practice finishing qualifying with the third fastest time just 0.3 seconds down on Rossi.

Carlos Checa finished the provisional front row on his Fortuna Yamaha with a 1:31.562 lap.

Ducati’s Loris Capirossi moved up the table to take the fifth fastest time followed by Olivier Jacque and Tohru Ukawa.

Aprilia’s Colin Edwards knocked 0.704 seconds of his practice time but it was not enough to stop him slipping to eighth on the time sheets.

British Superbike star Yukio Kagayama, standing in for the injured Kenny Roberts the Suzuki GP team, knocked 1.6 seconds off his time to hold on to 16th place on the provisional grid.

Check back throughout the weekend for regular updates on all the action at MCN Donington Park