Rossi tops qualifying at Catalunya

Valentino Rossi has taken provisional pole at the sixth round of the MotoGP world championship in Catalunya, Spain.

The Italian had to work hard to take provisional pole with the top spot changing hands four times throughout the session.

Max Biaggi took an early lead but saw his best time of 1:45.065 successively beaten, eventually seeing him finish in a provisional sixth place.

Sete Gibernau then upped the pace with a 1:44.366 lap but was quickly knocked down a place by Ducati rider Loris Capirossi, who took his V4 Desmosedici to 1:44.333.

Rossi watched all of this but waited until the last of his 25 laps to show everyone how it is done. The Repsol Honda rider finished his last lap in 1:43.927, almost half a second faster than Capirossi and 0.6 seconds under the circuit best lap, set by Max Biaggi last year.

Japanese rider Shinya Nakano, on a Yamaha M1, and Makoto Tamada, on a Honda RCV, also managed to slip past Biaggi to take 4th and 5th places.

Colin Edwards maintained his pace from the practice session to finish in seventh place. Alex Barros peaked early setting his best time of 1:45.139 half way through the session, leaving him on the second row of the provisional grid in eighth.

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