Gibernau claims provisional pole at Motegi

Sete Gibernau set a new pole record at the Motegi circuit today to put himself on the provisional top spot for Sunday’s Pacific GP.

The Spaniard broke the existing record, held by former team-mate Daijiro Kato, with a time of 1:48.707.

The drama unfolded in the last twenty minutes of the session, with Carlos Checa first topping the time sheets, only to be deposed by John Hopkins, Colin Edwards and then Makoto Tamada. Reigning champion Valentino Rossi failed to match the record pace of his title rival, and settled for second place with a 1:48.891 on his last lap.

Brit Jeremy McWilliams qualified in 20th place, directly behind his proton KR team-mate Nobuatsu Aoki. WCM’s Chris Burns finished the session last in 26th place.

1) Gibernau 1:48.707. 2) Rossi 1:48.891. 3) Tamada 1:48.910. 4) Biaggi 1:49.123. 5) Capirossi. 1:49.195 6) Nakano 1:49.434. 7) Checa 1:49.604. 8) Edwards 1:49.734. 9) Melandri 1:49.858. 10) Hopkins 1:49.887. 11) Hayden 1:50.171. 12) Ryo 1:50.362. 13) Roberts 1:50.436. 14) Ukawa 1:50.623. 15) Bayliss 1:50.720. 16) Barros 1:50.720. 17) Jacque 1:51.144. 18) Kiyonari 1:51.641. 19) Aoki 1:51.723. 20) McWilliams 1:51.771. 21) McCoy 1:51.841. 22) Serizawa 1:52.006. 23) Haga 1:52.039. 24) Pitt 1:52.554. 25) De Gea 1:54.612. 26) Burns 1:54.809.

Comment on qualifying on the MotoGP discussion board by following the link on the right.