Rossi on provisional pole for Malaysian GP

Valentino Rossi underlined why there is so much speculation about his contract for next year by setting a new qualifying record to put himself on provisional pole for Sunday’s race at Sepang.

The reigning world champion posted a time of 2:03.516 ahead of the Hondas of Makoto Tamada and Max Biaggi. Loris Capirossi’s Ducati is the only non-Honda in the top seven, with his 2:04.161 putting him in fourth, despite only completing 14 laps, much less than the other front runners. Brit Jeremy McWilliams qualified in 16th place on the proton KR machine while Chris Burns is in 24th on the WCM.

1) Rossi 2:03.516. 2) Tamada 2:03.730. 3) Biaggi 2:04.142. 4) Capirossi 2:04.161. 5) Ukawa 2:04.321. 6) Gibernau 2:04.581. 7) Hayden 2:04.593. 8) Checa 2:04.825. 9) Roberts 2:04.837. 10) Nakano 2:04.912. 11) Bayliss 2:05.236. 12) Barros 2:05.595. 13) Haga 2:05.652. 14) Melandri 2:05.807. 15) Edwards 2:06.088. 16) McWilliams 2:06.726. 17) Ryo 2:06.856. 18) Jacque 2:07.081. 19) Pitt 2:07.577. 20) Aoki 2:07.654. 21) McCoy 2:07.681. 22) De Gea 2:08.956. 23) Kiyonari 2:09.239. 24) Burns 2:09.768.

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