Biaggi on provisional pole in Rio

Max Biaggi is on provisional pole for tomorrow’s Rio MotoGP with a new best lap of 1:49.876.

The Italian smashed his own lap record to finish at the top of the time sheets after a session which saw Loris Capirossi, Sete Gibernau and Valentino Rossi all top the timesheets at various times.

But at the end the order was Biaggi, Capirossi, Gibernau, and Rossi, with just 0.446 covering the quartet.

Fifth was Shinya Nakano on the Yamaha, followed by Alex Barros and Makoto Tamada. Jeremy McWilliams finished the session in 18th, just behind former world champion Kenny Roberts Jr, and four places in front of his Proton team mate Nobuatsu Aoki.

WCM’s Chris Burns remains in 24th place but has improved his lap time by two seconds, with David De Gea in 21st, just in front of Aoki and Honda rider Ryuichi Kiyonari.

1) Biaggi 1:49.876. 2) Capirossi 1:50.212. 3) Gibernau 1:50.234. 4) Rossi 1:50.322. 5) Nakano 1:50.844. 6) Barros 1:50.876. 7) Tamada 1:50.957. 8) Ukawa 1:51.240. 9) Bayliss 1:51.254. 10) Jacque 1:51.385. 11) McCoy 1:51.395. 12) Hayden 1:51.420. 13) Hopkins 1:51.802. 14) Haga 1:51.870. 15) Melandri 1:52.099. 16) Checa 1:52.266. 17) Roberts 1:52.583. 18) McWilliams 1:52.848. 19) Pitt 1:52.857. 20) Edwards 1:52.883. 21) De Gea 1:53.521. 22) Aoki 1:53.708. 23) Kiyonari 1:53.913. 24) Burns 1:55.314.

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