French GP. 1st qualifying practice

Valentino Rossi, fastest of the Repsol riders in Le Mans
A cloudy sky and the eventually pouring rain over Le Mans welcomed the riders of the Motorcycling World Championship upon their arrival at the French circuit. The sky was threatening rain during the MotoGP qualifying practice, but fortunately the weather respected the session and only a few drops fell during the last minutes. With regard to the sporting aspects, the outstanding news are Valentino Rossi’s second place in both sessions, the morning’s free practice and the afternoon’s qualifying practice. He was beaten both times by Carlos Checa, holder of the provisional pole position. His teammate Tohru Ukawa, busy with suspension and tyre testings, as well as setting aspects, was sixth fastest this afternoon after making the eighth fastest time in this morning’s free practice. In the 250cc, the rain hindered the riders from trying to ride under normal conditions. The track was already wet at the end of the MotoGP practices and it rained during almost all the timed session, so that the riders preferred not to take any risks and wait until tomorrow hoping for a weather change. This circumstance gave rise to a quite unusual situation, with only nine of 29 riders classified by times, Fonsi being ninth and last of the list. Toni Elías, fourteenth this afternoon after taking the pole in the free practice, will have to improve his times tomorrow to be able to take the start. After this afternoon’s practice, he is one of the 20 riders that have not classified for tomorrow’s race. In the smallest category, Alberto Puig’s pupils have finished quite back in the classification, Pedrosa due to setting problems with the front end of his bike and Olivé because he mounted the wheels for a fast lap too early in the session. Hoping that tomorrow the weather will respect the second qualifying session, both riders will jump on the track with the aim of improving their positions.