Japan GP. 1st qualifying practice

Repsol riders on the provisional first row of three categories
The Repsol riders have been protagonists of the first qualifying practices at the Japanese Grand Prix, first scoring round of the 2002 World Motorcycling Championship. In the new MotoGP category, four riders have been swapping the leading position during the qualifying practice. Both Repsol Honda MotoGP riders Valentino Rossi and Tohru Ukawa, together with the Japanese Daijiro Katoh and the Italian Loris Capirossi, have carried out a nice fight for the lead. Eventually, Capirossi took the first provisional pole of the season, followed very close by Valentino Rossi and Tohru Ukawa, second and third fastest respectively. In the 250 GP, Fonsi Nieto and Toni Elias kept themselves among the eighth fastest during the whole qualifying session. Ten minutes before the end of the session, Nieto decided to push harder until taking the final second position, while his team-mate Elias managed a place on the second row of the grid with the eighth fastest time.In the 125 GP, the 16-year-old Daniel Pedrosa, confirmed that the times made during the winter practices did not happen by chance. After making the best time during this morning’s free practice, Pedrosa kept himself among the six fastest during the whole qualifying session taking eventually the second provisional position on the starting grid. His team-mate under the lead of Alberto Puig, Joan Olive, has made twenty-second fastest after some troubles with the gearbox.