Italy GP. 2nd qualifying practice

Repsol riders on the front row of the three categories
Five poles out of five races, what a record for the Repsol rider Valentino Rossi in the premier category of the Motorcycling World Championship. The high temperatures made the riders wait until the last four minutes of the session to start the fight for the pole. Until that moment, the riders preferred to work on their bike’s settings and to choose the right tyres, a determining factor for tomorrow’s results, considering the high temperatures in Mugello. Biaggi was the first to take the pole from his teammate Carlos Checa, but finally, after a perfect fast lap, Valentino Rossi set a spectacular time, taking the pole with an advantage of more than half a second over Biaggi. His teammate Tohru Ukawa wasn’t able to get a place on the first row and will start tomorrow from the second row of the grid after setting the seventh fastest time. In the 250cc. both Repsol riders, Toni Elias and Fonsi Nieto have had a great performance in Mugello. Elias has taken a place on the front row of the 250cc for the first time after setting the third fastest time, while his teammate and leader of the overall classification, has been fourth. Both have been working hard on their bike’s settings and hope to achieve similar results tomorrow. The choice of tyres has been one of the elements taking the attention of Elias and Nieto today. Due to the high temperatures in Mugello, the resistance of the rubbers will be a determining factor for tomorrow. The 125cc have been marked by the serious crash suffered by the Italian rider Sabbatani fifteen minutes before the end of the session. The incident caused the session to be stopped while the medical teams assisted the transalpine rider. With regard to the sporting aspect, a very important news has been the excellent improvement of Daniel Pedrosa’s performance, who jumped up to second place, only four tenths away from the fastest time made by Manuel Poggiali. His teammate Joan Olivé was twenty-fourth, despite improving his times in more than a second.