Malaysian GP. 1st qualifying practice

Elías, Ukawa and Pedrosa monopolice provisional poles after first day practice
Rossi second in MotoGP and Nieto fourth in 250cc, complete the best qualifications of the Repsol riders
 With the thermometers getting close to forty degrees Celsius in the air and almost fifty on the asphalt, and a humidity close to seventy percent, the World Championship has held today the first practice session of the Malaysian Grand Prix. Riders, bikes and teams have suffered today with the hard weather conditions at the Malaysian track of Sepang. In the premier category, the Repsol Honda Team, lead by Tohru Ukawa, has clinched first and second position of the provisional starting grid. Ninth in the morning practice due to technical problems, the Japanese Repsol rider and his team were capable of overcoming this situation and finally set the fastest time of the category. His team-mate Valentino Rossi, winner of the last Grand Prix held at this circuit, set the second fastest time, only eight hundreds of a second behind Ukawa. In the 250cc Toni Elias continued showing his excellent shape. Fastest in the mornings free practices, the winner of the Pacific Grand Prix has set differences again this afternoon, taking the provisional pole ahead of Melandri, who was second, Porto and his team-mate Fonsi Nieto, who finished fourth, eight tenths behind Elias. In the 125cc Dani Pedrosa keeps on setting the pace, as he already did in Japan. Fastest in the mornings free practice, Alberto Puigs young pupil repeated his result in the afternoons qualifying practice, finishing ahead of the other two title candidates, Poggiali and Vincent. His team-mate Joan Olivé set the sixteenth fastest time, placing himself on the fourth row of the provisional starting grid.