Malaysian GP. First practice

Rossi, Elias and Pedrosa prepare their assault on the title setting the fastest times
Pole for the three Repsol riders in the first day of qualifying practices at the Malaysian Grand
As always, the difficult weather conditions have marked the first practice day of the Malaysian Grand Prix. The official practices have been carried out under temperatures close to thirty-five degrees Celsius and a humidity of 78%. Valentino Rossi managed to set the fastest time in the MotoGP class despite the resistance shown by Gibernau, Biaggi, Capirossi and Tamada. The Italian rider of the Repsol Honda Team set the fastest time in lap 13 of the 22 laps he made on the Malayan track of Sepang. His teammate Nicky Hayden, twelfth this morning, finished seventh, looking forward to improve his time and position on the grid tomorrow.In the 250cc class, Elias keeps on showing day by day that he is the strongest man in the class. After his impressive victory in Japan, he has been the fastest today once again, both in the free and in the timed practice, showing his determination to fight for the victory on Sunday. His teammate Fonsi Nieto showed a slight improvement today with regard to the Pacific Grand Prix, where Aspar’s pupil was set back due to technical problems. Fonsi finished fifth today and hopes to be able to improve his times tomorrow if he manages to fine-tune the settings of his Aprilia. Sebastián Porto, already recovered from his crash in Motegi, set the fourth fastest time, Faubel finished eleventh despite a light crash and Olivé sixteenth.In the minor category, the riders had to carry out the morning’s free session on a completely wet track due to the heavy overnight rainfall, delaying the team’s work with regard to the bikes’ settings. Fastest of the afternoon’s timed session was Dani Pedrosa, who waited until the last lap to set the provisional pole all by himself without any other riders disturbing him. Not a good day for Pablo Nieto and Héctor Barberá, winner of the recent Pacific Grand Prix in Motegi, who are both delayed in their set-up, finishing twelfth and sixteenth respectively.