Río GP. 1st qualifying sesion

Toni Elías succeeds in Río with his first provisional pole in the 250
Valentino Rossi second and Fonsi Nieto third, on the first row of their respective classes as well.
First official practise day on Brazilian grounds, with Max Biaggi as the fastest rider on his Yamaha. Valentino Rossi, despite setting the fastest time in the morning, had to settle for second. His team-mate Ukawa, not very fortunate this morning with the tenth fastest time, was not able to solve his set-up problems in the afternoon and his Repsol Honda RC211V is on the provisional eleventh position of the starting grid.Toni Elias stood out today for being the fastest rider of the 250cc, right ahead of the two title contestants, the Italian Marco Melandri and his team-mate Fonsi Nieto. Toni Elias, who took his first provisional pole in the 250cc, showed himself very fast during the whole day, making the second fastest time already this morning behind Melandri. During the timed practise, Elias put himself on the lead of the classification at mid-session, and despite being overtaken by Melandri during the final moments, the Repsol rider made a masterful lap grabbing back his leading position. His team-mate Fonsi Nieto, who suffered technical problems along the day, finished third fastest, after setting his best times on the two last laps, but he insists that his team and himself have still a lot of work to do on the settings of the bike.In the minor category, Joan Olivé started very strong in the morning, setting the fifth fastest time. His team-mate Dani Pedrosa, immerse in the set-up of his bike, didn’t manage to make better than fourteenth. But in the afternoon things changed and Dani Pedrosa moved up to the fifth position after improving minor setting problems. Unfortunately Joan Olivé was not able to improve the times set in the morning, due to the tyres he chose for the end of the session, which were technically unsuitable for the track.