Quote:
Courtesy Motograndprix.com
Alex Barros took his first pole position of the season in just his second outing aboard the Honda RC211V. The Brazilian set a good pace throughout the session and dislodged provisional pole holder Tohru Ukawa midway through the session. An open and entertaining battle for top spot ensued, with the Yamaha M1 of Max Biaggi threatening the Honda dominance posed by Barros and Daijiro Kato. The Italian was edged out by Barros as the chequered flag was waved, with Kato settling for third place and Loris Capirossi stealing through to knock Carlos Checa off the front row.
Ukawa was unable to better his time from Friday and dropped back to sixth place, but still qualified ahead of his team-mate Valentino Rossi, who only just made the second row in eighth. Jeremy McWilliams qualified ahead of the World Champion despite conceding up to 30km/h in top speed to the four-strokes down the formidably long Sepang straights. Vd. Goorbergh, Harada and Hopkins all crashed without injury.
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Barros has certainly proved himself more than worthy with his last two performances, and could very well take another grand prix victory, which would be fantastic news.
On both days McWilliams has usually been the quickest (out of both two- and four-strokes) in every sector except the last, which relies on brute horsepower. If it had been last year, he'd have been on pole. But there's plenty of life in the old dog yet!
12 Oct 2002, 09:50 (Ref:401884)
Race Official
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