Rossi on provisional pole for Africa’s Grand Prix

Pic SportsPics.co.za
By Gwenyth King, Sportspics
April 18 2004

Twenty-five-year-old Valentino Rossi took the lead on his Yamaha M1 machine after just ten minutes on the clock, and managed to hold on to it for most of the first qualifying session, despite plenty of fast-lap challenges from the rest of the MotoGP pack.

photos by www.SportsPics.co.za

MotoGP bikes 2004 - photo by www.SportsPics.co.za

With just seven minutes to go, Loris Capirossi stole the lead on his Ducati. However, Rossi answered back just moments later with a fastest lap of 1:33.353, bettering the lap record he set during last year’s Welkom race by just over five-tenths of a second. Finishing the session just behind him was last year’s race winner and Honda rider Sete Gibernau (1:33.378), followed by Loris Capirossi and Max Biaggi.

Valentino Rossi - photo by www.SportsPics.co.za

“I’m very happy and very surprised,” said Rossi. “I sincerely didn’t expect this on the first day. We have done a lot of fast work in a very short time here, and at the moment we’re on top. The bike felt good with qualifying tyres, but I’m having some problems with the race tyres because I don’t have enough grip. We still have a lot of work to do in order to be in a position to fight for the win on Sunday.

“MotoGP qualifying is more important now than ever, because the top ten riders are generally within one second of each other, so I hope to start from the front!”