Italian Loris Capirossi clung on to pole for Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix despite failing to improve his time in an incident-filled final qualifying session. Capirossi held on by less than a tenth of a second as fellow Italian and newly-crowned world 500cc champion Valentino Rossi turned in a blistering final lap, timing two minutes 5.712 seconds to his rival's 2:05.637. Rossi moved up from fourth to second on the grid.
A third Italian, Max Biaggi, was among several high-profile riders to crash but all escaped unhurt. American Kurtis Roberts crashed for the second successive day while Brazilian Alex Barros also came off. Biaggi lost his front at the last hairpin but the Yamaha rider picked up his bike, rushed into the pits and went out on his spare machine. Biaggi is challenging Capirossi for second place in the championship.
American Kenny Roberts was looking for a big move up the grid to enhance his chances of winning a third successive Malaysian Grand Prix but he had a disappointing final session to end ninth fastest. Daijiro Katoh went fractionally faster to grab pole position in the 250cc class. The Japanese rider is hoping to wrest the world championship at Sepang.
In the 125cc class, Spaniard Toni Elias could not beat his previous day's times but still took pole with his best of 2:15.35.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
