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Valentino Rossi sets record ahead of race in Portugal

Valentino Rossi set a new qualifying lap record for the Portuguese Grand Prix, recording a time of 1 minute, 39.391 seconds Friday around the Estoril circuit for an average speed of 151.391kph on his Honda.

In the first qualifying session the Italian championship leader beat last year's record pole position time of 1:39.793, set by Carlos Checa.

"We made a good lap time but we still have much work to do for the perfect set-up, paying attention to the rear of the Honda," Rossi said.

"We have a lot of data from today and we will work hard this evening and tomorrow for the second qualifying session and the race on Sunday."

Frenchman Olivier Jacque for Yamaha produced his best qualifying performance of the season with 1:39.681 to finish second.

"I knew we would be competitive here after our excellent tests after the last race, I just did not know by how much," said the Frenchman, a former 250cc world champion.

"It is proof that of if you get the right set-up on the Yamaha you can go fast on it."

Italian Max Biaggi was third for Honda on 1:39.691. Filling out the provisional front row ahead of Sunday's race is Honda's Tohru Ukawa with 1:39.730. The entire front row is under Checa's pole position time from 2002.

Rossi's closest competitor in the championship standings, Spain's Sete Gibernau, was fifth fastest on 1:39.736, also under Checa's record.

In the 250cc class, Aprilia made a clean sweep of the first three places. Spaniard Toni Elias captured the provisional pole position by nearly a half-second over Randy de Puniet of France.

Elias, fifth in the championship standings with two wins, went around Estoril in 1:42.255.

Championship leader Manuel Poggiali came in third.

Alex De Angelis was fastest in 125cc qualifying, clocking a time of 1 minute, 47.081 seconds for an average speed of 140.596 kph.
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