Italian Loris Capirossi took his second pole position of the year, racing comfortably in the afternoon heat yesterday to start at the front of the pack for today's Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
Capriossi, who had taken pole to finish at the top of the podium at the Japan GP in Motegi last week, had a last lap effort to thank for when he raced ahead of Sete Gibernau at the Sepang International Circuit to clock in 2 minutes, 1.731 seconds.
"It is good that we can build from the victory in Motegi even though the situation is a little different," said Capirossi. "But I'm confident that we can do something tomorrow after winning our second pole of the year."
Gibernau had been in commanding position Friday and yesterday but had to give up the top spot on the grid after coming in second with a time of 2:01.867, while American John Hopkins settled for third with 2:02.017.
Defending champion Valentino Rossi of Italy, who needs only to finish among the top four riders at Sepang this week to wrap up his fifth world MotoGP crown, slipped from fourth yesterday to seventh, coming in with 2:02.412.
In the 250cc, Hiroshi Aoyama followed up on his win in the Japan GP last week to take pole as he raced ahead of Alex De Angelis who has been dominating all day in the final few laps of qualifying.
The Japanese rider astride a Honda came in with an impressive time of 2:07.860 ahead of reigning world champion Daniel Pedrosa, who staged a late surge of his own to start on second for tomorrow's race.
In the 125cc class, world championship leader Thomas Luthi took pole when he rode his Honda to a time of 2:14.546 as nearest challenger Mika Kallio ended the afternoon on fourth with 2:14.964.
Luthi, riding for the Elit Grand Prix stable, will start in the front grid alongside Mattia Pasini who was second on the day on board an Aprilia with 2:14.837 and Gabor Talmasci of Hungary third clocking in 2:14.903.
Ferrari confirmed it wants to give world motorcycling champion Valentino Rossi his Formula One debut in 2007 but denied reports that an agreement has been already reached.
Italian media speculated that Ferrari was prepared to give the Italian rider -- Italy's most popular sportsman -- a three-year contract worth 60 million euros (US$72 million).
Rossi has already had two tests with Ferrari -- one last year and another in August.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite