MotoGP
Tamada steals pole position for home GP
Makoto Tamada will start tomorrow's Japanese GP at Motegi in pole position. The Japanese Honda rider stole pole position from fellow Bridgestone-shod rider, John Hopkins, in the last minutes of the second and last qualifying session by setting a ...
Edited: Sep 20, 2004, 12:18 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Makoto Tamada will start tomorrow's Japanese GP at Motegi in pole position. The Japanese Honda rider stole pole position from fellow Bridgestone-shod rider, John Hopkins, in the last minutes of the second and last qualifying session by setting a blistering lap of 1:46.673.
Makoto Tamada.
Photo by Fabrice Crosnier.
Much like everything in the world, fortune for some, is misery for others. Tamada's awesome lap meant provisional pole holder, Hopkins, was relegated to second place after he failed to improve on his Friday time. However, Hopkins's failure to improve should not diminish his accomplishment. This weekend was the first time ever, the young American has been consistently in the top three and more importantly, has qualified second for a GP.
Like Hopkins, Valentino Rossi, was relegated from second place on Friday to third after Tamada's blistering pole position lap.
Second row will be led by Max Biaggi who qualified fourth fastest. The second fastest American is Colin Edwards who managed a 1:47.821, 1.2 seconds behind the pole sitter. The second fastest Yamaha was Marco Melandri, who will be starting on the outside of the second row.
Loris Capirossi was not able to improve on his Friday qualifying position, and will lead the third row on Sunday. Kenny Roberts Jr. will be sandwiched between Capirossi and fellow American, Nicky Hayden in the third row.
The surprise of the weekend, other than Tamada's awesome pole position lap, is Sete Gibernau's failure to have a good qualifying session. Gibernau struggled on Friday and did not gain much speed on today, only mustering 13th place on the grid. This will play big into Rossi's hand, who leads the Spaniard by 29 point on the championship.
Tamada issued Rossi a challenge during Thursday's pre-race press conference when he said Rossi had played with him at Estoril, and that now Tamada would play with Rossi at Motegi. Tamada has nothing to lose in terms of the championship and will likely go for broke tomorrow. However, Rossi faces the dilemma of racing for maximum points, especially after Gibernau's terrible qualifying; or taking Tamada on and going for the win. We will find out soon enough.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Hopkins on provisional pole for Japanese GP
Next article Japan race results
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Nicky Hayden
Nicky Hayden: Remembering motorsport's much-loved "one-off"
MotoGP
MotoGP
Nicky Hayden: Remembering motorsport's much-loved "one-off"
MotoGP retires Hayden’s famous #69 in Austin ceremony
MotoGP
MotoGP
MotoGP retires Hayden’s famous #69 in Austin ceremony
MotoGP to retire Hayden's number
MotoGP
MotoGP
MotoGP to retire Hayden's number
Latest news
Chase Briscoe leads NASCAR Cup Homestead practice; Larson brushes wall and Reddick wrecks
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
9 min
Chase Briscoe leads NASCAR Cup Homestead practice; Larson brushes wall and Reddick wrecks
Hamlin and Bell left with what could have been in NASCAR Chase
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
11 min
Hamlin and Bell left with what could have been in NASCAR Chase
Why Max Verstappen ended F1 practice early in Brazil – Red Bull explains
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
Why Max Verstappen ended F1 practice early in Brazil – Red Bull explains
F1 Brazil GP: Saturday schedule, weather forecast and how to watch
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
F1 Brazil GP: Saturday schedule, weather forecast and how to watch
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe