Historic day in Jerez!
Bridgestone celebrated another landmark today with a clean sweep of a MotoGP front row for the first time in its history at the Jerez circuit in Spain.
The Japanese tyre manufacturer dominated the front row of the grid, with Loris Capirossi producing a dynamic display to claim pole position at the end of a session packed with high drama and incident. Joining him on the front row for tomorrow`s 27-lap Spanish GP will be Ducati team-mate Sete Gibernau and Kawasaki ZX-RR rider Shinya Nakano.

The 32-year-old Italian, who won the Japanese and Malaysian MotoGP races last season, instantly reaped the rewards of an exhausting winter testing schedule with Bridgestone to set himself up perfectly for an assault on victory in tomorrow`s season opener. Capirossi saved his best for last when he produced a stunning lap of 1.39.064 on his 25th and final lap of the hour-long session.

That time was 0.4s faster than reigning world champion Valentino Rossi`s 2005 pole position time as he took full advantage of the extra grip provided by the latest generation of Bridgestone`s soft qualifying tyres to claim the 12th pole position of his MotoGP career.

Capirossi`s best lap was also 0.4s faster than the best time he logged at the recent IRTA test at Jerez when he topped the timesheets with a best of 1.39.411 on qualifying tyres. Ironically today`s incredible display by Bridgestone mirrored the top three from the recent IRTA test session when Bridgestone again dominated at the Jerez track with Capirossi, Gibernau and Nakano occupying the top three times at the final winter test.

Gibernau claimed a morale-boosting second place on the grid as he prepares to make his Bridgestone race debut tomorrow, while Nakano escaped unhurt from an early crash to bolster his hopes of improving on his excellent fifth position in last year`s Spanish GP.

The session had started in dramatic fashion for Japanese rider Nakano, who was one of several riders to crash on oil dropped at the Angel Nieto corner.
Today`s session was run in bright and sunny conditions, with the fine spring weather expected to continue for tomorrow`s first race.

Loris Capirossi – Ducati Marlboro Team – Pole position :
"It has been a fantastic weekend so far for us and I hope it continues. We did a great job just two weeks ago at the test and Bridgestone have done a great job. We are in really good shape at the moment. Today was fantastic because we tested race tyres and my pace is quite quick as well. But with the new qualifying tyre it was absolutely perfect. The bike worked very well and we made an amazing lap time. We now seem to have the bike and the tyres that work consistently for a lot of laps. It is going to be a tough race but I am happy about the performance of the tyres in the hot condition. We know Bridgestone tyres work well in the hot conditions but the work we have done in the winter has made the performance even better. We completed a race simulation two weeks ago at the test and the pace was quite good so I am confident for the race. It has been a long winter and this is almost like the second start of the championship. We made a lot of tests but all the guys from Ducati and Bridgestone did a great job."

Hiroshi Yamada – Motorcycle Racing Manager – Bridgestone Corporation : "I am very happy with today`s result with Bridgestone occupying the first three on the front row of the grid for the first time. Loris, Sete, and Shinya rode superbly in the qualifying session, and both Ducati and Kawasaki teams did a fabulous job. I now have confidence that we can achieve good results in tomorrow`s race also because of the good results we had at the IRTA test. For this weekend we have some additional new tyres that should help us for the race. Although the race will be very tough over 27 laps I am very optimistic for tomorrow."

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