Lucchi leads, as Aprilia's attack on home ground.

Aprilia's 'professional' Wild Card, Marcellino Lucchi, led an all Aprilia top five in first qualifying at Mugello, which saw Katoh down in fifth - and the return of Jeremy McWilliams as a front runner in 250cc action.

First to set a quick lap, in what was sure to be another Aprilia/Katoh battle, was indeed the Japanese rider, closely followed by his teammate Emilio Alzamora 0.133secs behind, with Franco Battaini third and the top Aprilia.

However Katoh's reign was short lived as local hero Melandri stole the top spot by just 0.023secs on the MS Aprilia, while Rolfo and Locatelli moved into third and fourth respectively with 15mins gone.

Shortly after Aprilia's professional Wild Card (and long time factory test rider) Marcellino Lucchi showed that he still has what it takes on a track he could probably ride around blindfolded, as the local veteran - and former race winner at Mugello - put his #34 Aprilia onto provisional pole by a massive 1.466secs!

Meanwhile, Randy de Puniet had demoted Katoh to fourth with a lap 1.760secs slower than fellow Aprilia rider Lucchi, to complete an Aprilia one, two and three at that stage in the session.

Katoh returned to the track (with 25mins to go) to try and break into the Aprilia formation at the top of the times, the Japanese rider duly improved to push Melandri out of second - but was still nowhere near Lucchi's best.

Melandri was soon out on track as well, and by the half-way mark he had retaken second (+0.738secs to Lucchi), with Katoh third (+0.830secs) and de Puniet fourth with a deficit of 1.084secs, while Locatelli, Harada, McWilliams and Battaini completed the front two rows.

However, Frenchman de Puniet soon put his Equipe de France Aprilia between Melandri and Katoh, proving that the dominant force in 250cc competition this year was going to have to fight not one - but possibly three or four Aprilia's - this weekend.

15mins to go and Ulsterman McWilliams showed that Lucchi was not the only seasoned campaigner who could beat the world's best, the MS Aprilia rider putting his #99 machine into second - and just 0.142secs off Lucchi - who himself had improved, such that Melandri (third) was now over 1sec behind pole, while Katoh sat in fifth.

Meanwhile, the man who had led the Aprilia challenge in France, Tetsuya Harada, had been strangely off the pace, the ex-250cc World Champion only putting in a semi-competitive effort inside the last 10 minutes to move into seventh, behind Katoh, and 1.543secs off pole.

5mins to go and Katoh put his Telefonica MoviStar Honda into fifth with a 1min 56.375secs effort, but was still over a second behind the dominating Lucchi.

Things were soon about to change once again as Lucchi pulled out another stunning lap in the dying seconds to put the time between himself and McWilliams up to nearly 0.5secs, while Harada jumped into third ahead of de Puniet and Melandri - leaving Katoh down in sixth., 1.202secs off the lead Aprilia.

Full times to follow...

1. Lucchi
2. McWilliams +0.443secs
3. Harada +0.697secs
4. de Puniet +1.142secs
5. Melandri +1.169secs
6. Katoh +1.202secs
7. Rolfo +1.224secs
8. Locatelli +1.290secs