Biaggi fastest in Welkom warm-up.

Max Biaggi has put an end to Valentino Rossi's domination of the Africa's Grand Prix weekend, the Roman setting the pace in morning warm-up from the fellow Honda of Sete Gibernau.

Coming into today, Rossi had been fastest in every one of the four sessions, but the world champion - who will start from pole position on his Yamaha debut this afternoon - was left third this morning, the lone M1 in a RCV dominated top six.

Biaggi, South African MotoGP, 2004
Biaggi, South African MotoGP, 2004
© Gold and Goose

Max Biaggi has put an end to Valentino Rossi's domination of the Africa's Grand Prix weekend, the Roman setting the pace in morning warm-up from the fellow Honda of Sete Gibernau.

Coming into today, Rossi had been fastest in every one of the four sessions, but the world champion - who will start from pole position on his Yamaha debut this afternoon - was left third this morning, the lone M1 in a RCV dominated top six.

Biaggi's fastest warm-up lap was one second slower than Rossi's pole time, but put the Roman 0.146secs clear of Gibernau with the top six - Biaggi, Gibernau, Rossi, Edwards, Hayden and Barros - all covered by half a second.

Suzuki's Kenny Roberts led the best of the rest, sitting 0.4secs behind Barros and 0.9secs from Biaggi, as the American just held off fiery d'Antin Ducati rookie Ruben Xaus.

The Spaniard outpaced both factory Ducatis this morning, with Loris Capirossi eleventh, while troubled team-mate Troy Bayliss at least found 0.4secs over his terrible qualifying time to take sixteenth.

Among those ahead of the Australian was the top Kawasaki of sixth placed starter Shinya Nakano, fourteenth this morning, and the lead Aprilia of MotoGP rookie Shane Byrne (15th).

2004 Africa's Grand Prix - warm-up:

1. Biaggi
2. Gibernau
3. Rossi
4. Edwards
5. Hayden
6. Barros
7. Roberts
8. Xaus
9. Melandri
10. Tamada
11. Capirossi
12. Hopkins
13. Checa
14. Nakano
15. Byrne
16. Bayliss
17. Hofmann
18. Abe
19. Hodgson
20. McWilliams
21. Aoki
22. Fabrizio

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