Capirossi bails out as wall approaches.

Loris Capirossi was forced to ditch his West Honda Pons machine after running wide, across the gravel and straight at a wall, in today's first qualifying session at Sepang.

The Italian locked the rear wheel and fell without injury inches from the wall. The Ducati bound star later described what happened: "I was going very quickly and when I realised I could not make the entrance to the corner I preferred instead to go straight on. I braked as hard as I could in the gravel, but when I saw the wall was fast approaching I decided to go to ground."

'Little Loris' managed to pick his machine up and remount, with the help of marshal's, and crawled back to the Pons pits for repairs.

Turning his attention to the session itself, where he was seventh fastest, Capirossi declared: "I am quite happy, although I admit that I am still not 100%. On the straight I lose nearly half a second and it is certainly true that this is the worst circuit for the two-stroke bikes. We will continue to work on being the best two-stroke bike and try and be as close to the leaders as possible, although we will find it difficult to finish as highly as (third) at Motegi."

"Loris is nearly lapping in the times from last season with the two-stroke and I think he still has options to gain a front-row grid start," stated Sito Pons.

Capirossi finished second last year at Sepang after setting pole position, while in the 250cc class he was victorious at the circuit's World Championship debut in 1999.