The Italian veteran took third on the grid for Suzuki in Mugello qualifying today, ending an absence from the front row that stretched back to the 2006 season finale at Valencia.
He was on course for second until being pushed back by Dani Pedrosa in the final seconds.
"It was a really fantastic session for me," Capirossi said. "To start on the front row again and to do it with Suzuki is an amazing moment for me."
His best lap came after he followed countryman Valentino Rossi, who ultimately took pole.
"I want to say thank you to Valentino because I followed him on my best lap and it was an amazing lap for me," Capirossi said.
Rossi was pleased to see Capirossi back amongst the leaders.
"To have Loris at the front is good," said the pole-winner. "We fought a lot in the old days here at Mugello. When I saw him behind me, I didn't want to go with him because I was worried that he would beat me because he had been fast yesterday and this morning. I tried to go a little bit faster and it was a great lap."
Capirossi is optimistic that he will be fast enough to stay with the lead pack in tomorrow's race.
"We have quite a good rhythm on a race tyre," he said. "Like everybody has said, we've only had one and a half sessions to set the bike up, but my team did a really great job from this morning to this afternoon, because we changed a lot on the bike. For sure the feeling we had this afternoon was pretty good.
"We'll also have to use the warm-up to do something more, but the bike is working quite well here. We tested some new things after Le Mans and came here and the bike was better.
"It will not be so easy tomorrow, but we will do our best. We hope 100 per cent that it's good weather tomorrow and we can fight.
"We know these two guys (Rossi and Pedrosa) are really quick, but I will do my best tomorrow for the Suzuki guys."
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