QUALIFYING PRACTICE – CZECH REPUBLIC GRAND PRIX -
BRNO
ROSSI SMASHES POLE RECORD AT BRNO
 Valentino
Rossi will start a MotoGP race from the front of the grid
for only the second time this season in tomorrow’s Czech
Republic Grand Prix after clocking an incredible pole record
time in today’s single qualifying session at Brno. Rossi’s
time of 1’56.191 was almost 1.5 seconds inside the previous
best lap at this track and followed up an impressive performance
yesterday, when he also set the pace. A trial run on a qualifying
tyre in those first free practice sessions paid dividends
today as the Italian defined his race set-up for the YZR-M1
machine before setting a devastating pace which knocked Loris
Capirossi (Ducati) off top spot in the dying moments of the
session. Capirossi will line up in second place whilst Kenny
Roberts (Team KR) completes the front row.
Rossi’s Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards also enjoyed
a productive day working on his race setting and was on course
to challenge for a spot on the front two rows before a minor
mistake in the first section of his fast lap cost him vital
tenths. It meant that his final effort recorded 1’56.967
on the stopwatch – enough for eighth place and a third
row start. Tomorrow’s race is the first of a final run
of six, which will determine whether Rossi can cut back a
51-point gap to series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) and defend
the title of MotoGP World Champion for a fifth successive
season.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st – 1’56.191; 25 laps)
“I think the practice today was a great emotion for
everybody but especially for us! We worked well on the bike,
especially the tyres, because we have suffered too much this
season and my team and Michelin did a great job today. When
I saw Loris’ time I thought it was very fast and didn’t
know if I could beat it but I was very determined and I pushed
hard on all three qualifying tyres. In the end the final lap
was great and to set a 1’56.1 was unbelievable! For
tomorrow pole position is definitely better than starting
from the fifth row like in other races so for this I am very
happy. We still need to decide two or three things about the
setting before the race but I am quite competitive.”
COLIN EDWARDS (8th – 1’56.967; 24 laps)
“I really don’t know what to think about today!
Our race pace is okay, we’re doing 58.6 which looks
like it could compete for the top five, but I won’t
be happy with that! I think we need to make some more changes
for tomorrow morning to the setting and see if we can find
another three-tenths. With the setting we were using today,
the race tyre was working well for 3 or 4 laps and then it
was starting to lose grip and then the lap times were going.
So we’ve got a few ideas and we’ll fiddle with
the setting in the morning a bit to see if we can sort that
out. On the positive side, I think we’re finally figuring
out what we need to do with the setting in order to make the
tyres work better with our bike, and today the qualifier especially
worked really well for me. Unfortunately I lost half a second
on the first split but the tyre was perfect so that’s
pretty encouraging after some of the problems we’ve
had with qualifiers so far this season!”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“It is very nice to be back on pole position –
our first target for the weekend was to qualify on the front
two rows so we are delighted that Valentino has gone one better!
The last three races have all been complicated for us because
of the starting position but hopefully now this should not
be a problem for us tomorrow. Now we need to fix a few things
with the bike and find the best combination of the different
settings we have tried over the course of the weekend so far.
There are a few riders with a good pace so it will be a difficult
race but we expect Valentino to be up there and if Colin can
get a decent start then I believe he also has the pace to
stay with the leaders and end the weekend with a good result.
For Valentino this is a very important race because the championship
could be a lot clearer tomorrow night.”
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