QUALIFYING PRACTICE – CATALAN GRAND PRIX - MONTMELO
ROSSI MAKES TIMELY RETURN TO POLE IN BARCELONA
 Camel
Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi will line up in pole position
for the first time in almost a year when the MotoGP World
Championship riders take their place on the grid for the seventh
round of the season at Catalunya tomorrow. The Italian has
been in excellent form all weekend and after continuing yesterday’s
job to set his YZR-M1 up for the 25-lap race, he was able
to concentrate fully on a burst of quick laps at the end of
this afternoon’s qualifying session. His fastest lap
registered a new pole record of 1’41.855 and put him
at the front of the MotoGP grid for the first time since the
2005 British Grand Prix last July.
Colin Edwards also followed up positive work on his two machines
yesterday with further progress in the morning free practice,
when he set the fourth fastest time on race tyres. However,
slight changes to the setting of his bike and the extra grip
offered by a softer rear tyre had a detrimental effect as
he pushed for a quick lap time at the end of the qualifying
session, the American eventually dropping to twelfth place
on the grid as a host of riders posted one-off flying laps,
despite not matching the consistency demonstrated by Edwards.
Rossi will be joined on the front row by two of Edwards’
compatriots, John Hopkins (Suzuki) and Kenny Roberts (Honda
KR).
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st – 1’41.855; 26 laps)
“I am really, really happy – it is a big satisfaction
to be back on pole after such a long time. The bike has been
working really well all weekend and I have to say a big ‘thank
you’ to everybody at Yamaha and all my engineers because
they have worked so hard to build this new chassis and then
make it work so well in such a short space of time. I said
yesterday that we have been able to work in a normal way and
this meant that today I was able to focus on finding a good
setting for the qualifying tyre and putting some fast laps
in at the end. It is the first time I have had this pleasure
in a long time and to do it at this track is amazing because
it is so much fun to ride here. There are some tough riders
out there but I have a special feeling in front of these fans.
They always treat me so well and I want to put on a good show
for them tomorrow.”
COLIN EDWARDS (12th – 1’42.655; 26 laps)
“I don’t seem to be getting any kind of luck in
qualifying lately. We haven’t had so much time yet with
the new chassis and unfortunately when I put the softer tyre
on it kept folding the front end, so I couldn’t push
harder for a time and get the place on the grid that my pace
would otherwise reflect. Also we made a couple of changes
to the setting – nothing major, just a millimetre here
or there – but it seemed to add to the extra force on
the front so we perhaps would have been better sticking to
what we found in the morning. Tomorrow we’ll have to
go backwards a little bit with the setting and no doubt we
can go forwards a lot during the race!”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“Of course it is very nice to be back on pole but the
most pleasing thing is to see the constant progression we
have made with the bike from Le Mans to Mugello to here. To
come off the back of that win in Italy to take pole here is
a reflection of the excellent work the team has done with
the bike and we hope that this situation is now the ‘norm’
until the end of the season. It will be a difficult race tomorrow
and we are still not sure of the conditions, but we know we
can be involved and it will be up to Valentino to keep fighting
to the end, as he always does. Colin has a good race pace
but he didn’t manage to get the best out of the qualifying
tyres at the end. He will have another fight on his hands
over the first few laps so we will see what happens.”
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