ROSSI RETURNS TO THE FRONT ROW AT MUGELLO
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi will start from
the front row of the grid for the first time this season in
tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Italy after the home hero set
the third quickest time in today’s single qualifying
practice. The session took place under a blanket of thick
grey cloud, with cool ambient temperatures of 16ºC and
just 18ºC on track, but the threat of rain held off and
the teams and riders were afforded crucial dry track time
as they adjusted their machine set-up ahead of tomorrow’s
23-lap race.
Rossi’s best lap of 1’49.167 came on his penultimate
effort and was inside his previous pole record here by almost
a tenth of a second. However, it wasn’t quite enough
to dislodge Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi (both Ducati)
from the top two grid spots as the Spaniard took his first
pole position of the season for the Italian factory. After
falling behind with set-up work due to adverse weather conditions
yesterday, Rossi’s Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards
was unable to make up for lost time today and he could only
manage the 14th fastest time, meaning he will start from the
middle of the fifth row tomorrow.
This afternoon Rossi will present a brand new R6 in unique
Yamaha MotoGP colours to Marco Ponti, from Gallarate in the
Varese region of Italy, who took part in a contest as part
of the ‘Yamaha Open Weekend.’
VALENTINO ROSSI (3rd – 1’49.167; 26 laps)
“It is a good feeling to be back on the front row –
I don’t think I’ve been there since Phillip Island
last year so it is a long time and I’m glad it came
here at Mugello. For sure this is one of my favourite tracks
and with all my fans, family and friends here I really want
to get a good result. The front row is important for this
because in the past few races I have had to fight really hard
at the start of the race to pass riders so hopefully I can
get a better start tomorrow. We’re not on pole but Michelin
and Yamaha have worked really hard to improve our performance
on a qualifying tyre and this is a big step forward. Anyway
my race pace is quite good so I hope to give my fans a lot
of reasons for a party tomorrow night. My new helmet design
is by a famous Italian cartoonist called Milo Manara. He has
drawn a kind of mythical story of my life, with some of my
heroes like Steve McQueen, Enzo Ferrari and Jim Morrison,
with other characters like my dog Guido, Osvaldo the chicken
and lots of beautiful women! I really like it and Milo is
somebody I have admired for a long time.”
COLIN EDWARDS (14th – 1’50.405; 26 laps)
“I’m not too happy at all. This track seems to
have a curse over me because I always seem to be unlucky here.
Yesterday the weather played against us when we were trying
to find some settings for the new chassis so we had to stick
to the old one today and for whatever reason it hasn’t
worked. We haven’t managed to work out the root of the
problem yet but it seems everything that was good at China
and Le Mans has evaporated here. It’s not for a lack
of trying – I’m pushing really hard but maybe
I’m pushing in the wrong place, I don’t know!
We’ve had no time this weekend to test and use the new
chassis so maybe we’re paying the price for that. All
we can do is squeeze the most out of what we have in the warm-up
and see how much progress I can make in terms of positions
in the race.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“I’m very happy for Valentino, it’s nice
for him to be back on the front row. We’ve made some
improvements to the performance of the bike on qualifying
tyres, which is an area we have struggled with so far this
season, so we are very satisfied with that. It looks as though
Valentino also has confidence with the race setting and he
set a good rhythm on race tyres so we hope he can put on a
great show tomorrow. Unfortunately Colin was unable to get
anything extra out of the qualifying tyre so he is starting
from a difficult position. He isn’t comfortable with
the setting of the bike so our goal is to improve this situation
during the warm-up and give him a chance of producing the
kind of ride he showed in the last race at Le Mans, when he
fought back from a lowly position to score some good points.”
FIRST ROW Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro
Team, 1’48.969 Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro
Team,1’49.058 VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team,
1’49.167
SECOND ROW Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda
Team, 1’49.212 Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team,
1’49.328 Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 1’49.343
THIRD ROW John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki
MotoGP, 1’49.478 Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team,
1’49.516 Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda LCR, 1’49.915
14.
COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’50.405
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