GAULOISES YAMAHA RIDERS READY FOR BRNO BATTLE
The eleventh round of the MotoGP World Championship looks
set to be one of the most exciting yet after a dramatically
close qualifying session at the Brno circuit in the Czech
Republic this afternoon. Gauloises Yamaha Team riders Valentino
Rossi and Colin Edwards will start from the second and third
rows of the grid respectively with less than two seconds covering
the top sixteen riders. Rossi qualified fourth fastest after
launching a late pole attack that saw him dip almost a full
second inside his own previous pole record from 2003 with
a best lap of 1’57.875. The Italian’s effort was
just 0.371 seconds short of the eventual pole time set by
Sete Gibernau (Honda) but it wasn’t quite enough to
dislodge Nicky Hayden (Honda) or Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
from the front row. Rossi’s Gauloises Yamaha team-mate
Colin Edwards made another encouraging start to the day as
he lapped third fastest in the morning free practice but the
American again struggled to convert his good race pace to
a top qualifying time as he lapped ninth fastest.
VALENTINO ROSSI (4th – 1’57.875; 24 laps)
“Today we have done a good job with the set-up of the
bike, especially on race tyres, and I am quite happy with
the pace. I thought a 1’57.8 would be enough for the
front row but Loris Capirossi put in a very fast lap at the
end and I am fourth. Gibernau and Hayden are also strong and
I think tomorrow will be a very close race because it is so
difficult to escape here - it could be like Mugello earlier
in the season. I hope so because I won that race! I have great
rivals and the men on the front row tomorrow are strong, but
I never, never give up until the finish. The championship
is definitely not over yet and my only thought now is to try
and win the race tomorrow.”
COLIN EDWARDS (9th – 1’58.323; 24 laps)
“We made another good start to the day and I’m
really happy with the way the bike is working on race tyres.
Unfortunately when we put the qualifying tyre in, the front
end started to hop around a little and I wasn’t comfortable
enough to push for the time I think I was capable of. We’ve
also got a little bit of work to do to make the right side
of the race tyre a little happier after ten laps. If I can
still be doing 59.5s or 59.6s in the second half of the race
then we’ve got a chance of a good result. I’d
love to say I’m going to go out and destroy everybody
tomorrow but that’s not looking like the case at the
moment. We’ll have a chat within the team tonight and
see what we can come up with for the warm-up tomorrow.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“Valentino has a good pace for tomorrow but he is not
alone in that aspect and it looks like it’s going to
be very close. I think several riders are going to be in the
middle of it and I expect it will be a good battle. Even so,
I don’t think it will be just about the guys at the
front of the grid because there are riders further back who
can join in and make it close – hopefully Colin will
be one of them. He still has some problems to solve but I
have confidence they can be ironed out. Neither rider is starting
from the front but that is not a problem because they will
still fight a great battle for the best possible finish!”
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