Valentino Rossi will contest his first ‘match point’ of the 2008 championship from the head of the second row tomorrow, having qualified fourth at Motegi today. Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo sealed an impressive pole position today and will lead the field, with Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden behind him.
After the changeable weather of yesterday, today was bright and sunny and Rossi was in good shape this morning and finished the session third. This afternoon he signalled his intentions with twenty minutes to go by going to the top of the time sheets with his first Bridgestone qualifying tyre, although he was displaced soon after by Stoner, who was then knocked off by Lorenzo in turn. Despite improving with his next two tyres Rossi was unable to make a dent in his team-mate’s time and he than ran into traffic on his last run, meaning he was unable to improve a final time and was edged off the front row by Nicky Hayden at the end.
Finishing on the podium will be enough for the Italian to secure his eighth world championship tomorrow, although he can also take the title from further down the order depending on where Casey Stoner finishes. Tomorrow’s 24-lap race gets underway at 1400 local time.
Valentino Rossi (Position: 4th Time: 1'46.060 Laps: 26):
“Honestly I’m a bit disappointed because the front row was our target today, but anyway fourth isn’t too bad! Unfortunately we spent a bit too much time with the race tyres and started our qualifying sequence a few minutes late, this meant that I was maybe one or two minutes late going out with my last tyre and I got a bit caught up with traffic when de Angelis fell. Anyway, our race pace is quite good so I am confident that we can be in the fight, although we will have to get a good start. We have one or two small problems that we need to work on so we will use the warm-up to check a few things and I think we can improve a little bit more. I am not thinking about the championship right now, I will just aim for the podium and see what happens.”
Davide Brivio (Team Manager):
“I think our starting position could have been a little bit better, as there was some traffic on the last lap which didn’t allow Valentino to improve on his final run. For tomorrow the race pace is good and we’re definitely in the mix but there are three or four riders with a good pace so it will definitely be a hard fight tomorrow. Our target will be to stay in the fight and finish on the podium. Congratulations to Jorge and his team for making a return to pole.”
| | Qualifying Times: | | |
| | | | |
| | FRONT ROW | | |
| | | | |
| 1. | Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) | Fiat Yamaha Team | 1'45.543 |
| 2. | Casey Stoner (AUS) | Ducati Marlboro | 1'45.831 |
| 3. | Nicky Hayden (USA) | Repsol Honda | 1'45.971 |
| | | | |
| SECOND ROW | |
| | | | |
| 4. | Valentino Rossi (ITA) | Fiat Yamaha Team | 1'46.060 |
| 5. | Dani Pedrosa (SPA) | Repsol Honda | 1'46.303 |
| 6. | Loris Capirossi (ITA) | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP | 1'46.450 |
| | | | |
| THIRD ROW | |
| | | | |
| 7. | Colin Edwards (USA) | Tech 3 Yamaha | 1'46.496 |
| 8. | Randy De Puniet (FRA) | LCR Honda MotoGP | 1'46.554 |
| 9. | Shinya Nakano (JPN) | San Carlo Honda Gresini | 1'46.616 |
| | | | |
| FOURTH ROW
| |
| | | | |
| 10. | James Toseland (GBR) | Tech 3 Yamaha | 1'46.863 |
| 11. | John Hopkins (USA) | Kawasaki Racing | 1'46.888 |
| 12. | Chris Vermeulen (AUS) | Rizla Suzuki | 1'46.904 |
| | | | |
| FIFTH ROW
| |
| | | | |
| 13. | Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) | JiR Team Scot MotoGP | 1'46.907 |
| 14. | Toni Elias (SPA) | Alice Team | 1'47.400 |
| 15. | Marco Melandri (ITA) | Ducati Marlboro | 1'47.475 |
| | | | |
| SIXTH ROW
| |
| | | | |
| 16. | Anthony West (AUS) | Kawasaki Racing | 1'47.669 |
| 17. | Alex De Angelis (RSM) | San Carlo Honda Gresini | 1'47.680 |
