MotoGP – Losail QP1 – Rossi: "Yamaha has built a great bike"

Forty-sixth pole for Valentino, who will start tomorrow lining up on the front row with Stoner and Edwards. After maintaining a consistently fast pace in the first forty minutes, during which the rider and the Fiat Yamaha team concentrated on set-up, the time came for the time tyres. Only two were allowed by the new regulation and, although the first did not bring the desired results, with the second Rossi lapped in 1'55.002, a full 0'2.303 faster than his own record. The epilogue of tomorrow's race seems almost obvious, but there is no shortage of competitive opponents and it is best not to take anything for granted.

“It's great, the first pole of the season right in the first race and it's extremely special for me because it's pole number 46 of my career!”, commented Valentino Rossi. “I hope it bodes well for tomorrow. I'm really happy for this pole position because we all worked a lot; all my mechanics, engineers, Michelin… everyone who is involved. Yamaha built us a great bike. However, tomorrow is another day and there will be the real race, but we start from pole and Colin is also on the front row, so I hope the Yamaha really puts on a show! We need to check a couple of things in tomorrow morning's practice but we are more or less ready. I really like this circuit, the grip is excellent, it's fast and technical and with the new Yamaha you can really have fun. It's quite calm here, there aren't many people and it's a nice atmosphere to start the season because I can fully concentrate on the race without too many distractions! I think that tomorrow there will be three or four riders who can fight for the victory together with me and Colin, but there is confidence in the pits"

Chiara Folci