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Valentino
Rossi brought out the best for his home fans once again
in Mugello this afternoon, taking a stunning pole
position to ensure he will start tomorrow’s quest for a
ninth Mugello victory in the best possible way. The
Italian’s 50th career pole has been a long time in
coming, his last one having been at Catalunya last
season, almost one year ago. It is also his first for
Bridgestone and Yamaha’s fifth from six races this
season.
Rossi greeted his fans in slightly unusual fashion today
as he unveiled his traditional one-off Mugello helmet,
which this year carries a picture of his face on top of
it. Joking aside however this morning’s practice was
another disjointed session with the track drying
throughout after yet another rain shower and Rossi
finishing sixth. After his crew made some slight, but
important modifications to his M1 over lunch it was a
different story this afternoon, as Rossi dominated a hot
and sunny qualifying session. He was consistently fast
on race tyres and then improved with the first three of
his four Bridgestone qualifying tyres, bettering the
existing pole position lap by more than 0.8 seconds with
the third.
Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo struggled with the lack
of dry track time after yesterday’s washout and was
unable to find a perfect set-up for his M1, qualifying
at the head of the second row in seventh. After two days
of poor weather however the sun that finally came out
this afternoon looks set to continue through tomorrow,
when the 23-lap Italian Grand Prix gets underway at 1400
local time.
Valentino Rossi 1st 1'48.130; “This is a great,
great qualifying because it’s been a long wait to be on
pole position again, almost one year exactly! Now for
sure we will try to win tomorrow. To be honest I was
quite worried after practice this morning because we had
a few problems with the set-up and I couldn’t find my
rhythm, but I want to say thank you to all my team
because they made a great job during lunch, we did some
important modifications and then this afternoon I had
the feeling and the speed that I wanted. We’re now fast
on race tyres but we still need to make our final
decision about which tyre to use and we will do this
when we see the conditions tomorrow. It’s great to make
my first pole with Bridgestone and I think 48.1 is a
very fast time and it shows how good their qualifying
tyres are now.
It’s good as well to have two Italians on the front row
and now I hope we have a lot of people here tomorrow and
that we can make a big party once again! I have to be
honest about my helmet, it was Aldo Drudi’s idea this
time but I think it’s one of the best ever! It’s not a
drawing, it’s a real picture of my face at the braking
at the end of the straight here and I think it’s very
funny!”
Davide Brivio Team Manager; “It’s been a bit of
wait to return to the front of the grid but it’s nice to
do it for the first time with Bridgestone here in
Mugello, it’s extra special for everyone!
Congratulations are also due to the Yamaha engineers
because this is their sixth pole of the season so it’s
clear that they have built a fantastic bike. With the
reduced time we’ve had here in the dry our engineers
have done a great job to find such a good set-up and to
enable Valentino to have such a strong pace, both on
race tyres and on qualifiers. We’re in the best position
for the race; hopefully it will be dry and we can
continue our successful weekend.”
Fiat Yamaha Team
rider Jorge Lorenzo will become the youngest rider ever to
pass the 100 Grand Prix milestone tomorrow when he starts
the Italian Grand Prix from seventh on the grid. It is the
21-year-old’s lowest qualifying position so far since his
MotoGP debut but, with four podiums already under his belt
and an impressive passing record in the last two races
especially, he will be looking forward to making his way
through the field tomorrow to challenge at the front.
The hoped-for dry session this morning did not materialise
as more rain early on meant the track was still damp for
first practice and Lorenzo struggled in the conditions,
finishing 14th. This afternoon the sun finally came out and
the Mallorcan and his crew worked hard to iron out the
issues they were having with the M1, making some improvement
but not enough to allow them to challenge for the top
qualifying spots. They will now aim to make the most of
tomorrow’s short warm-up session to finalise their choice of
Michelin race tyre and make some last-minute adjustments to
put them in better shape for the race.
Jorge Lorenzo 7th 1'48.905; “Of course I’m not happy
with seventh because I always want to be at the front, it’s
my worst position so far with Yamaha in MotoGP and I’m
especially disappointed because I really like this track and
I love the Italian fans, but now we just have to look
forward to a good race! I still lack some power in my ankles
but honestly I can’t blame my injuries this time, today it
was a case of lacking time to find the right dry set-up and
of me not riding as well as I might have done.
We need to work on the front especially because at the
moment we are wheelying too much and we don’t have enough
stability in the bumpy areas, but I have confidence in my
team and in Yamaha and I know we will be able to improve for
tomorrow. Anyway, we know our bike is working well here
because Valentino is on pole! Tomorrow morning we will
decide on the race tyre, together with Michelin, and then I
will try to get a good start and pass as many people as
possible.”
Daniele Romagnoli Team manager; “Today was a bit more
difficult than we’ve been used to and we have some small
problems, specifically with wheelies making the bike a
little bit difficult to control and also in the bumpy areas
where we need to work on the suspension to make the bike
more stable and less nervous. Now our engineers are studying
the data and we will find a good solution for tomorrow.
Jorge has shown in the last two races how well he can pass
people so we’re still looking forward to a great race
tomorrow.”
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