Valentino Rossi put his Fiat Yamaha M1 on the front row for the eighth time this season today, qualifying second behind Casey Stoner for his home Grand Prix at Misano.

Valentino Rossi put his Fiat Yamaha M1 on the front row for the eighth time this season today, qualifying second behind Casey Stoner for his home Grand Prix at Misano. The 29-year-old, who lives just 15km away in Tavullia, will be flanked by his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo tomorrow, back on the front row of the grid for the first time since race three in Portugal.

Despite admitting that the searing heat was more suited to a day at the local beach Rossi was able to steadily improve his race pace throughout the afternoon’s session, although he is still looking for a few more tenths before tomorrow’s 28-lap race. In the later stages he clocked better times with each of his four Bridgestone qualifying tyres and his final lap was good enough to leap-frog his team mate for second, although he was unable to catch Stoner. Tomorrow will be the sixth time that Rossi and Stoner have shared the front row this season, with the Italian having come out on top in three out of the previous five occasions.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 2nd Time: 1'33.888 Laps: 29

This weather is amazing, but I think maybe it’s better if you’re at the beach than at the track; we’re in the wrong place! I definitely prefer this to rain though so after the recent races, when we have never been sure about the weather, this is great. I’m happy about our work because we did a good job with the qualifying tyres this afternoon and we were able to improve with each one, which is important. In the end we couldn’t match Casey’s time but anyway second on the grid is good for the race. Our race set-up is still not perfect and there are some corners where we need to be faster still, so we have to work to try to improve that tonight. We have a lot of data now from the two days and so we will use this to try to come up with something to try in warm-up tomorrow. I think we can definitely still improve our race setting a little bit more.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager

“As always the front row is our target so we’re happy that we’ve reached that, it will be very important for tomorrow’s battle! We still need to look for some tenths around the lap so we need to do some more work and then use the practice tomorrow morning as best we can; hopefully we can find something which can help us to fight with Casey once again. It’s really good to see the other Yamaha’s back in the hunt again and it looks like it could be a great race tomorrow.”

Front row return for Lorenzo in Misano

Jorge Lorenzo made an impressive return to the front row of the grid today, his first top-three qualification since his treble of pole positions in the opening three races of the season. The Mallorcan qualified third on a sweltering day in Misano and his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi made it a good day for the whole garage by qualifying second, just 0.076 seconds ahead of him.

After his run of bad luck Lorenzo has been in much better shape since first practice yesterday, with improvements to his Michelin tyres giving him back his old confidence and flair. His first run with a qualifying tyre put him straight to the top of the standings and he was able to improve twice more, before being edged out by Stoner and Rossi in the closing seconds of the session. He and his crew now hope to make some final improvements to the setting of his M1 before bidding for a podium return tomorrow when the 28-lap race gets underway at 1400 CET.

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 3rd Time: 1'33.964 Laps: 29

“Straight from yesterday morning it’s clear that this track is a different situation for us. We’re struggling much less and my Michelin tyres are much more competitive again here, so thanks to them. I can ride in a good, flowing rhythm once more and my tyres are giving me the confidence that I need in order to go fast. It feels really good to be back on the front row again and I am very happy today. It is clear that to stay with Stoner and Valentino is going to be very hard, but the important thing is that we have been able to compete with them today and we’re in a good position to try again tomorrow. I’m still not thinking about results but I will just do my best, try to take a good rhythm and try to put on a good race for all the fans!”

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager

“It’s great to finally be back on the front row after some time and, more importantly, to watch Jorge riding so competitively again. Thanks to Michelin for their work because the tyres performed very well today and enabled Jorge to have good confidence and feeling with the bike, which in turn has enabled the team to find a good set-up. We have improved session by session throughout the weekend and now we are confident that we can continue to be competitive in the race tomorrow. We hope to see Jorge fighting at the front again and getting the result he deserves.”