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Valentino Rossi will start his Phillip Island assault
from second on the grid tomorrow, after sealing his
twelfth front-row start of the season in Australia this
afternoon. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who
was still feeling under the weather following
yesterday's upset stomach, missed out on the front row
by just 0.001 seconds, the first time he has been out of
the top three this season.
This morning's practice was interrupted
by rain, which allowed the riders a quick chance to check
their wet-weather settings in case of more rain tomorrow. By
the afternoon the weather had cleared up and qualifying was
run in the dry, albeit with grey skies and a cold wind.
Rossi spent most of the hour-long session a few tenths off
Casey Stoner in second but a late setting update gave him
the extra pace to challenge the Australian and he duly moved
to the top of the time sheets with nine minutes to go.
Stoner hit back five minutes later however and set a best
time that knocked Rossi off pole by 0.050 seconds.
Lorenzo felt much better today but he was
still not at 100%, having been unable to eat much since
yesterday's illness. The 22-year-old was still struggling
for rear grip but he was able to improve his time in the
later stages and looked like he would make it onto the front
row before a late charge from Dani Pedrosa edged him off by
just one thousandth of a second. He will now have to mount
his challenge from the head of the second row tomorrow,
something of a novelty for him having qualified in the first
three at all fourteen previous rounds this year. Tomorrow's
race will start at 1600 local-time tomorrow, which is 0700
CET.
Valentino Rossi
"We are on the front row which is the most important thing
and I think we can definitely have a good race tomorrow. We
have a few things to check in the morning, depending on the
weather, including the final tyre choice - of course we hope
for it to be dry. I have a good setting and with the last
modification we made I was able to make another step and we
were quite fast. The pole position was possible today but
unfortunately I made a mistake in the last section on my
flying lap and Stoner was able to go a little bit faster
than me. We have an advantage on Lorenzo, which is important
for the championship points, and I hope that I will be able
to fight with Stoner for the win."
Jorge Lorenzo
"I'm a bit disappointed to lose my 100% front-row qualifying
record by such a tiny amount, but today we just didn't quite
have enough pace. We still don't have enough grip on the
rear and the tyre is spinning too much, which makes it
difficult to be fast enough. Tomorrow I will try to adapt my
riding style instead in order to try to make it onto the
podium. I feel better than yesterday but I'm still not at
100%; I feel quite weak still because I haven't been able to
eat much. I will have to try before tomorrow in order to
have enough strength for the race. I don't feel any
pressure, I will just go out and do my best."
Davide Brivio
"So far all the sessions have gone well for us. We've got a
good starting position for tomorrow and we're in good shape
for the race. As far as our strategy goes, of course we will
have one eye on Lorenzo and the championship but also one
eye on Stoner and the chance to win the race if possible!
The only issue is the late time of the race, because at 4pm
it could be quite a lot colder and therefore this might
throw up some surprises."
Daniele Romagnoli
"It's a real pity to miss out on the front row by just one
millisecond after we have been so consistent all season! We
still have rear grip issues at the moment, the team have
done a good job to improve it over the sessions but we still
have some work to do. The warm-up will be very important for
us tomorrow in order to try to solve the problem and put us
in a position to be able to challenge in the fight for the
race and the championship tomorrow."
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