Rossi snatches Brno pole

Added on Saturday, August 15th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

FIAT Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi snatched pole position for tomorrow’s MotoGP race from Brno in the Czech Republic, despite suffering a crash just three minutes from the end of the hour-long session.

The entire session was dominated by three main riders – Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, each battling it out for top spot. Rossi’s Yamaha teammate, Lorenzo, controlled the pace in both of the Free Practice sessions earlier in the weekend, making him favourite for honours. However, despite governing much of the qualifying hour, it was his more experienced teammate who snatched that illustrious Pole.

At the half way stage, Lorenzo was still occupying the coveted top spot, with Pedrosa second and Rossi third. Behind, Colin Edwards had worked his way up to fourth, determined to put in a strong performance.

Despite Lorenzo enjoying a good rhythm on this spectacular circuit, Rossi was determined to push his teammate all the way; with less than nine minutes remaining the latter stole Pole position with a time of 1:56.145.

Further afield, Mika Kallio, who has currently taken Casey Stoner’s ride at the Ducati Marlboro team whilst the Australian is ill, had a crash, meaning he was forced to use the spare bike. With less than eight minutes remaining he was able to manage tenth quickest overall.

In the dying moments of the session the action really began to hot up; at the sharp end of the field all eyes were on the battle for Pole. With Rossi having crashed just moments previously, likely thought to be caused by a cool tyre following a pit-stop, the focus was on Lorenzo and Pedrosa, to see if either of them could snatch back Rossi’s provisional top spot.

As the chequered flag fell, both Lorenzo and Pedrosa were unable to ruffle Rossi’s feathers, qualifying second and third, respectively, ahead of tomorrow’s race. Toni Elias had fought through to fourth with Edwards and Pedrosa’s teammate, Andrea Dovizioso completing the top six.

The Rizla Suzuki duo of Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen recorded the ninth and eleventh fastest times, respectively. Britain’s James Toseland managed the fourteenth quickest time, while Marco Melandri, on the back of his 2010 Honda Gresini announcement, qualified fifteenth. Gabor Talmacsi rounded out the seventeen-strong grid for the Scot Racing Team.

Czech Republic Grand Prix, Qualifying Result:

Pos.	Rider	Nat	Team	Time
1	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	1’56.145
2	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	1’56.195
3	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	1’56.528
4	Toni ELIAS	SPA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’56.817
5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’56.954
6	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	1’57.108
7	Alex DE ANGELIS	RSM	San Carlo Honda Gresini	1’57.775
8	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Marlboro Team	1’57.803
9	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’57.811
10	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Ducati Marlboro Team	1’57.994
11	Chris VERMEULEN	AUS	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	1’58.087
12	Niccolo CANEPA	ITA	Pramac Racing	1’58.208
13	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	1’58.298
14	James TOSELAND	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	1’58.331
15	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	Hayate Racing Team	1’58.477
16	Michel FABRIZIO	ITA	Pramac Racing	1’58.680
17	Gabor TALMACSI	HUN	Scot Racing Team MotoGP	1’58.749

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Rossi snatches Brno pole

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Carole Nash