Rossi steals Germany pole at the death

Added on Saturday, July 18th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

Valentino Rossi pulled off a superb last-lap performance to steal pole position from teammate Jorge Lorenzo at a rain-drenched Sachsenring.

With conditions worsening in Germany, it seems that Lorenzo would wrap up pole position with a lap time of 1:33.160 only for Rossi to smash the Spaniards time by sixth tenths of a second with the chequered flags already out.

It was a session that will be remembered more for a number of spectacular crashes, with Marco Melandri, Toni Elias, Alex de Angelis, Randy de Puniet, Nicky Hayden and Niccolo Canepa all coming off in high speed crashes at the same turn.

Canepa was led from the crash scene on a stretcher after Nicky Hayden was flung from his Ducati into the Italian at high speed but is still expected to be fit for tomorrow’s race.

Despite strong early performances from the satellite Honda riders Alex de Angelis and Randy de Puniet, it was always a battle between the two Yamaha riders for pole. Casey Stoner was comfortable in third position to the point where he pulled into the garage with four minutes of the session still to go and Dani Pedrosa couldn’t repeat his winning performance from Laguna Seca, languishing in 8^th position.

Hayden’s improvement on the Ducati continued as the American secured fourth position, with De Angelis and de Puniet joining him on the second row.

James Toseland had another session to forget, recording only the 14^th fastest time of the day although there was some good news for British fans in the 125, with Bradley Smith securing 2^nd on the grid behind Julian Simon.

German Grand Prix, Qualifying Result:

Pos	Rider	Nat	Team	Time
1	Valentino Rossi	ITA	Fiat Yamaha	1:32.520
2	Jorge Lorenzo	SPA	Fiat Yamaha	+ 0.640
3	Casey Stoner	AUS	Ducati	+ 1.239
4	Nicky Hayden	USA	Ducati	+ 1.884
5	Alex de Angelis	SAN	San Carlo Honda Gresini	+ 1.970
6	Randy de Puniet	FRA	LCR Honda	+ 2.044
7	Colin Edwards	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	+ 2.087
8	Dani Pedrosa	ITA	Repsol Honda	+ 2.205
9	Loris Capirossi	ITA	Rizla Suzuki	+ 2.221
10	Mika Kallio	FIN	Pramac Ducati	+ 2.251
11	Andrea Dovizioso	ITA	Repsol Honda	+ 2.372
12	Chris Vermeulen	AUS	Rizla Suzuki	+ 2.417
13	Marco Melandri	ITA	Hayate Kawasaki	+ 2.418
14	James Toseland	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	+ 2.485
15	Niccolo Canepa	ITA	Pramac Ducati	+ 3.492
16	Gabor Talmacsi	HUN	Scot Racing Honda	+ 3.535
17	Toni Elias	SPA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	+ 4.011