Home hero Valentino Rossi is to try to continue their domination of the Italian Grand Prix after claiming pole position for Sunday the sixth round of the MotoGP world championship.
With a 50th career pole Rossi will be bidding for a seventh consecutive victory before his adoration that fans have jammed again the slopes of the Mugello circuit.
Rossi improved the old record of scoring 0.8s for the circuit of 3.2 miles with his first pole in nearly 12 months, his earlier is the Catalunya GP last June. "It's so long since my last pole position I did not remember," said Rossi. "I was concerned after practice because he could not find a good rhythm, but with some changes that start-up speed and I had the feeling that I wanted. I will try to win tomorrow."
Rossi's Yamaha joined in the front row of the grid Dani Pedrosa of Honda, Suzuki pilot and Loris Capirossi. The second row was led by reigning world champion, Casey Stoner (Ducati) was fourth just ahead of American duo Colin Edwards (Yamaha) and Nicky Hayden, who were fifth and sixth.
Less happy are Californian John Hopkins who will start 14th after another disappointing performance of his Kawasaki ZX-RR. After the Friday practice sessions were hit by heavy rain and more showers on Saturday morning, theafternoon rating was the first completely dry session this weekend.
Pedrosa will start from the front row for the fourth time in six races. "The first row is very important here, but it will be difficult, there are many fast runners and we still have time in warming to improve the launch," said Pedrosa.
Meanwhile, Capirossi scored his first front row of the season with a trailer behind cheeky fellow Italian Rossi, largely to the delight of the locals and Bridgestone, with two riders in the front row. "I was lucky because I have followed Valentino and he did an amazing time, risked much to stay with him," said Capirossi.
Edwards seems certain to be in the front row when they claimed third with five seconds remaining, and although beaten to fourth, the Texan is confident a strong race. "Hopefully I can find a way with boys in the race because the slipstream into the rectum can hang up on him, I think I can be up there," said Edwards.
Hayden also made a late charge and like all riders face a tyre with intrigue decision limited the dry weather. "The tyres are very important for the race with just one session in dry," said Hayden. "We have made some progress but I'm not fooling myself, is that going to be a tough race, some guys are going fast."
Honda's 2008 air valve V4 engine will make his first career appearance here assembled by wild card operator and factory test rider tady Okada. The 41-year-old, a veteran qualified 15th with this race being used as evidence a day so that engineers can assess the reliability and fuel consumption in race conditions.
Without prejudging the outcome of the race here is Honda will make a decision about whether the problem of air valve engine is running next weekend in Barcelona, perhaps with one of the news assigned to both Hayden and Pedrosa.
Okada has only one bike at his disposal and the loss of valuable time track after an accident at high speed through Friday's wet practice and then a problem in electronics Saturday free practice. "Because of this I did not have the launch are the potential maximum speed that is the main advantage of this engine," said Okada.
After an early season burst of three pole positions novice Spanish Jorge Lorenzo will start in seventh place, his worst qualifying of the season so far. Although still a limp, Lorenzo has largely recovered from the ankle injury which took him across the recent Shanghai and Le Mans races. 'I needed a miracle to win, "said Lorenzo who made four runs scoring. "The problem is that I do not have a good feeling in the corners, the bike is moving a lot."
After last week French GP Hopkins demanded improvements in yield instant Kawasaki and a more intensive effort for engineers factory in Japan. However, Hopkins has had little joy scoring in the fifth row. "Today felt like a struggle uphill for us," said Hopkins. "I had problems of transition from one rainy season set-up of skill and not simply join that left me with less than ideal position network." Rossi, 97 points, maintains a narrow three-point advantage over Pedrosa and Lorenzo are equal in second place with Stoner in fourth with 56 points fifth in Edwards 47.
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