"MOTOGP: Rossi Wins Seventh Straight Italian GP"

ROSSI MAKES IT 50 WITH SENSATIONAL MUGELLO POLE

Valentino Rossi takes the best for his home fans once again at Mugello this afternoon, taking an impressive pole position to ensure that tomorrow will begin the search for a ninth victory in Mugello the best possible way. The Italian's 50 th career pole has been long in coming, his last being in Catalunya last season, almost a year ago. It is also his first Bridgestone and Yamaha for the fifth of six races this season.

Rossi greeted his fans a bit unusual in fashion today as he unveiled his traditional one-Mugello helmet, which this year carries a photo of his face at the top of it. Joking aside, but this morning practice was dismantled another session with the track drying in the course after another rain and Rossi finished sixth. After his crew made some minor but important changes to its M1 during lunch was a different story this afternoon, as Rossi dominated hot and sunny qualifying session. He was consistently fast in the race tyres and then improved with three of its four qualifying Bridgestone tyres, improving the existing pole position lap of more than 0.8 seconds with the third.

Rossi's team, Jorge Lorenzo struggled with the lack of time to dry after washing track yesterday and was unable to find a perfect launching its M1, calling the head of the second row in the seventh. After two days of bad weather but the sun finally came out this afternoon looks set to continue in the morning, when the 23 laps of the Italian Grand Prix begins at 1400 local time.

Valentino Rossi 1 st 1'48 .130; "This is a great, great rating, as it has been a long wait to be in pole position again, almost a year exactly! Safely Now let's try to win tomorrow. To be honest, is very concerned after practice this morning because we had some problems with the launch and I could not find my rhythm, but I want to thank all my team because they did a great job during lunch We made some significant changes, and then this afternoon I had the feeling and speed he wanted. Now we are quick in the race tyres but we still have to make our final decision about which tyres to use and we will do this when we see the conditions for tomorrow. It's great to make my first pole with Bridgestone and I think 48.1 is a very fast time and that shows how good your tires are rating now.

"It's good, besides having two Italians in the front row and I hope that now we have a lot of people here and that tomorrow we can make a big party, once again! I must be honest about my helmet, was the Aldo Drudi idea this time but I think it is one of the best ever! There is a drawing, is a true image of my face in the braking at the end of the line here and I think it is very funny! "

Team Manager Davide Brivio; "It was a bit of waiting to return to the front of the grid but is welcome to do with Bridgestone for the first time here at Mugello is very special for everyone! Congratulations are also due to the engineers Yamaha because this is his sixth pole of the season so it's clear they have built a fantastic bike. With the reduction in the time we have had here in dry our engineers have done a great job to find a good set-up and allow Valentino to have a strong pace, both on race and tyres in qualifying. We are in the best position for the race, which dries and hopefully we can continue our success weekend. "

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo will become the youngest pilot ever to pass the 100 milestone Grand Prix tomorrow, begins when the Italian Grand Prix seventh on the grid. It is 21 years old, the lowest qualifying position so far since its debut in MotoGP, but, with four podiums already under his belt and an impressive record of spending in the last two races in particular are looking forward to to move across the field to contest tomorrow at the front.

The wait-dry session this morning did not materialize as earlier in the rain meant the track was still wet for first practice and Lorenzo struggled in the conditions, finishing 14. This afternoon the sun finally came out and Majorcan and his team worked hard to iron out the problems they were having with the M1, making some improvements, but not enough to allow the challenge for the top scoring points. They now intend to take full advantage of short-warming morning session to finish his career choice of Michelin tyres and do some last minute adjustments to put them in a better position for the race.

Jorge Lorenzo 7 th 1'48 .905; "Of course I am not satisfied with the seventh, because they always want to be at the front, it is my worst position so far in MotoGP with Yamaha and I am particularly disappointed because I really like this track and I love the Italian fans, but now we just have to look forward to a good race! still lack any power in my ankles, but honestly I can not blame my injury this time, today it is a case of lacking time to find the dry set-up and me not go so well as I could have done.

"We need to work on the front especially since we are currently wheelying too and we do not have enough stability in areas bumpy, but I have confidence in my team and Yamaha and I know we'll be able to improve
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Tomorrow. Anyway, we know that our bike is working well here because Valentino is the pole! Tomorrow morning we will decide on the race tyres with Michelin, and then I will try to get a good start and move as many people as possible. "

Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager "Today was a little more difficult than we've been used and we have some small problems, specifically with the motorcycle wheelie do a little difficult to control and bumpy in areas where we need to work on suspension make the bike more stable and less nervous. Now, our engineers are studying the details and we will find a good solution for tomorrow. George has shown in the last two races how well it can happen to people that we are still expecting a great race tomorrow. "

Colin Edwards came within a whisker of handing the Tech 3 Yamaha team a fifth front row start in six races for the future of Italian MotoGP race at Mugello. Edwards ended today's session qualifying fifth, but was only 0.070s off the remarkable expansion of its front row starting record in 2008 with another impressive display of Michelin tyres in qualifying.

Edwards seems certain to be in the front row when they claimed third with only five seconds on the clock in what was the first session in a dry climate weekend-hit. Loris Capirossi and Casey Stoner although Edwards refused after he had published a 1.48.383. Edwards, who has led the way earlier after using his first Michelin qualifying tyre, is confident that it can challenge for a second podium in the race tomorrow, despite minimal time to find a good dry start-up due to weather conditions that dominated the free practice.

James Toseland once again belied his inexperience clock to monitor the eighth best time, just behind an early title contender Jorge Lorenzo. Offal of crucial dry track time to fine-tune his YZR-M1 set-up, while also learning challenging Mugello circuit, Toseland finished just outside 0.895s pole position.