|
Rossi promises Portuguese battle with front row start |
Rossi promises Portuguese battle with front
row start
Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi sealed a second consecutive front-row start in Estoril
today,
finishing this afternoon's sunny qualifying session in third ahead of
tomorrow's
Portuguese Grand Prix. His team-mate Colin Edwards also put himself into
a
promising position for the 28-lap race with a competitive lap that saw
him take
sixth on the grid.
After a good first day's work yesterday, Rossi was fast again in this
morning's
final free practice session and finished second behind Casey Stoner, but
Edwards
continued to struggle and was down in 13th. Rossi put in more good work
throughout
the first half hour of this afternoon's session and was never out of the
top
three, showing a good race pace which was well in touch with his rivals.
Edwards
meanwhile was making little progress before a small change to his set-up
in the
second half gave him the tools he needed to improve his pace. As the
session moved
into its crunch period, both riders tried a new qualifying tyre from
Michelin but
it did not work as planned and they were left with a sole soft tyre each
with
which to make their qualifying bids. Rossi's lap put him on pole briefly
but both
Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden then went faster than him, with Hayden's
eventual
pole lap a tenth of a second off Rossi's 2006 time. Edwards also put in
a strong
flying lap which was good enough for fifth, before a last ditch effort
from Yamaha
Tech 3 rider Makoto Tamada pushed the American one place down the order.
Valentino Rossi - Position: 3rdTime: 1'36.576Laps: 28
"We've been fast for all the practice sessions so far here and we have
found a
good rhythm so things are looking quite positive. It's good to be on the
front
row, of course pole is always the target but the most important thing is
to be on
the front row in order to give ourselves the best chance. I tried a new
kind of
qualifying tyre today but it didn't work so I only had one lap, but
luckily I was
able to do a good time, even if I might have improved with one more
tyre. The new
Michelin race tyres are working well here and the other Michelin riders
are fast
too so we can hopefully all be close to Stoner tomorrow. I hope that we
can fight
with him, make some good passes and have some fun, especially in the
first part of
the race. I'm happy with the work we've done and with the setting we've
found; our
Yamaha is working well in the tight corners on this track and we're
excited about
a good race tomorrow."
Colin Edwards
Colin Edwards - Position: 6thTime: 1'36.904Laps: 25
"We made some changes to the swing arm, back to what we know works and
that helped
me a lot in the later stages of this afternoon. It's only a millimetre
or so
different to Valentino but to me it makes all the difference. The
session went
okay and I was feeling quite positive about the qualifying laps but then
we tried
a new tyre for the first one and it didn't work at all, so I was way
down the
order! After that it was now or never with the second one, which is not
ideal
because usually you like to have one flying lap to get your confidence
and then
one to really nail it! Anyway I made one mistake in the small chicane
but it
didn't hurt me too much and I can't be too upset with the second row
after the way
we've been going for most of the weekend. It's going to be a tough race
and I'm
just going to have to get my head down tomorrow and take no prisoners."
Davide Brivio - Team Director
"So far so good this weekend and with Valentino we have a good pace and
we're
close to our rivals. The first row was our target today and now we just
hope to be
in the fight until the end tomorrow and to enjoy the race. Colin did a
very good
qualifying lap and he has a good starting position also tomorrow. Last
year he did
a great race in the top group and now we just have to finalise a few
things
overnight to make sure we can give him the package to enable him to do
the same
again tomorrow. "
Circuit Length: 4182
Weather: Dry
2007 MotoGP Portugal - Estoril 15/09/2007
Qualifying 1
Pos.
Rider
Manu.
Nat.
Total Time
1
Nicky Hayden
Honda
USA
1'36.301
2
Casey Stoner
Ducati
AUS
1'36.341
3
Valentino Rossi
Yamaha
ITA
1'36.576
4
Makoto Tamada
Yamaha
JPN
1'36.736
5
Daniel Pedrosa
Honda
ESP
1'36.829
6
Colin Edwards
Yamaha
USA
1'36.904
7
Marco Melandri
Honda
ITA
1'37.157
8
Sylvain Guintoli
Yamaha
FRA
1'37.189
9
Toni Elias
Honda
ESP
1'37.246
10
John Hopkins
Suzuki
USA
1'37.280
11
Carlos Checa
Honda
ESP
1'37.296
12
Chris Vermeulen
Suzuki
AUS
1'37.365
13
Shinya Nakano
Honda
JPN
1'37.530
14
Alex Barros
Ducati
BRA
1'37.550
15
Loris Capirossi
Ducati
ITA
1'37.733
|
|
