MotoGP news
Yamaha ready to go racing
25 February 2007Valentino Rossi ended his pre-season preparations in fine style today after taking top honours in the traditional 40-minute 'Qualifying' Practice session at Jerez, smashing last year's pole time and becoming the fastest man ever round the Spanish circuit in the process. There was double satisfaction for Yamaha as Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards, who took this same accolade in treacherously wet conditions at Catalunya last year, finished the session third.
After a one-two in this morning's free practice, Rossi and Edwards were feeling confident for this afternoon's timed shoot-out and with several qualifying tyres each to try during the session, had plenty of chances to see what their 800cc Yamahas could do under pressure. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) took an early lead before Dani Pedrosa (Honda) took control with just over half the session gone. Rossi soon joined him at the top and an exciting battle ensued between the Italian and the Spaniard as they swapped the lead several times over the last twenty minutes, with Edwards remaining in close contention throughout. In the closing stages of the session Rossi produced a perfect lap to set an outstanding time of 1'38.394, almost seven-tenths of a second faster than Capirossi's pole time from 2006. Pedrosa was unable to find an answer despite crossing the line seconds before the chequered flag and mounting a last-gasp effort to usurp Rossi from the top spot.
Today's result marks the end of a long but satisfying pre-season testing campaign for the Yamaha Factory Team, who leave Jerez in good shape and high spirits ahead of the first race of the season in Qatar on 10th March.
"After this morning, when my Yamaha worked very well, I knew that I had a chance to try to win this competition," said Rossi. "However I knew it was going to be a hard fight as well and I definitely expected Pedrosa to be as strong as he was. It was a fun battle with him, the first real one of the year! Anyway with every qualifying tyre I tried it felt better and better and I was able to go faster; in the end my time was fantastic and my Yamaha really flew! The most important thing about this is that it shows what great work we've done over the winter, everyone has tried so hard and this is a nice way to say thank you to them all."
"This new bike is working really well with the new tyres, both with race and qualifying tyres, so this is very important too and I would like to say thank you to Michelin," he added. "It was fun to see just how far I can push this new bike and it has answered me brilliantly, I felt very confident in my Yamaha today and I was able to ride it on the limit. Colin was also very fast so this once again shows how well our bike is working. Of course this isn't even the first race and now we have to wait until Qatar, but we're definitely in good shape and I am excited about the season ahead!"
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