MotoGP news

Pole not expected, says Rossi

Valentino Rossi claims he was not expecting pole position at Donington Park on Saturday. The Italian, current championship leader and now in the best place to extend his lead on Sunday, will start alongside Dani Pedrosa and Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.

"I am quite surprised to be on pole today because we had a couple of problems this afternoon!" Rossi smiled after the session. "This morning, unfortunately we didn't try the hard Bridgestone tyre but we weren't worried because everyone else had good grip with it but this afternoon, when we finally tried it, we found the grip to be not as we expected and our pace with it wasn't so good.

"We made some modifications and improved it a bit then we made a few more and used the soft tyre again and then we were very quick. Like that I could ride the bike how I wanted and it felt great, fast and flowing so this was a good job from the team."

Does the Champion believe he can stay ahead of Pedrosa, who continues post-recovery charge of momentum, on Sunday? "We need to do some work to improve our pace with the hard tyre and then we just have to wait and see what the weather does tomorrow," Valentino continued. "Whatever happens, we're starting from the front and this is the most important thing."

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