Rossi has four career MotoGP wins at the Brno and will be looking for number 5 with a pole-position start on Sunday.
Valentino Rossi survived a late session crash to score pole position for tomorrow’s Czech Grand Prix. Rossi escaped without serious injury, complaining later of only minor pain in his right thumb from the low-side. The qualifying session at Brno was a duel between The Doctor and his Fiat
Yamaha teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, with the Mallorcan starting on the Brno grid from second. The front-running M1s will contest the start alongside Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who now figures to be rider most capable of breaking up the Yamaha dominance with Ducati’s Casey Stoner out of commission.
Leading Row 2 is the unpredictable Toni Elias, who will shoot for solid finish to impress potential employers – the Spaniard having been shoved out of the Gresini
Honda garage for 2010 (Gresini going full-bore Marco, singing Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli). Joining Elias on the second row are the consistent Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda).
Gresini’s second rider, for now, Alex de Angelis, headlines Row 3. The San Marino rider is followed on the grid by Ducati’s Nicky Hayden and Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi – Hayden for once enjoying the honor of being the top-qualifying
Ducati in a frustrating season.
As for the second factory Ducati rider, Mika Kallio, the Finn went down in qualifying in a low-side similar to Rossi’s but starts at Brno in 10th position.
Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen and Pramac Ducati’s Niccolo Canepa round out the fourth row starters.
Dani Pedrosa is slated to return for 2010 as a factory Honda rider. On Sunday the Spaniard will try to shore up the sizable points gap on the Yamahas.
LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet also survived a brief off-track excursion (though no crash) to qualify 13th, a disappointing result for the Frenchman after showing some mid-season promise. The poorest qualifying Yamaha rider, Tech 3’s James Toseland was 14th on the day, with Marco Melandri piloting the Hayate
Kawasaki to 15th on the grid amidst news of his 2010 reuniting with Gresini Honda.
Michel Fabrizio and Gabor Talmasci will bring up the rear, pacing more than 2.5 seconds behind Rossi.
MotoGP Brno Qualifying Results:
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'56.145
2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'56.195
3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'56.528
4. Toni Elias (SPA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'56.817
5. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'56.954
6. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda 1'57.108
7. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'57.775
8. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'57.803
9. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'57.811
10. Mika Kallio (FIN) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'57.994
11. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'58.087
12. Niccolo Canepa (ITA) Pramac Racing 1'58.208
13. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'58.298
14. James Toseland (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'58.331
15. Marco Melandri (ITA) Hayate Racing Team 1'58.477
16. Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Pramac Racing 1'58.680
17. Gabor Talmacsi (HUN) Scot Racing
MotoGP Brno Rider Quotes:
Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha - 1st:
Rossi and Lorenzo figure to duel once again on Sunday, provided The Doctor's not hindered by any lingering injuries from his qualifying get-off.
“Pole position is great, but the most important thing is that I’m okay after the crash. I have a bit of pain in my right thumb but that’s all, so I think I’ve been quite lucky. I’ll get it checked out at the Clinica Mobile later but I don’t think it’s anything bad. This weekend only one of the front tires is working well for us, which means we only have four for the weekend, so we’re putting quite a lot of stress on just a few tires. I arrived to brake very deep and just lost the front, it was unlucky. Anyway, we did a great job in the session and being on pole again is important. We have a good race pace and I think it’s possible to be competitive tomorrow.”
Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha - 2nd:
“This morning we tried the softer Bridgestone tire but I didn’t feel so good on it. This afternoon we gave it another chance but again it didn’t seem to work so well, so we decided to just concentrate on the harder tire. I had a very strong pace and like yesterday I felt very comfortable on the bike, but I couldn’t quite get the pole position today. Being on the front row is always important though and we’ve reached this target; we know that we’re very fast. Everyone is excited and motivated as usual and we’re confident that we have the race set-up to allow us to challenge tomorrow.”
Nicky Hayden was the fastest Ducati on the timesheet. Not a common occurrence in 2009.
“I was hoping to go faster than that but qualifying has been a weak point for us this year and I always seem to struggle to make a significant improvement when everybody else is pushing for times right at the end. Considering that I’m pleased that I was able to keep improving right to the end and hang on to what is a decent position for us compared to a lot of our qualifying results so far this season. The team have done a good job here. We’ve made some big changes to the geometry here and we’re improving. It isn’t quite showing in the lap time yet but we keep getting faster and if we can take another step forward tomorrow we can have a good race. The top three are going so quick this weekend it’s unbelievable but nonetheless we’ve done a good job so far and we’re looking to make more improvements in the warm-up and in the race.”
Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki - 9th:
"Today has been a bit strange for us because this morning we tried to sort out a good engine delivery and setting, and we found a good combination. We started this afternoon with the same bike but we had an electronic problem on the first couple of times I went out. We tried to fix it and on the third run it seemed ok, but when I put in a softer tire to try to get a better lap-time the bike just didn't work right and I had a lot of vibration. I went into the pits to try and get a better time on the second bike, but it was too late and I missed out on a higher position. Our target was for a minimum second row start and we had the potential for that, but we lost something in the afternoon. We need to find out what happened because it is not easy to understand. The new engine is certainly better and I thank Suzuki for that. Our target for tomorrow is really high, if we can find out what caused the problems today!"
Mika Kallio crashed in qualifying as the factory Ducati fill-in for Casey Stoner.
Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen will look to improve on his 11th-place start on Sunday.
"Up until the crash things were going really well and without it I think we could have qualified at least in seventh place, which we were only two tenths off. I take the blame for the crash but I didn’t really do anything different and the front washed away. We’ve been experimenting with different suspension angles on the two bikes and like yesterday they both have their strengths and weaknesses that we need to look at tonight and make some decisions about. We improved the situation with the rear grip on the left side but it seems we are still struggling to get heat into the tire so this also needs more work in the warm-up. Anyway, my grid position is not what we hoped for but it’s not bad and I equaled my best lap today on a rear tire with twenty laps on it, so the signs are promising for the race tomorrow. I’m excited and really looking forward to the race."
Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki - 11th:
"Today was a lot better - especially in qualifying. We have struggled with rear grip here this weekend and the engineers made some big changes this afternoon. One of the directions we took was very good and it got some weight on to the rear and gave me a lot more grip. It was the most comfortable I've been on the bike for the last three or four races, so that was a really good job by everyone to sort that out. Today we have gone the fastest we have ever done on race tires at Brno, so that is also a good sign. The race will still be tough from the third row, but we're going to try something else in warm-up
