Brno: World champion Valentino Rossi edged out his Spanish team mate Jorge Lorenzo on Saturday to take pole position in the Czech MotoGP.
The Italian Yamaha rider completed the 5.4-km course in one minute 56.145 seconds to claim pole for Sunday’s race despite a crash on one of his final qualifying laps.
Lorenzo, 25 points behind Rossi in the championship standings, clocked 1:56.195 seconds while Spain’s Dani Pedrosa rounded out the front row on his Honda, qualifying in 1:56.528 seconds.
Rossi leaned too far into one of his final qualifying turns and crashed, appearing to injure a finger but the Italian, who finished a disappointing fifth in the British MotoGP last time out, said he would be ready for Sunday.
“It won’t be a problem,” Rossi said. “The first important thing for us is that I’m fit.”
Pedrosa, fourth in the title hunt, will seek to make up ground on Australia’s Casey Stoner whose hopes for a repeat of his 2007 championship have been dented due to a virus that will keep him out of the next three races.
“I think for tomorrow we have to improve a little bit more and be more consistent,” Pedrosa said. “I’m happy.”
Rossi won last year’s Czech race on the way to his sixth world championship.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, August 15, 2009, 20:12