Riding with a special helmet design to mark his first home race of the season, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Valentino Rossi brought massive cheers to the Autodromo del Mugello circuit today as he took a sensational pole position in the qualifying session ahead of tomorrow's Gran Premio d'Italia. Teammate Jorge Lorenzo also pushed hard during the tense 15-minute qualifying heat and secured fifth place on the grid.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP's Valentino Rossi set a hot pace at the Autodromo del Mugello track today to score a brilliant pole position for tomorrow's Gran Premio d'Italia. Teammate Jorge Lorenzo also put in a solid performance in the tight qualifying session, securing fifth place.

Rossi arrived at the box with a special helmet that symbolizes how the hills around the Mugello track turn yellow when thousands of his fans come to support him during the Italian GP weekend. He took his time to leave the pit lane as qualifying got underway, allowing most of the other riders to depart before he headed out. The local hero put in a 1'48.433s on his first flying lap to slot into tenth place, before moving up to eighth place with a 1'47.593s on his second attempt.

Unable to improve his time on lap three, the Doctor quickly returned to the pits with less than five minutes on the clock for a new rear tyre. Back on the track, he dug deep and squeezed out all that his YZR-M1 has to offer on his fourth hot lap and set an incredible 1'46.504s to take over first place. The last minute of the session saw a flurry of activity but the Italian's amazing time was left unchallenged, resulting in his second pole position of the season, 0.094s ahead of his closest rival.

Teammate Lorenzo was the first rider to make his way out on the circuit for the start of the 15-minute qualifying heat, ensuring him some clear track space. He immediately put the hammer down on his first flying lap of 1'47.116s to take provisional third place, before returning to the pits for fresh rubber with ten minutes remaining.

A minute later he was back on the track for more qualifying action. Having been relegated to fourth, the Mallorcan pushed hard to shave a little off his time. He clocked a second hot lap of 1'47.005s but remained in the same position and decided to make a second pit stop to fit a new front tyre.

With two minutes remaining the current MotoGP championship leader started his third and final stint. He waited until the very end of the session to drop a 1'46.882s on his final lap and claim fifth on the grid, 0.378s from pole.


Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

"What an impressive result by Valentino today! He had been working hard all weekend and really outdid himself this afternoon in qualifying. He showed us some very clever riding to set an incredible lap of 1'46s for his second pole of the season, eight years after his last one here at Mugello! Starting in front is especially crucial here at Mugello, which is a track where overtaking is definitely not easy. Jorge's qualifying position doesn't reflect his race pace, which is competitive. He is still looking to make a small step to improve the bike under braking, after that he will be ready for the race. The forecast for tomorrow is good, so we are looking forward to putting on a good show in front of the Italian spectators who will be cheering us on."

Valentino Rossi - 1st / 1'46.504 / 8 laps

"I'm very, very happy because it has been a long time since I last had pole here in Mugello, in the last years I was always struggling a lot. From Free Practice this afternoon we made a good step with the bike and I had a good pace. Qualifying is always difficult, but we followed the right strategy in the right moment of qualifying and I am very happy to start from first position, first of all for all the fans, but especially here it's so important that I ride in front."

Jorge Lorenzo - 5th / 1'46.882 / 8 laps

"In all the practice sessions, for some reason, we couldn't take advantage of using a new tyre like the other riders and in qualifying I did my best over three laps but there is still something that's not good on the bike that we need to discover for tomorrow, especially on braking. I think that our pace is better than our position today suggests and tomorrow's race will be open with many riders having the possibility to win."