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2 months ago 05th Sep 16:50
Valentino Rossi grabs late pole at Misano
Current Championship leader Valentino Rossi grabbed a late pole for Sunday's San Marino MotoGP at Misano.
Rossi put in a lap time of one minute 34.338 seconds, fractionally ahead of Dani Pedrosa on the Honda and teamate Jorge Lorenzo on the Yamaha.
The pole had swapped places throughout qualifying with Pedrosa and Lorenzo both occupying it at some stage, but that was before a fired up Rossi pounced on the final qualifying lap to secure his fifth pole of the season.
Struggling to break the grip of Lorenzo and Pedrosa Rossi took a gamble and changed tyres, the move was to prove right as he then produced a stunning lap to claim the 57th pole of his career.
Spain's Toni Elias qualified in fourth place, half a second behind Rossi, with Yamaha's Colin Edwards fifth.
"The track was more slippery than this morning but the team did a fantastic job changing my tyre in a time worthy of a Formula One mechanic," Rossi told the press.
Pedrosa is hoping to leapfrog the still sick Casey Stoner in the Championship standings this weekend.
San Marino MotoGP qualifying result:
1 Valentino Rossi (Italy) Yamaha 1 min 34.338 secs
2 Dani Pedrosa (Spain) Honda 1:34.560
3 Jorge Lorenzo (Spain) Yamaha 1:34.808
4 Toni Elias (Spain) Honda 1:34.907
5 Colin Edwards (U.S.) Yamaha 1:35.184
6 Nicky Hayden (U.S.) Ducati 1:35.223
7 Alex de Angelis (San Marino) Honda 1:35.343
8 Andrea Dovizioso (Italy) Honda 1:35.492
9 Randy de Puniet (France) Honda 1:35.554
10 Loris Capirossi (Italy) Suzuki 1:35.561
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