Photography by Gold & Goose
It was MoviStar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi coming through to earn his first MotoGP pole of the season. Rossi waited until the very last second of the session to cross the line at Valencia and watch his name flash to the top of the timing charts with a time of 1:30.843. Joining Rossi on the front row with be the Ducati of Andrea Iannone and Dani Pedrosa on the factory Honda.
It marked the first pole for Rossi in four years and the 50th MotoGP pole of his career.
Andrea Iannone kicked off the the first half of the final qualifying session of the season with the top time of 1:31.258 on the factory Ducati, with Jorge Lorenzo, Pol Espargaro and Stefan Bradl closely trailing. Pol Espargaro and Bradl actually set an identical time down to the 1000th of a second. Early on just 4-10ths of a second separated the top nine.
With two minutes to go Marc Marquez crashed for the second time on the day, this time a low-side, losing the front end in a tight right hander. He got up and slapped his hands in frustration knowing his chances of earning a record 14th pole of the season were dashed.
Rossi went to P1 with his best time just as the countdown clock hit the double zero, but Dani Pedrosa was still on his hot lap. For several tense seconds the Yamaha and Honda crews watched the monitors and their faces told the story as Pedrosa crossed the line, the Yamaha garage filled with smiles and handshakes as Pedrosa was unable to better Rossi’s time.
“I’m so happy because it’s a great surprise, also for me,” Rossi said. “In the qualifying I was not so bad. I improved a lot from this morning and I think I could do a good starting position. On the last lap I ride well and was able to improve to a 30.8. When I saw that I was on first place on the television it was a great surprise. I am so happy because it’s from Le Mans 2010 (since his last pole) and also because it’s very important for the race of tomorrow.”
Rossi’s teammate Jorge Lorenzo will head up row two. The two factory Yamaha riders are battling over second place in the championship. Marquez, in spite of his crash, will start in the middle of row two and next to him will be Monster Energy Tech 3’s Pol Espargaro in his final ride with the team.
American Nicky Hayden will start the final round of the season 16th on the grid aboard his Drive M7 Aspar Honda.
The final MotoGP of 2014 at Valencia will take the green flag at 8:00 am Eastern and be shown live on Fox Sports 1.
Qualifying for the MotoGP at Valencia, Spain – Nov. 8. 2014
1 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 323.4 1’30.843
2 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 329.8 1’30.975
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 330.2 1’30.999
4 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 324.1 1’31.049
5 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 328.6 1’31.144
6 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 328.4 1’31.307
7 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 324.9 1’31.324
8 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Ducati Team Ducati 332.4 1’31.359
9 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 329.3 1’31.426
10 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 328.4 1’31.443
11 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 318.7 1’31.486
12 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 326.6 1’32.617
13 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 325.3 1’32.160
14 45 Scott REDDING GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 310.6 1’32.315
15 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 320.4 1’32.321
16 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda 312.5 1’32.395
17 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 323.3 1’32.443
18 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda 323.8 1’32.449
19 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 325.4 1’32.453
20 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Team Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 309.8 1’32.509
21 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo IodaRacing Team ART 307.9 1’32.683
22 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 313.3 1’32.808
23 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 312.6 1’33.019
24 23 Broc PARKES AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 310.0 1’33.972
25 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Avintia 306.9 1’34.510
