Photography By Gold & Goose
VALENCIA, SPAIN, NOV. 8 – Four and a half years later and Valentino Rossi sits on pole position for the 50th time of his MotoGP career. Self admittedly more of a racer than a qualifier, Rossi’s 82 race wins in the premier class overshadow pole positions. That combined with struggling a bit with setup, Rossi was surprised and quite pleased with the effort.
“I expect to be quite in front with the 30.8 [his pole setting time of 1:30.843], but I don’t expect the pole position,” Rossi said. “It’s a great achievement because it is four year and a half [since his previous pole at Le Mans in 2010]. Usually in my career I prefer the race. I won a lot more races than the number of pole position. But it is great because Valencia is usually difficult for me and especially is important for the race tomorrow.”
So the Movistar Yamaha rider couldn’t be happier. Less happy however was his teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who Rossi latched on for a tow which he admitted helped his pole setting time.
“I was lucky because Jorge passed, so he was one second or I don’t know in front of me,” Rossi said. “So it was also a small help to have him in front, yeah.”
Since the pair are battling for the number two position in the championship – a.k.a. the best rider not named Marc Marquez – and tomorrow’s race a deciding factor, was latching onto Lorenzo another one of Rossi’s clever games?
“Seriously I was lucky to be in the right place, you know? And I am happy if he is a little bit nervous for this,” Rossi said with a laugh. “But you know it happened, has happened a million and one hundred times to me. So sometimes it’s good also to be in a good a place. Especially with this practice with 15 minutes it’s very strategic also. But I think that Jorge’s in great shape and have a little bit better pace than me tomorrow. So to try to fight with him, to stay with him I need to do another stuff.”
Rossi was also very pleased to see Nico Antonelli, one of his VR46 Academy riders, earn his first ever pole. It’s a unique situation balancing racing, coaching and team owner duties, but Rossi says it’s more of a help to him than a burden.
“For me it’s great it help also me, because work with the younger riders keeps me more young,” Rossi said. “It’s very, very fun. We share a lot of time at home together to train together. And seriously we test something on them (he laughed) before I try.”
