MotoGP: Valentino Rossi Scores Pole in Jerez

Photo courtesy MotoGP

Valentino Rossi pulled an amazing lap out of the hat on his final go around in MotoGP Q2 to win the pole for Sunday’s Red Bull Grand Prix of Spain at Jerez. Rossi put it all together on his factory MoviStar Yamaha and clocked a 1:38.736 to steal away the pole from his teammate Jorge Lorenzo. Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez will start third, rounding out a mega-talented front row.

It was a nail-biting qualifying session with most eyes focused on the battle between Lorenzo and Marquez for the pole. Most pundits felt Rossi had a strong shot at a front-row start, but few figured he would find a way to put it on pole. But in the end he found an amazing lap, that vaulted him to P1.

It marked the first pole for Rossi since Assen last June and the first time in seven years that Rossi has scored three consecutive front-row starts. The ever-popular Italian now has 52-career MotoGP/500cc poles, second only to Mick Doohan’s 58.

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso heads up a strong second row with the Suzukis of Maverick Viñales and Aleix Espargaro starting alongside.

It’s an all-Spanish third row with Dani Pedrosa, Pol Espargaro and Hector Barbera.

Rossi credits the team’s off-season work in enabling him to contest for pole starts.

“We worked a lot because last year we were struggling too much during the qualifying,” Rossi said. “This year with the Michelin I feel better and I’ve start two times already on the front row. But pole position is different, especially in Jerez. I know that I can be competitive, but in the last races we had some problem – I did the mistake in Austin. So we don’t take what we expect, so we have to start now and for sure tomorrow will be very hard with Jorge and Marquez, but we are there.”

The race in Jerez starts at 8:00 AM Eastern and can be watched on beIN Sports.

MotoGP Qualifying for the Grand Prix of Spain in Jerez – April 23, 2016