ROSSI FACING UPHILL BATTLE TO WIN TITLE AT MOTEGI
17 September 2005 - Gauloises Yamaha Team

Gauloises Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi faces a difficult task at Motegi tomorrow and he aims for his twelfth consecutive podium finish this season.

The Italian starts from his worst grid position since the start of the year after setting the eleventh fastest time in this afternoon’s single qualifying session, whilst his team-mate Colin Edwards is also expecting a tough race as he lines up two places behind the reigning World Champion in thirteenth.

After two practice days beset by unexpected setbacks, Rossi squeezed every possible second out of the hour long afternoon session before launching his qualifying attack. However, as the time ran down he was unable to beat the chequered flag for one final attempt on a qualifying tyre and could only look on as he slipped further down the order with other riders posting their fastest times of the session.

Both Rossi and Edwards knocked over a second off their times from yesterday but it was not enough to challenge for a top placing on an ultra-competitive grid. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) will start from pole position after setting a new record time of 1’46.363 ahead of John Hopkins (Suzuki) and Marco Melandri (Honda).

VALENTINO ROSSI (11th – 1’47.563; 24 laps)

“This morning we made some good progress with the setting of the bike and we were quite fast, but in the afternoon we went in the wrong direction and it was probably our worst session of the season. Michelin has done a very good job to come up with a competitive race tyre but unfortunately we weren’t able to get the best out of it today. In the end we had a bit of bad luck, running out of time when we tried to change the rear tyre a couple of minutes from the end. Anyway, tomorrow we will go back to the setting we had this morning and use the extra data we gathered in the afternoon to try and make some more improvements, although I think all the riders can only dream about the pace Capirossi had today. The last time I was so far back on the grid was at Qatar last year but I made a lot of positions up over the first four laps so I will try to do that again, only this time finish the race!”

COLIN EDWARDS (13th – 1’47.678; 24 laps)

“We actually went forward with the setting of the bike today and between turns four and nine we are good. The problems are the sections before and after that, with the long straights and heavy braking. We’re going from 300km/h down to almost zero, basically, and I don’t have enough feeling on the rear. If you are a couple of inches off the line into those corners then you lose some vital tenths. Usually the bike is more forgiving than this but for some reason we’re struggling with it here and this is the worst circuit for it to happen. We’ll see what we can work out in the morning but whatever happens it isn’t going to be an easy race starting from so far back.”

DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR

“Today just goes to show that this sport is not easy. It is always full of surprises, with top quality opposition, and you can never relax. Both our riders are in a difficult situation but it will be very interesting to see how the team reacts. We have had tough Saturdays already this season but we have good engineers and they don’t stop working right up until the start of the race. It looks like it will be a difficult but interesting day tomorrow!”

FRONT ROW:

Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’46.363
John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP 1’46.861
Marco Melandri (ITA) Movistar Honda MotoGP 1’46.877

SECOND ROW:

Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda 1’47.043
Max Biaggi (ITA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’47.089
Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’47.166

THIRD ROW:

Sete Gibernau (SPA) Movistar Honda MotoGP 1’47.168
Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP 1’47.257
Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’47.323

11. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Gauloises Yamaha Team 1’47.563

13. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Gauloises Yamaha Team, 1’47.678

www.yamaha-racing.com

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