ROSSI ON MOTEGI FRONT ROW AS MARCO DIGS IN
18 September 2004 - Yamaha Racing

Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Carlos Checa will line up on the first and fourth rows respectively in tomorrow''s Japanese Grand Prix, after an arduous second and final qualifying session at Motegi today.

Despite a valiant effort Rossi was unable to improve on his Friday best time. Checa also fought hard in an attempt to get into the front running start positions but finally finished eleventh fastest overall. For Marco Melandri (Fortuna Gauloises Tech3, 1''47.845) it ended with a sixth place and a start from row two, while his team-mate Norick Abe (1''48.154) was in 15th place and a fifth row start.

Rossi, the championship points leader, experienced some problems with his Yamaha M1 in the latter stages of the session, and was thus robbed of a final chance to challenge eventual pole position winner Makoto Tamada (Honda, 1''46.673) and second place rider John Hopkins (Suzuki, 1''47.230). Front-end troubles held back the smooth progress of Rossi in the last 20 minutes, a disappointment after an otherwise fruitful period of pre-race preparations.

Checa worked hard to improve his Friday best lap time by over 0.6 seconds, regaining confidence as he qualified top Spanish rider, ahead of Rossi''s number one championship rival Sete Gibernau (Honda, 1''48.107), who finished 13th.

The 4.801km circuit in central Japan was the scene of some nervous moments in the first few minutes of as the rain flags came out almost as soon as the session began. The light smattering of raindrops quickly abated and qualifying continued apace.

Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha) third - 1''47.275
''For sure we were lucky because we did a great lap time yesterday, so we knew we could be on the front row, even if we did not improve on our time today. Sete is further back which takes the pressure off slightly. This morning the setting was OK and the rhythm was good but this afternoon we had problems with the front of the bike - a bit like the brake was sticking. I couldn''t try with the qualifying tyre and we were not able to improve. It just felt wrong so I had to come back in.''

Carlos Checa (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha) 11th - 1''47.982 ''Yesterday was not my best day, as we tried to improve but went backwards. But today we had the feeling back, although in some areas I was not able to be fast, and get the right timing. We made some improvements but it won''t be easy for tomorrow. We will use the warm-up tomorrow to play with the bike and we can make an acceptable race. I want to stick with the group and see how well we can do.''

Davide Brivio, Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha team director
''For Valentino something went wrong on the front of the bike, some small problem with the brake. We have to check what happened but it is good that we were able to keep him on the front row. It would have been good to have improved our start position even more but it was more important to be in the first three. First or third makes little difference. I''m sure we will find and fix the problem. Until that point all was going OK. Carlos was able to get his feeling back on the bike and it was important for his confidence to go faster than yesterday. From this point of view his improvement was good. I think especially Biaggi will be a strong contender tomorrow and as for Tamada it will depend on the tyre. But we will be in the fight for the podium.''

Marco Melandri (Fortuna Gauloises Tech3) sixth - 1''47.845 ''Today was difficult. We changed the settings a bit from this morning and I didn''t like it, and then the rain made me nervous and I didn''t really use the first qualifying tyre well. Then I took a few moments to relax before going out on the second tyre and went a lot better. I need a good start here because it''s hard to overtake.''

Norick Abe (Fortuna Gauloises Tech3) 15th - 1'' 48.154
''I haven''t made that much of an improvement from yesterday to today. This morning we used the same set-up as yesterday but I still found it difficult. At some points of the track this afternoon''s settings were better for traction, at others not. And the previous settings were better under braking. A small time difference means a big difference in grid position and it''s a bit disappointing to be starting from the fifth row at my home Grand Prix.''

Hervé Poncharal, Fortuna Gauloises Tech3 team director
''We''re very happy today. That was a difficult session with the rain spots and Marco decided with 15 minutes to go to use a qualifying tyre when he saw more rain. He improved by a tiny bit and then came in and went more towards his settings from this morning and then set his time on a qualifier again. Norick was tenth before his last run with a qualifier and unfortunately he waited a bit too long and time ran out before he could put a flying lap in. A great shame because he looked as if he could make the third or fourth row.''

Round: 12 - Motegi Grand Prix
Circuit: Twin_Ring
Circuit Length: 4801
Lap Record: 1'' 48.885 (Valentino Rossi, 2003)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1'' 47.696 (Max Biaggi, 2003)
Date: 18 September 2004
Temp: 28ºC

Session 2 :
Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying 2nd Qualifying
1 M. Tamada Honda JPN 1'' 47.650 1'' 46.673
2 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA 1'' 47.230 1'' 47.927
3 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'' 47.275 1'' 48.326
4 M. Biaggi Honda ITA 1'' 47.814 1'' 47.401
5 C. Edwards Honda USA 1'' 48.221 1'' 47.821
6 M. Melandri Yamaha ITA 1'' 48.425 1'' 47.845
7 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA 1'' 47.886 1'' 48.223
8 K. Roberts Suzuki USA 1'' 47.929 1'' 48.380
9 N. Hayden Honda USA 1'' 48.071 1'' 47.940
10 A. Barros Honda BRA 1'' 47.963 1'' 48.424
11 C. Checa Yamaha ESP 1'' 48.658 1'' 47.982
12 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN 1'' 49.203 1'' 48.042
13 S. Gibernau Honda ESP 1'' 48.195 1'' 48.107
14 T. Ukawa Honda JPN 1'' 48.874 1'' 48.154
15 N. Abe Yamaha JPN 1'' 48.731 1'' 48.155

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