Italy’s reigning world champion Valentino Rossi clinched pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix after rain forced the cancellation of the qualifying session on Saturday.
The Yamaha ace, who finished second behind 2007 world champion Casey Stoner in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix two weeks ago, clocked the fastest time in free practice on Friday, 0.056 seconds ahead of his Australian rival.
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“I think maybe it will be one of the most uncertain races ever,” said 30-year-old Rossi. “We can fight whether it’s dry or wet,” he added, with conditions “the same for everybody.”
“It is an unbelievable situation,” Rossi said of the weather, recalling that rain also forced the race in Qatar to be postponed by a day before Ducati rider Stoner sealed his third straight victory there. Yahoo! Eurosports
The riders have had just one opportunity to enjoy a dry run so far this weekend, in Friday’s morning session, when Rossi clocked his fastest time of one minute 48.545 seconds.
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The weather is expected to improve by Sunday’s race but Rossi, who secured his sixth premier class world title at Motegi last year, was critical of holding the race in April.
“It is not a great idea to come to Motegi in April because the weather is always quite bad,” he said.
“We are lucky because we had a good session in the dry on Friday and so we are on pole, which is important for the race but it is still impossible to be at 100% after such a short time and with so little data.” The Press Association
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