An incredible flying lap from Valentino Rossi saw the Fiat Yamaha Team rider take his third pole of the season in China this afternoon, the Italian bettering last year’s pole time by more than half a second with a perfect lap around the 5.2km Shanghai International Circuit. For the third time this season Rossi is also joined on the front row by his team-mate Colin Edwards, who qualified third, with the Yamaha pair separated by Edwards’ fellow American John Hopkins.
The promised rain once again failed to appear and the hour-long qualifying session was played out on a dry track with the clouds giving way to bright sunshine by the end. The first 45 minutes passed busily for the Yamaha duo, who were intent on using all the available time to fine-tune their set-up and gather information about tyres before concentrating on their qualifying laps in the final stages. Edwards’ first run with a soft Michelin qualifying tyre moved him close to the top of the order but it was Rossi’s first flying lap that left everyone amazed, the Italian completing a faultless lap right on the limit of his Yamaha’s capabilities to put in an incredible time of 1’58.424. Edwards’ second flying lap was good enough to move him into second but he was eventually pushed down one place by Hopkins. Although Rossi’s lap proved well out of the striking distance of his rivals, he showed it was no fluke by going within 0.1 seconds of his own time on his second qualifying tyre just minutes later.
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