The fans at Mugello were treated to a great battle in qualifying action on Saturday afternoon with Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo upstaging his teammate Valentino Rossi on the World Champion’s home track of Mugello, by taking the pole position at the Italian GP.
Lorenzo worked his way lap by lap to his 1’48.987 qualifying time, beating Casey Stoner by a tight margin of 0.021 seconds.
Just behind Stoner on the grid will be his former teammate Loris Capirossi, who held the pole position until the final minutes of the qualifying session.
Valentino Rossi finds himself on unfamiliar turf, that being the second row of the grid of a circuit where he has won the last seven MotoGP races. This Sunday will be Rossi’s first non-front row start at Mugello in MotoGP. Laying doubt as to whether the Italian superstar can go for eight in a row.
Recovering from his (and typically shirtless) Randy de Puniet was once again the top Honda on the grid, and will be ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards, who was just behind the Frenchman by a 0.048 seconds.
We’ll see tomorrow, if Rossi can grab the ocho, or if Lorenzo et al will be the cause of an Italian upset.
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