Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi made the crowds go wild as he grabbed pole position at the Autodromo del Mugello, setting a new circuit best lap.
Rossi waited for most of his rivals to leave pit lane before he made his way onto the track
His initial lap moved him into fourth place. He then improved his time but not his position on his second attempt, but was pushed back to fifth as his rivals upped their speed.
With seven and a half minutes of the session remaining, the Italian headed back to the pit box and was out one and a half minutes later. With 0.399s to the benchmark pole position, he knew what he had to do. Cheered on by the passionate Italian fans, the local hero completely went for it and pushed out four red sectors to clock a 1’46.208s. The lap was unbeatable for the rest of the MotoGP rider field, giving the fans’ favourite his 65th career pole position, with a 0.035s margin. It’s his first pole since the Japanese Grand Prix in 2016.
“To comeback on the front row with pole position is something special and in Mugello even more ” – @ValeYellow46 ??#ItalianGP ? pic.twitter.com/1RygDZnDLf
— MotoGP™??? (@MotoGP) June 2, 2018
“It gave a great emotion, especially facing the crowd the lap after the pole was fantastic. It’s great because it’s also a surprise. This year in qualifying I always suffered, but today the lap was great and I thought it would be enough for the front row, but in the end, it was pole position. It’s been a long time since I was on pole, so it’s important and it’s a great feeling. I think tomorrow will be more difficult, but for sure I’m enjoying this moment”, Rossi commented.
It is a double front row for Yamaha as Maverick Viñales was third, behind Jorge Lorenzo
“After yesterday, I was hoping for a better day, but it’s not about how the day starts it’s about how it ends. I think we did a good job in the box. We followed the wrong direction this morning and got a bit lost. It was difficult to keep my concentration and remain positive, but I kept on fighting and I will continue to keep pushing, as always, and we’ll see. I think we can improve the bike for tomorrow in some areas. At the moment we’re on a good level to make one fast lap, let’s see if we can do the same throughout the race”, Viñales said.
Here’s the grid for tomorrow’s #MotoGP race at Mugello ??@ValeYellow46 will start from POLE!#ItalianGP ⏱ pic.twitter.com/aEHV3h6hN8
— MotoGP™??? (@MotoGP) June 2, 2018
