Movistar Yamaha's Rossi Takes Pole, Lorenzo 4th in MotoGP Season Finale Round Qualifying at Valencia

	Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana Renaissance Man Rossi Back on Pole 14:35 Local time GMT+1 Sunny Air 20°C Track 27°C Humidity 39%
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	Valencia (Spain), 8th November 2014 A super heated last qualifying session of the season at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit this afternoon saw Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi rise to the top to start tomorrow’s Gran Premio de la Comunitat Valenciana from pole position. His teammate Jorge Lorenzo will start directly behind him from fourth place on the grid. Rossi clinched his first pole since Le Mans 2010 by lingering in the pits for a little while at the start of the session, allowing him to fully focus on a lap time once he entered a relatively empty track. Putting down a 1’31.765, the nine-time World Champion briefly set provisional pole. He went on to further improve his time but not his position with a 1’31.614 lap, leaving him in eighth place with eight minutes of the session remaining. Rossi then returned to the pits for fresh rubber and was back out again two minutes later. He became one of the key protagonists in an incredible fight for pole as the times started to drop into the 1’30s. His improvements continued as he initially set provisional pole with a 1'31.198 lap. He later got pushed back to fourth but, with one lap remaining after the flag had come out, he dropped a final time of 1’30.843 to take the 50th pole in his MotoGP career and his 60th pole over all classes. Teammate Lorenzo was also one of the last riders to get on the track this afternoon. Once out he immediately fired off a fast lap and set provisional pole with a 1’31.726, before getting pushed back to eighth as the pace quickened. He went on to improve with a 1’31.421 to rise back up to second and with seven minutes remaining returned to the pits for a fresh rear qualifying tyre. Three minutes later he was back out and continued to improve his time when he put in another hot lap of 1’31.049, to move up four places to second. He looked good for a front row until a flurry of late activity from other riders pushed him to fourth position, on the second row.
	Valentino Rossi 1st / 1'30.843 / 8 laps “Getting my 50th pole position in my MotoGP career is a great achievement. It was a bit of a surprise, I didn’t expect it. I knew that I could do a good lap time because I felt really good with the bike. When I pushed the times were already not so bad, but on the last lap I was able to give a little bit extra. To get another pole position after four years is quite emotional. I like it a lot and I’m very happy, especially because it will be very important for tomorrow’s race.”
	Jorge Lorenzo 4th / 1'31.049 (+0.206) / 7 laps “Fourth place is good, keeping in mind that all the riders’ times are very close. I tried to do some good lap times. I did one fast lap but I made a mistake in the second and I went wide and I lost one or two tenths of a second. Valentino was behind me and he improved his lap time and went in front. This happens sometimes and you can lose some positions because of it. Our rivals are really competitive and they can take slow corners really late and exit corners very easily with a lot of acceleration, but we are not so bad. We have a great pace. The race is going to be long, so it won’t be easy but we have a lot of potential to win the race.”
	Massimo Meregalli “It is incredible to see Valentino on pole, especially at a place where in the past he has struggled to go fast. Jorge’s times also looked good today. He was consistently fast, so it’s a pity that he lost the first row at the end of the session as he deserved to be there. He has a good rhythm and he has won many races here, so I think we can be optimistic for tomorrow. We’re still not satisfied about the settings; compared to yesterday we made a big step in the right direction, but there are still some things that we need to improve. The race will be 30 laps, which is quite long. This is quite difficult to manage, not only physically for the riders, but also technically and tyre-wise. We’ll try to find something tomorrow morning that will hopefully give us some benefits.”
	NOTES
	The extended imagery from today's Qualifying sessions at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit (Valencia, Spain) is available on www.yamahamotogp.com.
	QUALIFYING RESULTS
	FRONT ROW 1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1'30.843 2. Andrea Iannone (ITA) Pramac Racing 1'30.975 3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1'30.999 SECOND ROW 4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1'31.049 5. Marc Marquez (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1'31.144 6. Pol Espargarò (SPA) Monster Yamaha Tech3 1'31.307 THIRD ROW 7. Bradley Smith (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech3 1'31.324 8. Cal Crutchlow (GBR) Ducati Team 1'31.359 9. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Ducati Team 1'31.426 FOURTH ROW 10. Stefan Bradl (GER) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'31.443 11. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) NGM Forward Racing 1'31.486 12. Michele Pirro (ITA) Ducati Team 1'32.617 FIFTH ROW 13. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Go&Fun Honda Gresini 1'32.160 14. Scott Redding (GBR) Go&Fun Honda Gresini 1'32.315 15. Yonny Hernandez (COL) Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 1'32.321 SIXTH ROW 16. Nicky Hayden (USA) Drive M7 Aspar 1'32.395 17. Hector Barbera (SPA) Avintia Racing 1'32.443 18. Hiroshi Aoyama (JPN) Drive M7 Aspar 1'32.449 SEVENTH ROW 19. Alex De Angelis (RSM) NGM Forward Racing 1'32.453 20. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Team Suzuki MotoGP 1'32.509 21. Danilo Petrucci (ITA) Octo IodaRacing Team 1'32.683 EIGHTH ROW 22. Michael Laverty (GBR) Paul Bird Motorsport 1'32.808 23. Karel Abraham (CZE) Cardion AB Motoracing 1'33.019 24. Brok Parkes (AUS) Paul Bird Motorsport 1'33.972 NINTH ROW 25. Mike Di Meglio (FRA) Avintia Racing 1'34.510
	CIRCUIT INFORMATION
	Technical Informations Circuit Ricardo Tormo Valencia Location Valencia, Spain Length (m) 4005 Width (m) 12 Turns 14 Turns righ 5 Turns left 9 Pole position right Record Lap Time 1'31.628 Rider D.Pedrosa Bike Honda Year 2013 Best Lap Time 1'30.237 Rider M.Marquez Bike Honda Year 2013 2013 Results 1st J.Lorenzo (Yamaha): 46'10.302 2nd D.Pedrosa (Honda): +3.934 3rd M.Marquez (Honda): +7.357
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