Rossi smashes pole record at Jerez
Cant wait for the 2005 season to start. YEEHAW!
First race is tomorrow. opening round in Jerez. As usual Valentino Rossi will start the season from the pole position.
I cant think of anything else. I will report tomorrow after the race. later
From Motogp.com
Valentino Rossi will start the defence of his MotoGP World Championship title from pole position when the 2005 season gets underway at Jerez on Sunday after a stunning new lap record in today’s qualifying session. Rossi clocked a time of 1’39.419 to overcome the challenge of local hero Sete Gibernau and knock almost one and a half seconds off his previous record, set last season.
"My fast lap was incredible!” smiled Rossi at the end of the single qualifying practice, which this year replaces the previous format of two sessions over the two days previous to the race for the MotoGP class only. “Michelin made a great job with the qualifying tyres – my first one was good but the second was even better. There is a big question mark over the tyre choice for the race tomorrow because after a few laps they start to slide a lot, but it’s the same situation for everyone. Now we’re just looking for good weather tomorrow and hopefully it will be a beautiful race.”
Rossi is not the only person in Jerez keeping their fingers crossed for good weather, with crowd figures expected to top the 125,000 who turned out here in torrential rain last season. Huge local support was on hand today to back Gibernau’s challenge for pole, which fell some 0.496 seconds short of Rossi’s stunning lap time.
Gibernau will attack Rossi from second place on tomorrow’s grid and he will be joined on the front row by Marco Melandri, who will start his first MotoGP race for Honda from third spot. Melandri’s late effort knocked factory colleague and fellow youngster Nicky Hayden back to the second row, where he is joined by Kawasaki rider Shinya Nakano and Ducati’s Loris Capirossi, who rode with a chipped bone in his ankle after crashing in this morning’s free practice.
Makoto Tamada made a late charge to seventh place ahead of Honda colleagues Alex Barros and Troy Bayliss, denying Alex Hofmann a third row start as the German dropped to tenth place on the Kawasaki. John Hopkins battled through a bout of the flu and the effects of a crash this morning to qualify eleventh on the Suzuki whilst Ducati rival Carlos Checa, who is struggling with a shoulder injury, was twelfth.
The surprise of the session came from Spanish rookie Toni Elías, who will make his MotoGP debut on the Yamaha tomorrow ahead of vastly more experienced rivals such as Kenny Roberts, Colin Edwards and Max Biaggi.
posted by copter2005 at 4:28 PM
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April 17 2005
Round 2
Estroil, Portugal
Barros completes perfect weekend with Estoril win
Alex Barros went from pole position to victory to cap a perfect weekend for the Brazilian, having dominated every session of the betandwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal. In unpredictable cloudy and cool conditions at the Estoril circuit, Barros chased early leader Sete Gibernau over the opening stages before the Spaniard crashed out on the seventeenth lap.
As light drizzle began to fall, the teams prepared the riders’ second machines in case they needed to come in and change to wet tyres. However, despite a precarious final three laps and a huge rear slide on the last of them, Barros held his nerve to clinch his first win in over two years.
“I’m really happy because I had been quickest in every session this weekend but this was the only one that really counted,” smiled Barros, who last tasted podium champagne at Valencia at the end of the 2002 season. “Sete got away well and I didn’t get a good start, but once I was up to second place I just tried to put pressure on him. In the end he crashed and it was a hard race mentally from that point on to keep my focus and stay on the bike.”
Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi did their best to cut down the gap to Barros in the closing stages but wisely decided not to take any risks as they sealed podium finishes. Second place for Rossi extended his advantage at the top of the overall standings to seven points, with Barros now moving up to second in the championship, whilst third place for Biaggi represented a welcome first podium of the season for the factory HRC team.
Marco Melandri continued his excellent start to the season, following up third place in the opening round at Jerez with fourth place today after an entertaining battle throughout the race with Colin Edwards. With the American crashing five laps from the end, Carlos Checa took advantage to clinch fifth place on the Ducati after starting from the front row whilst Edwards returned to the track to bring his Yamaha home in sixth.
Nicky Hayden recovered from a bad start to take seventh after crashes for both John Hopkins and Troy Bayliss in that position, with Shinya Nakano and Loris Capirossi also making the top ten. Bayliss recovered to take twelfth behind Ruben Xaus, with Kenny Roberts, Roberto Rolfo, Toni Elias and James Ellison completing the points.
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