Zoom Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi put his Fiat Yamaha M1 onto the front row of the grid for the second time this season in Shanghai today, qualifying second for tomorrow's Chinese Grand Prix.

Rossi looked to have pole position sewn up before fellow Yamaha rider Colin Edwards took his third career pole, Yamaha's fourth from four races this season.

Rossi continued in the same vein as yesterday by setting the pace in this morning's free practice and continuing to do so through most of this afternoon's session. Three-quarters of the way through a strong flying lap put him in provisional pole position and the Italian was confident that a slight improvement with the next qualifying tyre could be enough to take the front slot. He improved again but a last-minute lap from Edwards was 0.355 seconds faster, and Rossi will now have to wait a little longer for his 50th career pole.

“I'm quite happy with this position; third in Estoril, second here…hopefully one better next time!”, he smiled. “I've been fast here since Friday morning and we've worked so hard with the team and with Bridgestone lately to improve the situation with the qualifying tyre, so we definitely deserve to be here. Today I had fun and I was able to fight with my rivals, plus I really enjoyed having the chance to ride at the maximum around this track. When I saw 58.5 on the clock I thought that I had a chance to try for the pole, but then Colin did 58. 1 and this was a bit too much for us! Anyway it's very important to be on the front row, especially because we don't know whether it will rain or not. Thanks to my mechanics for doing a great job, and now we've just got to hope the rain stays away!”

Meanwhile Rossi's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo stunned onlookers by qualifying fourth, despite riding with a broken left ankle and having missed the most of the day yesterday following a crash in first practice. After qualifying on pole for his first three MotoGP races, Lorenzo's fourth is no less impressive and he makes it three Yamahas in the top four.

Tomorrow's 22-lap race gets underway at 1500 local time and a forecast of heavy rain could make for some unexpected twists and turns.

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