Rossi claims home pole at Mugello

MotoGP championship leader Valentino Rossi took his first pole position of the year in front of his home crowd at Mugello today, ahead of Italian Grand Prix

The Fiat Yamaha rider, who tomorrow will try to win for the seventh consecutive time on the Tuscan track, set a time of 1:48.130 with eight minutes of the one-hour session remaining.

Catching the draft of the Yamaha on that same lap was Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, who took full advantage by following Rossi and set the second fastest time, less than two tenths away.

Capirossi's time, however, was beaten in the closing moments by Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa, who pipped the veteran Italian by 16 thousands of a second. This is still Capirossi's best qualifying result since joining Suzuki, however.

Like Pedrosa, reigning champion Casey Stoner put in his fastest time of the session right at the end. The Ducati Marlboro rider's time, a quarter of a second slower than Rossi, was good enough for fourth on the grid.

Fifth fastest was Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards, who had held the fastest time for some 20 minutes before Rossi beat it with 15 minutes of the session remaining.

Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden was sixth fastest, ahead the Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and James Toseland.

The two Honda Gresinis took the last top ten grid places, respectively with Shinya Nakano and Alex de Angelis.

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha    (B)  1:48.130
 2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda     (M)  1:48.297  + 0.167
 3.  Loris Capirossi   Suzuki    (B)  1:48.313  + 0.183
 4.  Casey Stoner      Ducati    (B)  1:48.375  + 0.245
 5.  Colin Edwards     Yamaha    (M)  1:48.383  + 0.253
 6.  Nicky Hayden      Honda     (M)  1:48.666  + 0.536
 7.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha    (M)  1:48.905  + 0.775
 8.  James Toseland    Yamaha    (M)  1:49.025  + 0.895
 9.  Shinya Nakano     Honda     (B)  1:49.095  + 0.965
10.  Alex de Angelis   Honda     (B)  1:49.145  + 1.015
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Suzuki    (B)  1:49.220  + 1.090
12.  Randy de Puniet   Honda     (M)  1:49.246  + 1.116
13.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     (M)  1:49.435  + 1.435
14.  John Hopkins      Kawasaki  (B)  1:49.601  + 1.471
15.  Tadayuki Okada    Honda     (M)  1:49.829  + 1.699
16.  Toni Elias        Ducati    (B)  1:49.851  + 1.721
17.  Sylvain Guintoli  Ducati    (B)  1:50.275  + 2.145
18.  Marco Melandri    Ducati    (B)  1:50.465  + 2.335
19.  Anthony West      Kawasaki  (B)  1:50.889  + 2.759