Rossi hoped for bigger advantage

The Italian, who ended the session a tenth clear of Colin Edwards and Dani Pedrosa, admitted that he did not get the maximum out of his Yamaha.

"I was the quickest already some time before the others because we've worked well and we went with the qualifying tyres two or three minutes before everyone else," he told Italia1.

"I knew I could do a little better and indeed I did a 52.8 the second time around, but I was hoping to have a bit more of an advantage.

"By contrast, Colin and Pedrosa are right there, so it will be tough tomorrow.

"I tried to get into the 52s and in the end I managed to. I think I did something better in the penultimate lap and something else better in the last lap."

He joked that it was always pleasing to set a pole time even if he was only beating his own previous lap: "It would have been nice to put it all together, but beating Rossi is always very satisfying."

Having struggled in Turkey in previous seasons, Rossi was pleased with the progress that Yamaha had made for this year's race.

"The bike goes very well," he said.

"I need to thank the guys at Yamaha who brought for me some new things in the engine here. This year the M1 is really nice to ride.

"Tomorrow we should be quite sorted, but I still need to choose the rear tyre, because there are two different possibilities. Let's hope we'll choose the right one."