Rossi predicts season-long Pedrosa battle

Rossi emerged the victor with a new track record for the Spanish venue, setting a lap of 1:38.394 in the closing moments of the session. The previous Jerez record, set by Loris Capirossi in last year's qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, was 1:39.064.

But Rossi had to work hard for that top spot, exchanging the honours with Pedrosa throughout the session, with the Spaniard ending just 0.133 seconds behind the Italian.

Rossi's teammate Colin Edwards was almost a second slower in third place, while Pedrosa's teammate, reigning world champion Nicky Hayden, was fourth fastest and over a second slower than the leaders.

"It was a nice fight," Rossi said after the session. "The battle with Pedrosa was great - he was very good and made us sweat. It will be a good fight for the entire season with him.

"This is a track where both of us go really fast, and in fact we are close up there. The others today are far, but I'm sure they'll be close soon.

"But it was a good fight today and it will carry on like this. Let's just say today was a good appetizer."

Pedrosa himself was happy with the result, despite missing out on the top spot. "I'm delighted," he said after the session. "I didn't expect to go this fast. I'm very impressed."

Rival Marco Melandri, who dominated the first two days of testing but ended the qualifying practice 14th, paid tribute to Rossi and Pedrosa, saying the duo have shattered the expected benchmarks.

"We didn't think these [new] 800cc [bikes] would go this fast in qualifying," he said. "We were hoping that lap times will be in the low 1:39s but instead Valentino and Dani were really scary."

Rossi himself believes the Yamaha is simply a better bike this year than it was last season, when he lost his world championship title after five consecutive seasons.

"Finally the bike is just one piece, unlike last year, when we went back at times to older stuff, so the bike was from a mix of years at times," he said.

"This is a whole, solid project, and there are no particular problems. For sure it'll be hard because the other bikes are quick too, but we are there with Colin [Edwards] third too, so we are competitive.

"My bike deserved the pole position today, because it was really nice to ride. We saw already this morning that there was a good potential when we tested the qualifying tyre.

"A [lap of] 1:39.3 seemed already like a very good lap, instead we managed to go one second quicker at the end, a great lap time.

"So in the end we did well. I thank the entire team, who are working well, and Yamaha because the bike is quick."