With Valentino Rossi in pole position there is a good chance of another Fiat Yamaha victory at Mugello this weekend, while his young team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is seventh on the grid.
The Bridgestone-equipped side of the Fiat Yamaha garage had cause for celebration at the Gran Premio d´Italia Alice with Valentino Rossi´s first pole of 2008 and his first on Japanese rubber, at his home GP.
His MotoGP rookie team-mate is still confident, however, after qualifying seventh - his worst grid position thus far in his remarkable premier class adventure.
Valentino Rossi – pole position
`This is a great, great qualifying because it´s been a long wait to be on pole position again, almost one year exactly! Now for sure we will try to win tomorrow. To be honest I was quite worried after practice this morning because we had a few problems with the set-up and I couldn´t find my rhythm, but I want to say thank you to all my team because they made a great job during lunch, we did some important modifications and then this afternoon I had the feeling and the speed that I wanted. We´re now fast on race tyres but we still need to make our final decision about which tyre to use and we will do this when we see the conditions tomorrow. It´s great to make my first pole with Bridgestone and I think `48.1´ is a very fast time and it shows how good their qualifying tyres are now.´
Jorge Lorenzo - 7th
`Of course I´m not happy with seventh because I always want to be at the front, it´s my worst position so far with Yamaha in MotoGP and I´m especially disappointed because I really like this track and I love the Italian fans, but now we just have to look forward to a good race! I still lack some power in my ankles but honestly I can´t blame my injuries this time, today it was a case of lacking time to find the right dry set-up and of me not riding as well as I might have done. We need to work on the front especially because at the moment we are wheelying too much and we don´t have enough stability in the bumpy areas, but I have confidence in my team and in Yamaha and I know we will be able to improve for tomorrow. Anyway, we know our bike is working well here because Valentino is on pole! Tomorrow morning we will decide on the race tyre, together with Michelin, and then I will try to get a good start and pass as many people as possible. Source: