Valentino Rossi Gets Pole in San Marino

Valentino Rossi will race at Misano MotoGP from the pole position after overcoming the best efforts of team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Honda's Dani Pedrosa for his sixth pole of the 2009 MotoGP season. The Italian was riding with a smiling picture of the donkey's face from the movie 'Shrek' painted on top of his helmet - a joke at his own expense for crashing at Indianapolis last Sunday. The accident had marked Rossi's first non-finish race since 2007 and means he starts round 13 of 17 with a reduced 25 point lead over Lorenzo.


After battling with Lorenzo for supremacy in the two free practice sessions for the San Marino Grand Prix, the Fiat Yamaha riders exchanged pole continuously from the 10th to 59th minute of qualifying - when Pedrosa suddenly burst ahead of them both.

But Rossi, having made a last-gasp pit stop, returned to take the top spot away from the Repsol Honda rider by 0.222sec, at a track just a few kilometres from his home town of Tavullia. Lorenzo failed to improve on his final lap and was left an unexpectedly large 0.470sec from pole in third.