MotoGP 2016: Rossi grabs pole on home turf for Italian Grand Prix

Yamaha's Valentino Rossi clinches pole position ahead of Suzuki's Maverick Vinales and Ducati's Andrea Iannone for the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.

Valentino Rossi will be starting from pole position on Sunday's Italian GP tomorrow. A late charge, along with a bit of help from his future teammate Maverick Vinales, helped Rossi set the fastest time in the qualifying session. Starting alongside the Italian on the first row will be Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales and Ducati’s Andrea Iannone.

This is the first time that Rossi has grabbed pole position on his home turf since 2008. But that did not come easy. Iannone had been dominating all the practice sessions astride his Ducati Desmosedici GP16 before the final qualifying. Given the pace he was running in the preceding sessions, it was kind of a given that he will emerge on top in the Q2 or final qualifying session as well. After setting early pace with a lap time of 1’46.607, Iannone was all set to take the pole position. Rossi, however, crashed his compatriot’s party by turning up out of nowhere while he also brought along his future teammate Vinales.

For almost entire qualifying session, Rossi and Vinales kept on following each other in turns. In the penultimate lap, Rossi followed Vinales, who was also clocking some fast lap times at that time, and took advantage of his slip-stream to make it to the top of the time-sheet. After towing Rossi along, Vinales put yet another flying lap – besting Rossi’s time in all the four sectors – but in the end fell short by only 0.094 seconds in comparison to Rossi’s best set time. However, that was enough to put his Suzuki in the second spot ahead of Iannone.

Despite having to contend with a non-performing Honda, Marc Marquez finished 4^th fastest, ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Aleix Espargaro in 5^th and 6^th positions, respectively. Teammate Dani Pedrosa will be starting 7^th on the grid. He will be joined by Bradley Smith (8^th) of Tech 3 Yamaha and Danillo Petrucci of Pramac Ducati (9^th) on the third row tomorrow. Scott Redding completes the top 10 for race day.

Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso could not make it to Q2 and, hence, could only manage to get the 13^th spot on the grid for the race tomorrow.

2016 MotoGP Italian Grand Prix Qualifying (21/05/2016)
Autodromo del Mugello Italy – 5.245km, 15 turns

1. Valentino ROSSI(Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA) Q2 1’46.504
2. Maverick VIÑALES(Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI) Q2 1’46.598
3. Andrea IANNONE(Ducati Team DUCATI) Q2 1’46.607
4. Marc MARQUEZ(Repsol Honda Team HONDA) Q2 1’46.759
5. Jorge LORENZO(Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA) Q2 1’46.882
6. Aleix ESPARGARO(Team SUZUKI ECSTAR SUZUKI) Q2 1’47.186
7. Dani PEDROSA(Repsol Honda Team HONDA) Q2 1’47.218
8. Bradley SMITH(Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA) Q2 1’47.247
9. Danillo PETRUCCI (OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI) Q2 1’47.261
10. Scott REDDING(OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI) Q2 1’47.359
11. Michele PIRRO(OCTO Pramac Yakhnich DUCATI) Q2 1’47.361
12. Yonny HERNANDEZ(Aspar Team MotoGP DUCATI) Q2 1’47.436
13. Andrea DOVIZIOSO(Ducati Team DUCATI) Q1 1’47.089
14. Pol ESPARGARO(Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA) Q1 1’47.159
15. Hector BARBERA(Avintia Racing DUCATI) Q1 1’47.555
16. Cal CRUTCHLOW(LCR Honda HONDA) Q1 1’47.659
17. Jack MILLER(Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS HONDA) Q1 1’47.830
18. Eugene LAVERTY(Aspar Team MotoGP DUCATI) Q1 1’48.111
19. Alvaro BAUTISTA (Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA) Q1 1’48.372
20. Stefan BRADL(Aprilia Racing Team Gresini APRILIA) Q1 1’48.646
21. Loris BAZ(Avintia Racing DUCATI) Q1 1’48.991