<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Rossi destroys pole record and rival confidence at Jerez
Report, 30/04/04

Valentino Rossi today delivered a crushing blow to his MotoGP rivals as he dominated proceedings throughout the first day of the Gran Premio Marlboro de España at Jerez. Rossi, who already leads the championship after victory on his Yamaha debut at Welkom two weeks ago, was quickest in the cloudy morning free practice and stepped up the pace in the warm afternoon sunshine to smash the pole position record at the Spanish circuit by over a second. Rossi’s sensational time of 1’40.818 was 1.165 seconds inside Loris Capirossi’s previous record and was enough to hold off a late challenge from home favourite Sete Gibernau by a comfortable 0.380 seconds.

Rossi set his own pace from the very start of the session, gradually strengthening his advantage as rivals closed in and setting his insurmountable benchmark with less than two minutes remaining. Gibernau’s effort was the closest from a number of attempts in the dying stages of the practice, with Carlos Checa and Max Biaggi also posting quick times without ever seriously threatening Rossi’s dominance. Checa, who was 0.229 seconds slower than Gibernau, joined his fellow Spaniard on the provisional three-man front row to delight the gathering local crowd.

Camel Honda team-mate Max Biaggi and Makoto Tamada qualified fourth and fifth to head up the second row whilst Shinya Nakano, who like Tamada uses Bridgestone tyres, made it a good day for the Japanese tyre manufacturer by clinching sixth spot on the Kawasaki. American riders Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards line up next to each other on the provisional grid in seventh and eight place respectively and are joined on the third row by Honda colleague Alex Barros.

The hot pace at the front of the pack meant bad news for WCM riders Michel Fabrizio and Chris Burns, who failed to lap within the 107% limit of pole time, although Kurtis Roberts qualified comfortably after returning to action from a shoulder injury which forced him out of the first round of the season.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Rossi has been playing some serious mind games. He has come out this season and set some good times early but always came out saying "the bike can't sustain those speeds over the course of a race". I think it's clear what bullshit that was after his performance at Welkom and has set out to crush everyones confidence here by going 1.165 seconds inside Loris Capirossi’s previous pole time and 0.380 seconds over Gibernau it looks like this season is going to be very good indeed

 

the kid is amazing, he was born to ride, its as simple as that.
its preatty insane when someone can say, that a GP bike can't keep up with them, hahaha, damn man, i wish i could say a gsx-750 coulnd't keep up with me, and a GP is only about double the horsepower and half the weight...hah, that kid is amazing (yeh echo)

 

I've learned a lot just by watching Faster. Just saw it last weekend. Much respect and awe for all those guys.

 

 

It crazy to see how much more he can do with his bike than the rest of the grid, I like Honda myself but it doesn't seem to matter much to Rossi what he is on.....

 

Rossi is simply amazing.

However, I found it interesting that Biaggi set the fastest lap at Welkom - on the LAST lap...