VALENCIA, Spain, 1 November 2003 — World champion Valentino Rossi failed to let speculation over his future distract him as he grabbed provisional pole position for the Valencia Grand Prix at a windy first qualifying session yesterday.
The 24-year-old Italian, who is expected to announce whether he will stay with Honda next season after tomorrow’s race, clocked a time of one minute, 33.643 seconds to edge his American teammate Nicky Hayden by 0.291 seconds. Rossi was impressed by the fast-improving Hayden, who watched his first grand prix here last year and has finished third in two of the last three races.
Spain’s Sete Gibernau was third fastest ahead of Italy’s Max Biaggi, giving Honda a sweep of the provisional front row. Another Spaniard, Carlos Checa, set the fifth quickest time for Yamaha.
After taking it easy for the first 10 minutes or so of the hour-long session, Rossi was soon sweeping at full speed around the Ricardo Tormo circuit, the only track on the MotoGP calendar where the five-time world champion has never topped the podium at any level.
Gibernau set the early pace and kept Rossi off the top spot for most of the first half of the session. But there was no stopping Rossi, who found his line and set a series of quick times, eventually breaking the 1:34 barrier with 10 minutes remaining.
Australian Troy Bayliss, who was running third fastest on his Ducati after 45 minutes, came off his bike at one of the track’s 14 corners and slid into the gravel. He hurt his right shoulder in the accident but will his team said he would ride in qualifying today.
In the 250cc class, San Marino’s championship leader Manuel Poggiali scraped onto the provisional front row in fourth place, while his Italian title rival Roberto Rolfo could only manage seventh quickest. Seven points separates the pair going into tomorrow’s race. France’s Randy de Puniet clocked the best time, while Italian Marco Simoncelli was quickest in the 125cc class, in which Spain’s Daniel Pedrosa has already secured the title.
