Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha at the Czech MotoGP. Photograph: Eckehard Schulz/AP
World champion Valentino Rossi edged out his Spanish team mate Jorge Lorenzo to take pole position in the Czech Moto GP. The Italian Yamaha rider completed the 5.4km course in 1min 56.145sec to claim pole for Sunday's race despite a crash on one of his final qualifying laps.
Lorenzo, 25 points behind Rossi in the championship standings, clocked 1:56.195 while Spain's Dani Pedrosa rounded out the front row on his Honda, qualifying in 1:56.528.
Rossi leaned too far into one of his final qualifying turns and crashed, appearing to injure a finger but the Italian, who finished a disappointing fifth in the British MotoGP last time out, said he would be ready for Sunday. "It won't be a problem," he said. "The important thing for us is that I'm fit."
Pedrosa, fourth in the title hunt, will seek to make up
ground on Australia's Casey Stoner whose hopes for a repeat of his 2007 championship have been dented due to a virus that will keep him out of the next three races.
"I think for tomorrow we have to improve a little bit more and be more consistent," Pedrosa said. "I'm happy." Rossi won last year's Czech race on the way to his sixth world championship.
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