Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi is preparing himself for some first-lap handbags in tomorrow MotoGP season opener at Qatar after the top ten qualifiers all finished close to half a second off poleman Marc Marquez.
The Doctor believes that as the one-lap pace is so similar, it could be an interesting opening salvo especially as he starts from the middle of the fourth row despite being being only 0.589s off the pace.
“I’m not very satisfied because I am just in tenth but I am only half a second from pole position and my lap time is not so bad. I have improved a lot. We worked well on the bike and in the end 1’55.0 is not so bad, it’s seven tenths faster than last year for me so we made a good step,” said Rossi.
“The problem is that the balance between everybody is very close; we are 12 riders within half a second. Tomorrow we have to be ready for anything as anything could happen. The pace is very similar between everyone except Marquez who was impressive and did a good job. Also the other guys, Pedrosa and Lorenzo are not very far, so we have to be ready for anything and maybe some strong first laps I think.”
