Gibernau flown for surgery after crash

Sete Gibernau has been flown to Barcelona for surgery after fracturing his collarbone in two places in a practice crash at Le Mans this morning.

The Spaniard suffered a violent high-side during the wet part of the morning practice session.

The injury is the third that Gibernau has suffered to his collarbone, and lingering discomfort from the old injuries in the area had already forced him to miss some of pre-season testing.

MotoGP medic Dr Claudio Costa expects Gibernau to miss the next race at Mugello, but to be fit for his next home event at Barcelona.

"Gibernau crashed and suffered a double fracture on the left clavicle," Dr Costa told Italia1 television.

"In fact it's a double re-fracture, since Sete's left clavicle has fractured many times in his life and has been operated on as many times.

"He will now be treated in Spain, and his strength will probably allow him to race in Barcelona."

Gibernau had returned to MotoGP for 2009 with the new Francisco Hernando Ducati team, having been away from the sport for two years. He has struggled to get up to speed so far and has yet to finish in the top ten since rejoining the field.

Capirossi pins hopes on new engine

Loris Capirossi thinks Suzuki's hopes of taking a step forward now depend on how soon it can introduce a new engine.

The team's lack of straightline speed became apparent in winter testing, and a revised engine is on the horizon - although it will not arrive as soon as Capirossi had hoped.

"I've put a lot of pressure to try to have it for Mugello, but I think it will be almost impossible," he told Italia1 television. "We'll probably have it in Barcelona, and we'll try to improve our position.

"I'm confident, and I'm doing my maximum. In the hard times you need to put the effort in and that's what I'm doing."

Capirossi qualified eighth at Le Mans today, and again rued the lack of track time following two partially wet practice sessions.

"We are struggling a bit, we aren't yet able to overcome these difficulties, we need more time," he said.

"Unfortunately the weather conditions never help us. Today's qualifying session was overall good. We worked hard and did a few set-ups, so I must say I'm fairly well sorted.

"I have a problem most of all in T4 where I'm slow and we must understand why. Then we'll see for the race. As pace is concerned we aren't completely bad, but we are seven tenths behind pole, so we'll see what happens tomorrow."

Pedrosa delighted to recover to third

Dani Pedrosa said he was relieved to make it back onto the podium in the French Grand Prix having lost a lot of ground in the wet part of the race.

The Honda rider had taken pole position, but was shuffled back to fifth early on as others fared better on the damp track.

He then made a premature switch to his dry tyre shod bike, and although he managed to avoid the error that saw fellow early pit visitor Valentino Rossi finish last after a crash, he was a fourth by the time the pitstops were completed.

However once up to speed on the dry track, Pedrosa was able to hunt down his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso for third, passing the Italian on the final lap.

"It's a fantastic podium for me because in the wet I wasn't too fast," Pedrosa admitted. "I was going backwards. Then I decided to stop, but this was too early. I stopped the same time as Rossi, and I saw him crash in front of me.

"I couldn't really see where it was dry or wet. So on the first lap with slick tyres I was very slow. I think it was 1m55s or something. I lost a lot of seconds there.

"But after that I started to be fast and to get more confident, and got faster and faster. On the final lap I was on the limit and I got a podium, so I'm happy."

With Rossi failing to score following his crash and Casey Stoner only managing a distant fifth, Pedrosa's third podium of the season has brought him into the thick of the championship battle. Although he is fourth in the standings, he is within eight points of new series leader Jorge Lorenzo.

Toseland frustrated by set-up problems

James Toseland endured a frustrating qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix, ending up a disappointing 14th on the grid for the race at Jerez.

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider said he could not find a suitable balance on his bike and admitted that any time he adjusted his machine to improve the braking stability, acceleration was sacrificed.

"It has been a frustrating day," said Toseland. "We have been working a lot on the bike and when we cure one problem we create another.

"That session was almost more like a test than a qualifying session and it is frustrating because I feel like I can definitely run the pace around the top six."

Toseland is hopeful of improvement in Sunday's race because his Yamaha, like that of works rider Valentino Rossi, has handled better on the harder race rubber than on the softer qualifying Bridgestone tyre.

"My pace wasn't too bad on the hard compound race tyre, so if I can get a good start and get away with the pack in front, I'm sure I can have a good race and be in there fighting," he added.

His team-mate Colin Edwards was equally disappointed, despite putting his bike seventh on the grid.

"I was really happy with the bike this morning because I could run a fast and consistent pace that only the top three could better," he said.

"But then we changed a couple of things for qualifying and just went in the wrong direction, so that probably cost me a place on the second row.

"I even kept tucking the front [tyre], which hasn't happened to me once since we switched to the Bridgestones in the winter. We'll just revert back to the old set-up for the race. I'm quite confident."

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Simon takes home 125cc pole

Julian Simon beat his Aspar Aprilia team-mate Bradley Smith to pole position for the Spanish 125cc Grand Prix at Jerez.

Pre-season title favourite Simon came from behind to outpace Smith by 0.197 seconds, with championship leader Andrea Iannone third on his Ongetta Aprilia having battled for pole with the Aspar duo.

Spanish rider Simon, who has stepped back from 250cc to 125cc this year, had dominated winter testing and took pole for the season opener in Qatar, but it is Iannone who has taken both race wins so far in 2009.

Marc Marquez completes the front row on the leading Red Bull KTM, having achieved his best ever qualifying result on home ground.

Sergio Gadea ensured that all three Aspar bikes were in the top five by beating Dominic Aegerter (Ajo Derbi), Scott Redding (Blusens Aprilia) and Danny Webb (Degraaf Aprilia) to fifth place.

Pos Rider Bike Time Gap 1. Julian Simon Aprilia 1m48.237s 2. Bradley Smith Aprilia 1m48.434s + 0.197 3. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 1m48.519s + 0.282 4. Marc Marquez KTM 1m48.931s + 0.694 5. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 1m48.955s + 0.718 6. Dominique Aegerter Derbi 1m49.237s + 1.000 7. Scott Redding Aprilia 1m49.310s + 1.073 8. Daniel Webb Aprilia 1m49.353s + 1.116 9. Sandro Cortese Derbi 1m49.362s + 1.125 10. Pol Espargaro Derbi 1m49.400s + 1.163 11. Joan Olive Derbi 1m49.806s + 1.569 12. Simone Corsi Aprilia 1m49.954s + 1.717 13. Randy Krummenacher Aprilia 1m49.968s + 1.731 14. Stefan Bradl Aprilia 1m50.167s + 1.930 15. Efren Vazquez Derbi 1m50.196s + 1.959 16. Esteve Rabat Aprilia 1m50.249s + 2.012 17. Cameron Beaubier KTM 1m50.256s + 2.019 18. Nicolas Terol Aprilia 1m50.342s + 2.105 19. Johann Zarco Aprilia 1m50.453s + 2.216 20. Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin 1m50.564s + 2.327 21. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia 1m50.781s + 2.544 22. Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 1m51.098s + 2.861 23. Lukas Sembera Aprilia 1m51.542s + 3.305 24. Jasper Iwema Honda 1m51.605s + 3.368 25. Alberto Moncayo Aprilia 1m51.945s + 3.708 26. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 1m52.050s + 3.813 27. Alexis Masbou Loncin 1m52.850s + 4.613 28. Luca Marconi Aprilia 1m53.002s + 4.765 29. Luis Salom Honda 1m53.186s + 4.949 30. Borja Maestro Aprilia 1m54.170s + 5.933 31. Luca Vitali Aprilia 1m54.642s + 6.405 32. Michael Ranseder Haojue 1m54.765s + 6.528 33. Eduard Lopez Aprilia 1m55.900s + 7.663 34. Matthew Hoyle Haojue 1m56.300s + 8.063 35. Jordi Dalmau Honda 1m57.298s + 9.061 36. Jonas Folger Aprilia 1m57.508s + 9.271

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Q and A with Bradley Smith

It has been a long time coming, but in his 50th grand prix start, Bradley Smith finally became a 125cc winner at Jerez today.

Afterwards he told AUTOSPORT how much it meant to him - and how it has transformed his world championship hopes.

Q: How do you feel?

Bradley Smith: I can't even explain it at the moment. It's just crazy. You watch these races before in years gone by when people win by 15-20 seconds and you wonder how it's possible. So for me to do it today, to keep on seeing those seconds go up on the pit board, words can't describe it because the bike was working so well and I was just keeping my head down lap after lap.

It was a freaky race really. The wind started to get worse and worse towards the end so I was thankful to have such a big gap. Also the fifth gear problem I had with a couple of laps to go played in as well. I guess it was just meant to be my day today. I'll take that one, thank you very much, and go in into the rest of the season now with my confidence pretty high.

Q: What happened with fifth gear?

BS: I just couldn't use it. It just wasn't working.

Q: And you nearly crashed?

BS: I went into corner number four and the bike almost switched off and then back on, and I went pretty sideways. So I was pretty lucky to stay on. It was a lucky race for me.

Q: So did you have to go from fourth to sixth then?

BS: Yes. Fourth... fifth-sixth... just like that. It wasn't easy.

Q: Have you cracked this business now?

BS: It's not a given. Hopefully the 1/50 ratio will soon dwindle down. That's the plan anyway. It's just one of those races where everything went my way. Right from the start I was able to ride my own lines and my own race. This is a huge confidence booster. I always knew I could do it. It was just a question of actually getting over the line first, and always something seemed to be in my way. Now I've done it and I couldn't be happier.

Q: It's an amazing transformation from two weeks ago?

BS: The thing is there were three dry days, and when you have that at a circuit where you've done so many laps in testing, you can be on it from the word go. We went under the lap record today so the pace me and my team-mate were able to set at the beginning was very fast. If it hadn't been for the problem with the bike I think it would have continued right to the end.

I think the extra 20 minutes in the session at Le Mans will help us a lot in terms of set-up time and more time on the bike. It was all good and I had no problems at all until the final seven laps of that race. I just thought 'please, not today.' And we got the job done.

Q: Is the title on?

BS: After Japan I was disappointed. It took something quite special to pick me up. To be 26 points behind after only two races, I know it's a long season, but you have a lot of work to do. This just shows you how quickly everything can turn around. I'm only one point behind now and the chase is certainly on.

Q: And the last few laps?

BS: When you've been in the zone for over 40 minutes, the final two laps don't make a difference. You think about every possible scenario you might have anyway. With the problem with the bike I had to concentrate really hard on everything else, so I didn't really have time to think about anything else.

Q: So it probably did you a favour then?

BS: In some ways, yes. In others, not at all.

Q: Will you have a different attitude now?

BS: No. Because I've been searching for, and fighting for this victory for the last year now, and the will and the desire was always there, it was just a case of doing it. So now it's not a case of chasing the victory, it's a case of chasing the second one.

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FIM confident Donington will be ready

The FIM has assured the MotoGP riders that Donington Park will be fully restored to its former safety levels in time for this year's British MotoGP on 26 July.

Recent track modification work in preparation for the 2010 Formula 1 British Grand Prix has compromised the run-off area at McLeans corner, but in a MotoGP Safety Commission meeting at Losail this weekend, the FIM's Claude Denis said that the Leicestershire track would definitely be ready for this year's MotoGP round.

A new tunnel that is being installed under the track after McLeans has reduced the run-off area to such a degree that during a Historic Sports Car Club meeting last weekend yellow flags were permanently shown through McLeans and Coppice, forbidding overtaking in those areas.

The MSA, which issues track licences for all four wheeled motorsport in the UK, will not issue a licence to Donington until the modifications are made, although the circuit remains confident of a solution and is continuing to advertise tickets for the British Formula 3 and GT meeting on 25-26 April.

Donington has also assured the FIM that the track will be returned to its former format in time for July's MotoGP event.

A bike meeting was held two weeks ago with a licence from the ACU but a Donington spokesman was unsure if the licence still stood: "I don't know any more than that (about a track licence). There was a Moto 6 meeting there at the end of March."

The ACU and the MCRCB, which provide licences for bike meetings and gave a temporary licence to the Moto 6 event a fortnight ago, are expected to follow the position of the MSA and FIM on the issue.

Donington boss Simon Gillett has been difficult to contact in recent weeks due to medical problems.

British Superbike organiser MotorSport Vision is wary that the opening round of the BSB championship is only six weeks away. A senior member of MSV looked at Donington this week and reported that "there is a considerable amount of work to do."

Sources within MSV have told AUTOSPORT of their extreme frustration at a lack of communication from Donington Park over the issue, which has caused MSV to cancel the first of its major car racing weekends, originally scheduled for 18-19 April at Donington.

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Lorenzo unhappy with gap to leaders

Jorge Lorenzo says he is not happy with the pace of his factory Yamaha, despite being satisfied with third place in the opening race of the season in Qatar on Monday.

The Spaniard had qualified third but lost out to Honda's Andrea Dovizioso and Suzuki's Loris Capirossi early on.

Lorenzo soon cleared the two Italians to regain third and then had a quiet run to the final podium spot.

But despite being pleased with a place on the rostrum, Lorenzo was frustrated with the gap between his pace and that of Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi ahead.

"I am happy with the result because third position is a good position to begin with, but I am not happy with the pace," Lorenzo told the BBC.

"Our pace has been slow compared to Valentino and Casey. We have to improve a lot to try and win some races this year."

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Qatar MotoGP race to run on Monday

The Grand Prix of Qatar has been postponed to a Monday night slot after a Sunday night downpour at Losail forced the opening round of the MotoGP season to be called off.

The race, scheduled to start at 11pm local time, was delayed just as the riders were about to start the formation lap, and got cancelled half an hour later, when the rain intensified.

The riders were concerned that, as well as the track being covered in standing water, visibility would be almost non-existent as the light from the floodlights reflected off the water and spray.

A midnight meeting between the teams and the organisers resulted in the decision to postpone the race to a 9pm local time slot on Monday, following a new warm-up at 6:30pm.

The 125cc event had already been truncated after only four laps, with riders being awarded half points, while the 250cc round was also forced to be shortened to 13 laps to allow the MotoGP race to start on time.

The decision to postpone until Monday evening received a mixed response from riders.

Pole-sitter Casey Stoner is concerned that the weather could intervene again, although current forecasts suggest better conditions tomorrow night.

"This is not a good idea," Stoner told Gazzetta dello Sport. "We have no guarantee it won't rain. Today's downpour has also brought sand over the track, so there's also a safety risk."

But Hayate Kawasaki rider Marco Melandri felt that having travelled to Qatar and gone through practice and qualifying it made more sense to race on Monday than to reschedule for later in the season, amid suggestions that Losail should take the September slot left vacant by the Hungarian GP's cancellation.

"For sure I would like to race tomorrow and go on holiday in September," Melandri told the official MotoGP website.

"We are here, we've been testing for days, and we are ready. It's going to be hard to change all the plans but I don't want to go back home - I want to race, because I've had a smell of the race and then had to come back into the garage."

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Iannone wins truncated Qatar race

The opening 125cc race of the 2009 season was red flagged after a downpour hit the Losail track in the Qatar desert, with Andrea Iannone winning the shortened race.

The grand prix, scheduled to run for 18 laps, saw the first spots of rain hitting the floodlit circuit on the third lap, with the red flag shown just two laps later, after the riders had completed only four laps.

But thanks to article 1.23.3 of the sporting regulations, which states that half points can be awarded if it is impossible to restart the race and if more than three laps have been completed, the organisers were able to consider the race finished.

After four laps Aprilia Ongetta rider Iannone was leading Aspar Aprilia's Julian Simon by less than two tenths thanks to a fine start by the Italian from third on the grid, and a bad start by the Spaniard.

Simon dropped to sixth at the first corner after starting from pole, but in the end can consider himself lucky to finish second because he crashed right after taking the red flag.

Ajo Derbi's Sandro Cortese took the third, his maiden podium, despite being already over five seconds behind the leaders, also thanks to a massive high-side by KTM's Marc Marquez while running third on the fourth and last lap. Pol Espargaro's works Derbi followed in fourth.

Simon's team-mate Bradley Smith was also left disappointed by finishing fifth after starting from second on the grid, while Aprilia Ongetta's 15-year-old rider Jonas Folger ended up sixth, his career-best result, after starting 10th.

Nicolas Terol (Jack & Jones Aprilia), Stefan Bradl (Kiefer Aprilia), Danny Webb (Degraaf Aprilia) and Esteve Rabat (Blusens Aprilia) completed the top ten.

Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 8m37.245s 2. Julian Simon Aprilia + 0.180s 3. Sandro Cortese Derbi + 5.211s 4. Pol Espargaro Derbi + 5.769s 5. Bradley Smith Aprilia + 6.650s 6. Jonas Folger Aprilia + 6.701s 7. Nicolas Terol Aprilia + 6.771s 8. Stefan Bradl Aprilia + 7.592s 9. Daniel Webb Aprilia + 8.169s 10. Esteve Rabat Aprilia + 8.678s 11. Dominique Aegerter Derbi + 12.232s 12. Sergio Gadea Aprilia + 12.237s 13. Scott Redding Aprilia + 12.360s 14. Simone Corsi Aprilia + 13.754s 15. Johann Zarco Aprilia + 13.783s 16. Cameron Beaubier KTM + 13.893s 17. Efren Vazquez Derbi + 14.170s 18. Joan Olive Derbi + 14.452s 19. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia + 15.310s 20. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia + 16.415s 21. Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia + 18.602s 22. Randy Krummenacher Aprilia + 19.355s 23. Jasper Iwema Honda + 28.034s 24. Luca Marconi Aprilia + 28.114s 25. Lukas Sembera Aprilia + 28.199s 26. Alexis Masbou Loncin + 28.272s 27. Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin + 28.544s 28. Luca Vitali Aprilia + 53.927s Retirements:Rider Bike Laps Marc Marquez KTM 3 Michael Ranseder Haojue 3 Matthew Hoyle Haojue 0

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Ezpeleta: Monday race the right call

MotoGP boss Carmelo Ezpeleta says it was the right decision to delay the opening MotoGP round of the season until Monday night, following the race's cancellation due to torrential rain on Sunday.

The 125cc race earlier on Sunday evening had to be red-flagged after just four laps because of a heavy downpour, the 250cc race was delayed and then shortened, and another storm hit the Losail circuit just as the MotoGP field was preparing to start the formation lap last night.

Ezpeleta, who is the head of MotoGP organiser Dorna, described the weather as "extraordinary" and says the majority of teams agreed to accept the Qatar sporting authority's invitation to run the race on Monday.

"The QMMF offered us the choice to run the race tomorrow, and as it was a very important decision we wanted to consult with all the team managers," said Ezpeleta.

"The postponement was accepted by a large majority. This has been an extraordinary decision in extraordinary circumstances."

The teams' backing was given to the postponement proposal in a midnight meeting at the Losail circuit. Yamaha Racing manager director Lin Jarvis said the Monday evening timeslot would be an inconvenience, but was better than cancelling the race outright.

"Obviously we're disappointed not to race tonight under normal circumstances, but due to this totally bizarre situation of such incredibly heavy rain in the desert, we can't," he said.

"It's a great pity for all the fans at home and those here. After considerable internal discussion with Masahiko Nakajima, Davide Brivio, Daniele Romagnoli and of course Valentino and Jorge, Yamaha's decision was to fully support the proposal to race tomorrow."

Dani Pedrosa was one of the riders who stood to benefit from a cancellation, as it would have given him a further fortnight before Motegi for his injured wrist and knee to fully heal. But the Honda rider agreed that having already travelled to Qatar it was better to ensure a race took place.

"At first we thought the race was going to be called off completely and I can't say that this would have been bad for me personally because my condition is not 100 per cent," he said.

"But we came to Qatar to race so we'll come back and go for the maximum result tomorrow."

MotoGP had already agreed that it would not attempt to run a night race in wet conditions due to the glare from the floodlights reflecting off the surface water and spray. The downpour did not relent for over two hours anyway, leaving the circuit saturated into the early hours of the morning.

Doha normally receives just eight days of rain per year, but so far three of the six days of MotoGP running at the track this year have been hit by adverse weather.

Rain interrupted the opening day of last month's test, and another shower delayed 250cc qualifying on Saturday night, before the repeated downpours yesterday that affected all three races.

Claude Denis, president of the FIM road racing commission, said there had never been any question of attempting to run the event in the rain.

"For safety reasons it was not possible to race in the night due to the reflection of the lights on the track," he said. "This decision had already been taken a few years ago when we first decided to run a night race in Qatar.

"On behalf of the FIM I am very happy that we could postpone the race until tomorrow. It is important for the championship, especially at the first race, and I would like to thank Dorna, QMMF, IRTA and the MotoGP teams for helping reach this decision together."

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Capirossi apologises to crew after crash

Loris Capirossi apologised to his Suzuki team after crashing out of fifth place early in the Qatar Grand Prix.

The Italian had grabbed second place at the start, but soon fell back and then slid out on lap eight.

He said the bike had lost a lot of performance as the track conditions changed following Sunday night's storms.

"I feel really sorry for the whole team, because all winter we have worked so hard and have gone quite well so this was hard to take," said Capirossi.

"It was really strange today because our practice has been good, but in this evening's warm-up I had a big problem with chatter, this hadn't happened all weekend and then during the race it was the same.

"The front tyre didn't work like normal either, I had done 25 to 30 laps on the same tyre with no problems and the feeling had always been good, but today after just five laps it felt like it was destroyed.

"This race is over now and we have to concentrate on the next one and find out why the things that happened today occurred."

Team boss Paul Denning was determined to get to the bottom of Suzuki's race night slump.

"Without doubt it was the right thing for MotoGP to stay on and race here at Qatar tonight, but unfortunately for Rizla Suzuki our bike worked quite differently than it had done all weekend for both riders," he said.

"We suffered from a serious lack of front grip and some bad vibration which restricted both the guys. Clearly some of our competitors were far less affected by the different conditions and the team - and factory - will be working very hard to understand the difference in performance between tonight and the rest of the weekend."

Chris Vermeulen gave Suzuki some consolation by taking seventh on the team's other bike, despite also falling off the pace.

"The track conditions were a bit different to what it had been all weekend and it was very different to the test which was how I had the bike set-up, and to be honest I really struggled for front-end feeling," he said.

"Towards the end of the race the rear tyre performance dropped off as well so that's something we've really got to work on.

"It was not the result we wanted because we were hoping to be in the top-five. We have got quite a bit of work to do to catch up to the podium so we need to put our thinking caps on and go to Motegi and have a better performance."

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Rossi closes on Stoner in the warm-up

Casey Stoner has continued his perfect score in Qatar by also topping the warm-up, after leading every MotoGP session so far this weekend.

The Ducati Marlboro rider, winner of the last two editions of the race at Losail, did not show the kind of dominance displayed in previous sessions however, with Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi just 62 thousandths of a second behind the time of 1m56.697s set by the Australian.

The rest of the field, however, saw much bigger gaps to the top two, who will start the race from the top two spots on the grid.

Andrea Dovizioso, with his Repsol Honda, managed to set the third fastest time ahead of the Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo with the factory entry and Colin Edwards on the Tech 3-backed satellite bike, but this trio was around seven tenths behind Stoner.

Honda Gresini's Alex de Angelis and Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen were around one second behind, followed by Randy de Puniet's LCR Honda and Marco Melandri's Hayate Kawasaki, with James Toseland's Tech 3 Yamaha completing the top ten.

Nicky Hayden, who is evaluating whether to take part in the race after a big shunt in qualifying yesterday, was 16th fastest with his Ducati Marlboro.

Pos Rider Bike Time Gap 1. Casey Stoner Ducati 1m56.697s 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m56.759s + 0.062s 3. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m57.379s + 0.682s 4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m57.399s + 0.702s 5. Colin Edwards Yamaha 1m57.449s + 0.752s 6. Alex de Angelis Honda 1m57.658s + 0.961s 7. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m57.700s + 1.003s 8. Randy de Puniet Honda 1m57.874s + 1.177s 9. Marco Melandri Kawasaki 1m58.097s + 1.400s 10. James Toseland Yamaha 1m58.344s + 1.647s 11. Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1m58.361s + 1.664s 12. Toni Elaas Honda 1m58.556s + 1.859s 13. Sete Gibernau Ducati 1m58.878s + 2.181s 14. Daniel Pedrosa Honda 1m58.902s + 2.205s 15. Mika Kallio Ducati 1m59.129s + 2.432s 16. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m59.398s + 2.701s 17. Yuki Takahashi Honda 1m59.679s + 2.982s 18. Niccolo Canepa Ducati 1m59.912s + 3.215s

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Rossi expected second position

Valentino Rossi said that he is exactly where he and the Yamaha team expected to be after qualifying second on the grid for the Qatar Grand Prix.

The defending world champion, who is aiming for a record-equalling seventh premier class title this year, was marginally under half a second slower in qualifying than polesitter Casey Stoner.

"Second is exactly what we expected, so we have reached our objective," Rossi told Italia1 TV. "We are very close to Stoner, but a bit slower in some spots, so we have to understand how to fix that, tonight, or tomorrow.

"Starting second is fundamentally important, because the tests we had here were pretty bad, and we have made a big improvement on that this weekend, and even an improvement from this afternoon to tonight, so I'm quite happy with that."

Rossi said that the new-for-2009 reduced qualifying length of 45 minutes was challenging, but probably played into the hands of his Yamaha team.

"In my opinion the new qualifying is not bad," the 71-times race-winner added. "The 45-minute session is tough because you need to do things quickly, but we can manage to go very quick, so it's okay."

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