Rossi takes pole late on at Jerez

Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi has taken his first pole position for over a year during qualifying at the Spanish GP.

Rossi, who’s last pole came at Assen last year, took first position late on by putting in a time of 1.38.736, which was enough to give the Yamaha veteran, who’s qualifying has become something of a weakness recently, the pole position.

Rossi’s closest contender was his teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who looked to have pole position before it was snatched away from him at the death. Lorenzo was only 0.122 seconds off his teammate.

Marc Marquez completed the front row, with the Honda rider 0.155 seconds off Valentino’s pole position time. Marquez seemed to be losing a lot of time during the final sector, something the double world champion will hope to sort before the lights go out tomorrow.

The second row will be occupied by Andrea Dovizioso and the Suzuki pairing of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro. Only 0.008 seconds separated the three riders at the end of the session.

Dani Pedrosa and Pol Espargaro ended up seventh and eighth, with Hector Barbera again putting in a great performance to finish in ninth. The Avintia rider was only 0.022 seconds behind Espargaro’s Tech 3 Yamaha, something that will give the Spaniard a lot of confidence.

Cal Crutchlow was the best of the Brits in tenth, after disappointing afternoons for Bradley Smith and Scott Redding. Both riders failed to make it out of Q1, and will start in fourteenth and seventeenth place for tomorrow’s race.

The race get’s underway tomorrow at 1300 BST at the Jerez Circuit in Andalucia, Spain.