Rossi on course for home town showdown at Misano

Valentino Rossi put his Fiat Yamaha M1 on the front row for the eighth time this season today, qualifying second behind Casey Stoner for his home Grand Prix at Misano. The 29-year-old, who lives just 15km away in Tavullia, will be flanked by his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo tomorrow, back on the front row of the grid for the first time since race three in Portugal.

Despite admitting that the searing heat was more suited to a day at the local beach Rossi was able to steadily improve his race pace throughout the afternoon's session, although he is still looking for a few more tenths before tomorrow's 28-lap race.

In the later stages he clocked better times with each of his four Bridgestone qualifying tyres and his final lap was good enough to leap-frog his team mate for second, although he was unable to catch Stoner. Tomorrow will be the sixth time that Rossi and Stoner have shared the front row this season, with the Italian having come out on top in three out of the previous five occasions.

This weather is amazing, but I think maybe it's better if you're at the beach than at the track; we're in the wrong place! I definitely prefer this to rain though so after the recent races, when we have never been sure about the weather, this is great. I'm happy about our work because we did a good job with the qualifying tyres this afternoon and we were able to improve with each one, which is important. In the end we couldn't match Casey's time but anyway second on the grid is good for the race.

Our race set-up is still not perfect and there are some corners where we need to be faster still, so we have to work to try to improve that tonight. We have a lot of data now from the two days and so we will use this to try to come up with something to try in warm-up tomorrow. I think we can definitely still improve our race setting a little bit more."

"As always the front row is our target so we're happy that we've reached that, it will be very important for tomorrow's battle! We still need to look for some tenths around the lap so we need to do some more work and then use the practice tomorrow morning as best we can; hopefully we can find something which can help us to fight with Casey once again. It's really good to see the other Yamaha's back in the hunt again and it looks like it could be a great race tomorrow."

Jorge Lorenzo made an impressive return to the front row of the grid today, his first top-three qualification since his treble of pole positions in the opening three races of the season. The Mallorcan qualified third on a sweltering day in Misano and his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi made it a good day for the whole garage by qualifying second, just 0.076 seconds ahead of him.

After his run of bad luck Lorenzo has been in much better shape since first practice yesterday, with improvements to his Michelin tyres giving him back his old confidence and flair. His first run with a qualifying tyre put him straight to the top of the standings and he was able to improve twice more, before being edged out by Stoner and Rossi in the closing seconds of the session. He and his crew now hope to make some final improvements to the setting of his M1 before bidding for a podium return tomorrow when the 28-lap race gets underway at 1400 CET.

"Straight from yesterday morning it's clear that this track is a different situation for us. We're struggling much less and my Michelin tyres are much more competitive again here, so thanks to them. I can ride in a good, flowing rhythm once more and my tyres are giving me the confidence that I need in order to go fast. It feels really good to be back on the front row again and I am very happy today.

It is clear that to stay with Stoner and Valentino is going to be very hard, but the important thing is that we have been able to compete with them today and we're in a good position to try again tomorrow. I'm still not thinking about results but I will just do my best, try to take a good rhythm and try to put on a good race for all the fans!"

"It's great to finally be back on the front row after some time and, more importantly, to watch Jorge riding so competitively again. Thanks to Michelin for their work because the tyres performed very well today and enabled Jorge to have good confidence and feeling with the bike, which in turn has enabled the team to find a good set-up.

We have improved session by session throughout the weekend and now we are confident that we can continue to be competitive in the race tomorrow. We hope to see Jorge fighting at the front again and getting the result he deserves."

James Toseland and Colin Edwards have targeted top six finishes in tomorrow's Misano GP, which the Tech 3 Yamaha duo will start from ninth and tenth on the grid respectively.

British rider James Toseland clocked a best lap of 1.34.652 in a baking hot qualifying session to secure his ninth top ten grid position of the season. Toseland though believes he could have secured a place on the second row of the grid had he not lost crucial time on his last qualifying tyre with a small mistake at the final corner.

The 27-year-old though has been able to run consistent times on improved Michelin tyres throughout the weekend, which bodes well for a top six challenge in tomorrow's 28-lap race.

American Edwards was just 0.143s behind Toseland to finish tenth. Edwards believes he can still further improve his race set-up on his Yamaha YZR-M1 to help maintain his top six placing in the 2008 world championship standings.

"I'm a bit frustrated because I think I should have been on the second row and maybe as high as fourth. We made a step with the bike set-up but on my last qualifier I got the penultimate corner pretty good, so I whacked on the throttle and the rear came round on me. It stopped before I was on a trip to the moon, but the bike had gone into a bit of a headshake and I just missed my braking point for the last corner and ran slightly wide. I lost at least a couple of tenths and that cost me the second row. But so far it has been a good weekend and the tyres have been much better from Michelin.

And I've had time to work on the setting with the weather staying consistent, which has been a massive help. So often this season when I've really needed dry time to help me get upto speed, the weather has gone against me. But this weekend it's helped me work from a base setting and we have been able to improve the bike. It is going to be a long and hard race and we've got to wait and see what tyre endurance is going to be like with the conditions being so hot.

Nobody has done more than 15 or 16 laps so it will be tough, but I've got a good race set-up to give me a good chance. From the problems that we have had in the last few races, Michelin has responded well, but I'm not sure what the grip will be like after 15 laps. I definitely think we can be fighting for the top six, which is what we have not been able to do for a couple of months now."

"I've never gone well at this track but when I was second yesterday morning I thought there was a slight glimmer of hope. I thought it might have been a good weekend because I felt good and confident but since then I've hit a brick wall. All I can do is a 35.4 regardless of what tyre I'm using or what changes we make to the bike. My first three qualifiers were barely better than a 35.4 and my last one I managed to put in a decent time, but nothing special. I'm a bit confused to be honest because it doesn't matter what we do, the lap time is around the same.

Could I have gone much faster than I did? I don't think so. Nothing I tried made the feeling significantly better from yesterday morning and honestly I'm searching for answers myself. It is not through a lack of effort and my guys at Tech 3 as always have been working harder than ever, but the lap time just isn't improving. Tomorrow is going to be a long race but I'll be looking to get in the fight for the top six.

I've got to try and get a good start and go, but I know the rear tyre I've got to run takes a couple of laps to get up to temperature on the left side. So I've got to be aggressive while at the same time a bit cautious about that. But the first couple of laps are the most important, so after that I'll have to put my head down and see what I can do."

1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'33.378

2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'33.888

3 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1'33.964

4 Randy De Puniet Honda FRA 1'34.236

5 Toni Elias Ducati ESP 1'34.322

6 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'34.398

7 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'34.461

8 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 1'34.494

9 James Toseland Yamaha GBR 1'34.652

10 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'34.795

11 Loris Capirossi Suzuki ITA 1'34.926

12 Sylvain Guintoli Ducati FRA 1'34.961

13 Alex De Angelis Honda SMR 1'35.153

14 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 1'35.381

15 Marco Melandri Ducati ITA 1'35.418

- Yamaha Racing-