Valentino Rossi hails ‘brave’ Dani Pedrosa

MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi hailed Dani Pedrosa’s performance in today’s rain-hit Sepang qualifying session as the Honda rider denied the Italian pole position.

The Italian though a lap of 2.01.957 in the closing minutes had secured him only his third pole position of 2008.

But in the closing seconds, Pedrosa produced a brilliant lap of 2.01.548 to claim his second pole of the campaign.

The session had started on a wet track after typical torrential rain had hit the Malaysian venue, while the surface dried quickly as the session wore on.

Fiat Yamaha rider Rossi said: “Dani made a great, great lap because the track was not at 100 per cent. There were still some wet spots in some very fast parts, so he was very brave.”

Rossi conceded that he thought his best lap was enough and he added: “When I saw on my dashboard 01.9, I thought and I hoped for the pole position and I was very happy, because this year I’ve not had a lot of pole positions. But Dani was faster, thought it is important to start from the first row.”

The mixed conditions did at least make the final 10 minutes of the session an action-packed affair, with several riders bouncing up and down the timesheets, some from outside of the top 15 and into the top three at stages.

Rossi said: “Today was very funny. It wasn’t just about setting or qualifying tyres, it was more strategy. It’s also lucky to go out on the track with the right tyres for the conditions. I think we ride in one hour from full wet to full dry with the qualifiers, so it’s like changing four or five times the style, lines, and speed in the corners, so it was very funny.”