Rossi: Great lap to start Petronas era, no deal with Pecco

Valentino Rossi came within 0.026s of a front-row start for his Petronas Yamaha race debut in Sunday's season-opening Qatar MotoGP.

The 42-year-old Italian, who only made one front row appearance during last season, set his best time on the penultimate lap of qualifying, while chasing protegee Francesco Bagnaia.

While new factory Ducati rider Bagnaia blasted to his first pole position, while Rossi broke the timing beam just 0.342s slower to slot into third behind Factory Yamaha replacement Fabio Quartararo.

The Doctor was then bumped off the front row by a last lap charge from former team-mate Maverick Vinales, but remained the top satellite rider and was delighted with the outcome.

"I am very happy. This qualifying is a great way to start the new season with the new team," Rossi said. "With the second set of tyres I felt very comfortable with the bike and I had very good grip.

"The lap was great and I was able to ride well, pushing without making mistakes and at the end the lap time is quite impressive, a '53.1. Unfortunately, it was not enough to stay on the front row, but we are not so far and starting from P4 is important for the race tomorrow."

Rossi and Bagnaia had also been riding together earlier in Qualifying 2, when it had been the #46 in front. Was there a deal between them to try and help each other out?

"No, with Pecco we don’t have a deal but we see in the track, the first time I was in front and after the second time he was in front and continued to push," Rossi said. "I have to say great congratulations for his first pole position, he's riding very well and it's the perfect way to start his season."

But while Rossi was a top three contender on Saturday night, plenty of question marks remain about his potential for the race.

"Today I struggled during FP3 and FP4, a little bit we know is because I have very old tyres. But on the other side I think that we modified the bike and my pace was not good. For qualifying I was good, but my race pace today is not fantastic, so we have to go back to make different settings and we will see tomorrow.

"But I think nobody knows what will happen. We hope for good conditions tomorrow because the grid is fantastic and we deserve good conditions for the first race because all the riders, people in the paddock and especially fans have been waiting for this first MotoGP race of the season."

Adding to the uncertainly heading into Sunday is that Rossi admits he is considering something of a tyre gamble; the Italian ran the medium front and hard rear in final practice, when team-mate Franco Morbidelli was the only other rider not on softs.

"In FP4, I tried medium-hard because yes it's an option for the race, because to make all the race with soft-soft will be very difficult especially with these hot conditions. Also in the night. So we have to see the conditions tomorrow."

FP4 also saw Pramac Ducati's Johann Zarco set a new official MotoGP top speed record of 362.4km/h (225.2mph), the Frenchman having earlier passed Rossi with little effort on the main straight.

"We've reduced the gap in the straight but it remains very big, so for me this is the main reason the Yamaha is difficult in the fight," Rossi explained. "Because if you want to overtake you need to overtake in the corners, so you need to push on the tyres and with the level now in MotoGP it's not easy. But after in the straight, usually you lose one position. So it's very difficult.

"Franco was the best 'interpreter' of the M1 last year because he started in front and was able to escape and win like this. So for the battle it will be hard tomorrow, but I think nobody knows what will happen in the race with everyone together. We have to see…"

Morbidelli will need an excellent start if he is to make an early escape on Sunday, having only qualified in seventh.

"It was a difficult qualifying," Morbidelli said. "In FP4 I had good pace, but then I didn’t have speed to make a good time attack. It looks like we are missing some speed in the night. Tomorrow we will try to at least balance the two different personalities that we have. When the sun is out we are incredibly fast. But when the night comes we are still fast but not enough.

"Our set up is really comfortable and really fast in the day. At the same time it’s not that comfortable in the night, when we all ride faster. I am the one that improves the least. So we have something to do. We’ll try to improve this double personality tomorrow."

"For the race it's going to be important to make the right moves, but because of the tyre degradation I don’t see anyone doing super hot laps in beginning of the race. So I hope the start is not so important, because I start from far behind."