Rossi on Mugello pole

Valentino Rossi has taken pole position for his home grand prix at Mugello Italy.

Rossi spent most of the session getting race settings and waited right to the last moment to set his fastest lap coming in to change tyres before squeezing in one last lap before the flag taking the top spot in the process.

No fewer than 12 riders finished within a second of the World champion with Sete Gibernau missing out on pole position by just 0.138 seconds. Max Biaggi finishes the front row of the grid 0.235 down on Rossi.

Nicky Hayden John Hopkins and Loris Capirossi make up the second row.

Official MotoGP qualifying times:

1 Valentino ROSSI 1:49.223

2 Sete GIBERNAU 1:49.361

3 Max BIAGGI 1:49.458

4 Nicky HAYDEN 1:49.546

5 John HOPKINS 1:49.556

6 Loris CAPIROSSI 1:49.633

7 Marco MELANDRI 1:49.805

8 Carlos CHECA 1:49.811

9 Shinya NAKANO 1:49.856

10 Makoto TAMADA 1:49.951

11 Kenny ROBERTS 1:50.052

12 Colin EDWARDS 1:50.176

13 Alex BARROS 1:50.281

14 Alex HOFMANN 1:51.056

15 Ruben XAUS 1:51.585

16 David CHECA 1:51.610

17 Troy BAYLISS 1:51.764

18 Shane BYRNE 1:52.117

19 Roberto ROLFO 1:53.010

20 James ELLISON 1:54.177

21 Franco BATTAINI 1:54.820