Race Results
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi now trails MotoGP World Championship series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda) by just twelve points with two rounds remaining thanks to his fourth consecutive podium, his eighth from the last ten races, in Japan today.

Rossi took second place in a race dominated and won by Loris Capirossi (Ducati), with Marco Melandri (Honda) completing the podium in a carbon copy of the front row order. The 20-point reward for Rossi moved him another nine closer to Hayden, who finished fifth behind Sete Gibernau (Ducati).

Valentino Rossi (2nd; +5.088):  "I'm really happy with this second position today.  It wasn't a great battle like in Sepang, but my rhythm was really good and my bike worked very well.  We had a few problems in warm-up this morning and, like always, my mechanics, the Yamaha engineers and Michelin did a great job to make some last-minute changes to our race set-up."

"At the start my M1 was a little bit hard to ride but slowly I found my rhythm and then bit by bit I started to come closer to Marco.  Once I passed him I started pushing to try to reach Loris and made the fastest lap, but once he realized I was coming closer he opened the throttle again and he was just too fast for me to catch.:

"My bike worked brilliantly since Friday morning and I want to thank everyone for all their hard work, it seems that when everything is working for us then it's hard for the others!  20 points is a great result for me at this track, which isn't one of my favorites, and now we're only 12 points behind in the championship.  We have two races left and if we can continue in this way then it's possible!"

Qualifying
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi delighted his legion of local fans with a sensational final lap in qualifying practice for the Grand Prix of Japan this afternoon.

Rossi continued his excellent progress with another day of hard work on the race setting of his YZR-M1 before heading out to challenge Loris Capirossi (Ducati) for pole.

Unfortunately Rossi's first attempt on qualifying tires was baulked when a rider crashed in front him, forcing the Italian to make a last-minute pit-stop.  It made for a tense finale as Rossi returned to the track and beat the checkered flag by just ten seconds, giving him one last chance to challenge Capirossi's dominance.

The World Champion responded in typical style with a lap of 1'45.991 - inside last year's pole record but not quite enough to topple pole man Capirossi, meaning he will start tomorrow's race from second place.

Colin Edwards worked in tandem with Rossi throughout the day to improve the solid base setting the pair had found in yesterday's opening free practice sessions.  The Texan was again one of the leading riders on race rubber, lapping consistently in the low 1'48 mark and even dipping under the lap record of 1'47.968.

However, the Texan struggled to improve on that pace significantly after fitting a qualifying tire and he slid down the time sheets in the closing stages, ending the session in tenth place and setting himself a tough challenge tomorrow from the fourth row of the grid.

Valentino Rossi (2nd - 1'45.991; 26 laps) "For sure I am very happy to be on the front row again for the fourth race in a row. My M1 has worked well from the start here so we've been able to work on the setting with various different things and then mix everything together to find the very best race set-up. Now it seems we're in good shape."

"The bike worked very well also with the qualifying tire and I had very good grip. Unfortunately I lost one qualifying tire when Hopkins crashed in front of me, but luckily my team did a great job with the pit-stop - it was even faster than a Formula 1 team! Fortunately I made a good lap with the final tire and now we're starting from second. I am happy; tomorrow will be a difficult race but I am quite confident."

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