Gibernau takes home pole for MotoGP finale

Sete Gibernau will start the final round of the MotoGP World Championship from
pole position after setting a new record time at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in
Valencia today. Gibernau was comfortably the quickest rider at the scene of his
debut victory four years ago, his fastest lap of 1'31.874 proving too fast for
his closest challengers Marco Melandri and Nicky Hayden, who again complete the
top three in an exact replica of the front row at the last round in Turkey.

There was a major difference to the order behind them, however, with Valentino
Rossi qualifying in fifteenth place - his lowest grid position of the season.
Rossi was forced to use his second bike after crashing eleven minutes from the
end of the session, effectively conceding the prize of a new M5 car to Gibernau
in the BMW Award - MotoGP Best Qualifier 2005.

"Everyone has said that this has been a bad year, but I want to see it
differently," commented Gibernau, who lies sixth in the championship and has yet
to win a race this season. "We have actually been faster than ever, maybe even
the fastest in the championship, but we just haven't had the results. I'm very
happy because I feel we have been fast and consistent. We'll come back tomorrow
to fight for the podium and hope to win the race."

Carlos Checa looks set for a strong performance in his swansong with Ducati
after clinching the fourth spot on the grid, ahead of Italian veteran Max
Biaggi. Colin Edwards out-qualified Yamaha team-mate Rossi for the first time
this season after the Italian's untimely crash. The American lines up in sixth
place for the second successive race as aims to end his first season with the
factory by scoring his first MotoGP win.

Dani Pedrosa looks set to leave the 250cc class in style after setting a new
pole record for his home race. Provisional pole setter Casey Stoner crashed in
the early stages of the session and was unable to improve his time from
yesterday, leaving Pedrosa to clinch top spot ahead of local favourite Hector
Barbera with a time of 1'35.298. Second place for Barbera represents his best
ever grid position in the class and he is joined on the front row by Alex de
Angelis and Jorge Lorenzo, with Stoner dropping back to the second row in
seventh.

Thomas Luthi will start from the front row of the 125cc grid as he aims to
clinch the World Championship ahead of Mika Kallio. Luthi needs to score three
points in tomorrow's race to secure the title should Kallio win - and the rivals
will start the race side by side after Kallio qualified third fastest, with
Luthi fourth. Local hero Sergio Gadea clinched his maiden pole position, beating
Mattia Pasini by just three thousandths of a second on his last flying lap.

INFO 2005/174. 5-11-2005
DORNA COMMUNICATIONS