Rossi takes 50th pole in Valencia MotoGP

VALENCIA: There is a certain fear and scepticism attached to the number 13. Only two men in the history of MotoGP have won 12 races in a season -Mick Doohan in 1997 and current world champion Marc Marquez this year.
But it's the elusive number 13 that the prodigious 21-year-old rider is craving for. In the final race weekend of the season at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo here, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) rider Marquez set the pace all the way up to the qualifying session.The twist in the tale was `The Doctor' Valentino Rossi, who went on to grab pole on a windy but sunny Spanish afternoon.
It was the Yamaha rider's first pole position since Le Mans in 2010 and the 50th in his MotoGP career. "It was a great surprise for me to grab this pole because at the start of the qualifying I didn't quite have the pace. I made abig improvement in my last lap," the six-time world champion, who clocked 1min 30.843 to grab pole, said.
Lining up alongside him on the front row was Ducati's Andrea Iannone, who clocked 1min 30.975 while Honda Racing's Dani Pedrosa will line-up in third, 0.156 seconds slower than Rossi. It was anti-climax for Marquez as he crashed on a hot lap which left him fifth on the grid -his worst position since Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona last year.
Marquez, though, has made it a habit to come from behind in his last few races after poor starts from the front row, finishing second in Japanese GP and winning the last race in Sepang. "Marc has struggled to get away cleanly but he manages to recover quite quickly. He has shown enough pace as well as poise to bounce back," HRC team principal Livio Suppo said.
Rossi will be delighted by starting position as he is battling his teammate Jorge Lorenzo for the second place in the Riders Championship with `The Doctor' just 12 points ahead.