Rossi: Engine developments key to pole

Valentino Rossi believes sterling work from Yamaha in the engine department was the key to his pole position for the Turkish Grand Prix.

The 28-year-old Italian, who leads the championship by nine points, claimed his second pole in the first three races of the season at the Istanbul Park circuit, leading a one-two for his team with Colin Edwards only two tenths of a second slower.

This despite a track that seemed ideally suited not to the Yamaha's excellent handling characteristics, but to the straightline speed of the Ducati team.

But despite the five-time world champion's machine being clocked only 11th fastest down the track's long back-straight - 10 kph slower than Ducati's Casey Stoner - he believes that the improvements made since the Spanish Grand Prix made the difference.

"My M1 [bike] is very competitive, a lot more fun to ride here than in the past and the new modifications we have for our engine have made an important difference to our overall performance," said Rossi.

"The team has done a great job because we had some problems but they've found some good solutions and now Colin and I are first and second."

His team-mate Edwards is still chasing his first Moto GP win despite qualifying well for all three races this season.

But the 33-year-old American is confident of a strong race to add to the third place he took in Spain, even if he admits the team still have work to do overnight.

"We need to work a little bit on our race pace - two tenths would be good but three would be even better! I think we're losing it in T3 so we need to concentrate on that part of the track.

"We've moved onto a different front [tyre] from the 'old faithful' we've been using so far this year because that one was a little bit too close to the limit here, but it's working really well so we just need to make a final decision on the rear.

"It's a great result for the team to have us both on the front row again so let's hope to make the most of it with a similar result tomorrow!"

EuroSport