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Hondas squeeze Rossi off front row
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Honda seized the high ground by filling all three front row places and pushing out world champion Valentino Rossi in qualifying for Sunday's first Turkish MotoGP. Rossi, on his Yamaha, heads the second row at a new track where the Italian failed to solve his handling problems of Friday. Pole position went to Sete Gibernau after the Spaniard narrowly ousted teammate Marco Melandri with less than five minutes of the session to go. Gibernau lapped the 5.34 km Istanbul Park circuit in 1:52.33, at an average speed of 171.13 km/h. It was his fourth pole of the year, but he has yet to win a race. "Actually, from the first moment we felt pretty okay. It's a difficult race-track - technical, with a bit of everything. But we've been having fun and when you have fun you usually go fast," said Gibernau. "We made some bike changes that were not perfect, so at the end we went back to what we knew and I was able to do a good lap on the qualifying tyres." Melandri, viewed by many as the man most likely to challenge the dominant Rossi, had led the three free practice sessions, and most of qualifying as well. He said: "Of course I am disappointed to miss my first pole, but at the end I got nervous and made a little mistake, taking sixth gear instead of fifth on the fast corner, and went wide." American Nicky Hayden, winner of this year's U.S. G.P., was third fastest, making a clean sweep for Honda. He said: "Things are steadily coming better, but I'm having problems with a few places on the track." Rossi said: "For sure tomorrow will be difficult. We are still struggling with stability and grip." A 12th win this season would break his own record and equal that set by former champion Mick Doohan of Australia in 1997. Rossi's team mate Colin Edwards, fighting with Hayden and Melandri for second overall, was alongside him, but the fourth candidate for the runner-up spot, Max Biaggi. was on the fourth row, only 12th-fastest. The Turkish GP is the 16th of 17 rounds in the 2005 world championship. 
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