Rossi: I just lost the front and went down.

MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi will start from his lowest grid position since being sent to the back of the field by a pre-race penalty at Qatar last year, after a tough qualifying session for Sunday's season-ending Valencia Grand Prix ended with the Italian suffering his biggest fall of the season - then being left just 15th on the grid.

Rossi slid from his retro liveried Yamaha YZR-M1 just over eleven-minutes from the end of the hour and, despite returning to the track on his second machine, lost two further positions in the final push for times.

"When I crashed I was pushing hard with the qualifying tyre and honestly I felt confident that I could do a good time," explained Rossi, whose tumble was witnessed by GP legends Giacomo Agostini and Luca Cadalora, watching from the Factory Yamaha pits.

"I was maybe a little too aggressive and when I touched the brake I just lost the front and went down. I was going fast and I have some small bruises on my elbow and on my leg, but I will be fine tomorrow for the race. I was lucky," he admitted.

The Italian therefore faces his biggest challenge of 2005 if he is to score a record equalling twelfth GP victory this year - especially since the tight and twisty Valencia racetrack offers few chances for passing.

"The grid position is not so good, my worst for a very long time!" confirmed Vale, who qualified 1.6secs from pole man Sete Gibernau. "(But) the situation on the track is actually not so bad; the rhythm is okay, although we do have some problems and for sure I am slower than some of the other riders.

"The main problem is that it's hard to overtake at this circuit. A lot will depend on how many riders I can pass at the start and in the first lap. Anyway, we will try to make some progress tomorrow morning and see what happens in the race. My target is to be in the top five, any higher is maybe too difficult, but it's going to be a good battle!" he warned.

Meanwhile, Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards benefited from a more productive afternoon, making major progress with his new riding style and knocking almost two seconds off his best practice time from yesterday to claim sixth on Sunday's grid.

"I'm halfway happy with the result," declared the Texan. "We had a few problems early in the session but we worked things out and I was able to set a decent time on a qualifying tyre. The second row isn't terrible but we have work to do to find a better race pace.

"We made more progress with the new riding style but in reality I need 100 laps to perfect it, so I can't wait for winter testing! It takes me five or six laps to get going and we just need to get it ingrained in my system.

"The team has worked hard today and Michelin has given us some good options for tomorrow - I am determined to finish the season on a high. The stadium style atmosphere here is always fantastic so I'm looking forward to tomorrow," he concluded.

"We are in a strange situation," mused team director Davide Brivio. "Colin is on the second row but his race pace is not as good as we would like, whilst Valentino is on the fifth row with a better race pace than his team-mate. We need to combine the two!

"Valentino's starting position is going to make it very difficult for him and it will not be his easiest race, but that is the reality of the situation and we have to deal with it. Luckily we have already won everything but we still want to have a good last race. It's going to be tough but we'll work hard in the morning and see what the race brings," added the Italian.