Rossi celebrates 'extra special' 46th pole.

The omens are looking good for former MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi after the Italian took an 'extra special' 46th pole position ahead of Saturday's season-opening Qatar Grand Prix.

Rossi and Fiat Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards had topped the time sheets again in Friday morning's final free practice, before taking first and third in a gripping qualifying session later in the afternoon.

Due to the new tyre restrictions, both Yamaha riders had only two qualifying tyres to work with during the hour, the first 40-minutes of which they spent perfecting the race set-ups of their new 800cc M1s.

Having held the top spot with a string of fast laps inside the last 20 minutes, Edwards' first qualifying tyre run saw him consolidate first place with ten minutes to go, with Rossi moving into second place a few minutes later.

The last five minutes saw a flurry of activity with Rossi, Edwards, Casey Stoner, Toni Elias and Dani Pedrosa all battling for the first 800cc pole. All lapped under last year's best 990cc time, but it was Rossi who took the honours with a lap of 1min 55.002secs, over half a second faster than the existing record - but just 0.005secs in front of new Ducati signing Casey Stoner.

"It's great to have my first pole of the season at the very first race and it's extra special for me because it's pole number 46 of my career!" smiled Rossi, who has carried the number throughout his career. "I hope this is a good omen for tomorrow. I'm really happy for this pole position because everyone has worked so hard; all my mechanics, engineers, Michelin...everyone involved. Yamaha has built us a great bike.

"Anyway tomorrow is another day and the real race, but we're starting from first and also Colin is on the front row too so I hope we can put in a good Yamaha show! We have a couple of things to check in morning practice but we're more or less ready. I really like this track, the grip is great, it's fast and technical and it's possible to have a lot of fun with the new Yamaha. It's also quite quiet here, with not too many people and this is a nice atmosphere in which to start the season as I can focus completely on racing without too many other distractions! I think tomorrow there are three or four riders who can fight at the top with Colin and me, but we're feeling confident in our garage," he concluded.

While Rossi at the front is hardly a surprise, team-mate Edwards has arguably exceeded expectations with his pace so far this weekend - and the Texan, yet to win a MotoGP race, heads into battle confident in his equipment.

"Yamaha, Michelin, Valentino and I have all worked so hard and it's really exciting to be up there together on the front row...although of course I would like to try to reverse the order tomorrow!" he began. "Our bike is going so well so far this year, everywhere we go we've got a plan and it seems to work and the lap times are just amazing. It's a great feeling.

"I love this track and the set-up we have seems to be spot-on, really we don't have anything left to do tomorrow morning except double-check everything and make our final tyre choice. I've got a choice of two but honestly I'm not too worried, they both work well and I don't think either will be the difference between winning and losing - Michelin seem to have it all under control for us! It's going to be a matter of getting a good start and seeing how it goes. I think there's a few that can run with us but our race pace is pretty good so I am confident I can be up there fighting!" he declared.