Rossi ready to show who's the boss

Valentino Rossi is confident he can further close the gap on MotoGP points leader Nicky Hayden in Sunday's race at Motegi.

The Camel Yamaha rider start the Japanese round from the front row of the grid after setting the second fastest time in qualifying behind the Ducati Marlboro machine of fellow Italian Loris Capirossi.

"I am very happy to be on the front row again for the fourth race in a row," said Rossi."My (Yamaha) M1 has worked well from the start here so we've been able to work on the setting with various different things and then mix everything together to find the very best race set-up."Now it seems we're in good shape. The bike worked very well also with the qualifying tyre and I had very good grip."

Capirossi struck a significant blow for Ducati by putting Japan's major manufacturers in the shade in qualifying.Capirossi rider topped the qualifying session for the Japanese round of the championship with a lap of one minute 45.724 seconds. Another Italian, Marco Melandri, completed the front row to show his win last time out on the Fortuna Honda in Malaysia was not an isolated example of his pace.

Rossi trails current championship leader Nicky Hayden by 21 points, with Motegi the first of the three remaining races in the series.American Hayden could only manage the seventh best time and will start from the third row of the grid on the Repsol Honda.