MotoGP Assen: Friday qualifying (updated regularly)

NEWEST AT TOP

Ducati Marlboro

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden are both steeling themselves for a tough battle around the legendary TT circuit at Assen tomorrow after qualifying on 4th and 13th on the grid for the seventh round of the MotoGP World Championship.

Stoner was in impressive form on race tyres, lapping in the low 1’37 mark that looks like being a pace capable of challenging for victory in tomorrow’s race, although when he switched to softer tyres for an assault on the grid positions he was held up by a host of slower riders on track. Hayden was seventh fastest in this morning’s final free practice and despite making a couple of minor wrong turns with his set-up in the afternoon, the American was only 0.010 seconds from a fourth row star.

CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 4th (1’36.633)
“Pretty much all weekend we’ve been very fast on race tyres and even though we’re normally good for a single qualifying lap on a soft tyre we’ve had a few issues here. With my second soft tyre I was up out of the seat a couple of times but we changed it and the next one was a lot better. Unfortunately a couple of riders got in my way, waiting for a two in a dangerous and fast part of the track, which obviously cost me time but could have cost me a whole lot more if I had crashed. It is a frustrating situation which seems to be happening more and more in MotoGP and it is about time something was done to stop it. Thankfully I’m starting from fourth on the grid, which I am fine with because I can still challenge at the front from there and with the times we set today there is no reason not to be confident.”

NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 13th (1’37.759)
“Unfortunately qualifying is not our strong point at the moment but we made some improvements with the bike in free practice this morning. We changed the transmission, which helped a bit, and made a few more tweaks that made the general feeling of the bike a bit better but for the afternoon we tried some stuff that didn’t work so well. We had to go back to what we had this morning and I was only able to go a little bit faster, which is why the qualifying position isn’t great. The cooler track today made it hard to get heat into the left-hand side of the tyre. You don’t get good balance with the single compound tyres around here, for me at least, the right side is really good but it’s hard to get heat into the left. We’ll see what the weather brings, obviously we could do with it being nice and hot, line up and see what we got!”

Circuit Record: Casey Stoner (Ducati - 2008), 1’36.738 – 169.509 Km/h
Best Pole: Casey Stoner (Ducati - 2008), 1’35.520 – 171.670 Km/h

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Repsol Honda

In spite of not being completely recovered from the injury he picked up in the Italian GP, the Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa got a well-deserved second position in the definitive qualification session held this afternoon at the legendary circuit of Assen, where tomorrow Saturday, as is tradition, the Dutch TT is organised.

One tenth of a second separated the Repsol Honda Team rider from starting first in tomorrow`s race. His teammate Andrea Dovizioso was eighth

In spite of not being completely recovered from the injury he picked up in the Italian GP, the Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa got a well-deserved second position in the definitive qualification session held this afternoon at the legendary circuit of Assen, where tomorrow Saturday, as is tradition, the Dutch TT is organised.

Unlike yesterday, when a bright sun shone and there were high temperatures, today the sky was covered with clouds. But fortunately rain did not appear and the temperatures were lower, something that made the development of qualification easier.

In the morning the performance of the two Repsol Honda Team riders gave some indications of their intentions to fight for the leading positions, with Dovizioso 3rd and Pedrosa a little further back, 6th.

In the afternoon, practice continued with the Repsol riders doing a long series of laps - 7 for both Pedrosa and Dovizioso – where they concentrated their work on the set up and tyre selection for the race. With 26 minutes left the two Repsol Honda Team riders went to the pits to get a softer rear tyre and then go out to set a fast time. Both riders returned to the track 24 minutes from the end.

Whilst Andrea Dovizioso could not get really comfortable with the set up on his Honda RC212V, Pedrosa gave signs of making good progress on each of the lap sectors. The Spaniard climbed to 3rd position on his first attempt whilst the Italian moved to 6th. With 12 minutes still to go the two Repsol riders returned to the pits to get the second and definitive softest rear tyre for their final attempt.

Whilst Dovizioso could not improve his time and in fact fell back to 8th position –third row on the grid - Pedrosa gradually lowered and improved his sector times until he coincided with Rossi, who in the end was the most direct rival in the fight for pole. Both did a lap with Toseland in sight in front of them, but in the end it was Rossi who was faster, followed by the Spaniard at just 85 thousandths of a second. Therefore Dani Pedrosa returns to the front row of the grid with the second fastest time.

Dani PEDROSA >> 1’36.110 secs, 52 laps, 237 km.
“I’m pleased with my qualifying position today, especially considering that there was quite a lot of traffic on track in the final few minutes. It’s always good to be on the front row because then you have the best chance to make a clean getaway, so I’m satisfied with second. I was lucky at the end of the session to have Valentino in front and being behind him helped me a lot to set this lap time.

The feeling from the machine is quite good, although we still need to make some adjustments to the set-up to make best use of the Bridgestone tyres for the race, and this is what we’ll be working on in the warm-up tomorrow. My physical condition on the bike today was again much better than at the last race in Barcelona and this makes a lot of difference because I am able to concentrate fully on riding. I know that the race will be very physically demanding though, so I can take nothing for granted. Still, with some final set-up improvements, I hope I can make a good start and have a strong race tomorrow.”

Andrea DOVIZIOSO >> 1’37.237 secs, 55 laps, 251 km.
“I have to say I’m quite disappointed about my qualifying result this afternoon because starting from the third row makes the race more complicated. Although my race pace was pretty good throughout the session, I didn’t manage to make the best of the soft tyre option, so tomorrow I will really have to focus on making a good start and recovering as many positions as possible during the first two or three laps.

Apart from my grid position, I’m confident because I further improved my race pace with the hard Bridgestone tyres by two or three tenths compared to this morning’s session. Me and the crew will take a look at the data this evening to make some final decisions on the set-up solutions we tested this afternoon. The weather is looking uncertain again, but we’ve had some good wet/dry races this season so I’m not worried about the bike change if it happens.”

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DeGraaf Grand Prix

The good start of the weekend for the DeGraaf Grand Prix Team during the 79th Alice TT Assen couldn’t be continued in the qualification session. Danny Webb and Randy Krummenacher qualified at the fourth row with a 13th and 14th position.

The Friday morning session went very good for British rider Danny Webb. During nearly the whole session Webb was able to ride lap times in the top 5. In the last minutes of the session Webb dropped back to a 7th position and was only half a second slower than the fastest rider Sergio Gadea. Randy Krummenacher still worked in this session to get a better set-up and could improve his lap times every lap in the last part of the session. Krummenacher ended the session on a 14th position.

The qualification session started good for the British rider Danny Webb. In the first ten minutes Webb was the quickest rider. Halfway the session Webb dropped back to a 7th position and came in for a set of new tires. In the last ten minutes Webb was really pushing but every lap he was held up by slower riders or riders who are waiting for fast riders. Webb has to be satisfied with a 13th position on the fourth row, which he is really not.

Randy Krummenacher was searching in the beginning for a good rhythm and found the rhythm in halfway the session. Still Krummenacher was working on the suspension and went better and better. In the last minutes Krummenacher found a good group and climbed up two positions. The Swiss rider will start tomorrow next to his team-mate Webb on the 14th position.

Danny Webb (13th, 1:46,278): “I’m very disappointed about this session. I had a good pace and was able to run in the top 5. When I had a free lap I was able to ride fast laps. Unfortunaly there were to many riders who a waiting for a group or fast rider. Those riders hold me up in the last part of the session and I couldn’t improve my lap time which I rode in the beginning of the session. I have a good race pace and I will be up there tomorrow. I’m not worried yet!”

Randy Krummenacher (14th, 1:46,681): “My lap time isn’t so bad but I don’t like the position which I have on the grid for tomorrow’s race. The field is very close on this track and luckily I found a fast group and got a 14th position. The bike feels pretty good and I know I can be faster. Tomorrow I need a good start and try to get another top 10 position.”

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Repsol Honda 125cc

After the definitive qualification session held today at the circuit of Assen, and with only the warm-up left tomorrow morning, everything is ready for the start of the Dutch GP, with the Repsol riders on the third and fifth rows of the grid. Marc Márquez and Esteve Rabat, 10th and 12th respectively, were just a little over seven tenths off the pole time set by Sandro Cortese. Redding & Beaubier, will be two rows further back, in 17th and 20th position, respectively.

The 4 555 metres of the actual circuit of Assen was a bit too small for the 35 bikes out on the track during practice, as could be seen from the large amount of traffic throughout the whole session. Some riders were harmed by the excessive traffic, the case of Marc Márquez & Esteve Rabat, who after refining the set up on their motorbikes could not improve as much as they had hoped owing to several slow riders that they came across towards the end of the practice.

Things were more difficult for Scott Redding, who never managed to feel comfortable on the legendary Dutch track. The Repsol rider had quite a few problems getting the suspension set up right on his Aprilia, and he had to change the clutch halfway through the session. When he was able to get back out he had the same problems as Márquez and Rabat: many bikes stopped in the middle of the track waiting for a good reference to follow, and in the end he was not able to improve his best time set on the fifth of the 18 laps he did today.

Turning to Cameron Beaubier, the American rider gradually got faster during free practice, 16th. But when qualification started, although he was very quickly close to the times he set in the morning, was not able to improve. Halfway through the session he put new tyres on, but once out on the track did not feel so comfortable, so this afternoon he will be with his team working out what happened and why so that he can regain his good sensations.

Marc MÁRQUEZ >> 1’46.164 secs, 35 laps, 159 km.
“It`s turning out to be a complicated weekend. We have the set up for the race, but perhaps I just have to make that little bit more effort. I think that we can improve some things for tomorrow, let`s see if we can squeeze a little more out of the engine. I know that I can be up with the leaders and that I have not been very lucky in practice.

I will try to get off to a good start and keep up with the leading group. Perhaps I have to pick up a faster pace, but I have confidence in KTM with all the work they are doing, and I am sure that with a little touch to some things and trying it out in the warm-up, we will be ready to ride with the leading group in the race.”

Esteve RABAT >> 1’46.214 secs, 36 laps, 164 km.
“Today`s practice went well, and we have found a good pace for the race. As for the suspension set up, I am pleased because I can ride comfortably and I am going well. The engine also worked well and I think the tyres that we tried will last the whole race.

I will have to get off to a good start and be agile on the first few laps, overtaking a few rivals, then stay up with the leading group and reach the last lap alongside the fastest riders.”

Scott REDDING >>1’47.087 secs, 34 laps, 155 km.
“Today went better than yesterday. Qualification went well right at the start, but then things went a bit sour. The clutch broke and I had to stop in the pits again.

And at the end, for two or three laps, there was a lot of traffic, and it was impossible to get past. We have made a lot of changes since yesterday, but it is still turning out to be quite difficult.”

Cameron BEAUBIER >> 1’47.728 secs, 34 laps, 155 km.
“Free practice went well, but around halfway through qualification we tried some new tyres and they did not work as well as we expected.

I do not know if they were defective or not correctly set, because I got nowhere near the times I had been setting earlier on. The steering closed a lot and I was always fighting to control the bike.”

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KTM 125cc Racing

The 16-year-old Spaniard finished in tenth place after hectic jockeying in the final stages of the 40-minute session on the 4.5 km circuit to set himself up well for Saturday’s race. GP races at Assen are traditionally run on Saturdays in contrast to the rest of the season where races are always on Sunday.

Marquez has good feeling for tomorrow’s 125 cc GP
“I have a very good feeling for the bike but I was not lucky with traffic in the last minutes of the qualifying session. Also my bike is not yet perfect but I am very positive for tomorrow because I know that my team and Harald (Team Technical Director Harald Bartol) will make sure I have a perfect one for the race. Then I will try to make a good start and follow the first group and fight for the best possible result.”

Beaubier in twentieth on the grid
Cameron Beaubier, the factory team’s 16-year old American finished in twentieth place saying: “This morning everything was going well and I was also riding quite comfortably this afternoon in the qualifying session. Then we put on a new tyre in the last few minutes of the session and the bike was reacting very differently. I couldn’t improve on my time or even go at the same speed as I did before. At the moment I’m not sure about the reason for this but we are checking everything now. Everything should be okay for tomorrow - if I have a good start and if we are lucky with the weather and it stays dry.”

The weather forecast for Assen on Saturday is predicting light rain at the circuit but the area is well know for experiencing quick changes.

Results 125 cc Qualifying
1. Sandro Cortese, Germany, Derbi, 1:45.430
2. Julian Simone, Spain, Aprilia, 1:45.441
3. Nicolas Terol, Spain, Aprilia, 1:45.644
4. Stefan Bradl, Germany, Aprilia, 1:45.679
Other KTM
10. Marc Marquez, Spain, KTM, 1:46.164
20. Cameron Beaubier, USA, KTM, 1:47.728

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MotoGP

Valentino Rossi will start his quest for a 100th Grand Prix victory from pole position in The Netherlands on Saturday afternoon, after taking the top spot for the Alice TT Assen with a 1’36.025 lap.

Although it is Rossi’s second pole position of 2009, it is also the first time that he has topped a qualifying practice timesheet this season. His previous pole came courtesy of combined free practice times when the QP session in Japan was cancelled due to rainfall.

The Fiat Yamaha rider was trailed by Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who was less than a tenth of a second slower than the Italian’s hot lap. Pedrosa returns to the front row after two races away.

Jorge Lorenzo continued his 100% record of front line starts with a time 0.368s down on teammate Rossi’s marker, and the Spaniard made a final push for pole in the closing stages of the session. He is now the only rider to have qualified on the front row for every race of the 2009 season to date, having relegated Casey Stoner to fourth place today.

Although Stoner had crossed the line with enough time to perform another hot lap, the Australian sat up due to traffic on-track and opted against a further attempt at pole. Problems with grip had plagued the Ducati Marlboro rider throughout the morning and afternoon sessions, and he had another wobble that left him obviously agitated.

Colin Edwards once again qualified on the second row after leading the session for a small period of time, alongside another veteran in Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi.

The only crash in the session came from Niccolò Canepa, the Pramac Racing rookie escaping uninjured.

250cc

A second consecutive 250cc pole went to Hector Barberá, as the PepeWorld rider took his sixth career top spot with a 1’40.019 lap. Barberá was just over a tenth of a second speedier than the two riders above him in the overall standings, with Scot Racing man Hiroshi Aoyama and Mapfre Aspar’s Álvaro Bautista both coming close to the front marker on the grid.

Joining the trio on the front row is reigning 250cc World Champion Marco Simoncelli, concluding a first row quartet sure to provide some thrills. The second line is also packed with talent, as Balatonring stand-in Aleix Espargaró continued his impressive one-off showing to head Alex Debón, Raffaele de Rosa and Mattia Pasini.

There were fewer crashes in the afternoon run than in the morning session, but a fall for Stevie Bonsey was notable for its flinging the American from his Aprilia machine and onto the asphalt. Bonsey is expected to ride tomorrow despite the incident.

125cc

Whilst all eyes were on the established names putting in their final hot laps in 125cc qualifying, Ajo Interwetten’s Sandro Cortese snuck out from behind Julián Simón’s Aprilia and onto the first grid spot for the first pole position of his career.

The German had been outside the front two rows with his previous best time, but as the clock ran down he pulled a 1’45.430 lap out of the hat to relegate Simón to second place. Both were on flying laps in the final seconds of the session, knocking Jack&Jones WRB’s Nico Terol down to third in a front row split by just over two-tenths of a second.

Another German, Stefan Bradl, joins Cortese on the front row for the Alice TT Assen, leaving two of the series’ title contenders aiming for victory from the second line. Bradley Smith and Andrea Iannone - winner of the last race in Barcelona - are accompanied by a rejuvenated Simone Corsi and Spaniard Pol Espargaró.

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Pramac Racing

Cloudy day at the Assen circuit where the Dutch Grand Prix qualifying session took place. Pramac Racing riders, Mika Kallio and Niccolò Canepa, have respectively concluded in twelfth and seventeenth position. The Finnish rider was expecting a bit more from this day of work and hopes to recover tomorrow in the race. Niccolò made it to improve compare to yesterday by more than two seconds and will start the race tomorrow from the sixth row. Weather forecast promises rain for tomorrow’s race with more than sixty percent of chances to have a wet race.

Fabiano Sterlacchini - Pramac Racing Technical Director
“It has been a hard day of work for us. We have worked a lot on the set up of the bike finding some good solutions. For sure looking at the classification we can’t be too satisfied, but for tomorrow we believe we can do better. Mika is a really determined rider and, as always, he will not give up not even a centimeter to his opponents during the race.”

Mika Kallio - Pramac Racing rider - 12th in 1′37.749
“I was expecting to enter the top ten today, but unluckily it didn’t go this way and I am a bit disappointed. I thought I would have been able to be at least half of second faster. I have encountered some complication with the front part of the bike that didn’t allow me to push more. Tomorrow we will have to modify the balance of the bike making it higher in the front during the warm up to understand if the bike will be more easy to ride. Anyway it seems the weather forecast for tomorrow will be completely different compare today and this would change the situation to everyone.”

Niccolò Canepa - Pramac Racing rider - 17th in 1′38.605
“Unluckily I slipped in the most important part of the qualifying session and with the second bike with only a few minutes left it hasn’t be easy to improve my performances. I tried, but we will have to start from the seventeenth position. The situation compared to yesterday has improved a lot and we will have to try to make another step forward tomorrow during the race to gain some more positions.”

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Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup

The second qualifying session saw the Rookies field compressed as the top three, Sturla Fagerhaug, Jakub Kornfeil and Alex Kristiansson failed to improve on their Thursday times and were closed on by Danny Kent, Florian Marino and Jake Gagne. There are 8 different nations in the top ten.

Kent, the 15 year old Briton, was happy to make the front row. “I looking forward to a good race. The grip wasn’t that good, the tyres were well worn by the end but that’s OK, the race will be different. At some times during the session it got pretty windy and you had to watch that but it’s Ok and I’m happy with the bike set-up so I’m looking forward to the race.”

Only late in the 30 minute session did he steal 4th back from 16 year old Frenchman Florian Marino who was OK with the demotion. “A second line start is good enough. I am happy with that. The bike is also working quite well after we did a lot of work to improve things in these 2 days. I still have a small problem but I think that is now the worn tyres and for the race it should be good. I’m looking for a good start and a ride to the podium.

Impressing again was 7th fastest Arthur Sissis, the Australian who turned 14 just before the event, “I was a bit worried for a while, I was 7th fastest then I went to 8th, to 9th and to 10. Then I ran off the track. But that was good because Jake (Gagne) came past and I went after him and put in a good time. I like the track, it’s the best so far. I like the fast sections, it’s like riding long-track,” added the speedway and dirt-track expert.

Gagne kept his good weekend going with 6th and there was a big improvement from 16 year old Australian Joshua Hook who jumped from 15th on Thursday to 9th by finding the best part of a second. “Yes, a big improvement from yesterday. Mainly just more track time, learning where I am going. But I was also more focussed, yesterday before I went out I was relaxed, playing table-soccer and I just wasn’t concentrated on what I was going to do. I put that right today.”

Even with the pack closer Fagerhaug is still very much the man to beat, fastest again even though he was 2 tenths slower than the previous day, the 17 year old Norwegian was not looking troubled. “I am quite happy with that, the wind was changing quite a lot, then you seem to have quite a lot of guys trying to follow so you have to let them go. Then the tyres started to get quite worn but I had some consistent times so that is good for the race and I am looking forward to it.”
There were few fallers during the two days of practice and a single injury; 13 year old Briton Fraser Rogers dislocated a finger in his right hand but still hopes to race.

The 16 lap race is on Saturday, after the MotoGP event, at 15.30 CET. The race can be seen live on the Rookies website www.redbullrookiescup.com with an improved feed rate over the earlier rounds. Those early races can also be found on the site, in the Rookies TV section.

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LCR Honda

Qualifying for the Ducth Grand Prix was run in dry conditions today with ambience temperature of 23°C despite cloudy skies welcomed the MotoGP riders at the 4.555 Km race track this morning. After yesterday’s storming first position in the free practice no. 1, the LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy De Puniet could not take a big advantage from the soft tyres ending the day in 10th position.

Despite a small crash in this morning free session, the Frenchman and his squad, continued their TO DO list chasing the best set up for the Dutch track. However the 28-year-old riding the Honda RC212V no. 14 struggled with rear grip and could not perform as he expected clocking his best lap time of 1’37.473. The seventh round of the season gets underway at 14:00 local time with Rossi heading the front row followed by Pedrosa and Lorenzo.

De Puniet – 10th: “After this morning crash we decided to go for a longer run to confirm our race set up. Basically we have an acceptable lap time on race tyre but I struggled with rear grip on the edge. We do not have to much time to work on that and so we moved to soft tyres but we could not really improve our lap time. The bike slid to much and do not want to take any risk. We expected a better grid position after yesterday’s performance but it’s not the end of the world; I am hoping to get a top eight finish”.

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Monster Yamaha Tech3

Colin Edwards and James Toseland equalled their best qualifying performances of the season in Assen today to boost hopes of a double top six finish for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team in tomorrow’s Dutch MotoGP race.

Edwards’ hopes of a third MotoGP podium at the legendary Assen circuit were boosted by his best lap of 1.36.760 securing him fifth place on the second row of the grid in a session run in cool and cloudy conditions.
The American made big progress in finding a more confidence-inspiring front-end setting on his YZR-M1 machine and Edwards topped the timesheets with just under 20 minutes remaining. The 35-year-old, who currently lies sixth in the overall standings, only slipped off the front in a dramatic final few minutes, but he’s confident his race pace is fast enough to mount a podium challenge tomorrow.

Toseland will start round seven of the 2009 world championship from ninth position on the grid, the British rider gaining more crucial experience on a radically revised YZR-M1 set-up.
It was Toseland’s second successive top ten grid position and showed the significant strides he has made recently in improving his qualifying performance.

The 28-year-old clocked a best time of 1.37.323 to finish just over a second off Valentino Rossi’s pole position time and he was just over half-a-second away from fourth place.
Using a YZR-M1 with new footrest, handlebar and seating positions that he tried for the first time yesterday, Toseland is confident that he can claim his first top six finish of the campaign in tomorrow’s 26-lap race.

Colin Edwards 5th 1.36.760 – 25 laps
“It certainly wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be because at the start of the session I was in and out of the pits a lot making adjustments and normally that’s not a good sign. I’ve got a busy feeling on race tyres now I’m using the longer wheelbase. It puts a bit more weight on the front and while it’s not chatter I don’t feel I’m absorbing the bumps as well as I need to be. At certain times it feels like I’m skimming over the bumps, but despite that I’m pretty happy with my pace. I did a 37.3 on race tyres and for race pace that’s acceptable. I think low 1.37s or high 1.36s will be the pace if it stays dry, and I’m confident I can run those times. I put my head down on the softer rear tyre and on my last lap I managed to set my best time even though the hard front had eight laps on it. After eight or nine laps the front will start to lose that special feeling and I had a couple of slides on my last couple of laps and I wasn’t going to go any quicker than wha t I did. Considering that I’m happy to have equalled my best qualifying of the year, particularly as I feel we can make the bike better. I think we’re looking good for tomorrow because the fourth section has always been a bogey section for me and that’s where you can gain or lose a lot of time. On the Bridgestone’s it is unbelievable through that last section. They are just so stable you don’t get the handlebars shaking or flapping through the fast sections. Everything just rolls nice and smooth and I think we can get out there and fight at the front tomorrow.”

James Toseland 9th 1.37.323 – 28 laps
“I’m really happy even though I’m only ninth again on the grid. We’ve spent a lot of time working on the race setting with the new set-up and I’m feeling really confident on race tyres. The weight we’ve put on the rear is really helping the Bridgestone work and its helping keep load on the tyre. We put a bit more weight on the rear again today and we’re getting better rear grip. I’m just trying to work the rear tyre a lot more with that extra load on it and that means I can exit the corner a lot better. I’ve also got more stability going into the corner but on the softer tyres there was so much traffic that I got held up a bit otherwise I might have gained another couple of places. I had to roll off when I came across Toni Elias and that was a big shame because I’d just done my best first split of the whole session. Fingers crossed it will be dry tomorrow because I feel I’m getting close to where I need to be. After Catalunya I’ve done about 15 practice starts this week end because it is crucial that I get away to give myself a chance of a top six. I’m trying a slightly different clutch just to be a bit smoother because as I release the clutch it has been a bit aggressive in the first few races. But I’m desperate to give Yamaha and my guys at Tech 3 a good result after all the help they’ve been giving me this weekend.”

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Repsol Honda

Repsol Honda ace Dani Pedrosa secured an excellent second place on the grid for tomorrow’s Dutch TT in a congested qualifying practice at Assen that saw him finish just 0.085s from pole position. The Spanish rider expertly steered his Honda RC212V through late-session traffic to take a place in the middle of the front row, a position which gives him a good chance of getting away at the front in tomorrow’s 26-lap race.

Pedrosa’s Repsol Honda team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, finished the morning session in third place and improved his pace still further in the afternoon, featuring consistently in the top six. In the final few moments of qualifying, however, Dovizioso wasn’t able to make maximum use of Bridgestone’s softer tyre option and slipped to 8th. Still, with a good start from the third row of the grid, the Italian is confident he can run near the front tomorrow.

While today’s two sessions were held in dry conditions - despite cloud cover at Assen - the forecast for tomorrow is for rain at some stage, so the Repsol Honda Team will be ready for whatever the weather brings when the starting lights go out at 14.00.

DANI PEDROSA – 2nd – 1m 36.110s
“I’m pleased with my qualifying position today, especially considering that there was quite a lot of traffic on track in the final few minutes. It’s always good to be on the front row because then you have the best chance to make a clean getaway, so I’m satisfied with second. I was lucky at the end of the session to have Valentino in front and being behind him helped me a lot to set this lap time. The feeling from the machine is quite good, although we still need to make some adjustments to the set-up to make best use of the Bridgestone tyres for the race, and this is what we’ll be working on in the warm-up tomorrow. My physical condition on the bike today was again much better than at the last race in Barcelona and this makes a lot of difference because I am able to concentrate fully on riding. I know that the race will be very physically demanding though, so I can take nothing for granted. Still, with some final set-up improvements, I hope I can make a good start and have a strong race tomorrow.”

ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 8th – 1m 37.237s
“I have to say I’m quite disappointed about my qualifying result this afternoon because starting from the third row makes the race more complicated. Although my race pace was pretty good throughout the session, I didn’t manage to make the best of the soft tyre option, so tomorrow I will really have to focus on making a good start and recovering as many positions as possible during the first two or three laps. Apart from my grid position, I’m confident because I further improved my race pace with the hard Bridgestone tyres by two or three tenths compared to this morning’s session. Me and the crew will take a look at the data this evening to make some final decisions on the set-up solutions we tested this afternoon. The weather is looking uncertain again, but we’ve had some good wet/dry races this season so I’m not worried about the bike change if it happens.”

KAZUHIKO YAMANO - REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER
“Dani did a good job to get on the front row today and we can see with this performance the evidence of his improving physical condition. We still have some work to do to achieve the optimum settings for the race, and the weather here could complicate things because we might have some rain tomorrow - we’ll see. Andrea was unlucky not to get a higher grid position because he was in the top six for most of the session and I don’t think 8th reflects his true potential. Still, with a good start I think both he and Dani can be strong tomorrow and the whole team will be working hard for that.”

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Fiat Yamaha

Valentino Rossi, who is looking for his 100th career victory tomorrow, took his second pole position of the season in the Netherlands today with a commanding display at the Assen TT circuit. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo filled the third grid spot after just missing out with his final flying lap. Dani Pedrosa will start from second whilst Casey Stoner, who is joint championship leader along with Rossi and Lorenzo, will head the second row. It is the fourth double front row for the Fiat Yamaha Team this season.

After yesterday’s bright sunshine today was overcast and cooler but it stayed dry and both riders had a useful morning practice, with Lorenzo running out on top and Rossi fourth. This afternoon’s qualifying saw the usual continuation of set-up work throughout the early stages before Rossi moved into pole with ten minutes to go, with Lorenzo second. The pair swapped positions once more before the Italian set his pole-clinching lap of 1’36.025 to retake pole with four minutes to go. Lorenzo was up on his team-mate’s time on his final flying lap but he dropped a few tenths on the last sector and finished the session 0.368 seconds adrift.

Rossi’s other pole of 2009 came at Motegi, when grid positions were in fact decided on free practice after qualifying was rained off. The World Champion’s last ‘proper’ pole was therefore at Indianapolis last year, on his way to a famous inaugural victory at the American track. Lorenzo meanwhile has qualified on the front row for all seven rounds so far this season.

Tomorrow’s 26-lap race begins at 1400 local time but with rain forecast the weather could prove a factor in the day’s proceedings once again.

Valentino Rossi, Position: 1   Time: 1′35.025   Laps: 29: “This is a really good pole position because I’ve only had one other this season, at Motegi in strange conditions. I had a lot of traffic around me in the last few minutes so I had to be careful to judge exactly the right point to push, but I got it right and I was really happy with my great lap at the end. I feel good and I am very strong with the Bridgestone race tyres but it’s going to be a hard race because the others are also very fast. We still have two or three points on the track where we could improve our performance a bit more so we still have a bit of work to do, but I am confident that we can make another great race. Of course we don’t know about the weather, but this is normal for Assen and we will just have to manage!”

Jorge Lorenzo, Position: 3rd   Time: 1′36.393   Laps: 31: “I’m happy with the first row, another one for this season, and this is the most important thing with regards to the start of the race tomorrow. Of course I wanted my fourth pole position but I had some problems in the last sector; I’m not sure why yet. We need to continue working to try to improve in that area and to understand the problem, because the race is going to be very hard with quite a few riders up front. We don’t know what the weather will be and so we will have to wait and see until warm-up tomorrow morning.”

Davide Brivio, Team Manager: “Our target is always the front row so to get pole position is the best we can do! This was a good session because we had a strong pace throughout and Valentino is feeling comfortable on the bike. We’re looking forward to tomorrow but of course we are a bit worried about the weather. We have a few small things to fine-tune and then we will hope for a good start, like in Barcelona, and another exciting race.”

Daniele Romagnoli, Team Manager: “We’re happy because the main aim is to be on the front row, and we have achieved that once again here. In fact we were hoping maybe for second with that last lap, but third is okay as well and Jorge is very fast. He did a long run during the session and his pace was very good, but we still need to improve slightly in T4, because this is where we are losing a bit of time. We will work on this tonight and use the warm-up – weather permitting – to make final improvements.”

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Bridgestone

Slick tyre compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium. Rear: Soft, Medium

Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi scored his second pole position of the season at Assen using a medium compound front Bridgestone slick and a soft compound rear. He finished just 0.085 seconds ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and 0.368 seconds clear of teammate Jorge Lorenzo, both of whom also used medium compound front and soft compound rear Bridgestone slicks.

In its closing stages it was the closest MotoGP qualifying session since Bridgestone became the series’ Official Tyre Supplier. At one point towards the end of the session, the top five were split by only 0.100 seconds, and a frantic final few minutes changed the order of the front two rows.As has come to be expected this season, most riders set their fastest qualifying times using the harder option front tyre  and  the  softer  rear  slick.  This  combination  gave  the  advantage  of  improved  front  stability,  especially  under braking, and added rear traction which is important for drive out of turn five and the last chicane in particular.

Rossi’s pole lap was 0.7 seconds faster than the fastest race lap set around Assen on a MotoGP machine, a 1m 36.738 recorded by Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner on Bridgestone tyres last year.So far both practice sessions and qualifying for the Dutch GP have been run in the dry. The forecast likelihood of rain on race day tomorrow means that riders may be faced with a wet race having had no wet running this weekend.

Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development: “The top four riders were all able to set times faster than the previous race lap record today on our medium compound front and soft compound rear tyres so I am happy with the performance steps we have taken this year as the sole supplier to MotoGP. It shows we have been able to combine good overall performance with consistency and durability, so I am happy with this result.“Jorge completed a long run of 20 laps on medium compound front and rear slicks at the start of the session and was able to lap consistently. His fastest time of that run came on his penultimate lap, so this demonstrates good durability of our tyres at this circuit. If the conditions do remain the same tomorrow, I expect most riders to choose the medium compound for front and rear. We have also seen today that our medium compound front slick is still the favoured option when the track temperature is ten degrees cooler than it was yesterday, showing its wide operating range.”

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Rizla Suzuki

Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi continued with his recent run of good form to force his way on to the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s Dutch TT at Assen.

Capirossi (P6, 1′36.953, 28 laps) made significant steps all the way throughout this afternoon’s hour-long qualifying practice and is confident that there is still more to come from his Suzuki GSV-R during tomorrow morning’s warm-up and the 26-lap race. Capirossi is in determined mood as he prepares for his first Dutch TT on a Suzuki.

Vermeulen (P7, 1′37.194, 31 laps) will start just behind his team-mate as he lines up for tomorrow’s race at the front of the third row. Vermeulen and his crew made some big steps in the qualifying session and with an amazing 31 laps of the 4,555m circuit completed in the hour, he equalled the busiest rider on track as he made sure he used every available minute to get the best from his Suzuki GSV-R.

Today’s qualifying was held in warm but very overcast conditions with the threat of rain always in the air. World Championship leader Valentino Rossi on his Factory Yamaha set the fastest time to take pole position.

Capirossi and Vermeulen will line up their Rizla Suzuki GSV-R’s on the grid for tomorrow’s race at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT), when the lights will change to go for the only MotoGP race held on a Saturday.

Loris Capirossi:
“Overall we have made another step with the setting and I am quite happy about that, but we still need to take another step tomorrow morning in the warm-up. The whole team is working really hard and they really understand what I need. I am still losing a bit of front feeling, but it’s not that bad and I think it is something we can overcome. Second row is not too bad and we will have to see what sort of start we get and try to keep with the front pack. I am quite optimistic for tomorrow because if we make the small step we are looking for we will be right up there challenging!”

Chris Vermeulen:
“It was a fairly good qualifying for us and a lot better than the previous two GPs. The team did a great job and made a big step forward with the bike. We went well on both the compounds of tyres today and the softer one gave quite a bit more grip at the rear so we used that to do the qualifying laps on. We were able to do seven or eight laps on them and they stayed very consistent which shows what a good job Bridgestone are doing. Unfortunately on my last run we were a bit close on time and I thought I’d get in one more lap, sadly I wasn’t able to, but I am sure I would have improved my time - and hopefully grid position - because I made a couple of mistakes on my previous lap - which was my fastest - and I’m sure I’d have put them right Seventh place is a bit closer to the front than we have been recently and I’m feeling quite confident and looking forward to a good race tomorrow.”

Paul Denning - Team Manager:
“It’s been extremely close amongst the fastest riders here at Assen this weekend and we’ve managed to get closer to the front group in qualifying than we were in free practice. I think there are still some sizeable improvements we can make tomorrow to increase the confidence of both riders. Whatever happens with the bike - or indeed the weather - when you start in sixth and seventh places it gives you a much better chance to hang on to the back of the leaders in the early laps and see how the race develops. We don’t have any specific aim for the race tomorrow other than to give Loris and Chris the best GSV-Rs we possible can and ask them to push to the maximum.”

Alice TT Assen Qualifying Practice Classification:
1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1′36.025: 2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.085: 3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) +0.368: 4. Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.608: 5. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) +0.735: 6. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +0.928: 7. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.169: