Rossi Clinches Breathtaking Pole at Assen

Things might not have worked out very well for Valentino Rossi during the second practice earlier today, but the reigning MotoGP champion took sweet revenge this afternoon when clinching a dramatic pole position for tomorrow's Dutch Grand Prix at Assen. The Yamaha rider recorded the best time of 1:36.025, less than a tenth of a second ahead of Honda's Dani Pedrosa.

Breathtaking finales seem to have become this year's specialties for Rossi, as the Italian managed to top both championship contenders Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner in the last 5 minutes of the qualifying session.

Until that point, it was Lorenzo who led the field from mid-session on, only to be demoted no less than 2 positions during the course of a single lap. Rossi and Pedrosa scored their quickest times in the same lap, both times being way better than the one initially recorded by the Yamaha Spaniard.

Another rider who seemed to be in contention for a pole position result all day was Ducati's Casey Stoner. While unable to match the lap times of his Yamaha rivals on hard tires, he visited the pits with a few minutes to go and changed tires to super-soft compound. That got him to some flying times in the first sectors of his laps, only to be denied of a great lap time by traffic.

In the end, the Ducati rider – and last year winner of the event – had to settle for 4th place overall, ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards. Completing the second row was Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, ahead of teammate Chris Vermeulen, Honda's Andrea Dovizioso and Tech 3's James Toseland.

North American rider Nicky Hayden had another disappointing outing on Friday, despite scoring some good results in P2 this morning. He had to settle for 13th place overall.

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)                                 1:36.025
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda)                                       1:36.110
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)                                   1:36.393
4. Casey Stoner (Ducati)                                       1:36.633
5. Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha)                       1:36.760
6. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)                                     1:36.953
7. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki)                                  1:37.194
8. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda)                                 1:37.237
9. James Toseland (Tech 3 Yamaha)                     1:37.323
10. Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda)                         1:37.473
11. Alex de Angelis (Gresini Honda)                       1:37.637
12. Mika Kallio Pramac (Ducati)                              1:37.749
13. Nicky Hayden (Ducati)                                      1:37.759
14. Marco Melandri (Hayate Kawasaki)                  1:37.948
15. Toni Elias Gresini (Honda)                                1:38.136
16. Sete Gibernau (Hernando Ducati)                    1:38.453
17. Niccolo Canepa (Pramac Ducati)                      1:38.605
18. Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda)                            1:38.619
19. Gabor Talmacsi (Scot Honda)                           1:39.407