Stoner continues pole position roll with Assen top spot

2008-06-27 14:32
The fastest lap ever recorded by a motorcycle at Assen gave Casey Stoner a third consecutive pole position in preparation for round nine of the MotoGP World Championship, continuing his outstanding performances of the past seven days.

The Australian was in a class of his own in the first practice sessions for the A-Style TT Assen, but qualifying saw him having to dig even deeper as his two biggest rivals upped their game and lowered their times. A 1´35.520 lap nearly a second quicker than the existing pole position record eventually won out for the reigning World Champion, gunning for his second victory in seven days.

A final lap from Repsol Honda´s Dani Pedrosa very nearly spoiled the party for the Ducati rider, but the Spaniard fell short by just 0.032 as he marked his spot on the front row. The top three in the World Championship and the winners of the last five races look set to do battle once more at the historic Dutch circuit. Pedrosa now leads Stoner by three points in the BMW M Award for combined qualifying results.

The final piece of the front row puzzle was current series leader Valentino Rossi, the first to trouble Stoner during the session. At a loss as to how to beat the previously peerless Australian at Assen after watching the Thursday practice domination, Rossi put it all on the line for some fearless attempts at pole. His final shot, with a new set of Bridgestone qualifiers, was not quite enough, and in the end only 0.139 separated the front row trio.

2006 racewinner Nicky Hayden will head the second line at tomorrow´s race, ahead of LCR Honda´s Randy de Puniet and Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards. The front two rows all rode round under the previous 1´36.411 pole record.

Second Fiat Yamaha man Jorge Lorenzo is accompanied by 2007 poleman Chris Vermeulen and 2006 race runner-up Shinya Nakano on the third row.

Toni Elias looks set to start his first ever MotoGP race at Assen after completing the qualifying session without incident. The only crashes were a pair of falls by John Hopkins, the latter a particularly high speed lowside that ended his session and saw him whisked to the Clinica Mobile. He was diagnosed with an ankle fracture and will miss tomorrow's race.


250cc

Alvaro Bautista took his fifth pole position of 2008 in a 250cc qualifying session that saw minimal improvements to the Thursday times. The Spaniard´s previous best of 1´39.510 remained unbeaten in the second grid-deciding run, with the Mapfre Aspar rider himself coming closest. Whilst it is another great qualifying result for Bautista, it does come with some baggage of its own: in the previous four pole-sitting races this year, the former 125cc World Champion has yet to taste victory.

The latest pole, in the last World Championship action of the day, meant that the polemen in MotoGP, 250cc and 125cc all remained the same as those for last weekend´s bwin.com British Grand Prix.

Also using his Thursday best to qualify on the front row was second fastest rider Hector Barbera, on the first line for the fourth consecutive race. The Team Toth rider ran off track in the second session, during which his fastest time was nearly a second slower than that of Bautista.

Marco Simoncelli made improvements to his times, but remains in third on the grid, whilst Alex Debon picked also picked up his pace to put himself on the front row and relegate Lotus Aprilia teammate Aleix Espargaro to the head of the second line. He took a long lowside into the gravel at the midway point of the session.

Thomas Luthi, Julian Simon and Lukas Pesek complete the second row for the quarter litre race, whilst World Championship leader Mika Kallio will once again face an uphill struggle from the eleventh spot.


125cc

As happened last weekend at Donington Park, a change in track conditions at Assen left no change at the head of the 125cc provisional grid. Simone Corsi was once again the big beneficiary in the second qualifying session, with his Thursday time of 1´45.533 untouched in the Friday run.

Taking his third pole of the season, the Jack&Jones WRB rider was nearly two seconds slower in his final qualifying outing, a general trend on a track damp but not fully wet. He will be joined by Polaris World´s Bradley Smith, Belson Derbi rider Joan Olive and series leader Mike di Meglio on the front row, with the latter suffering a late crash just moments before the end of the session.

Sandro Cortese and Donington racewinner (and fastest Friday rider) Scott Redding feature on the second row, accompanied by Raffaele de Rosa and Nico Terol, whilst further back lie a trio of riders for whom a bad Friday result will certainly not help their cause. Sergio Gadea and Stefan Bradl occupy spots on row three, whilst World Champion Gabor Talmacsi takes off from a lowly thirteenth.

During the final session a huge highside from Bradl, taking out Lorenzo Zanetti as his bike slid across the track. Fortunately the rest of the field were able to take evasive action.

Source: Dorna

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