Fifth front row puts Rossi in the running at Assen

The bright sunshine of yesterday gave way to bad weather this morning and the first session was run on a wet track, with Rossi finishing seventh. The sun came out after lunch and the track was dry for qualifying, giving the team some time to continue with yesterday's work and refine their dry set-up. During the last third of the session Rossi was able to improve with each of his Bridgestone qualifying tyres and looked to be in with a chance of pole on his final flying lap, when a small problem in the final sector lost him his advantage. Second place behind Stoner looked secure until a last-minute dash from Pedrosa relegated him to the outside of the front row, with his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo two rows behind him in seventh.

Rain is a possibility tomorrow and with the weather at Assen generally changing extremely quickly, the team may have to wait until just before the race to make a final tyre decision. Tomorrow's 26-lap race will begin at 1400 CET.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 3rdTime: 1'35.659Laps: 29
"Like always, the front row is our target and so we are happy with this third position. Anyway it's better than last year, when I was 11th! We made some small modifications with the qualifying tyre and today everything seemed to work very well. Now we hope that it will translate to the race tyre, although of course we have to wait and see what the weather is like before we can make a choice, things change so quickly here! I was able to try for pole and I thought it was possible on the last lap, but unfortunately I had a small problem with the last tyre. Today we were all very close, closer than yesterday, but I think we still need to improve a bit more if we're going to be sure to be able to fight with Casey, so we will try to finalise things tomorrow morning."

Davide Brivio - Team Manager
"It's very good to be on the front row and it was good to see Valentino so fast this afternoon with the qualifying tyre and going very close to pole position. We still have some important final tuning to do in order to be able to stay at the front tomorrow, and then we will just have to see how the race develops. Of course we're all hoping for it to be dry but it's difficult to know what to expect with the weather here! It's clear that Stoner is very strong again, but we will be hoping to be able to go with him."

Third row puts Lorenzo in better shape for Dutch challenge
Jorge Lorenzo finished his second day's work in Assen in a somewhat happier mood than yesterday, after qualifying seventh for the 60th Dutch TT. The Fiat Yamaha Team rookie was struggling yesterday but a good run with his Michelin qualifying tyres this afternoon gave him confidence and he will start tomorrow's race ten places higher than he started last Sunday's in Donington.

After yesterday's troubles a wet session this morning was the last thing that Lorenzo and his team needed, and the Mallorcan was languishing down in 15th place after the rain-hit practice. The sun soon came out though and a strong wind helped to dry the track out, meaning that the team were able to try out a new dry setting in the first half of the afternoon session, which seemed to work well. Things improved even more with qualifying tyres; it was clear that Lorenzo was in much better shape than last week and he will head the third row tomorrow, alongside Chris Vermeulen.

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 7thTime: 1'36.532Laps: 26
"Today was a bit better than yesterday and I felt stronger, even if the improvement is still not what I hoped for since Donington. With race tyres we still have some problems, although it was better than yesterday with a new setting, but with my Michelin qualifying tyres I was able to push more and seventh is not so bad for us today. The front riders are very fast here and we know that to stay with them is going to be very difficult, but I have more confidence today and so I hope that I can be at least in the top seven. If I can do this I will be happy. We still have to go step-by-step and if I can improve a bit again tomorrow then I hope to be able to push more within the next two or three races."

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager
"Overall this afternoon was important and interesting because we found some general improvement, even if we still have more work to do. Unfortunately the weather didn't help us this morning and for us it was an almost useless first session. In the afternoon we decided to try the new setting that we found last night and, although our lap time was more or less the same as yesterday, other riders were a bit slower than yesterday with race tyres due to the different track conditions and so this is actually encouraging for us. With qualifying tyres we were able to be in seventh place, which is much better than in Donington and gives us some confidence for the race tomorrow."

Edwards on second row, Toseland 13th in Assen

A windy but dry qualifying session in Assen today ended with Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards claiming his ninth successive top six grid position in 2008. On his first set of Michelin qualifying tyres, the American posted a best time of 1.36.278 to move to the top of the timesheets as he went in search a fifth front row start in nine races.

Edwards though, who has won three World Superbike races at the historic Assen circuit, was thwarted in his attempts to improve his lap time by minor front tyre issues with his last two sets of qualifying tyres. He eventually had to settle for sixth place, but is confident he can mount a podium challenge in tomorrow's 26-lap race, despite a strong chance of rain. Inclement weather conditions this morning gave Edwards the chance to improve his rain setting after encountering some problems a week ago at the British GP.

James Toseland will start from 13th on the grid as he continued to try and adapt to a new set-up on his YZR that he first tried yesterday. Only a small mistake on his last flying lap cost him the chance of a third row start.

Colin Edwards 6th 1.36.278 - 23 laps
"The grip didn't seem to be quite as good as yesterday and the times on race tyres weren't as good because of this morning's rain. I put my first qualifier on and did a 36.2 and I thought 'awesome.' I told my team I could do a mid-35 because that first qualifier is always just getting used to the extra traction, so I was really confident and I expected to be on the front row. But on my next set of tyres and it just never happened, most corners at this track are right-handers and I had an issue with the right side of the front tyre. It wasn't chatter and it is really strange. I'm not blaming anybody but I can't remember the last time I had this problem. But I couldn't go fast and I didn't have the same issue with the first set and I didn't change the bike. I wasn't too worried because I had another set and went out and it was the same problem but even worse on the left side of the front tyre. The right was perfect but I was struggling to get my knee on the ground on the left and it was weird. We need to have a look at the data and talk it over with the guys but it has really thrown me because I'm not sure what caused it. But I'm ready for tomorrow whether it's raining or not. I was pleased it rained this morning because we got the bike set-up good for the rain. I can't complain too much being on the second row with some of the problems I had."

James Toseland 13th 1.36.978
"I wasn't on a bad lap on the last lap but I had a big moment coming out of the last chicane and lost all my time. I was only eight-tenths off the leader in the first three splits so it was looking good for the third row. But that mistake cost me and it is a bit unfortunate. The third row would have been a good result. At the start I went out on Colin's set-up with a couple of modifications and it wasn't too bad. Then I went out on the other bike which also had Colin's set-up, but with a few more tweaks to suit me and it wasn't any better. We ran that with the qualifiers but looking back we had a better base setting with the other bike and we could have done a bit more with the softer tyres. I'm hoping warm-up is going to be dry because at the moment we seem to take a long time to get the set-up. We are still looking to improve it again on the day of the race. The bike needs to be sorted for the race after qualifying and we have got to improve in that area. I'm still holding my breath at every corner and that's not the way to be riding. I need to get back into the comfort zone. I got into the 37s at the end on race tyres and other than Casey I think race pace will be high 36s and low 37s. I'm sure I've got mid-37s in me and that is likely to be fighting for the top six. That's the target tomorrow but I just want a good solid result at the moment. I have got to finish and get a good race under my belt and be back in the top ten."

Circuit Length: 4555
Weather: Dry


2008 MotoGP Netherlands - Assen 27/06/2008
Qualifying 1
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time
1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'35.520
2 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'35.552
3 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'35.659
4 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 1'35.975
5 Randy De Puniet Honda FRA 1'35.985
6 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'36.278
7 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1'36.532
8 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'36.768
9 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 1'36.804
10 Sylvain Guintoli Ducati FRA 1'36.823
11 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 1'36.899
12 Alex De Angelis Honda SMR 1'36.948
13 James Toseland Yamaha GBR 1'36.978
14 Toni Elias Ducati ESP 1'37.287
15 John Hopkins Kawasaki USA 1'37.643

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