FIM MotoGP World Championship Assen, Netherlands June 27, 2008 Qualifying Results: 1. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:35.520 2. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.552 3. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Bridgestone, 1:35.659 4. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.975 5. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.985 6. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:36.278 7. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:36.532 8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:36.768 9. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:36.804 10. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:36.823 11. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), Michelin, 1:36.899 12. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:36.948 13. James TOSELAND (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:36.978 14. Toni ELIAS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:37.287 15. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:37.643, crash 16. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:37.793 17. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:38.726 18. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, no time recored, did not qualify More, from a press release issued by Dorna: Stoner continues pole position roll with Assen top spot A-Style TT Assen Friday June 27th Report Day 2 Stoner takes pole in Assen 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. More, from another press release issued by Dorna: A fantastic one hour MotoGP qualifying session just whetted the appetite for the 26 lap Dutch TT at Assen tomorrow afternoon. The Championship chasing trio of Valentino Rossi. Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner decimated the lap record round the legendary 2.80 mile track in the north of Holland as they fought for pole position. In a hectic last couple of minutes it was World Champion Stoner riding the Marlboro Ducati who grabbed his third successive pole position but only after a tremendous fight by first Rossi and then by Pedrosa in the very last few seconds. Riding the Repsol Honda ,Pedrosa almost took pole on his very last lap but had to settle for second and is joined on the front row by Championship leader Valentino Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha. The trio were separated by just over one tenth of a second to set up a tremendous battle tomorrow. The 2006 Assen winner Nicky Hayden heads the second row where he’s joined by Frenchman Randy De Puniet and American Colin Edwards with triple Assen winner Jorge Lorenzo , last year’s pole setter Chris Vermeulen and Shinya Nakano completing the third row. Two riders will miss the race. John Hopkins was lucky to escape with a broken left ankle after an horrendous looking 150 mph crash from his Kawasaki while Loris Capirossi has been ruled out after lacerating his right forearm when he crashed the Rizla Suzuki on Friday afternoon. TOSELAND DISAPPOINTED BY THIRTEENTH It was a tough session for Yorkshireman James Toseland who finally qualified 13th riding the Tech 3 Yamaha. He struggled with set-up in the dry qualifying session after finishing an impressive fourth in the damp morning practice. “I’m disappointed not to have done better but it was the best I could do with the set-up we had,” explained the 27 year old British star.” For the last few races I’ve been hoping for dry weather and then today I put in better times in the wet than the dry. I’m just trying to focus on the bike set-up. It’s still my debut season so I can’t expect to be on the podium right from the outset.” SMITH AND REDDING WELL SET WITH THURSDAY TIMES. Heavy overnight rain and then strong winds meant the leading 125 cc riders could not improve on their Thursday qualifying times in this afternoon’s second session resulting in a front row start from Bradley Smith and a sixth place start for Scott Redding. It was another amazing day for 15 year old Redding who crashed without injury in the morning drizzle and then set the fastest time in the afternoon qualifying riding the Blusens Aprilia. Seventeen year old Smith’s qualifying time yesterday on the Polaris World Aprilia means he will start from second place alongside pole setter Simone Corsi in the 22 lap race. Danny Webb has been receiving laser treatment on the right collarbone he broke in Donington and hopes to be fit for the German Grand Prix in two weeks time. Ulsterman Eugene Laverty improved his 250 cc lap times by three tenths of one second by will still start from 20th place in the 24 lap race. More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: REPSOL HONDA RIDERS SECOND AND FOURTH ON GRID Dutch TT, Assen Qualifying, Friday June 27 2008 Repsol Honda RC212V rider Dani Pedrosa was in dazzling form at Assen this afternoon, ending up just 0.032 seconds off pole position. Team-mate Nicky Hayden also enjoyed a strong qualifying session, the American fourth quickest, just 0.455 seconds off pole. Pedrosa and Hayden were also impressive in this morning’s practice session, run on a damp and drying track, ending the outing in first and third positions. This afternoon’s conditions were dry but blustery, Pedrosa’s final lap taking him to a tantalisingly close to pole-sitter Casey Stoner. Hayden, using the pneumatic-valve RCV engine for the second race, might have done even better if he had had time to use his final qualifying tyre. He also lost some time on his fastest lap when John Hopkins crashed just in front of him as they attacked the high-speed Ramshoek left-hander in the closing stages of the hour-long outing. Tomorrow’s 60th Assen World Championship TT is the ninth race of the 2008 season and the halfway point in the 18-race campaign. Dani Pedrosa, 2nd fastest, 1m 35.552s “I’m very happy with this afternoon’s result, especially because this will be the first time I’ve started from the front row in MotoGP at Assen. The first part of the track is very tight, so it is really important to start from the front row here. Casey will try to escape from the pack at the start, which means it will be crucial to get a good start and try to stay in contact. We still have some improvements to make. This is a very complex track for set-up and we need to try some small changes to help make me feel at ease on the bike because the pace is going to be very fast tomorrow. Once again the weather has played a part, this morning’s rain meant that we couldn’t do any proper work with slicks, so we aren’t yet 100 per cent sure about our race tyre choice. If it rains again tomorrow, the race will be more complicated.” Nicky Hayden, 4th fastest, 1m 35.975s “This morning the bike was working quite good in the wet and on intermediates. That session sucked for learning much about the dry but I got some good experience out there on intermediates front and rear and it felt quite good, I was able to stay out and get a good feel for it. This afternoon seemed to go so quick. We tried a couple of little things on the front, but after the first run we had to go back to what we had before because the changes helped in some areas but overall they made it worse. We started putting our qualifiers and then I had an issue with the clutch which lost us some time in the tyre changes, so ultimately I didn’t get to use my last qualifier, so we had one bullet left in the chamber that we didn’t use. The Michelin qualifiers were working awesome round here, every one we put in I kept getting faster, so it would’ve been fun to fire the last one in there. It’s going to be a hard race tomorrow, I’m not making no predictions, we’ll see what we can do, go for the best result we can.” Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager “Both riders did a very good job today, both of them in the top four in both sessions, so my thanks to them and to the team. I think they have both got their machines working very well round here. The start is extra important at this track, so it is great news to have both our riders on the front two rows. Their race pace isn’t so bad, but we know tomorrow won’t be easy because there are many strong riders out there. As always, we will challenge for the win.” More, from a press release issued by Michelin: 2008 MotoGP World Championship, round nine Dutch TT, Assen Qualifying report, Friday, June 27 MICHELIN MEN ENJOY FAST ASSEN QUALIFYING Michelin’s MotoGP men packed the front-running positions in this afternoon’s Dutch TT qualifying session, with two Michelin riders in the top four and five in the fastest seven. In this morning’s damp session Michelin riders monopolized the top four positions. Today’s weather stayed faithful to the Assen tradition with rain before the morning session and bright, blustery conditions this afternoon. Wet weather is a theme of the 2008 season, with rain affecting most of the nine race weekends so far. World-title challenger Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) was Michelin’s top performer today, topping the morning outing and claiming second on the grid this afternoon after getting to within 0.032 seconds of pole-position man Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici). Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) was third this morning and fourth this afternoon to share the second row of the grid with Randy de Puniet (Honda LCR RC212V-Michelin) and Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin). Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR- M1-Michelin) leads the third row with seventh best time of the day. “That was a tough qualifying but not so bad for us,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing. “The battle this year is very hot, and it’s really exciting and interesting to see how things are developing race by race. Dani’s final lap this afternoon was fantastic. He ended up so close to pole. It is especially important to start from the front here because there is really only one line through the first couple of corners. We’re happy because most of our riders are up front, five of them in the top seven. As is usual this year we’ve had some rain. This morning we weren’t able to do any serious work with slick tires but we got some very good information this afternoon to help us with race tire choice, even though after the rain the track didn’t seem as grippy as before. If it stays dry from now, then I think the surface will pick up some more grip in time for the race. Because we lost this morning’s session we’ve yet to make our final race tire choices, though I think we will be choosing in the medium to medium-hard range, slightly harder than what we used last weekend. Once again, Casey is looking very strong. We will do our best to help our riders to achieve maximum performance.” Pedrosa was happy enough with second fastest, his first time on the MotoGP front row at Assen and his sixth front-row start from the first nine races of 2008. “This is a very complex track for set-up and we still need to try some small changes to help make me feel at ease on the bike because the pace is going to be very fast tomorrow,” said the Spaniard, currently a close second in the title chase. Former MotoGP champ Hayden was fourth quickest for the second consecutive race. “The Michelin qualifiers were working awesome around here – every one we put in I kept getting faster,” said the American, who ran out of time to use his last qualifying tire. “It would’ve been fun to fire the last one in there, but we ended up with one bullet left in the chamber that we didn’t use.” Qualifying session classification 1. Casey STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team), 1:35.520 2. Dani PEDROSA (Repsol Honda Team- Michelin), + 0.032 3. Valentino ROSSI (Fiat Yamaha Team), + 0.139 4. Nicky HAYDEN (Repsol Honda Team-Michelin), + 0.455 5. Randy DE PUNIET (LCR Honda MotoGP- Michelin), + 0.465 6. Colin EDWARDS (Tech 3 Yamaha- Michelin), + 0.758 7. Jorge LORENZO (Fiat Yamaha Team), + 1.012 8. Chris VERMEULEN (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP), + 1.248 9. Shinya NAKANO (San Carlo Honda Gresini), + 1.284 10. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Alice Team), + 1.303 11. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (JiR Team Scot MotoGP-Michelin), + 1.379 12. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda Gresini), + 1.428 13. James TOSELAND (Tech 3 Yamaha- Michelin), + 1.458 14. Toni ELIAS (Alice Team Ducati), + 1.767 15. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki Racing Team), + 2.123 16. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki Racing Team), +2.273 17. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team), + 3.206 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner takes pole in thrilling Assen qualifying Round 9: Netherlands Qualifying Assen Circuit – Friday 27 June 2008 Ducati Corse rider Casey Stoner has claimed his third consecutive pole position of the season in this afternoon’s Assen qualifying session after a thrilling three-way duel with Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi. It is the fourth successive pole position set on Bridgestone tyres this year. Stoner’s time of 1m35.520s shows an almost one second improvement over the existing pole record, also set on Bridgestone rubber back in 2006. Rossi finished a valiant third today, just 0.139s behind Stoner and 0.107s behind Pedrosa, having held provisional pole before each riders’ final qualifying run. The third position represents Rossi’s fifth front-row start of the season. Bridgestone-shod riders fill half of the top ten grid positions for tomorrow’s 26-lap Dutch TT with Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen in eighth, San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Shinya Nakano in ninth and Alice Team rider Sylvain Guintoli continuing his good form in Assen this weekend with his first top ten qualifying position on Bridgestone tyres. A largely wet morning practice session prevented riders, once again, from conducting the longer runs that tyre manufacturers prefer to carry out in order to verify tyre durability. The dry afternoon session did permit some further honing of the machine-tyre packages before riders switched to qualifying rubber. Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development Q: You must be pleased with another pole position? A: “It was a very exciting end to qualifying today with Casey and Valentino exchanging fastest laps on qualifying tyres before Dani set a quick time in the closing moments to split our two riders on the front row. The session was run at a very high level with the best times nearly one second faster than the pole record. We have taken pole position three years in a row at Assen with John Hopkins in 2006 and Chris Vermeulen last season, so I am pleased to continue this trend after another excellent performance from Casey this afternoon.” Q: Will tyre choice be difficult for tomorrow? A: “This morning’s wet session prevented us from carrying out long runs with our riders, a situation similar to what we faced in Donington last weekend. We have a lot of data from yesterday, but we have not been able to verify the consistency of our race specs. The weather is again unpredictable, something we should be accustomed to by now, but it does not make our jobs easy, that is for sure. Hopefully the warm-up session in the morning will be dry so we can get a few more important laps in dry conditions.” Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Qualifying Session Results Pos. Rider Team Qualifying Time (pos) Gap to Pole P1 Casey Stoner Ducati Corse 1m35.520s Pole P3 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m35.659s +0.107s P8 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m36.768s +1.248s P9 Shinya Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m36.804s +1.284s P10 Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team 1m36.823s +1.303s P12 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m36.948s +1.428s P14 Toni Elias Alice Team 1m37.287s +1.767s P15 John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing Team 1m37.643s +2.123s P16 Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team 1m37.793s +2.273s P17 Marco Melandri Ducati Corse 1m38.726s +3.206s Weather: Dry Air 20°C, Track 37°C (Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press relase issued by Fiat Yamaha: FIFTH FRONT ROW PUTS ROSSI IN THE RUNNING AT ASSEN Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi took his fifth front row start of the 2008 season at Assen today, ahead of tomorrow’s 60th Dutch TT. The Italian missed out on pole by just 0.139 seconds and will share the front row with Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, his closest championship rivals. 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: 3rd Time: 1’35.659 Laps: 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.” More, from another press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: 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. Lorenzo’s team-mate Valentino Rossi managed to qualify third today and will be aiming to keep pace with championship rivals Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, in first and second respectively, when the lights go out at 1400 CET tomorrow. Jorge Lorenzo Position: 7th Time: 1’36.532 Laps: 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.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Chris Vermeulen will start from the third row for tomorrow’s Dutch TT at Assen, after qualifying his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R in eighth place during this afternoon’s session. Vermeulen (1’36.768, 25 laps) lost a lot of valuable set-up time during this morning’s final free practice session due to a wet but drying track, following heavy overnight rain. He worked very hard during the qualifying to make up for the lost time and was pleased with the steps taken when it came to using his Bridgestone qualifying tyres to decide his starting position for tomorrow’s 26-lap race. Vermeulen will be Rizla Suzuki MotoGP’s sole representative on the grid for the Dutch Grand Prix following Loris Capirossi’s crash yesterday that has sidelined the experienced Italian with a puncture wound to his right inner forearm. Capirossi was present at the circuit today to support the team and will remain at Assen until tomorrow’s race. Suzuki’s Italian star is already making a good recovery from the operation he had yesterday to repair the injury and is planning to make a comeback at Sachsenring in Germany next month. Today’s qualifying was held in dry, but overcast conditions, reigning World Champion Casey Stoner will start from pole position with championship leader Valentino Rossi in second. Tomorrow’s race is the only Grand Prix on the calendar held on a Saturday and the lights will go out to signal the start at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). Chris Vermeulen: “It was a difficult qualifying session because we had so much work to get through after losing so much time this morning. We had a lot of set-up changes that we wanted to try but it was too wet earlier and we lost a lot of time sitting in the garage just waiting to see what the weather was going to do – so really from the morning session we didn’t learn anything at all! In the qualifying session we got a little bit lost with set-up because we tried so many things, and in the end we went back to what we ran yesterday and that seemed to work well. My last couple of qualifying laps were pretty good and I managed to get on to the third row and scrape something out of the session. At least we are up there and if we get a good start and a strong first few laps, I think we can be competitive and fight for at least a top five finish.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “This morning was really the same result for everyone – it was a waste of tyres and fuel because the weather never stayed consistent enough to get any meaningful information. The conditions were good enough this afternoon to see some amazing lap-times especially from Casey on the Bridgestones. For Chris it was a difficult session and we never really achieved the rhythm that we hoped we’d be able to. However, right at the end he did a great job to get the GSV-R into the top-eight and on to the third row of the grid. The guys know exactly what is needed for the warm-up and race so hopefully we’ll be able to replicate that improvement and run a decent race-pace tomorrow, we know that Chris has great potential and that he is ultra hungry for a good result. “It was hard to see the number 65 bikes in the pit today, all dressed-up, but with nowhere to go! The good news is that Loris is in disappointed but good spirits and stayed to support the team today. He is full of energy and is eager to get back on the bike in Sachsenring in two weeks.” More, from a press release issued by JiR Team Scot Honda: Andrea Dovizioso, ready for a top-five race finish at Assen The second day of practice for the Dutch TT at Assen was hit by wet circuit conditions this morning, thanks to overnight rain. This meant that the confrontation between the top riders was postponed until the afternoon’s qualifying session. Thankfully the sun came out and dried the Circuit Van Drenthe in time. The JiR Team Scot squad worked hard on Andrea Dovizioso’s race pace for tomorrow and are confident that the Italian rider will be able to fight for fourth or fifth position from his starting slot on the fourth row of the grid. Cirano Mularoni – Team Manager JiR Team Scot “The work done today in anticipation of tomorrow’s race gave us some positive signals and tomorrow we will exploit the warm-up for further development before the race. Despite this we are confident that Andrea is able to compete for positions much higher than his position on the grid. Qualifying is a phase in which we have to learn to improve our performance. Usually the race gives more motivation to Andrea, who with a good start should put on a good spectacle for the team and the fans tomorrow.” Andrea Dovizioso Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA RC212V 11th best time: 1’36 “899 “Tomorrow I think I can battle for the fourth or fifth position. Although I will have to make a good start, not make any errors and get to the first corner in a good position, because in the first part of the circuit it’s difficult to overtake! Many other riders are able to run a race-pace near to mine, and I believe that I can still improve a few things during the warm-up session tomorrow. A consistent lap time of around 1m 37.5s is what I’m aiming for, and with this in mind I think we can be in the top five. It seems that I cannot improve my performance on the qualifying tyres, because I do not have the confidence with the front tyre that I need and also a little vibration also disturbed my pace. We still have to do some development on the setting of the suspension before the race, to get it to work a little better during the fast corners on the track, where you really need to have good support from the front tyre.” Gianni Berti – Technical Co-ordinator JiR Team Scot “Today was like a half-day of practice for us all, because the track was wet this morning and this meant we didn’t gather any more data to help us in this afternoon’s session. Despite this, under race conditions we are sure we can be competititve, but thanks to our problems on the qualifying tyres we have to work hard in the early laps and come from the back to the front of the field once more.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: QUALIFYING CRASH RULES HOPKINS OUT OF ASSEN RACE Kawasaki’s John Hopkins has been ruled out of tomorrow’s Dutch TT at Assen, after sustaining a fractured left ankle and suspected compression injuries to his left knee in a high-speed crash during this afternoon’s qualifying session. The 25-year-old Anglo-American lost the front of his Ninja ZX-RR under braking for the left-hander at turn 12, one of the fastest corners on the Assen circuit, in the closing minutes of the timed session. Hopkins managed to separate himself from his sliding Ninja ZX-RR, but sustained the injuries to his left leg when he collided with the tyre wall on the outside of the corner. The initial assessment in the Clinica Mobile was that Hopkins would be out of action for at least 20 days, but the Kawasaki pilot will return to Los Angeles tomorrow for a further medical examination by Doctor Art Ting. Only once full extent of his injuries is known will a decision be made as to whether Hopkins will return to action at the next race in Sachsenring, which takes place in just two weeks time. Teammate Anthony West, who has struggled to recapture the form he found last time out at Donington Park, has suffered with cornering troubles around the technical 4.555km Circuit van Drenthe. The 26-year old had looked strong throughout the wet practice this morning, but with the clouds clearing for the afternoon, the dry conditions brought no joy to the Australian racer. Despite overcoming some of the traction problems that hampered him in the opening part of the season with a new base setting, a frustrated West has found it difficult to turn his Ninja ZX-RR at high speeds, leaving him on the sixth row of the grid in 16th position. As the sole Kawasaki starter for tomorrow’s Grand Prix, West will be fighting to repeat the top ten finish he achieved last weekend at Donington Park. Anthony West “This morning was wet and we found a good pace but it’s a completely different situation in the dry. We’ve not had many problems with the spinning that we have had in the past, which is one forward step, however, with the extra grip from the rear, I just can’t get the bike to turn. At Donington we could get away with this, but the Assen circuit is one where the corners flow together, and it’s vitally important to be accurate with the correct lines to set up each corner. The problem I’ve got means that it just isn’t possible, I can’t get on the gas because the bike just runs wide and it messes up an entire lap, which is really frustrating. I feel like I’m battling to get around here and the problem was exaggerated with a qualifying tyre because it has so much more grip. On a positive note we do have a lot more usable traction on a race tyre, so if we can find a compromise to have a more balanced set-up, then I am certain we can be in contention and I’ll be looking to achieve a good result tomorrow.” Michael Bartholemy Kawasaki Competition Manager “In practice everything seemed to be quite positive and I felt confident that we would be able to achieve a good result here. However, things have not gone to plan today. Anthony has been struggling and John’s crash may affect the next two races, which is a real disappointment. The injuries to his ankle were not caused by the fall itself, but the collision with the unprotected wall on the outside of turn 12. John will now return to America for treatment and we’ll make a decision on Sachsenring once we know the extent of his injuries. Anthony is normally fast at this circuit, but he has encountered some new problems here and we will be working hard to help him find the rhythm he had last time out at Donington Park.” More, from another press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: HOPKINS HEADS HOME FOR FURTHER MEDICAL CHECKS Following his crash during qualifying for the Dutch TT at Assen yesterday, Kawasaki’s John Hopkins this morning boarded a flight for Los Angeles, where he will undergo a further medical examination by Dr. Art Ting. Hopkins crashed at 230km/h towards the end of the hour-long timed session after losing the front of his Ninja ZX-RR at Ramshoek corner, the ultra-fast left-hander just before the final chicane. The Kawasaki pilot slid across the track and through the gravel trap before colliding feet first with the tyre wall on the outside of the corner. Unable to walk, Hopkins was transported to the medical centre by ambulance, where he underwent an initial examination by circuit medical staff. X-rays of his injured left leg revealed that Hopkins had sustained a fracture to the bottom of his tibia and that he had also reopened a previous fracture, the result of a crash earlier in his racing career. The x-rays also showed a fracture to the lateral malleolus, which is one of the bones at the top of the ankle. The medical staff also took x-rays of Hopkins’ left knee to check for possible compression injuries after the rider complained of stiffness and pain in the joint, but these x-rays were inconclusive. Hopkins will undergo a bone scan in Los Angeles that should reveal if there is any additional damage to the lateral malleolus and the knee joint, both of which are difficult to x-ray effectively due to their proximity to other large bones in the leg and ankle. Only after the full extent of his injuries are known will a decision be made as to whether Hopkins will race at the German Grand Prix at Sachsenring. The initial opinion of Dr Claudio Costa of the Clinica Mobile was that, had Hopkins fractured the bones in his right leg and ankle instead of his left, then there was a good chance he could have been fit enough to ride in Germany. Unfortunately it is the left foot that must be used to change gear up to 30 times on each lap, and for this reason there is only a slim chance that Hopkins will be fit to contest the tenth round of the MotoGP world championship in Germany, which takes place in just two weeks time. More, from a press release issued by Honda: PEDROSA ON FRONT ROW IN HARD-FOUGHT SESSION Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) starts tomorrow’s race as second fastest qualifier, just 0.032 seconds short of Ducati rider Casey Stoner’s 1m 35.520s pole time. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) completes the front row. Pedrosa worked hard to keep the flying Stoner in his sights. The Aussie World Champion has been in peak form after his Donington Park victory last weekend and although it first looked as if Rossi would run Stoner closest in qualifying, it was Dani who did it today. And it could so easily have been another pole for Pedrosa. This hour-long session got underway in blustery conditions after rain last night. John Hopkins (Kawasaki) crashed early on and then crashed again at high speed at the end, sustaining an ankle fracture that may prevent him from taking the grid tomorrow. Suzuki rider Loris Capirossi crashed yesterday and a bad gash to his right arm means he will definitely miss this race. His team-mate Chris Vermeulen managed to qualify in eighth place and the Aussie will be the sole Suzuki representative on the grid tomorrow. This session also brought into sharp focus the plight of former Honda rider and Grand Prix winner Marco Melandri, now riding for Ducati. While his team-mate romped to his third successive pole position, Melandri props up the grid from the other end as 17th and last qualifier. Dani was in touch with Stoner’s times early on and lay second with a best lap of 1m 37.628s to Stoner’s rapid early effort of 1m 36.623s. Shinya Nakano (San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V) was looking strong early on too lying fifth quickest with a 1m 37.801s time. Just before the halfway point all six Honda MotoGP men were in the top ten places. Pedrosa third fastest, followed by Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda RC212V), then Nakano, De Angelis, Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V), then Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Scot Honda RC212V) in eighth. But only four of those riders would remain in the top ten. Dani, missing pole by a whisker, Nicky, happier on the pneumatic-valve-engined machine, consolidating fourth on the grid, De Puniet equalling his best qualifying result of the season so far with another fifth place with Nakano managing ninth fastest time. The final ten minutes of this session was a frenzy of brinkmanship with Stoner smashing Hopkins’ 2006 pole time by a staggering 0.891 seconds as he fended off attempts by Rossi and Dani to upstage him here at this famous track. Dani secured his eight front row start in nine races with mere seconds left on the clock while Nicky might have done better had his crew not run out of time trying to fit his final qualifying tyre as the clock ran down. Either way both factory riders are in a position to make the most of this significant mid-season race. Front row starter Dani said: “Casey will try to escape from the pack at the start, which means it will be crucial to get a good start and try to stay in contact. We still have some improvements to make. This is a very complex track for set-up and we need to try some small changes to help me feel at ease on the bike because the pace is going to be very fast tomorrow. Once again the weather has played a part, this morning’s rain meant we couldn’t do any proper work with slicks, so we aren’t yet 100 per cent sure about our race tyre choice. If it rains again tomorrow, the race will be more complicated.” Nicky, on row two, said: “This morning the bike was working quite good in the wet and on intermediates. That session sucked for learning much about the dry, but I got some good experience out there on intermediates front and rear and it felt quite good, I was able to stay out and get a good feel for it. The Michelin qualifiers were working awesome round here, every one we put in I kept getting faster, so it would’ve been fun to fire the last one in there. It’s going to be a hard race tomorrow, I’m not making no predictions, we’ll see what we can do, go for the best result we can.” De Puniet in fifth said: “It’s a good weekend so far because I feel comfortable on the bike and all the practice sessions were pretty positive. We found a competitive overall package and I want to thank my team for their good job including Michelin because the race tyres we tested were all of a good grip level: even my laps on qualifiers were good and the second row start will help me to stay with the leaders. Tomorrow’s race will be very close but I am looking forward to ending this week end in the most positive fashion.” Ninth-placed Nakano said: “I expected a better result because we’ve been working well on qualifying tyres recently and the bike setting was good. A fast lap just didn’t come though, and that may be because the front-end was not our strongest point today. In any case, a third row start is not a disaster and we can still do well in tomorrow’s race.” Dovizioso, 11th fastest, said: “Tomorrow I think I can battle for fourth or fifth position, although I’ll have to make a good start. Many other riders are able to run a race-pace near to mine, and I believe I can still improve a few things during the warm-up session tomorrow. A consistent lap time of around 1m 37.5s is what I’m aiming for, and with this in mind I think we can be in the top five. I can’t improve my performance on the qualifying tyres yet, because I don’t have enough confidence in the front tyre. We still have to do some development on suspension before the race, to get it to work a little better during the fast corners on the track, where you really need to have good grip from the front.” De Angelis, 12th on the grid, said: “We’ve shown over the past few rounds that we have a good package in race trim and thanks to the support of Bridgestone we now have a tyre that suits my style of riding. However, I’m still having trouble adapting my pace to a qualifying tyre and I can’t get the maximum out of it yet. I’ll be limited by my starting position but I showed today my pace is good again. I did a couple of laps in 1m 37.2s on race rubber so I’m confident, even though it’s not easy to overtake here.” 250cc qualifying Alvaro Bautista was in charge of this session and put his Aprilia on pole for the fifth time this season. Hector Barbera (Aprilia) lines up second on the grid while Gilera rider Marco Simoncelli qualified third fastest with Alex Debon (Aprilia) completing the front row. After overnight rain not all riders could improve their Thursday times on the ‘green’ track. Without an accumulation of rubber to enhance grip both Honda men had to rely on their Thursday times for grid position. Yuki Takahashi (JiR Scot Honda RS250RW) starts from tenth, Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT SAG RS250RW) from 17th. Takahashi said: “Yesterday afternoon I ended up in ninth position and I was confident I could improve in the sessions today. Unfortunately the rain made the conditions a little more slippery and I was unable to gain any more positions. Despite this, the team did a great job and we’ve already decided on the tyres to use, so tomorrow in warm-up we’ll verify the suspension settings, but all of this will be dependent on the weather and grip levels, which I hope will both be better than today.” Willairot said: “I’m not too happy with today. After qualifying yesterday we changed the front-end a little with a different spring rate, but I didn’t find the confidence I needed with that set-up. We changed back to the original settings for qualifying and it was much better. The engine is good, if a little down on top speed, the chassis and race tyres are fine. I was fast for the first nine laps of final qualifying. But after I came into the box to change tyres I couldn’t find my rhythm again. We tried three sets of tyres but I couldn’t get close to my best time. Tomorrow I’ll have to run consistent 1m 49s laps to be in the points.” 125cc qualifying Thursday times were required for riders in this class after last night’s rain rendered today’s session redundant in terms of providing enough grip for riders to improve their laps. Simone Corsi took pole with Bradley Smith (both Aprilia) second on the grid, Joan Olive third quickest and series points leader Mike Di Meglio (both Derbi) completing the front row. Louis Rossi (FFM Racing Honda RS125R) qualified 34th and said: “Following advice from my team, I’m trying to change my riding style by breaking up my movements while taking fewer risks. I crashed in the first free practice session, and again this morning in the rain. My session this afternoon was more satisfying and I improved my lap times compared to yesterday. For the future, my aim is to improve my lap times despite it feeling slower on the bike.” Honda rider quotes. GP NL qualifying. June 27. MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2nd 1m 35.552s. “I’m very happy with this afternoon’s result, especially because this will be the first time I’ve started from the front row in MotoGP at Assen. The first part of the track is very tight, so it is really important to start from the front row here. Casey will try to escape from the pack at the start, which means it will be crucial to get a good start and try to stay in contact. We still have some improvements to make. This is a very complex track for set-up and we need to try some small changes to help make me feel at ease on the bike because the pace is going to be very fast tomorrow. Once again the weather has played a part, this morning’s rain meant that we couldn’t do any proper work with slicks, so we aren’t yet 100 per cent sure about our race tyre choice. If it rains again tomorrow, the race will be more complicated.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 4th 1m 35.975s “This morning the bike was working quite good in the wet and on intermediates. That session sucked for learning much about the dry but I got some good experience out there on intermediates front and rear and it felt quite good, I was able to stay out and get a good feel for it. This afternoon seemed to go so quick. We tried a couple of little things on the front, but after the first run we had to go back to what we had before because the changes helped in some areas but overall they made it worse. We started putting our qualifiers and then I had an issue with the clutch which lost us some time in the tyre changes, so ultimately I didn’t get to use my last qualifier, so we had one bullet left in the chamber that we didn’t use. The Michelin qualifiers were working awesome round here, every one we put in I kept getting faster, so it would’ve been fun to fire the last one in there. It’s going to be a hard race tomorrow, I’m not making no predictions, we’ll see what we can do, go for the best result we can.” Randy De Puniet, LCR Honda: 5th – 1m 35985s “It’s a good weekend so far because I feel comfortable on the bike and all the practice sessions were pretty positive. We found a competitive overall package and I want to thank my team for their good job including Michelin because the race tyres we tested were all of a good grip level: even my laps on qualifiers were good and the second row start will help me to stay with the leaders. Tomorrow’s race will be very close but I am looking forward to ending this week end in the most positive fashion.” Shinya Nakano, San Carlo Gresini Honda: 9th – 1m 36.804s. “I expected a better result because we’ve been working well on qualifying tyres recently and the bike setting was good. A fast lap just didn’t come though and that may be because the front end was not our strongest point today. In any case, a third row start is not a disaster and we can still do well in tomorrow’s race.” Alex De Angelis, San Carlo Gresini Honda: 12th 1m 36.948s. “We’ve shown over the past few rounds that we have a good package in race trim and thanks to the support of Bridgestone we also have a tyre now that suits my style of riding. However, I’m still having trouble adapting my pace to a qualifying tyre and I can’t get the maximum out of it. I will be limited by my starting position but I showed today that my pace is good again. I did a couple of laps in 1’37″2 on race rubber so I’m confident, even though it is not easy to overtake here.” Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Scot Honda: 11th – 1m 36.899s. “Tomorrow I think I can battle for the fourth or fifth position. Although I will have to make a good start, not make any errors and get to the first corner in a good position, because in the first part of the circuit it’s difficult to overtake! Many other riders are able to run a race-pace near to mine, and I believe that I can still improve a few things during the warm-up session tomorrow. A consistent lap time of around 1m 37.5s is what I’m aiming for, and with this in mind I think we can be in the top five. It seems that I cannot improve my performance on the qualifying tyres, because I do not have the confidence with the front tyre that I need and also a little vibration also disturbed my pace. We still have to do some development on the setting of the suspension before the race, to get it to work a little better during the fast corners on the track, where you really need to have good support from the front tyre.” 250cc: Yukio Takahashi, JiR Scot Honda: 10th 1m 40.796s. Ratthapark Wilairot, Thai Honda PTT SAG: 17th 1m 41.543s. “I’m not so happy with today. After qualifying yesterday we changed the front end a little, a different spring rate but I didn’t find the confidence I needed with that set up. We changed back to the original settings for qualifying and it was much better. The engine is good, maybe a little down on top speed, the chassis and race tyres also. I was fast for the first nine laps of final qualifying following a fast guy and put in a 1m 49.9s lap and felt OK. But after I came into the box to change tyres I could not find my rhythm again. We tried three sets of tyres but I couldn’t get close to my best time. Tomorrow I will have to run consistent 1m 49s laps to get good points.” 125cc: Louis Rossi, FFM Honda: 34th 1m 50.275s. “Following the advice from my team, I am trying to change my riding style and to break up my movements in an attempt to improve whilst taking less risks. I crashed in the first free practice session, and again this morning in the rain. My session this afternoon was more satisfying and I improved my lap times compared to yesterday. For the future, my aim is to improve my lap times despite having the impression of being slower.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: THIRD CONSECUTIVE POLE FOR STONER, MELANDRI UNABLE TO IMPROVE Casey Stoner took his third pole position in a row at Assen and the thirteenth of his career today, as well as setting an impressive race pace once again. Morning rainfall and afternoon wind did not make life any easier for the Australian but he came on strongly at the end of the session to improve his best lap on each of his three qualifying tyres. During his last run on race tyres the antenna located near the finish line that sends data to the bike’s transponder wasn’t working; Casey could not see his lap times on his dash and they didn’t show up on the circuit monitors. However the problem was quickly solved, and it was Stoner, Pedrosa and Rossi who would battle for pole in an exciting climax to the session, with the Ducati rider’s final effort remaining just out of reach of his rivals. Marco Melandri was unable to improve his best lap time this afternoon and he starts from 17th place. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) Pole Position – 1’35.520 “This afternoon was a lot windier than yesterday and the rain this morning meant that the track conditions weren’t at their optimum: the front was pushing in a lot of corners where you really have to rely on it, so that made life ten times more difficult than it should be! Before we put the qualifiers in we had that problem with the lap time transmitter and I didn’t know how fast I was going. Luckily Dorna managed to fix it before we put the qualifying tyres in and I was feeling confident, but the extra grip offered by the softer rear put even more pressure on the front and I almost lost it on several occasions during the last three laps. To have qualified on pole despite all those things is fantastic! The rain this morning also meant that we didn’t get many laps in on slick race tyres today but that is the same situation for everybody and we did enough yesterday to be confident about tomorrow’s race. This is my third pole position in a row so it shows the great job being done by everybody at Ducati and especially at Bridgestone, who have made great steps forward with their qualifying rubber this season so congratulations to them.” MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 17th – 1’38.726 “I don’t know what to say, other than that I am extremely disappointed to be in a position that doesn’t correspond to my ability, or clearly that of the bike. We’re all trying so hard but we just can’t find a solution to our problems and it’s going to be a very tough race tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi took his fifth front row start of the 2008 season at Assen today, ahead of tomorrow’s 60th Dutch TT. The Italian missed out on pole by just 0.139 seconds and will share the front row with Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, his closest championship rivals. 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.”