MotoGP Final Qualifying Order Assen, Holland 1. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:48.555 2. Casey Stoner (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:48.572 3. Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:49.579 4. Marco Melandri (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:49.679 5. John Hopkins (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:49.684 6. Colin Edwards (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:49.691 7. Anthony West (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:49.807 8. Alex Hofmann (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:49.927 9. Dani Pedrosa (Honda), Michelin, 1:50.132 10. Loris Capirossi (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:50.169 11. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:50.392 12. Alex Barros (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:50.402 13. Nicky Hayden (Honda), Michelin, 1:50.581 14. Kurtis Roberts (KR212V), Michelin, 1:51.259 15. Shinya Nakano (Honda), Michelin, 1:51.827 16. Carlos Checa (Honda), Michelin, 1:53.271 17. Sylvain Guintoli (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:54.253 More, from a press release issued by Dorna Sports: Vermeulen takes first pole of 2007 in wet at Assen A-Style TT Assen Friday 29th June Report Day 2 A Suzuki will be on pole at Assen for the second consecutive year, this time courtesy of Chris Vermuelen in a wet qualifying session. His 1’48.555 lap was seventeen thousandths of a second ahead of nearest challenger and current MotoGP World Championship leader Casey Stoner, and gave him the third Grand Prix pole of his career. Vermeulen’s hot lap came at just the right time for the Australian, as it was almost immediately followed by an increase in rain and wind. The man joining the Antipodean duo on the front row tomorrow had a tough task on his hands after choosing the wrong moment to come into the garage, the Frenchman languishing in 13th until a late burst onboard the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR800 gave him his second best ever MotoGP qualifying result. Heading the second row, Marco Melandri had a similar session to De Puniet, and looked to have put himself in the top three at the death. The fastest Honda rider on the grid will be on his own this weekend, after team-mate Toni Elias was ruled out of action with a broken leg. Melandri’s Gresini Honda colleague today underwent surgery on the injury, which has turned out to be more complicated than previously thought, and has yet to receive word on when he will be able to get back onboard a MotoGP bike. Last year’s poleman John Hopkins was fifth quickest for tomorrow’s race, ahead of the rider perhaps more motivated than any other for the A-Style TT Assen; 2006’s last lap leader and crasher Colin Edwards onboard the fastest Yamaha of the day. Like his Kawasaki team-mate De Puniet, Anthony West also left it late to get the best out of his run-out. West finished the session in seventh after only his second time riding his new machine in the wet, ahead of Alex Hofmann who had been pencilled in for a career best fourth place start until a final minute push from the other riders. Dani Pedrosa and Loris Capirossi complete the top ten, whilst two World Champions in Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden were unable to carry on their free practice session performances and will start from the fourth and fifth row respectively. 250cc Although he only made a brief cameo appearance in today’s 250cc qualifying session, Jorge Lorenzo’s fastest lap from yesterday was never troubled in the wet by any other rider. The reigning World Champion waited in his garage until only 17 minutes remained in the afternoon’s proceedings, before taking to the track to fine tune his wet weather settings. The only quarter litre rider to break the 1’40 barrier, Lorenzo’s 1’39.958 lap from yesterday was a new circuit record at Assen, and two thirds of a second quicker than his closest championship rival and second placed rider on the grid Andrea Dovizioso. Current 125cc World Champion Alvaro Bautista also starts from the front row, alongside Donington Park podium finisher Hiroshi Aoyama. Row two is made up of Hector Barbera, Thomas Luthi who elected against participating in this afternoon’s session- Alex de Angelis and Marco Simoncelli. 125cc The 125cc class also had a wet track and little need to take risks in order to improve positions on their hands, with no rider improving on their Thursday times. Mattia Pasini made it pole number six of the season to continue his recent run of well-deserved good form, and will be aiming for a second consecutive victory to follow up his British triumph. The Italian lines up alongside Lukas Pesek, Simone Corsi and Sergio Gadea on a front row packed with race winners from this season, ahead of another competitive second row consisting of Sandro Cortese, Gabor Talmacsi, Hector Faubel and Raffaele de Rosa. Valuable wet weather experience, if not fast times, was the order of the day for the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup riders. After the dry day yesterday, Johann Zarco held onto pole position ahead of Cameron Beaubier, Kris Turner and Robert Gull coincidentally four of the riders who crashed in practice in Donington Park and, as per the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup rules, were not allowed to take part in qualifying. Twice race winner Lorenzo Savadori, Luis Salom, Christian Trabalon and Daniel Kartheininger will start from row two tomorrow. More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: Friday Jun 29 2007 Dutch TT – Qualifying Practice STONER STORMS TO FRONT-ROW START, CAPIROSSI 10TH Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner scored an important front-row start at rain-lashed Assen this afternoon while team-mate Loris Capirossi secured a place on the fourth row of the grid. Just five days after his convincing British GP victory at a damp Donington Park, World Championship leader Stoner proved once again that he is on the pace, rain or shine. He led much of the wet qualifying session, eventually ending up a close second, just 0.017 seconds off pole. It was his fourth front-row performance of the year and continued an impressive Assen display – first or second in all four sessions. The Australian was fastest in yesterday’s two dry outings and a close second in this morning’s session, also run on a dry track. Capirossi was also running very well in the rain but lost several positions in the late stages of the qualifying session when the rain intensified. CASEY STONER, 2nd fastest, 1m 48.572s “I made a few mistakes early on, I couldn’t really see the edge of the track because my screen was fogged up. That slide didn’t feel as bad as it looked – it went, I backed it off and felt it hooking up again, just waited for it to come back. I had a couple of those moments but other than that the grip was fine, more predictable than Donington. After that we were just slowly building and getting faster, I think if I’d stayed out I could’ve gone a second and a half or two seconds quicker if the rain hadn’t come down again. The soft tyres are working quite well for us, they look like they’ll go the distance. This morning we came up with a really good dry setting, so we’re also looking strong if it’s dry. I think we’re starting to get more and more confident with the bike. We found a big settings change at Catalunya and since then we’ve been very fast, wet or dry. We had to change something because Mugello was difficult, and we were really struggling in some areas at a couple of other tracks, like Shanghai. We’ve improved the front end, making it turn on long corners. Since then we’ve been able to find the settings more easily. It’s not always perfect but we’re able to get a reasonably good setting. From there we just make sure we get the right race tyre, and it seems like the harder the tyre, the better we go. We’re having a nice time of it at the moment.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 10th fastest, 1m 50.169s “I did my best time on hard tyres, then when it started raining very hard with ten minutes to go we should have switched to softer compounds. There wasn’t much time left and we thought it would be very difficult for anyone to improve their times but they did, so I dropped from sixth to tenth. It was my mistake, I didn’t evaluate the situation so well, because this track is very grippy in the wet and it drains very well, so as soon as the rain eased off several riders were able to move up the grid. It’s a shame, because I was riding well, in the wet and notthe -so-wet conditions, but at least that makes me feel confident, even though I’ll be starting from the fourth row of the grid. This morning in the dry we made a few small settings changes, so we are in quite good shape, whatever the weather brings tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Team Roberts: ROBERTS GAINS FIVE PLACES IN WET QUALIFYING Kurtis Roberts, riding in only fourth MotoGP event since returning mid-season, moved from 19th on dry practice times to 14th in a wet qualifying session for Saturday’s Dutch TT – a position he felt might have been better if he’d had a little more time on the tricky new Assen circuit he was seeing for the first time. Roberts, who is substituting for his older brother Kenny, set the time right at the end of the session, at his very last chance, after losing time in the closing stages when he pitted for a tyre change. It meant he was obliged to try for a time with no second chances, crossing the start-finish line some 30 seconds before the chequered flag signaled the end. With work already in progress on a replacement chassis, Kurtis is riding the original 800cc MotoGP prototype. The team hope the new chassis, with significant geometry changes, will be ready for the US GP, in three weeks time, when regular rider Kenny is also expected to return. Free practice for the Dutch TT took place in dry but overcast and windy conditions, with heavy rain falling in time for the final timed qualifying session. A forecast of changeable weather means a strong possibility of further rain tomorrow KURTIS ROBERTS – 14th Position, 1:51.289 It would have been nice to be a couple of spots up. We got all our signals crossed with about seven minutes to go. I’d gone out with 15 minutes left when it rained a lot more. I was just trying to feel my way round and get confidence when I got the in board, and we went back to the tyre I’d done the first half of a session on. I just had one lap left. I tried to hang it out a bit without busting my ass. I’m still trying to get used to the rain feel. The biggest thing is getting through all the years of other tyres and their warning signals of when you’re going to fall off. These tyres are much better. You think about these things, and you go faster the next lap, and it keeps going. The bike worked great. I’d prefer it to be wet. Now we seem at least to be able to race with the next five or so guys ahead of us in the wet, so that’d be nicer than racing with the four guys behind me. KENNY ROBERTS Sr. – TEAM PRINCIPAL I think it’s going good. Obviously there’s a lot of confusion with what tyres we’re getting, for different periods within practice, but I thought that if we’d had another lap or two he’d have been quite a bit further up. And we’re not that far behind now, so it’s starting to work. Kurtis has done a great job. We need one more session. We put on Kurtis’s second tyre, and he had one lap. I said, Man you’ve got to do it. And he went out and did it. More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Vermeulen takes pole as Bridgestone wets excel in Assen Round 09 Netherlands Qualifying Assen, Netherlands Friday 29 June 2007 Riders equipped with Bridgestone wet weather tyres excelled in qualifying this afternoon as Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen took his first pole position of the 2007 season, heading a quintet of Bridgestone-shod riders for tomorrow afternoon’s 26-lap Dutch TT in Assen. Vermeulen, winner of this season’s French GP, finished just 0.017s ahead of championship-leading Ducati rider Casey Stoner who secured his fourth front row position of the year so far. Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet continued a highly competitive Assen weekend with third place, his second front row in three races, after a last gasp flying lap which demoted an equally impressive Marco Melandri down to fourth place on his Honda Gresini. Suzuki’s John Hopkins will start alongside the Italian on the second row of the grid to complete the first ever Bridgestone top five in a MotoGP qualifying session, the tyre manufacturer’s best combined qualifying result since the 2006 Jerez GP. Anthony West will start his second GP for Kawasaki from a competitive seventh one place ahead of fellow Bridgestone-equipped rider Alex Hofmann, who had threatened to hassle the front row this afternoon. Tyre Talk with Junichi Kawajiri Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development What part did Bridgestone’s wet weather tyres play in the excellent qualifying results this afternoon? “There was always a chance that rain would make an appearance for this afternoon’s qualifying session and I think we were quite well prepared for it. For the fourth race weekend in the last five we have been forced to use our wet weather tyres after the rain-affected races in Le Mans and Donington and the wet qualifying session in Mugello at the start of this month. On each of these occasions, we have seen a good performance from our wet tyres and this was again the case this afternoon. In such difficult conditions, while the tyres and the bikes undoubtedly play a vital part, the crucial difference comes from the rider. This afternoon, Chris, Casey and Randy were the class of the field, but there were also some excellent individual performances from many of our riders, which means that all nine riders on Bridgestone tyres will start tomorrow’s race from the top 12, an outstanding performance.” Is Bridgestone satisfied with its race pace in dry conditions? “The three free practice sessions have shown that the competition is very tough here in Assen, but several of our riders have shown a high level of competitiveness so far. Casey has been especially strong with several laps under the critical 1m38s mark. Randy, too, has demonstrated his and Kawasaki’s potential this weekend and his front row start for the race will be a big boost for his chances. We cannot underestimate the opposition, regardless of grid position, because several riders will be battling for podium positions tomorrow afternoon whether wet or dry.” Riding Perspective Chris Vermeulen Suzuki Pole Position “I am very pleased with this first pole position of the season and the third of my MotoGP career. The Bridgestone wet tyres, as usual, performed great today. We tried two different compounds at the rear and just the one wet tyre at the front. The front tyre did the whole session, all 25 laps, so durability was also excellent throughout. I looked at the top speeds of all the riders and they all seemed to be on Bridgestones, so the braking stability from the front tyre is awesome and the rear also gave me a lot of feel. The first five guys on the grid are on Bridgestones, so it goes to show how good the wet tyres are and how it works on all types of machinery. “ Bridgestone Qualifying Practice Session Results Pos Rider Team Best Lap Gap P1 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m48.555s Fastest P2 Casey Stoner Ducati 1m48.572s +0.017s P3 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1m49.579s +1.024s P4 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 1m49.679s +1.124s P5 John Hopkins Suzuki 1m49.684s +1.129s P7 Anthony West Kawasaki 1m49.807s +1.252s P8 Alex Hofmann Pramac D’Antin 1m49.927s +1.372s P10 Loris Capirossi Ducati 1m50.169s +1.614s P12 Alex Barros Pramac D’Antin 1m50.402s +1.847s Weather: Dry Air 14°C, Track 16°C, Humidity 85% More, from a press release issued by Gresini Honda: MELANDRI TRANSFORMS HIS FORTUNES TO QUALIFY 4th – Elias recovers well after the surgery Marco Melandri narrowly missed out on a front row start for the Dutch TT today after being edged out in the final seconds of qualifying practice by Randy De Puniet, who snatched third place by just 0.05 seconds. Series leader Casey Stoner was second fastest as Chris Vermeulen took pole position on a soaking wet track. Melandri, who struggled to find a good pace in the dry morning practice, improved his feeling in the wet this afternoon and was able to set a good pace. After ending the day as the fastest Honda rider, the Gresini Honda man is now confident for the race. The mystery factor remains the weather, with local forecasts predicting rain for the afternoon here at Assen. Meanwhile, Melandri’s team-mate Toni Elias began his recovery from a broken left femur in the Wilhelmina hospital in Assen. Surgery was completed yesterday by Dr Wiesmar in consultation by telephone with the Clinica Mobile’s Dr Costa and Barcelona specialist Dr Xavier Mir. “Post-operation analysis has confirmed the success of the operation,” commented Costa. “The femur bones have settled in well and Toni can now start his programme of painkillers, anti-biotics and anti-clotting medication.” The Spaniard should be discharged tomorrow, when he plans to fly home to Barcelona by a medical equipped jet. MARCO MELANDRI (4th, 1′ 49″679): “We’ve done a great job with the team to improve the feeling of the bike in the wet and it allowed me to set a good pace. We are in good shape for a wet race but we still have some work to do in the dry so hopefully we get chance to do it in the warm-up. The weather forecast isn’t clear but just in case we don’t manage to sort the bike out for the dry then given the choice right now I’d prefer rain.” TONI ELIAS: “I’m better although I didn’t sleep much last night because they had to wake me every two hours to administer medicine. But I don’t feel too bad and I just can’t wait to get home to Barcelona and start my rehabilitation as soon as possible. I want to say thanks to Doctor Costa and all the Clinica Mobile staff for their continuing support.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: Event: Dutch TT – Qualifying Date: Friday, June 29th 2007 Ambient temperature: 14 degrees C Track temperature: 16 degrees C Humidity: 85% DIFFICULT QUALIFYING FOR FIAT YAMAHA TEAM IN RAIN-HIT ASSEN It was business as usual in the MotoGP paddock today, as the bad weather that has become the norm this season disrupted this afternoon’s Qualifying session ahead of tomorrow’s Dutch TT. After a dry session this morning, when Fiat Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards were first and fourth fastest respectively, it was once again time for the riders to put on their rain-suits and do battle with the elements in the fight for grid slots. It was a less than perfect afternoon for the Yamaha pair as they both struggled to match their fast dry pace on the soaking circuit. Both spent most of the session in the bottom half of the order as they searched for the right set-up and tyre combination for the difficult conditions, although Edwards managed to improve things considerably at the end and put in an excellent final lap to move up to sixth, on the outside of the second row. Rossi meanwhile was unable to make such a drastic jump and could only manage 11th, which will see him start from the middle of the fourth row. With better weather promised tomorrow however and both riders boasting a strong race pace in the dry, the pair are confident of being in the mix tomorrow when the 26-lap race gets underway at 1400 local time Colin Edwards Position: 6th Time: 1’49.691 Laps: 24 “This afternoon was quite difficult, which I think was pretty obvious, but we were able to salvage something at the end! I can’t say I’m thrilled with my grid position after how strong we’ve been recently in qualifying but it could have been worse. We used pretty much the same setting we had for the rain in Donington, where things were working good, and once we’d made some small changes and put a softer tyre in we were okay. I saw I had one lap left at the end and I was behind a couple of other riders so I rolled off a little to give myself some space and then just thought “whatever, let’s give it a try!” I took a few risks, put my head down and managed to make it round without any problems. Obviously I would prefer it to be dry tomorrow, in fact the drier and hotter the better! Our race pace in the dry is quite fast so if we have the right conditions then I’m feeling confident about a good race. No mistakes this year!” Valentino Rossi Position: 11th Time: 1’50.392 Laps: 23 “For sure today in the wet we had some problems and the fourth row is not great! Of course in order to fight for the victory here I would prefer to be nearer the front, as to win from the fourth row is quite hard! We’ve given ourselves a difficult job to do and now I will need to do a perfect race, with no mistakes from start to finish, in order to come back towards the front. I’m quite sad about the weather because I think from the front row I would definitely have been in a position to try to win tomorrow. As we’ve proved before however, we know that it’s not impossible to make a good race from the fourth row! We need to make the right tyre choice and we need to make a good start, because it’s not so easy to pass people here. Our pace in the dry this morning was good and luckily we’re expecting better weather. We’ll do our best and see how we go.” Fiat Yamaha Team Davide Brivio Team Director “So, neither of our riders is in pole position, which is the first good thing because it seems at the moment it’s impossible to win from pole! Also Valentino is in much better shape than last year, when he had to start from last position with his injury. It is not a disaster; in Mugello we started from the front row and then we were in eighth on lap one! Of course Valentino has a hard job to do from the fourth row but he has the pace in the dry and we know he’ll try as hard as possible to get back up to the front and fight for the podium. Colin did very well at the end of the session today in very difficult conditions and he deserves to be up on the second row like this. He too has a good pace in the dry and I think we can expect a great race from him tomorrow. Let’s hope we’ve had the last of the rain and we’ll be fighting tomorrow, we’re certainly not going to give up before the start!” More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing: Dutch TT at Assen Friday June 29, 2007 RAIN MAKES QUALIFYING HARD WORK IN HOLLAND With just this one hour of timed qualifying in the premier class, this rain-soaked hour assumed massive significance and in a driving downpour along the sinuous 4.555km of the Circuit van Drenthe it was Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) who took pole from Casey Stoner (Ducati) with Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki) third fastest man. Conditions were truly treacherous this afternoon with the track at a cold 16 degrees and ambient temperature at 14 degrees. Although the morning session was dry, sheeting rain fell for the afternoon qualifying sessions and the 800cc MotoGP machines were more than a handful on a waterlogged track. Stoner was the first man to begin reeling off a series of laps as Vermeulen and then Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V) splashed out of pitlane to sample the slippery tarmac. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) then put in a 1m 56.347s time to go top in the early stages of the hour-long session. And it was a critical session unlike the 250cc and 125cc classes, MotoGP riders have just this one session to achieve their best lap for grid position at the start. And even though the weather forecast for tomorrow’s 26-lap is dry, the grid would be decided in this deluge. There is also the possibility that the forecast might change making wet set-up in this session of paramount importance. Stoner soon began to up the pace recording a 1m 54.667s time and then improving to 1m 51.054s. But Dani was soon to better the Australian’s with a 1m 50.132s time. There is little doubt that Pedrosa is now a wet weather rider of some substance. The rain temporarily abated towards the halfway point of the hour, but almost as soon as it momentarily cleared, the heavens opened again and any thoughts riders may have had of a semi-dry line appearing were washed away. As the rest of the field began to up their pace, Stoner responded by notching up a 1m 48.661s time, just 11 seconds slower than his best time from Thursday in the dry. John Hopkins (Suzuki) put in a 1m 50.227s time to go third while his team-mate Vermeulen achieved a 1m 49.436s to snatch second. With 15 minutes left Dani lay fifth and his team-mate Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) was the ninth fastest man on track with a best time of 1m 50.581s. Conditions were such that even former World Champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) was labouring in 15th spot. With five minutes left on the clock Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V) began to find some speed and moved up to 11th place. But his final effort in the final minute was a masterly demonstration of the Italian’s determination as he sped to the third fastest time. But he was deprived of a front row start by a last gasp effort from de Puniet. Melandri’s Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V) will not be riding for some months after breaking the femur in his left leg in a crash yesterday. The genial Spaniard is aiming to be back for the Czech Grand Prix at Brno at the end of August, but this will depend of the rapidity of his recovery. Marco in fourth said: “This morning I was second from last in the standings after practice and now I have my best qualifying position of the year I just missed the front row. But we need to improve our dry set up because it’s difficult to control engine braking and power delivery in the dry. Normally I would prefer to race in dry conditions but tomorrow I hope for rain if I’m to get a good result.” Dani Pedrosa, who ended the session ninth fastest, said: “We couldn’t get the position we wanted in qualifying today so a good start tomorrow is going to be essential. This morning when it was dry we were working on set-up and tyre choice but I wasn’t particularly comfortable with the changes and I wasn’t able to go quicker than I did yesterday, so our settings are not perfect yet. We’ll have to focus on what we learned today, try to improve the bike in the warm-up tomorrow morning and see what the weather throws at us in the afternoon.” Hayden finished up 13th quickest and said: “All weekend I haven’t been below third in any session and then the skies opened up for us it was really wet out there. I got going at a decent pace mid-session but then at the end I tried a different tyre and it really didn’t give me a good feeling and that’s when the track was probably at its best. I had no feel on the straights and it was just spinning a lot there. It really sucks because we’ve got a pretty good dry race set-up and to start thirteenth is going to make things tough.” Kurtis Roberts, 14th on the grid, said: “It would have been nice to be a couple of spots up. We got all our signals crossed with about seven minutes to go. I’d gone out with 15 minutes left when it rained a lot more. I was just trying to feel my way round and get confidence when I got the in board. I’m still trying to get used to the rain. Now we seem at least to be able to race with the next five or so guys ahead of us in the wet, so that’d be nicer than racing with the four guys behind me.” Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) qualified 15th. He said: “The weather conditions are like England again! We changed front and rear suspension settings this morning in the dry and my rhythm and consistency was getting better and the feeling with the bike was improving but the conditions worsened for this afternoon and we had a wet qualifying session. I hope it’s a dry race tomorrow and I’ll need a very good start from 15th as it’s difficult to overtake at Assen.” Carlos Checa (LCR Honda RC212V) faces a sixth row start in 16th. The Spanish rider said: “I was hoping for a dry day but like at Donington last week I have zero feeling in the rain, especially at the rear, I cannot lean the bike in the turns and it’s difficult to open the throttle. There’s a gap to the leading group so clearly I’m hoping for a dry race in the hope we can make some progress in normal conditions. In these conditions it is not possible to push for a faster time.” In the 250cc class rain hampered riders’ attempts to improve on their times from Thursday and so the grid order will be Jorge Lorenzo (Aprilia) on pole, with his erstwhile antagonist Andrea Dovizioso (Scot Honda RS250RW) alongside him as second fastest qualifier. Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia) was third quickest and Hiro Aoyama (KTM) completing the front row as fourth best qualifier. Dovisioso is 0.7 seconds shy of the pole time while Julian Simon (Repsol Honda RS250RW), the next best Honda qualifier in ninth is 1.6 seconds adrift of Lorenzo’s marker. Shuhei Aoyama (Repsol Honda RS250RW) qualified 14th and Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda RS250RW) 15th. All these riders will move up one grid place though, because the injured Thomas Luthi (Aprilia), who qualified ahead of them, will not ride tomorrow. Dovizioso said: “Today was good in the very wet conditions and I’m OK if the race is held in same conditions. The race rhythm is unbelievably high and if it’s dry in the warm-up tomorrow we need to work on the settings because we need to find a little more front-end stability. We also lack a little rear grip and we need to fix it because I have to get on the throttle really fast off the corners to stay with the fast riders. But we have had this rear grip problem before during the season so we have some solutions.” Simon said: “The qualifying session was not so good for me. At the beginning of the session I had a good feeling with the bike in the wet conditions but I came into the pits to change tyres to a harder compound and after that the feeling was not very good. We have a little work to do on the suspension but that’s about all. The engine is good and if I find better suspension settings then I will have a good race. Of course I would prefer a dry race but I will be ready if it’s wet.” Aoyama said: “Not so bad in the wet conditions the track had much more grip than at Donington last week. At the beginning I took it easy for two laps to get a feel for the wet track conditions then set good lap times. The bike is working really well and the only problem I have is with front-end feeling in the dry, so I hope for a wet race tomorrow.” Takahashi said: “Not so bad with the set-up we have we didn’t have to change much from the Donington Park race of last weekend. We have worked a little on the balance of he bike and improved I found a good rhythm after a few laps. The engine was good and I felt good on the bike. In the wet conditions this afternoon I didn’t have a good feeling. I just hope we have a dry race tomorrow.” With the weather preventing any 125cc rider from bettering his time from Thursday’s session, the order remained unchanged from the first day of qualifying. Most riders ventured out in the soaking murk if only to achieve a workable wet set-up if the promised dry conditions for tomorrow’s 22-lap race. The grid order is therefore: Mattia Pasini on pole with a best time of 1m 45.603s, Lukas Pesek on a Derbi second fastest, Simone Corsi third fastest and Sergio Gadea completing the front row (all Aprilia). The best Honda qualifier is Mike di Meglio (Scot Honda RS125R) in 16th with a time of 1m 47.568s 1.965s off the pole time. Bradley Smith (Repsol Honda RS125R) was involved in a heavy crash yesterday with Aprilia rider Andrea Iannone and the British rider suffered breaks to bones in his left foot and left hand. He will not ride tomorrow. His team-mate Esteve Rabat (Repsol Honda RS125R) qualified 19th. Di Meglio, who crashed yesterday, said: “When I crashed out, I braked hard and the bike lost adhesion at the rear. Anyway the session was good, I’m the faster in wet but despite this I hope tomorrow doesn’t rain because we are OK with bike in the dry. I know I can have a good race tomorrow and I hope to manage a top ten finish.” Honda GP rider quotes Assen June 29, 2007. MotoGP. Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 4th “This morning I was second from last in the standings after practice and now I have my best position of the year I just missed the front row. But we need to improve our dry set up because it’s difficult to control engine braking and power delivery in the dry. Normally I would prefer to race in dry conditions but clear but just in case we don’t manage to sort the bike out for the dry then given the choice right now I’d prefer rain.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 9th. “We couldn’t get the position we wanted in qualifying today so a good start tomorrow is going to be essential. This morning when it was dry we were working on set-up and tyre choice but I wasn’t particularly comfortable with the changes and I wasn’t able to go quicker than I did yesterday, so our settings are not perfect yet. Then in the afternoon the conditions were changing a lot. I could go quite quickly at first but we struggled to find a tyre and settings that worked well in the wet. So we’ll have to focus on what we learned today, try to improve the bike in the warm-up tomorrow morning and see what the weather throws at us in the afternoon.” Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 13th. “All weekend I haven’t been below third in any session and then the skies opened up for us – it was really wet out there. Thirteenth is not a good result for us obviously. I got going at a decent pace mid-session but then at the end I tried a different tyre and it really didn’t give me a good feeling and that’s when the track was probably at its best. I had no feel on the straights and it was just spinning a lot there. It really sucks because we’ve got a pretty good dry race set-up and to start thirteenth is going to make things tough. So I really hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow and that I can get a great start and see what happens.” Kurtis Roberts, KR212V: 14th. “It would have been nice to be a couple of spots up. We got all our signals crossed with about seven minutes to go. I’d gone out with 15 minutes left when it rained a lot more. I was just trying to feel my way round and get confidence when I got the in board, and we went back to the tyre I’d done the first half of a session on. I just had one lap left. I tried to hang it out a bit without busting my ass. I’m still trying to get used to the rain feel. The biggest thing is getting through all the years of other tyres and their warning signals of when you’re going to fall off. These tyres are much better. You think about these things, and you go faster the next lap, and it keeps going. The bike worked great. I’d prefer it to be wet. Now we seem at least to be able to race with the next five or so guys ahead of us in the wet, so that’d be nicer than racing with the four guys behind me.” Kenny Roberts Snr. Team Principle “I think it’s going good. Obviously there’s a lot of confusion with what tyres we’re getting, for different periods within practice, but I thought that if we’d had another lap or two he’d have been quite a bit further up. And we’re not that far behind now, so it’s starting to work. Kurtis has done a great job. We need one more session. We put on Kenny’s second tyre, and he had one lap. I said, Man you’ve got to do it. And he went out and did it.” Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 15th. “The weather conditions are like England again! We changed front and rear suspension settings this morning in the dry and my rhythm and consistency was getting better and the feeling with the bike was improving but the conditions worsened for this afternoon and we had a wet qualifying session. During the first part of qualifying things were not so not bad as I was inside the top 10, but then it stopped raining and it began to dry again and in these changing conditions I found it hard to push hard and the rear was spinning up a lot. When the rain came once more I couldn’t improve on my lap-time and other people had gone faster in the drying conditions. I hope it’s a dry race tomorrow and I’ll need a very good start from 15th as it’s difficult to overtake at Assen.” Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 16th. “I was hoping for a dry day but like at Donington last week I have zero feeling in the rain, especially at the rear, I cannot lean the bike in the turns and it is difficult to open the throttle. There is a gap to the leading group so clearly I’m hoping for a dry race in the hope we can make some progress in normal conditions. In these conditions it is not possible to push for a faster time.” Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: wns Tony Elias will not start the race due to a broken left femur sustained in a crash in practice on Friday.”I’m better although I didn’t sleep much last night because they had to wake me every two hours to administer medicine. But I don’t feel too bad and I just can’t wait to get home to Barcelona and start my rehabilitation as soon as possible. I want to say thanks to Doctor Costa and all the Clinica Mobile staff for their continuing support.” 250cc: Andrea Dovizioso, Kopron Scot Honda: 2nd. “Today was good in the very wet conditions and I’m OK if the race is held in same conditions. The race rhythm is unbelievably high and if it’s dry in the warm up tomorrow we need to work on the settings because we need to find a little more front end stability. We also lack rear grip and we need to fix it because I have to get on the throttle really fast off the corners to stay with the fast riders. But we have had this rear grip problem before during the season so we have some solutions.” Julian Simon, Repsol Honda: 9th.”The qualifying session was not so good for me. At the beginning of the session I had a good feeling with the bike in the wet conditions but I came into the pits to change tyres to a harder compound and after that the feeling was not very good. We have a little work to do on the suspension but that’s about all. The engine is good and if I find better suspension settings then I will have a good race. Of course I would prefer a dry race but I will be ready if it’s wet.” Shuhei Aoyama, Repsol Honda: 14th. “Not so bad in the wet conditions the track has much more grip than at Donington last week. At the beginning I took it easy for two laps to get a feel for the wet track conditions then set good lap times. The bike is working really well and the only problem I have is with front end feeling in the dry, so I hope for a wet race tomorrow.” Yukio Takahashi, Kopron Scot Honda: 16th. “Not so bad with the set up we have we didn’t have to change much from the Donington Park race of last weekend. We have worked a little on the balance of he bike and improved I found a good rhythm after a few laps the engine was god and I felt good on the bike. In the wet conditions this afternoon I did not have a good feeling and this is difficult to understand because I usually feel OK in the wet conditions. I just hope we have a dry race tomorrow. “ Ratthapark Wilairot, Thai Honda PTT-SAG: 17th. “Despite the poor weather, I felt pretty good during the free practice session, I got more comfortable with track. In the afternoon I just couldn’t take any risk because the track conditions and therefore the level of tyre grip changed throughout the session. The most important was to get some mileage in the wet and collect some data which could be useful tomorrow if it rains.” Eugene Laverty, LCR Honda: 21st. “I would prefer a dry race because I think I have the potential to be faster with some set-up changes we wanted to make from yesterday. But the weather spoilt that chance today and then as the track dried out late in the session my wet set-up was unsuitable for the conditions.” 125cc. Mike Di Meglio, Kopron Scot Honda: 16th “I crashed in that sessio, I just braked to lat into the turn and went down. I am OK and the bike was not damaged too much. I hope for dry conditions for the race because our dry set up is very good. The bike I have for tomorrow is good enough to better my sixth place at Donington last week.” Alexis Masbou, FFM Honda: 17th. “I’ve calmed down a lot compared to the previous races. In the dry qualifying session yesterday, I started off on a good pace and was eleventh fastest halfway through the session. We put new rubber in the closing stages and I didn¹t feel as confident. On top of that several riders got in my way in one of my fast laps. We worked late last night with the whole team, to optimise my riding style, because I need to improve the corner entries to be able to exit faster. In the dry this morning things worked out well and I was regularly in the top twelve. In the rain this afternoon I just rode without asking myself too many questions, and I’m satisfied with 10th given the conditions. The forecast is very changeable for tomorrow, it’s difficult to make a guess. But with all the work and effort we¹re giving, it has to pay off one day!” Tito Rabat, Repsol Honda: 19th. “My bike was much better today than yesterday, the engine is fast and the only problem I have is some small suspension set up work to do before the warm up. The weather was against us in the afternoon there was no point pushing at 100% in the conditions I didn’t want to crash and ruin my race. There was too much rain and I could not improve my qualifying time and grid position of yesterday.” Joey Litjens, Molenaar Honda: 31st. “In the morning free practice I was not at all I was only 0.22 seconds slower than my best time of yesterday but I am 31st on the grid. I am really frustrated because in the wet qualifying session I was 13th fastest and I could be aggressive in the wet conditions. I was also 22nd in the dry yesterday so tomorrow, wet or dry, I hope to score points. I have to get with the fast group and hold on.” Danny Webb, Molenaar Honda: 32nd. “Practice was OK my position on the grid is not so good but I improved my time again so I’m quite pleased about that. Yesterday I followed Tito Rabat and set good times he had the fastest bike through the speed trap and I was second fastest so the bike is very good, it was also fast in the wet conditions. I set my fastest lap riding alone so I’m happy with that. In the wet session this afternoon I didn’t have much feel so if it’s wet for he warm up we have to work on the suspension to find more feeling.” Bradley Smith, Repsol Honda: wns. Bradley Smith will not start the race due to crash in practice that resulted in broken bones in his left hand and left foot.. More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Vermeulen takes pole in Assen deluge Chris Vermeulen stormed through wet and windy weather conditions at Assen today to give Rizla Suzuki MotoGP its first pole position of the season. Vermeulen (1’48.555, 25 laps) again showed his wet weather ability as he posted the fastest time of this afternoon’s qualifying session with over a quarter of it remaining. Fresh from his third place in the wet at Donington last week, Vermeulen always looked in control and comfortable on his GSV-R over the treacherous 4.5km Dutch circuit. During this morning’s dry practice session Vermeulen made big improvements to the set-up of his bike and looks in a better position now than at the same time yesterday – if tomorrow’s race is dry. John Hopkins (P5, 1’49.684, 28 laps) was in a front row position for a large part of this afternoon’s session, only to see it snatched away from him right at the end. Hopkins was disappointed not to be starting from the front row, as his performance this afternoon certainly deserved it. He put together a long run on the Bridgestone rain tyres during the qualifying session and his times improved consistently throughout. Hopkins will start from the middle of the second row and is sure to be in contention right from the off no matter what the conditions. Tomorrow’s 26-lap race is round nine of the MotoGP World Championship and the action gets going at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT), when both riders will be looking for glory come rain or shine. Chris Vermeulen: “I’m very happy to be in pole position and again it’s another good result for Rizla Suzuki! It was a strong performance by both of us and a shame that John missed out on the front row right at the end. This was our first wet session of the weekend and that made it pretty difficult to get the bike set-up right, and also qualify, in just the hour. The team did a great job and the bike felt really good. It was easily capable of doing those lap-times in those conditions if not a bit quicker! In the dry this morning we made a lot of improvements and I feel confident now in any weather! We now have to wait and see what the weather does; it needs to be wet or dry because if it is in between here it will be awful!” John Hopkins: “The bike and the tyres were great in the wet today. I was happy with the all-round performance, but I’m disappointed to be just off the front row. The conditions were pretty bad at the end and it didn’t really feel safe to go any quicker than I had done, but a couple of guys hung it out there and just managed to beat my time. Having said that, the middle of the second row is a good place to start and we made big steps with the dry set-up this morning. This afternoon has also given me a lot of confidence and I know that if it’s wet or dry I’ll be trying my hardest to get the Rizla Suzuki on the podium again!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “A superb qualifying result for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP and magnificent performances by both of the riders. I feel so bad for John in missing out on the front row. He put together a 20-lap run in the early part of the session and got into a great rhythm. He has increased his wet weather performances massively over the last couple of races and deserved a better result today. “Everybody knows Chris’ wet weather riding ability and he didn’t disappoint today! He rode within his capacity but still did enough to take pole position. Thanks to everybody at the Suzuki factory and to Bridgestone for producing a motorcycle and tyre combination that is allowing the riders to show their true abilities in all conditions!”
