Marco Simoncelli took his second pole position of the season under cloudy skies and a dry track at Assen.
The Gresini Honda rider was consistently fast throughout the session, but so was Ben Spies.
The two riders exchanged fast laps, but Simoncelli upped his pace to finish just a blink ahead of the Yamaha rider (0.
009s) and the two were the only ones to break the 1.
35 mark.
Casey Stoner suffering from a bruised shoulder after this morning’s crash, put in a last lap effort to grab take the third spot on the starting grid.
The three Respol Honda crashes in FP2 cost the team over 300.
000 euros in damages.
Starting on the second row will be reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, while Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso who picked up a micro fracture to his fifth metatarsal in his morning crash edged out Cal Crutchlow for fifth by just one tenth of a second.
The Briton is riding with a broken collarbone sustained during qualifying at Silverstone two weeks ago.
Rookie Karel Abraham (his team renewed with Ducati for another year) had another great showing, taking the seventh spot on the grid and ended up the best Ducati rider, finishing ahead of Nicky Hayden (9th), Randy de Puniet (10th) and Valentino Rossi.
It was another disastrous qualifying session for the Italian who ended up in a quagmire with his new GP11.
1, lingering for almost the whole session down in the back of the field only to pull himself out in the final minutes and take an 11th spot, but a massive 1.
846s off pace.
Loris Capirossi had a bad crash in the last ten minutes of the session with his Ducati hitting his back and the rider lost consciousness for a moment, he has been diagnosed at the moment with at least three broken ribs.
MotoGP Assen Qualifying Results:01- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – 1’34.
71802- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
00903- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
29004- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
42505- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
52606- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
61107- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
02408- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
10009- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
14810- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
71711- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 – + 1.
84612- Hiroshi Aoyama – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 1.
86213- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
87214- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 2.
10215- Loris Capirossi – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 2.
41216- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 2.
93317- Kousuke Akiyoshi – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 4.
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