Vermeulen takes first pole of 2007 in wet at Assen

2007-06-29 08:24
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.

Source: Dorna Communications

Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story