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."
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