ROSSI TAKES FOURTH POLE OF THE SEASON AT ASSEN
 Gauloises
Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi will start the seventh round
of the MotoGP World Championship from the front of the grid
as he chases his sixth victory of the season at the 75th anniversary
Dutch TT tomorrow. Rossi took pole position with his final
lap of this afternoon’s qualifying session, clocking
a time of 1’58.936 to hold off the challenge of Sete
Gibernau and Marco Melandri (both Honda), who complete the
front row. Rossi’s Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin
Edwards kept his promise to set a vastly improved lap time
as he worked out his braking markers at the remodelled version
of a circuit he knows well from his days in the World Superbike
series. Cheered on by a vast army of travelling British fans,
Edwards will start from the second row of the grid after taking
1.5 seconds off his best time from yesterday to take sixth
place on the grid. High temperatures and blazing sunshine
continued today, with the thermometers reaching 36ºC
during the afternoon session. However, the local weather forecast
is predicting that the early summer heat wave will end abruptly
tomorrow morning, with thunderstorms expected to continue
all day.
VALENTINO ROSSI (Pole Position, 1’58.936, 23
laps)
“I am very happy because it is great to ride at this
track on a qualifying tyre - the emotion is incredible. The
bikes are so fast and this track also, even with the modifications
it is still one of the best in the world. I was lucky because
I was able to use both of my qualifying tyres at 100%. With
the first one I set a 1’59.4, which was a great lap,
but I looked at it and thought maybe I could go a little faster.
I had to wait a while because there were a lot of riders waiting
for me on the last lap and I left it until the last moment,
because it’s better to have no one in front of you here
when you are trying to set a fast lap. The last lap of 1’58
was fantastic. I’m happy to start from pole position
because tomorrow for sure will be a hard race. We’ll
wait to see what the weather does but if the temperatures
are like today it will be very tough for the riders and the
tyres.”
COLIN EDWARDS (6th, 2’00.006, 22 laps
“I knew yesterday that we had some good ideas to help
us improve our time today and I think it’s fair to say
we’ve taken a giant leap forward with the set-up of
the bike. This morning we fixed the rear traction problems
I’ve been having and we’re starting to understand
the differences between Valentino’s riding style and
mine. Whilst it seems Valentino can ride pretty much anything,
my style is ingrained in me and I need a little help to load
up the rear, which is what we have done here. It is helping
me get the power to the ground and today I set six or seven
laps in the low 2’00s, which is a decent race pace.
I still feel that it can come down a little further, and it
will need to for tomorrow’s race. I’ve really
noticed the support from the British fans here, which has
been great. Hopefully it will stay dry for them tomorrow although
if it rains I’ll be quite happy because I’m interested
to see how this set-up works in the wet.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – TEAM DIRECTOR
“It is always a great emotion to watch Valentino ride
in that way – his two fast laps were fantastic. Both
our riders set a fast pace throughout the session and Colin
was able to get a good position for the race, which I am very
pleased about. I think the whole team can look forward very
positively to tomorrow. The rain might be an issue but I’m
sure our technicians will manage… and the riders too!”
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