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2008-06-27 Casey Stoner takes Assen pole
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 Casey Stoner today took his third pole position in a row, obviously preparing everyone for another runaway race. Dani Pedrosa managed to grab second place on the grid in last seconds of the session. Valentino Rossi completed front row of 2008 MotoGP title rivals. Qualifying in Assen today will be event to forget for John Hopkins, who suffered high-speed lowside and smashed into tyre wall, suffering tibia and ankle fractures that will put him out of action for one or two next races. Read rider impressions after Assen qualifying.
Casey Stoner - 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.
Dani Pedrosa - 2nd - 1:35.552:
Casey will try to escape from the pack at the start, which means it will be crucial to get a good start and try to stay in contact. We still have some improvements to make. This is a very complex track for set-up and we need to try some small changes to help me feel at ease on the bike because the pace is going to be very fast tomorrow. Once again the weather has played a part, this morning's rain meant we couldn’t do any proper work with slicks, so we aren’t yet 100 per cent sure about our race tyre choice. If it rains again tomorrow, the race will be more complicated.
Valentino Rossi - 3rd - 1:35.659:
Like always, the front row is our target and so we are happy with this third position. Anyway it’s better than last year, when I was 11th! We made some small modifications with the qualifying tyre and today everything seemed to work very well. Now we hope that it will translate to the race tyre, although of course we have to wait and see what the weather is like before we can make a choice, things change so quickly here! I was able to try for pole and I thought it was possible on the last lap, but unfortunately I had a small problem with the last tyre. Today we were all very close, closer than yesterday, but I think we still need to improve a bit more if we’re going to be sure to be able to fight with Casey, so we will try to finalise things tomorrow morning.
Nicky Hayden - 4th - 1:35.975:
This morning the bike was working quite good in the wet and on intermediates. That session sucked for learning much about the dry, but I got some good experience out there on intermediates front and rear and it felt quite good, I was able to stay out and get a good feel for it. The Michelin qualifiers were working awesome round here, every one we put in I kept getting faster, so it would’ve been fun to fire the last one in there. It’s going to be a hard race tomorrow, I’m not making no predictions, we’ll see what we can do, go for the best result we can.
Randy De Puniet - 5th - 1'35.985:
It’s a good weekend so far because I feel comfortable on the bike and all the practice sessions were pretty positive. We found a competitive overall package and I want to thank my team for their good job including Michelin because the race tyres we tested were all of a good grip level: even my laps on qualifiers were good and the second row start will help me to stay with the leaders. Tomorrow’s race will be very close but I am looking forward to ending this week end in the most positive fashion.
Colin Edwards - 6th - 1:36.278:
The grip didn’t seem to be quite as good as yesterday and the times on race tyres weren’t as good because of this morning’s rain. I put my first qualifier on and did a 36.2 and I thought ‘awesome.' I told my team I could do a mid-35 because that first qualifier is always just getting used to the extra traction, so I was really confident and I expected to be on the front row. But on my next set of tyres and it just never happened. Most corners at this track are right-handers and I had an issue with the right side of the front tyre. It wasn’t chatter and it is really strange. I’m not blaming anybody but I can’t remember the last time I had this problem. But I couldn’t go fast and I didn’t have the same issue with the first set and I didn’t change the bike. I wasn’t too worried because I had another set and went out and it was the same problem but even worse on the left side of the front tyre. The right was perfect but I was struggling to get my knee on the ground on the left and it was weird. We need to have a look at the data and talk it over with the guys but it has really thrown me because I'm not sure what caused it. But I’m ready for tomorrow whether it’s raining or not. I was pleased it rained this morning because we got the bike set-up good for the rain. I can’t complain too much being on the second row with some of the problems I had.
Jorge Lorenzo - 7th - 1:36.532:
Today was a bit better than yesterday and I felt stronger, even if the improvement is still not what I hoped for since Donington. With race tyres we still have some problems, although it was better than yesterday with a new setting, but with my Michelin qualifying tyres I was able to push more and seventh is not so bad for us today. The front riders are very fast here and we know that to stay with them is going to be very difficult, but I have more confidence today and so I hope that I can be at least in the top seven. If I can do this I will be happy. We still have to go step-by-step and if I can improve a bit again tomorrow then I hope to be able to push more within the next two or three races.
Chris Vermeulen - 8th - 1:36.768:
It was a difficult qualifying session because we had so much work to get through after losing so much time this morning. We had a lot of set-up changes that we wanted to try but it was too wet earlier and we lost a lot of time sitting in the garage just waiting to see what the weather was going to do - so really from the morning session we didn’t learn anything at all! In the qualifying session we got a little bit lost with set-up because we tried so many things, and in the end we went back to what we ran yesterday and that seemed to work well. My last couple of qualifying laps were pretty good and I managed to get on to the third row and scrape something out of the session. At least we are up there and if we get a good start and a strong first few laps, I think we can be competitive and fight for at least a top five finish.
Shinya Nakano - 9th - 1:36.804:
I expected a better result because we’ve been working well on qualifying tyres recently and the bike setting was good. A fast lap just didn’t come though, and that may be because the front-end was not our strongest point today. In any case, a third row start is not a disaster and we can still do well in tomorrow’s race.
Andrea Dovizioso – 11th - 1:36.899:
Tomorrow I think I can battle for the fourth or fifth position. Although I will have to make a good start, not make any errors and get to the first corner in a good position, because in the first part of the circuit it’s difficult to overtake! Many other riders are able to run a race-pace near to mine, and I believe that I can still improve a few things during the warm-up session tomorrow. A consistent lap time of around 1m 37.5s is what I’m aiming for, and with this in mind I think we can be in the top five. It seems that I cannot improve my performance on the qualifying tyres, because I do not have the confidence with the front tyre that I need and also a little vibration also disturbed my pace. We still have to do some development on the setting of the suspension before the race, to get it to work a little better during the fast corners on the track, where you really need to have good support from the front tyre.
Ales De Angelis - 12th - 1:36.948:
We’ve shown over the past few rounds that we have a good package in race trim and thanks to the support of Bridgestone we now have a tyre that suits my style of riding. However, I’m still having trouble adapting my pace to a qualifying tyre and I can’t get the maximum out of it yet. I’ll be limited by my starting position but I showed today my pace is good again. I did a couple of laps in 1m 37.2s on race rubber so I’m confident, even though it’s not easy to overtake here.
James Toseland - 13th - 1:36.978:
I wasn’t on a bad lap on the last lap but I had a big moment coming out of the last chicane and lost all my time. I was only eight-tenths off the leader in the first three splits so it was looking good for the third row. But that mistake cost me and it is a bit unfortunate. The third row would have been a good result. At the start I went out on Colin’s set-up with a couple of modifications and it wasn’t too bad. Then I went out on the other bike which also had Colin’s set-up, but with a few more tweaks to suit me and it wasn’t any better. We ran that with the qualifiers but looking back we had a better base setting with the other bike and we could have done a bit more with the softer tyres. I’m hoping warm-up is going to be dry because at the moment we seem to take a long time to get the set-up. We are still looking to improve it again on the day of the race. The bike needs to be sorted for the race after qualifying and we have got to improve in that area. I’m still holding my breath at every corner and that’s not the way to be riding. I need to get back into the comfort zone. I got into the 37s at the end on race tyres and other than Casey I think race pace will be high 36s and low 37s. I’m sure I’ve got mid-37s in me and that is likely to be fighting for the top six. That’s the target tomorrow but I just want a good solid result at the moment. I have got to finish and get a good race under my belt and be back in the top ten.
Anthony West - 16th - 1:37.793:
This morning was wet and we found a good pace but it’s a completely different situation in the dry. We’ve not had many problems with the spinning that we have had in the past, which is one forward step, however, with the extra grip from the rear, I just can’t get the bike to turn. At Donington we could get away with this, but the Assen circuit is one where the corners flow together, and it’s vitally important to be accurate with the correct lines to set up each corner. The problem I’ve got means that it just isn’t possible, I can’t get on the gas because the bike just runs wide and it messes up an entire lap, which is really frustrating. I feel like I’m battling to get around here and the problem was exaggerated with a qualifying tyre because it has so much more grip. On a positive note we do have a lot more usable traction on a race tyre, so if we can find a compromise to have a more balanced set-up, then I am certain we can be in contention and I’ll be looking to achieve a good result tomorrow.
Marco Melandri - 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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