After locking out the practice sessions of Thursday and Friday morning, Marco Simoncelli proceeded to clinch his second career pole position for Saturday’s Dutch TT at Assen. The Gresini rider will share the front row with Yamaha’s Ben Spies and championship leader Casey Stoner, with current title holder Jorge Lorenzo fourth.
The Dutch weekend has already been a dramatic one for MotoGP, with the second practice sessions of all classes being cancelled yesterday to due a Moto2 oil spillage.
With a best lap time of 1:34.718, Italy’s Simoncelli retains his advantage for the weekend but is only nine thousandths of a second quicker than American Spies. On the Tech3 Yamaha satellite machine, Britain’s Cal Crutchlow pulled out a valiant and notable performance for sixth, despite suffering a broken collarbone less than two weeks ago.
With a fresh Ducati contract confirmed for next year, Karel Abraham shot to a surprise seventh for the Cardion AB Motoracing squad although the factory bike of Valentino Rossi struggled, making several visits to the pits on its way to a lowly grid slot of 11th.
In respective 15th and 16th positions, Loris Capirossi and Toni Elías suffered a torrid time for Pramac and LCR, with both men suffering falls.
Saturday’s morning warm-up begins at 9:40am local time (BST 1)
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  M. Simoncelli | Gresini | 01:34.718 | 27 |
| 2. | B. Spies | Fiat Yamaha | 01:34.727 | 27 |
| 3. | C. Stoner | Repsol Honda | 01:35.008 | 25 |
| 4. | J. Lorenzo | Fiat Yamaha | 01:35.143 | 28 |
| 5. | A. Dovizioso | Repsol Honda | 01:35.244 | 29 |
| 6. | C. Crutchlow | Tech 3 | 01:35.329 | 28 |
| 7. | K. Abraham | Cardion AB | 01:35.742 | 28 |
| 8. | C. Edwards | Tech 3 | 01:35.818 | 25 |
| 9. | N. Hayden | Ducati | 01:35.866 | 27 |
| 10. | R. de Puniet | Pramac | 01:36.435 | 29 |
| Full results | ||||
| Marco Simoncelli | |||
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