Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi has secured pole for the Dutch Grand Prix on Assen’s qualifying TT circuit. His qualifying performance is Rossi’s best of the year, coming in the seventh meeting. Using a medium compound front Bridgestone slick and a soft compound rear he finished 0.085 seconds ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and 0.368 seconds clear of teammate Jorge Lorenzo, both of whom also used medium compound front and soft compound rear Bridgestone slicks, making it the closest MotoGP qualifying session since Bridgestone became the series’ Official Tyre Supplier. At one point towards the end of the session, the top five were split by only 0.100 seconds, and a frantic final few minutes changed the order of the front two rows.

Bridgestone says that it has come to be expected this season that most riders set their fastest qualifying times using the harder option front tyre and the softer rear slick. This combination, says the supplier, gives the advantage of improved front stability, especially under braking, and added rear traction which is important for drive out of turn five and the last chicane in particular. Rossi’s pole lap was 0.7 seconds faster than the fastest race lap set around Assen on a MotoGP machine, a 1m 36.738 recorded by Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner on Bridgestone tyres last year.