Rain respects qualifying sessions and Sebastián Porto takes new pole in 250.
Alex Barros sixth and Rubén Xaus ninth in MotoGP; Pablo Nieto second fastest in 125.
Finally the rain did not spoil the party and most of the World Championship riders were able to enjoy a second qualifying session on a wet track. Most of them, because the 125 GP riders, the first ones to start the qualifying session, did have a wet track after the several rain showers in the morning over the Dutch layout.
In MotoGP, the day was filled with incidents for the Repsol Honda Team rider Alex Barros. A crash in the morning and another one at the beginning of the qualifying session, hindered Alex from working on his Honda’s set-up under normal conditions. However, Barros managed to get a place on the second row of the starting grid at the end of the session – sixth fastest time -, and has chances to fight for a place on the podium tomorrow. His teammate Nicky Hayden did not feel comfortable on the bike at any moment of the weekend and his place on the starting grid, sixteenth, turns his chance for a good race performance quite complicated. Rubén Xaus continues to be the fastest of the Ducati riders and keeps on surprising everybody with his performances on the track. He was second fastest in the morning’s free practices and finally ninth in the qualifying practice, and will therefore take the start tomorrow from the third row of the starting grid.
In the 250, Sebastián Porto did not want any surprise and after controlling his rivals during the second qualifying session, while he was working on the set-up of his Aprilia, he set an unreachable time in the last minute of the session which nobody was able to improve. His time is the fastest time ever set in Assen on a 250cc bike and he has also improved by almost half a second the pole set last year. This has been Sebastián Porto’s third pole of the season. Second fastest was Pedrosa, more than seven tenths behind the Repsol rider. Fonsi Nieto finished ninth fastest and will be starting tomorrow from the third row of the starting grid.
The less fortunate with regard to the weather conditions today were the riders of the 125 GP, who found a completely wet track during the qualifying practice after the heavy rain in the morning and some minutes before the start of the session. The positions have been changing during the fight for the pole position, with Dovizioso, Repsol rider Pablo Nieto, Stoner, Jenkner and Locatelli swapping places. Two minutes before the end of the session, Pablo Nieto made a clever move and moved up to the second final position. With an almost dry line, Pablo and his team decided to mount mixed compound tyres on his Aprilia, thus giving him a provisional pole in his very first lap. Casey Stoner answered only one minute later setting a faster time and despite Nieto’s attempts to get the first place back, the rain began to show up at the end of the session and Pablo decided not to risk a crash. His teammate Sergio Gadea had a good performance today: twelfth in the morning, Sergio knew perfectly well how to wait for his moment to improve his time by more than four seconds moving up to the eighteenth position on the grid, allowing him to start tomorrow from the fifth row of the starting grid.
