Melandri wipes out Biaggi

Marco Melandri was denied his final qualifying lap at the Assen MotoGP round after dramatically colliding with fellow Honda rider Max Biaggi.

Biaggi had worn out his tyres several laps before the end of the session but continued to ride round the track slowly waiting for the chance to practice his race starts.

Melandri was using the dying seconds of the session to make one final attempt at pole position but came round in to the chicane to find Biaggi on the racing line. He tried to squeeze past but caught Biaggi’s bar and sent him flying. Biaggi managed to recover but was left with very bent controls.

When Melandri returned to the pit one of Biaggi’s fans tried to jump the pit lane fence to fight with him.

Valentino Rossi set pole position for the race on the last lap of the session followed by Sete Gibernau, with Marco Melandri having to make do with the final place on the front row of the grid.

Shinya Nakano led the session for a while but eventually had to make do with fourth place followed by Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards, Loris Capirossi and Alex Barros.

Find out exactly what happened on that final qualifying lap and the rider’s reactions, only in MCN, out June 29.

Check back throughout the weekend for full updates from all the weekend’s racing.

MotoGP qualifying positions:

Valentino Rossi

Sete Gibernau

Marco Melandri

Shinya Nakano

Nicky Hayden

Colin Edwards

Loris Capirossi

Alex Barros

Max Biaggi

Alex Hofmann

Makoto Tamada

John Hopkins

Carlos Checa

Troy Bayliss

Kenny Roberts

Ruben Xaus

David Checa

Roberto Rolfo

Shane Byrne

James Ellison

Franco Battaini