Rossi edges Biaggi for provisional Assen pole

Valentino Rossi has snatched provisional MotoGP pole in Assen today with a last gasp effort lap of 2:01.691.

Max Biaggi had looked on for a double celebration this afternoon, the Italian was 31 yesterday, and with just seconds to go in first qualifying looked set to top the timing sheets. But Rossi pooped Yamaha’s party with a time just 2/100th quicker than his arch-rival.

The ever improving Kenny Roberts on the Suzuki GSV-R qualified third, both the bike and Roberts’s confidence benefiting from a new chassis. Loris Caiprossi rounds out front row of the grid on the West Honda NSR

Britain’s Jeremy McWilliams was ninth. Bizarrely, following the recent changes to the Assen circuit, the speed trap credits the Ulsterman with the highest top speed – 155.6mph. A novelty for McWilliams whose Proton KR3 is routinely at the other end of that list.

1)V.Rossi 2) M Biaggi 3)K Roberts 4)L Capirossi 5)A Barros 6)C Checa 7)T Harada 8)T Ukawa 9)J McWilliams 10)J Hopkins 11)R Laconi 12)A Hoffman 13)N Aoki 14)S Nakano 15)J Van de Goorbergh 16)S Gibernau 17)D Kato 18)P Riba 19) N Abe 20) O Jacque 21)A Ryo

125 Qualifying:

1)D Pedrosa 2) L Cecchinello 3)A de Angelis 4) M Kallio 5)A Vincent 6)M Poggiali 7)A Rodriguez 8)S Jenckner 9)G Scalvini 10)S Bianco 11)P Nieto 12)J olive 13)M Azuma 14)G Borsoi 15)Y Ui 16)J Lorenzo 17)A Ballerini 18)S Sanna 19)A Dovizioso 20)G Talmasci 21)J Smrz 22)A Bladolini 23)J Hules 24)H Barbera 25)M Fabrizio 26)F Lai 27)C Davies 28)I Toth 29)M Giansanti 30)M Angeloni 31)S Aoyama 32)L Camier 33)R Schouten 34)R Gevers 35)A den Bekker

250 Qualifying:

1)M Melandri 2)R de Puniet 3)F Nieto 4)T Elias 5)S Porto 6)F Battaini 7)C Stoner 8)R Waldmann 9)R Locatelli 10)V Philippe 11)S Yuzy 12)A Debon 13) N Matsudo 14)D Checa 15)H Aoki 16)J Janssen 17)R Rolfo 18)E Alzamora 19)R Jara 20)D Heidolf 21)H Marchand 22)L Haslam 23)H Faubel 24)J Vincent 25)G Pieper 26)T Sekiguchi 27)J Boesveld 28)P Politiek