Hopkins takes pole

John Hopkins has taken pole position for the Assen GP after a storming final lap.

The American rider got his first pole position in MotoGP with his last lap in the final qualifying session giving Suzuki their first dry pole since 2004.

Valentino Rossi completed just enough laps to qualify for the race in last place before retiring to his trailer to prepare mentally and physically after his big crash on Thursday.
Click here for your next bike

Read MCN and user reviews

Choose your new kit here
Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano took second place on the grid early on with a very fast lap while Colin Edwards takes the final place on the front row after being held up by traffic on his last attempt to go quicker.

Nicky Hayden leads the second row followed by team-mate Danny Pedrosa and Chris Vermeulen on the second Suzuki.

Marco Melandri rode through what looked like excruciating pain to take seventh on the grid despite only being able to complete 4 laps at a time.

Alex Hoffman managed to qualify in 10th on his first time out on the factory Ducati as he fills in for Sete Gibernau who was injured at the last round.

Casey Stoner was the disappointment of the session only managing to get 12th on the grid.

Grid positions:

John HOPKINS 1’36.411

Shinya NAKANO 1’36.424

Colin EDWARDS 1’36.755

Nicky HAYDEN 1’36.758

Dani PEDROSA 1’36.993

Chris VERMEULEN 1’37.077

Marco MELANDRI 1’37.332

Carlos CHECA 1’37.378

Alex HOFMANN 1’37.399

Kenny ROBERTS JR 1’37.528

Randy DE PUNIET 1’37.556

Casey STONER 1’37.660

Makoto TAMADA 1’37.676

James ELLISON 1’38.055

Loris CAPIROSSI 1’38.060

Jose Luis CARDOSO 1’39.406

Ivan SILVA 1’39.496

Valentino ROSSI 1’40.298