Valentino Rossi grabs record breaking pole for the Dutch TT

7 times World Champion Valentino Rossi grabbed a much needed pole for the Dutch TT after failing to qualify in the front row from the start of the season. The Italian rider  topped Practice 1 and Practice 3 in rain before grabbing a sensational lap record breaking pole for the Dutch TT in Assen, Netherlands.

The championship leader ended his qualifying glitch which prevented him from fighting for the lead in the last 4 races which was won by his team mate Jorge Lorenzo and Rossi desperately needed a solution to start in the front row to be able to fight for the win to maintain championship fight.

Rossi was the first to enter the track in Q2 and topped the timesheets immediately by dropped down to 8th but a late charge on the third lap took him to 5th before coming for fresh tires for the second run.

The first lap of his second run was not much of an improvement but on the second lap he delivered a brilliant 1´32.627 lap to claim pole. Rossi’s stunning pole is 0.835s quicker than the previous circuit best lap record set by Marc Marquez last year. 

Aleix Espargaro on the Suzuki claimed 2nd spot on the grid with the help of the supersoft tires while world champion Marc Marquez grabbed third on the grid. Championship contendor Jorge Lorenzo managed to qualify 8th after a struggling session. 

Valentino Rossi: “Assen is always special for me, because I have great memories here. I have won here in the past and a lot of important races in my career took place at this circuit. I love this track, because it‘s fantastic. There‘s already a lot of crowd assembled here today and this is a good moment, because it gives you a special feeling when you get the pole position, especially for me, because it doesn‘t happen that often. Getting pole position is vital for tomorrow. It was very important that I started the weekend well, beginning with yesterday‘s first practice session. I felt good with the bike and started with a good basic setting. Today’s result is important because I wanted to start more in front, because we always struggle a lot when qualifying on the second and third row.”

MotoGP 2015 Grand Prix of Netherlands – Qualifying Results