Rossi claims phenomenal Pole position at the Cathedral
Assen (The Netherlands), 26 June 2015: Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi wasted no time on Friday in the dry Q2 session to put in some incredible hot laps around the TT Circuit Assen, setting a new circuit best lap record of 1’32.627 and securing the 61st pole position of his career. Assen is the only venue which hosts the race on a Saturday.
Teammate Jorge Lorenzo was unable to ride the hot lap he had in mind and will start tomorrow‘s race from eighth on the grid.
Topping the combined free practice times after FP4, Rossi was determined to drop a hot lap during the 15 minute long time attack. He was the first man to leave pit lane and momentarily took pole before dropping down the order to eighth place. His second attempt didn‘t gain him any places, but his third hot lap moved him up to fifth.
He hastened back to his pit box for some fresh tyres with seven minutes left on the clock. After a minute he was ready to hit the track once more. The Italian was unable to improve on his next lap, dropping down to eighth in the ranking order, but this only seemed to motivate him even more. Completely focused on getting that all important front row start, he gave it his all on his final push and 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.
Teammate Lorenzo also posted some very competitive times, but was unable to keep up his front row qualifying streak of four in a row. He started the Q2 session with an opposite approach to his usual strategy. This time he was the last rider out of the box, to be assured of some clear track space. He briefly took provisional pole with a strong first flying lap of 1’33.146, before being pushed back down to fourth place. On his next lap he improved his time by 0.029s, moving up to third, and quickly returned to the pits for a new set of rubber.
He rejoined the track with a little less than six minutes left on the clock. The Spaniard posted a second fastest time of 1’33.044 on his next hot lap, before being pushed back to fourth. He improved his time by two thousandths of a second on his next lap, leaving him 0.415s from the front, but it was not enough to keep him on the second row. He will start tomorrow‘s race from eighth on the grid.
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