Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi grabbed MotoGP pole position at Assen this afternoon with a blistering lap of 1'36.025 right at the end of the hour-long session.
It is only The Doctor's second pole of the season and was a tenth of a second quicker than injured Repsol HOnda man Dani Pedrosa, who is still riding using painkillers.
Rossi's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo occupies the final front row grid position and continues his perfect record of starts in the top three for 2009. Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner heads the second row after aborting his final quick lap and Monster Yamaha's Colin Edwards is fifth fastest after being at the top of the pile for much of the latter stages.
Veteran Suzuki rider Loris Capirossi rounds out the second row, slightly less than a second off Rossi's pace and Britain's James Toseland is ninth quickest, 1.3s in arears.
