Casey Stoner (Ducati Xerox) will start on pole position for the third consecutive race - in the process the defending world champion set the fastest lap ever recorded by a motorcycle at Assen. The Australian was in his own class in the practice sessions, but qualifying saw him having to dig even deeper as his two biggest rivals upped their game and lowered their times. Stoner then turned in a 1'35.520 lap - nearly a second quicker than the existing pole position record.

A final lap from Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) very nearly spoiled the party for the Ducati rider, but the Spaniard fell short by just 0.032 as he marked his spot on the front row. The final spot of the front row went to current series leader Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha), the first to trouble Stoner during the session. At a loss as to how to beat the previously peerless Australian at Assen after watching the Thursday practice domination, Rossi put it all on the line for some fearless attempts at pole. His final shot, with a new set of Bridgestone qualifiers, was not quite enough, and in the end only 0.139 separated the front row trio.

2006 champion and Assen racewinner Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) will head the second line at tomorrow's race - securing another 4th grid position with the new pneumatic valve engine. He is joined on the 2nd row by Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and fellow American Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3). Edwards looks to erase memories of the 2006 when he crashed in the final chicane to give Hayden the victory. All rider in the the front two rows all rode round under the previous 1'36.411 pole record.

John Hopkins (Kawasaki Racing) has been ruled out of tomorrow's rase, after sustaining a fractured left ankle and suspected compression injuries to his left knee in a high-speed crash during the afternoon qualifying session. Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) will also not race due to a crash during the practice session.

Casey Stoner - Ducati Xerox - Pole Position
This afternoon was a lot windier than yesterday and the rain this morning meant that the track conditions weren't at their optimum: the front was pushing in a lot of corners where you really have to rely on it, so that made life ten times more difficult than it should be! Before we put the qualifiers in we had that problem with the lap time transmitter and I didn't know how fast I was going. Luckily Dorna managed to fix it before we put the qualifying tyres in and I was feeling confident, but the extra grip offered by the softer rear put even more pressure on the front and I almost lost it on several occasions during the last three laps. To have qualified on pole despite all those things is fantastic! The rain this morning also meant that we didn't get many laps in on slick race tyres today but that is the same situation for everybody and we did enough yesterday to be confident about tomorrow's race. This is my third pole position in a row so it shows the great job being done by everybody at Ducati and especially at Bridgestone, who have made great steps forward with their qualifying rubber this season so congratulations to them.

Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda - 2nd
I'm very happy with this afternoon's result, especially because this will be the first time I've started from the front row in MotoGP at Assen. The first part of the track is very tight, so it is really important to start from the front row here. Casey will try to escape from the pack at the start, which means it will be crucial to get a good start and try to stay in contact. We still have some improvements to make. This is a very complex track for set-up and we need to try some small changes to help make me feel at ease on the bike because the pace is going to be very fast tomorrow. Once again the weather has played a part, this morning's rain meant that we couldn't do any proper work with slicks, so we aren't yet 100 per cent sure about our race tyre choice. If it rains again tomorrow, the race will be more complicated.

Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda - 4th
This morning the bike was working quite good in the wet and on intermediates. That session sucked for learning much about the dry but I got some good experience out there on intermediates front and rear and it felt quite good, I was able to stay out and get a good feel for it. This afternoon seemed to go so quick. We tried a couple of little things on the front, but after the first run we had to go back to what we had before because the changes helped in some areas but overall they made it worse. We started putting our qualifiers and then I had an issue with the clutch which lost us some time in the tyre changes, so ultimately I didn't get to use my last qualifier, so we had one bullet left in the chamber that we didn't use. The Michelin qualifiers were working awesome round here, every one we put in I kept getting faster, so it would've been fun to fire the last one in there. It's going to be a hard race tomorrow, I'm not making no predictions, we'll see what we can do, go for the best result we can.

Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki - 8th
It was a difficult qualifying session because we had so much work to get through after losing so much time this morning. We had a lot of set-up changes that we wanted to try but it was too wet earlier and we lost a lot of time sitting in the garage just waiting to see what the weather was going to do - so really from the morning session we didn’t learn anything at all! In the qualifying session we got a little bit lost with set-up because we tried so many things, and in the end we went back to what we ran yesterday and that seemed to work well. My last couple of qualifying laps were pretty good and I managed to get on to the third row and scrape something out of the session. At least we are up there and if we get a good start and a strong first few laps, I think we can be competitive and fight for at least a top five finish.

Shinya Nakano - Gresini Honda - 9th
I expected a better result because we’ve been working well on qualifying tyres recently and the bike setting was good. A fast lap just didn’t come though and that may be because the front end was not our strongest point today. In any case, a third row start is not a disaster and we can still do well in tomorrow’s race.

Sylvain Guintoli - Alice Ducati - 10th
The track wasn't as fast as yesterday. It was dry, but only at the end of the session it reached the same grip level of yesterday. I am happy of this weekend of race, I really enjoyed it and I hope to do the same tomorrow. This has been the first time we are competitive also on dry and this is the most positive thing for all of us. I have to thanks the Team who has done a great job today. It is also thanks to them if we are improving.

Alex De Angelis - Gresini Honda - 12th
We've shown over the past few rounds that we have a good package in race trim and thanks to the support of Bridgestone we also have a tyre now that suits my style of riding. However, I'm still having trouble adapting my pace to a qualifying tyre and I can't get the maximum out of it. I will be limited by my starting position but I showed today that my pace is good again. I did a couple of laps in 1'37”2 on race rubber so I’m confident, even though it is not easy to overtake here.

Toni Elias - Alice Ducati - 14th
We didn't improve much. We have encountered the usual problems, but we know that the situation can't change just after one day. The qualifying didn't go so well and we will have to work intensively in tomorrow's warm up to straighten up the situation as much as possible. The objective is to enter in the top ten in tomorrow's race: I will do my best as always!

Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing - 16th
This morning was wet and we found a good pace but it’s a completely different situation in the dry. We’ve not had many problems with the spinning that we have had in the past, which is one forward step, however, with the extra grip from the rear, I just can’t get the bike to turn. At Donington we could get away with this, but the Assen circuit is one where the corners flow together, and it’s vitally important to be accurate with the correct lines to set up each corner. The problem I’ve got means that it just isn’t possible, I can’t get on the gas because the bike just runs wide and it messes up an entire lap, which is really frustrating. I feel like I’m battling to get around here and the problem was exaggerated with a qualifying tyre because it has so much more grip. On a positive note we do have a lot more usable traction on a race tyre, so if we can find a compromise to have a more balanced set-up, then I am certain we can be in contention and I’ll be looking to achieve a good result tomorrow.

2008 Assen TT MotoGP Qualifying Times
 1. STONER      Ducati   (B) 1:35.520
 2. PEDROSA     Honda    (M) 1:35.552
 3. ROSSI       Yamaha   (B) 1:35.659
 4. HAYDEN      Honda    (M) 1:35.975
 5. DE PUNIET   Honda    (M) 1:35.985
 6. EDWARDS     Yamaha   (M) 1:36.278
 7. LORENZO     Yamaha   (M) 1:36.532
 8. VERMEULEN   Suzuki   (B) 1:36.768
 9. NAKANO      Honda    (B) 1:36.804
10. GUINTOLI    Ducati   (B) 1:36.823
11. DOVIZIOSO   Honda    (M) 1:36.899
12. DE ANGELIS  Honda    (B) 1:36.948
13. TOSELAND    Yamaha   (M) 1:36.978
14. ELIAS       Ducati   (B) 1:37.287
15. HOPKINS     Kawasaki (B) 1:37.643, crash
16. WEST        Kawasaki (B) 1:37.793
17. MELANDRI    Ducati   (B) 1:38.726