MotoGP world champion
Casey Stoner took his third pole position in a row during qualifying at Assen on Friday, but was pushed to the very limit by
Valentino Rossi and then
Dani Pedrosa.
Having strolled to a 0.7secs advantage over the field in Thursday practice, last Sunday's runaway British GP winner wasn't expected to face too much opposition during the qualifying hour.
Within 15 minutes Stoner sat over one second clear of the field and he was still 0.66secs in front by the halfway stage.
The arrival of qualifying tyres saw Yamaha riders
Colin Edwards and then world championship leader Rossi temporary take the top spot, but Stoner duly returned to the front with his first soft tyre run.
The final ten minutes began with Stoner having stretched his lead back to over half a second from Rossi and the battle for pole looked to be finished… until Rossi stunned the paddock by snatching pole back from Stoner by 0.038secs with just five minutes to go.
Stoner now had a real fight on his hands, but responded by edging 0.139secs under Rossi - although the Italian still had one final run. The seven time world champion was almost equal with Stoner through the first three sectors, but lost out in the final part of the lap.
Ducati could have been forgiven for thinking that pole was now secure, but Pedrosa - between Rossi and Stoner in the world championship standings - had saved his best for last and was 0.237secs quicker than Stoner heading into the final sector of his final lap.
But the Michelin-shod Repsol Honda rider couldn't hold it and slipped just 0.032secs behind the Australian at the line.
Attention at the end of the session wasn't all on the fight for pole, since Kawasaki's
John Hopkins had been the victim of a massive accident with two minutes remaining.
Hopper, who also fell early in the hour, shot off track at full speed on entry to the fast left-hander - where
Loris Capirossi injured his arm on Friday - and lost negligible speed as he skimmed across the gravel and into a trackside barrier.
