Edwards seals front row start as Rossi struggles for fitness

Camel Yamaha Team team-mates Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi will start from opposite ends of the grid in tomorrow's 76th edition of the Dutch TT after enjoying contrasting fortunes in qualifying practice. Whilst Edwards was consistently amongst the fastest riders on track throughout the day, topping the time sheets in morning free practice before clocking the third quickest time to seal a front row start in the decisive afternoon session, Rossi continued to suffer from the effects of a heavy crash yesterday and was only able to complete fourteen laps in qualifying. The Italian's best effort was almost four seconds off the pole position time of 1'36.411 set by John Hopkins (Suzuki) and he now faces an anxious wait to see if he will be able to take his place at the very back of the grid for the eighth round of a luckless season. Rossi will undergo further therapy this evening but his participation in the event will not be 100% confirmed until after tomorrow's morning warm-up, when he will make a final assessment of his fitness along with the Clinica Mobile doctors. Colin Edwards (3rd - 1'36.755; 27 laps) "Obviously I would have liked to be on pole position and I felt with the pace we were setting that we had a good shot. I went out there at the start of the session and ran a couple of tyres. On my final race tyre I was really happy with the pace and then we started throwing some qualifiers on but I don't know if I had a 1'36.4 in my bag. I was pretty happy with 36.7 that I did but for Hopkins and Nakano to do a 36.4 was pretty impressive so it would have been a case of taking my brain out and setting it on one side to try and match that! Anyway, right there at the end Stoner and Pedrosa were just sitting in the middle of the track on my last lap so we'll never know. As I say my race pace is good so I'm looking forward to tomorrow and I just hope Valentino can make the best possible recovery overnight to try and salvage something from the weekend." Valentino Rossi (18th - 1'40.298; 14 laps) "This afternoon I tried using some painkillers but the fracture in my right wrist hurts a lot. Truly it was very difficult to ride - the hand is very swollen and I don't have much strength. Together with Marco Montanari and Doctor Claudio Costa we have done the best that was possible, I've had a lot of treatment and I was able to ride for a few laps, but the strong pain stopped me from finishing the qualifying session. Tomorrow we will see how I am and, depending on what happens in the warm-up, we will decide whether I will ride or not. Anyway it's going to be very difficult. We tried to move the brake lever a little bit down and we're now looking at the possibility of making a bigger brake lever to see if this is better for me." Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Colin did a good job - he was consistently fast in every practice session and qualified on the front row so we couldn't ask for much more. The omens are good for the race for him and starting from the front row makes him one of the contenders to win the race. Unfortunately that is not the case for Valentino. He had to be very strong just to complete a few laps this afternoon and now it is just a case of letting him rest and seeing how his condition develops overnight. Obviously we want him to race but our first concern is his physical condition. Thankfully the Clinica Mobile is doing a fantastic job, as always, and we know he is in good hands." Tech 3 Yamaha Team on form in Assen Qualifying The improved performance of the Tech 3 Yamaha Team continued at the "A-Style" Assen TT when the experienced Carlos Checa gave the team it's most superb qualifying result of the 2006 season to place himself eighth on the grid for tomorrow's race. Additionally, team mate, James Ellison continued his climb through the ranks and will start from 14th position after recording his best time of the year to be just over half a second behind Checa These ever improving results are a fitting reward for the concentrated efforts and dedication that the team and tyre manufacturer, Dunlop have maintained since the season started and auger well for even more impressive results during the rest of the year. Carlos Checa (8th, 1'37.378, 31 laps) "This is our best qualifying position and the result makes me and the team very happy. We have improved our time from yesterday so tomorrow we start from the third row where we have never been before this year. .We have good pace and hopefully we can stay with our rivals that have been close to my lap times and have similar pace to me... We have confidence that we can keep the same lap times and this will give us a good chance tomorrow. In Barcelona we found the consistency and here it looks like we are even faster and closer to the lap times of our rivals. Hopefully, from our pace on race tyres not many riders can run at that. We have made another step and tomorrow I hope we take another one as we get closer and closer. I will be trying as hard as I normally do but now I am more confident, I feel fast and I believe in myself. James Ellison (14th 1'38.005, 28 laps) "We did pretty well. My aim today was to get into the '37 second bracket and I only missed out by less than a tenth of a second. Plus I'm well within range of Carlos so I'm happy. It should be good tomorrow because we have a good race tyre as Carlos and I have been doing laps on race tyres and we have a good setup and consistency. There's also been something found with the qualifying tyres and proves that Dunlop are always progressing and always looking for something better. We're improving bit by bit each weekend as we are learning and considering it is the first year for Dunlop with a team like this I think we are making pretty good progress now. The last few weeks have been great as since we have made the adjustments to the frame I can ride the bike like I want to. It makes it so much more enjoyable to ride and go out and have fun as well. Things are looking up all the time as morale has been boosted in the team by what is happening. We still need to progress but in a way the season started for us last weekend. Tomorrow I don't want to make any predictions as I just want to try my best, run a good race, be consistent with the times and stick with Carlos for the entire race. It should be good and I'm really looking forward to it. Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "This is by far the very best qualifying position we have had so far and together with Marco (Melandri) and Alex (Hoffman) we are on the third row of the grid.. We are very happy because we have a race tyre that is good on performance and durability. We also have found something interesting now with the qualifying tyres to get a good grid position. The result of James is also very good as this is his best qualifying position. It is also the best lap time he has done with a race tyre and is closer to the leading guys. We know this is going to be a tough race and we have some good points that we can grab. It's still only the early part of the championship and we are very happy with the progress we are now making. I definitely think we are now heading in the good direction we have been striving for and hopefully we can continue in this direction at Donington and beyond. We are very happy. Also, I want to say that I am very sorry to see what has happened to Valentino and the team and I wish him all the best for tomorrow's race.    Round: 8 - 2006 MotoGP Assen Circuit: Assen Circuit Length: 4555 Lap Record: new track Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 36.411 (John Hopkins, 2006) Date: 23 June 2006 Temp: 20ºC Session 1 :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  1st Qualifying 1  J. Hopkins  Suzuki  USA   1' 36.411   2  S. Nakano  Kawasaki  JPN   1' 36.424   3  C. Edwards  Yamaha  USA   1' 36.755   4  N. Hayden  Honda  USA   1' 36.758   5  D. Pedrosa  Honda  ESP   1' 36.993   6  C. Vermeulen  Suzuki  AUS   1' 37.077   7  M. Melandri  Honda  ITA   1' 37.332   8  C. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 37.378   9  A. Hofmann  Ducati  GER   1' 37.399   10  K. Roberts  Team Roberts KR  USA   1' 37.528   11  R. De Puniet  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 37.556   12  C. Stoner  Honda  AUS   1' 37.660   13  M. Tamada  Honda  JPN   1' 37.676   14  J. Ellison  Yamaha  GBR   1' 38.055   15  L. Capirossi  Ducati  ITA   1' 38.060   16  J. Cardoso  Ducati  ESP   1' 39.406   18  V. Rossi  Yamaha  ITA   1' 40.298