Toseland roars to Assen pole

How the grid looksJames Toseland produced one of the best laps of his career to claim an emphatic pole position for rounds nine and ten of the World Superbike Championship at Assen in the Netherlands.

The 25-year-old Briton pounded around in 1:38.603 - the fastest Superbike lap seen at the legendary Dutch track since it was heavily modified in 2005 – to claim what was a popular home pole position for the Ten Kate Honda squad.

The lap, which came three from the end of Superpole, was all down to a sensational middle sector that saw the championship leader a second up on all his rivals and rocketed him to his first pole for 11 months and the third of his career.

Toseland said: “It's my first pole since Misano last year so I am really pleased. We've won at every round so far this season but not been on pole, so this is really great and I'm really pleased for the team as well – to do it on their home ground.

“I'm here, with such a huge amount of British fans in the crowd so it feels a bit like home, and let's hope we can give them two good races tomorrow.”

Toseland's lap was a huge six tenths of a second faster than Lorenzo Lanzi, who enjoyed his best Superpole session of the year to go second fastest, one spot and eight thousandths of a second faster than his world champion team-mate Troy Bayliss.

Max Biaggi completed the front row on his Alstare Suzuki after improving hugely from his 12th place in regular qualifying.

Valencia winner Ruben Xaus was fifth on his year-old Sterilgada Ducati with Troy Corser a very disappointing sixth on the best of Motor Italia Yamahas.

The two-time champion was miffed though as his first sector had been better than Toseland's and he did not appear to make any mistakes for the rest of the lap.

Two Suzukis completed the second row with Max Neukirchner's year-old Suzuki Germany bike ahead of Yukio Kagayama's Alstare machine, while Karl Muggeridge's Alto Evolution Honda and Fonsi Nieto's PSG-1 Kawasaki completed the top ten.

The biggest loser of Superpole was Japan's Noriyuki Haga, who looked on-course for an easy front-row spot until he ran wide at the first part of a double right-hander at the back of the circuit, coating his tyres in mud and dropping to 15th.

Britain's Dean Ellison missed out on Superpole and will start 19th on his Pedercini Ducati.

EuroSport