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Leading times from Sunday's races

Championship leader Valentino Rossi pipped rival Max Biaggi for provisional pole for Saturday's Dutch Grand Prix in the final seconds of Thursday's qualifying.

Italian Honda rider Rossi, who has won five of the six races this season, set pole with a time of two minutes 01.691 seconds at Assen.

Biaggi's Yamaha was only 25 thousandths of a second behind at 2:01.716.

American Kenny Roberts was third on a Suzuki in 2:01.836.

Rain predicted

Honda's Loris Capirossi was the only rider with a two-stroke engine to challenge the four-strokes with a fourth fastest time of 2:01.983.

The times could decided the grid, as rain has been predicted for Friday's final qualifying session.

Rossi took the lead for the first time with little more than two minutes to go in the session and then saw Biaggi go faster again.

Rossi then improved the time by a fraction as the chequered flag came down to end the session.

Injured Australian Yamaha rider Garry McCoy is expected to be back in action at the British Grand Prix next month, his team said in a statement on Thursday.

McCoy has had surgery on his ankle to correct an ill-healed break from four years ago.

Leading times from Thursday's first qualifying in Assen:

Moto GP:
1 Valentino Rossi (Ita) Honda two minutes 01.691 seconds
2 Max Biaggi (Ita) Yamaha at 0.025sec
3 Kenny Roberts (USA) Suzuki 0.145
4 Loris Capirossi (Ita) Honda 0.292
5 Alex Barros (Bra) Honda ).328
6 Carlos Checa (Spa) Yamaha 0.545
7 Tetsuya Harada (Jap) Honda 0.794
8 Tohru Ukawa (Jap) Honda 0.805
9 Jeremy McWilliams (Irl) Proton 0.935
10 John Hopkins (USA) Yamaha 1.073

250cc
1 Marco Melandri (Ita) Aprilia 2:04.520
2 Randy de Puniet (Fra) Aprilia at 0.076s
3 Fonsi Nieto (Spa) Aprilia 0.205
4 Toni Elias (Spa) Aprilia 0.687
5 Sebastian Porto (Arg) Yamaha 0.918
6 Franco Battaini (Ita) Aprilia 1.061

125cc 1 Daniel Pedrosa (Spa) Honda 2:11.882
2 Lucio Cecchinello (Ita) Aprilia at 0.317s
3 Alex de Angelis (Smr) Aprilia 0.354
4 Mika Kallio (Fin) Honda 0.637
5 Arnaud Vincent (Fra) Aprilia 0.700
6 Manuel Poggiali (Smr) Gilera 0.846


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