Valentino Rossi will become only the second rider, alongside Giacomo Agostini, in the history of the world championship to achieve 100 Grand Prix wins if he is victorious in Saturday's Dutch TT round of MotoGP at Assen.
The Fiat Yamaha rider has a strong pedigree there, with six victories, although he is keen to erase memories of last year’s race when a first lap tangle with Randy de Puniet left him picking up the pieces with an eleventh place finish.
Ironically in opening practice, it was de Puniet, riding the LCR Honda, who again upset Rossi’s plans with a last gasp fast lap to top the qualifying leaderboard, though by only 0.005 secs after the hour long session.
Rossi, the defending title holder, goes into this seventh round on level points at the top of the standings with his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati’s Casey Stoner and they all ran within a quarter of a second of each other.
James Toseland, riding the Monster Tech3 Yamaha ran ninth fastest with a lap of 1m 38.379 secs.
Meanwhile at Donington Park, Noriyuki Haga begins practice this morning (FRI) for the ninth round of the World Superbike Championship in which he is bidding to increase his 48 points advantage over Yamaha riding Ben Spies.
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