Sandro Cortese will start tomorrow's 125cc race at Assen from pole position after taking a surprise last-minute pole position in qualifying this afternoon.
Cortese had not featured at the top of timesheet during the session, which was contested mainly between Julian Simon, Pol Espargaro, Nicolas Terol and Britain's Bradley Smith.
Each of that quartet had a turn at the top in the last 15 minutes, and Smith was set to claim the top spot when he was two tenths up on Terol's provisional pole time on his last lap. But Smith lost time in the final sector of the lap and was then shuffled back to fifth as Simon and Cortese crossed the line seconds later.
Cortese lap just edged out Simon's effort by 0.011s as both knocked two tenths off Terol's previous benchmark.
Stefan Bradl qualified behind Terol in fourth, with Smith ahead of Andrea Iannone. Simone Corsi qualified seventh, with Espagaro only eighth after running strong early on. Sergio Gadea and Marc Marquez completed the top 10.
Joan Olive was the only faller in the session, losing the opportunity to improve on 11th place when he slid into the gravel with under three minutes remaining.
Pos Driver Bike Time Gap
1. Sandro Cortese Derbi 1m45.430s
2. Julian Simon Aprilia 1m45.441s +0.011
3. Nicolas Terol Aprilia 1m45.644s +0.214
4. Stefan Bradl Aprilia 1m45.679s +0.249
5. Bradley Smith Aprilia 1m45.712s +0.282
6. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 1m45.911s +0.481
7. Simone Corsi Aprilia 1m45.956s +0.526
8. Pol Espargaro Derbi 1m46.063s +0.633
9. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 1m46.125s +0.695
10. Marc Marquez KTM 1m46.164s +0.734
11. Joan Olive Derbi 1m46.188s +0.758
12. Esteve Rabat Aprilia 1m46.214s +0.784
13. Daniel Webb Aprilia 1m46.278s +0.848
14. Randy Krummenacher Aprilia 1m46.681s +1.251
15. Efren Vazquez Derbi 1m46.812s +1.382
16. Johann Zarco Aprilia 1m46.888s +1.458
17. Scott Redding Aprilia 1m47.087s +1.657
18. Jonas Folger Aprilia 1m47.311s +1.881
19. Dominique Agerter Derbi 1m47.341s +1.911
20. Cameron Beaubier KTM 1m47.728s +2.298
21. Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 1m47.728s +2.298
22. Luis Salom Aprilia 1m47.933s +2.503
23. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 1m48.217s +2.787
24. Michael van der Mark Honda 1m48.505s +3.075
25. Marvin Fritz Honda 1m48.510s +3.080
26. Jasper Iwema Honda 1m48.664s +3.234
27. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia 1m48.777s +3.347
28. Alexis Masbou Loncin 1m48.784s +3.354
29. Karel Pesek Derbi 1m48.801s +3.371
30. Lukas Sembera Aprilia 1m49.413s +3.983
31. Luca Marconi Aprilia 1m49.863s +4.433
32. Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin 1m49.922s +4.492
33. Luca Vitali Aprilia 1m51.578s +6.148
34. Pepijn Bijsterbosch Honda 1m51.811s +6.381
35. Roy Pouw Aprilia 1m54.484s +9.054