Quartararo claims pole at Assen with Marquez only fourth

Fabio Quartararo delivered the return to form he promised ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, scorching to a fourth MotoGP pole position of the year at Assen on Saturday.

Francesco Bagnaia and Alex Marquez join the Frenchman on the front row of the grid for the MotoGP classic, with world championship leader Marc Marquez only fourth.

Yamaha rider Quartararo’s display was a repeat of his pole performances at Jerez, Le Mans and Silverstone earlier in the season. These were followed by struggles in the most recent two races, Aragon and Italy, but he put those firmly behind him at Assen, where he had already shown consistent speed by topping Friday afternoon practice and Saturday morning practice.

Behind Bagnaia’s factory Ducati and Alex Marquez’s Gresini Ducati, Marc Marquez’s fourth place followed a pair of bruising falls on Friday. The factory Ducati man appeared to be riding in some discomfort around the high-speed Drenthe circuit.

British GP winner Marco Bezzecchi will join Marc on the second row for Aprilia, with VR46 Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli completing it.

Earlier, Raul Fernandez kept up his recent upturn in form by topping Q1 aboard the Trackhouse Aprilia.

His fortunes again contrasted with those of his team-mate Ai Ogura, the rookie who made him look sluggish early in the season. Ogura crashed early in the session and although he was able to resume, he could not find any pace and will line up 20th on the grid.

The other rider to progress from Q1 was Fernandez’s fellow Spaniard Fermin Aldeguer. The rookie was down in ninth place after the first runs, but emerged early for his second set of flying laps and began to show his pace. Aldeguer saw off challenges from Joan Mir (Honda) and Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) to claim the second spot to reach Q2.

Aldeguer took advantage to then claim seventh on the grid, where he will lead row three with Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46) and Pedro Acosta (KTM) for company.

KTM failed to deliver the qualifying result it had hoped for, with Maverick Vinales only 10th on the Tech3 entry. He’ll be joined on row four by Fernandez and Johann Zarco, the best of the Hondas on the LCR machine.

Aprilia’s development rider Lorenzo Savadori will start the Dutch round unusually high on the grid. A lap 0.375s off the pace in Q1 was enough to earn the Italian a spot on row five: he’ll start 15th behind Mir and Miller.

MotoGP Dutch GP – Qualifying results

Q2

Q1